I was waiting for a good time to do a character profile of Geordi and this seemed like the right moment.
Geordi! What can you say about Geordi? He's the most reliable and relateable character on the show. He's malleable and can plug into any situation. He's the workhorse. He's a willing and beautiful sacrifice to many stories. He's everyone's friend who is also an unfortunate inhabitant of the "friend zone." He's the bridge between TOS and TNG. He's so much more important than he appears.
Everyone in the cast had a gimmick. Picard was English... I know that sounds shallow, but his reserve was designed to be the polar opposite of Captain Kirk and you have to love the accent as well. Riker was a throwback to Kirk so the show could keep some of the swashbuckling escapism of the first show. Data was an android and Spock-like perspective;Worf was a Klingon; Troi was empathic and telepathic, Crusher was the doctor; Wesley was the wiz kid. Geordi had a gimmick at first... the blind guy that flies the space craft. But in the interview with Burton above, you can see that nobody really knew what to do with him after that... it was an empty gimmick. But all through that first season they also used him in a tech support kind of role which led inevitably to being the cheif engineer. After all, even the engineer of TOS was a main character as was the engineering set itself. They needed to get Geordi off that bridge. And when they did he became the most invaluable character on the show. Where would they be without Geordi fixing the engine failures and squeezing more power when they needed it most? He was the most important part of the show with much of the dialogue involving the techno-babble and making the science fiction aspects seem believable and realistic which is an improvement that had to me made in order for the show to survive. The vague and watercolor science fiction of TOS wasn't good enough anymore in the 80's. And even when the other character's delivered technical lines, they couldn't do it with the confidence and breeziness of La Forge. Countless times, it all depended on him and his ability to solve the problem. Booby Trap is a good example and why I chose now after review that episode to showcase Geordi.
It's tempting to say that Geordi was short changed on respect as Worf seemed to be at first. But he's actually the closest link with the audience to being a normal, average person. The straight man of a comedy. So, no, he isn't a warrior, or a diplomatic leader. He hasn't got alien powers and he doesn't have to interact with the "public" like the doctor. He's just an adult doing his job and doing it well.
One could look back on it all and say, "Poor Geordi," because his character was always being sacrificed to the story. "He always had to die or be victimized to prove a point. It's not fair." No, it isn't really fair, but it's more like real life. Most people can relate to bad things happening to good people; things that aren't necessarily a direct result of their own choices. Even being born blind... although most aren't born with physical defects, most people are born without prestige, money, and clout... those sorts of "disadvantages" that the Left harp on so much. But in this case it's a reasonable comparison. Geordi is quite obviously the type that got where he did without knowing the right people or greasing the right palms. We all needed Geordi as a touch point to make the entire concept of the show seem not so fantastic and unrealistic.
Like yesterday, I still say it's a shame they never gave him a romantic attachment of any kind. I think it feeds the terrible notion that some guys are just too nice to date. He wasn't a bad boy with a lot of character flaws so women just didn't look at him as a potential love interest. He was just a good friend and mentor type of person. A really nice guy.
Any chance of a girlfriend in his life was usually a strike out or rejected outright by him. But when I think about it, I'm actually okay with it. He was busy in his work which he excelled at. Not everyone loves their jobs in real life, but we can all excel at them if we try. Not only was Geordi exceptional at his job he also loved it so much that most of his spare time is spent tinkering with it as a hobby, fulfilling a lot of wishes that the average person has for their average life. And he busy being one half of the most important friendship on board.
Geordi and Data. This relationship is also part of the embodiment of the "average guy" persona that made Geordi unique. Data's character was there to explore human behavior from a perspective that has no preconceived notions or identity of its own. And who better to help him work through the complexities than someone who just lives them day to day? Not the medical experts. Not the aliens and people of power. Friends are there to try to understand their friends which is why we need them.
These two belonged together like biscuits and gravy. Together they represented the best aspects of teamwork and friendship. Even though Geordi likes to spend a lot of his time experimenting with Data, it's less in the nature of curiosity about a machine and more in the nature of working with a friend who has the same interests as you. And it just made sense that since Data was a machine, you'd need the engineer to be his specialist whereas Crusher could serve only as a general practitioner of sorts.
There's a lot of depth in Geordi's character. Almost as much as Picard's, only instead of his past stories being told or exposed due to the story lines, his history is being built in real time as the show unfolds. That depth is the bridge between TOS and TNG. I've made the comparison a lot on how TOS was much more simplistic/immature and it's in the episode Relics that this view is validated. You can see the difference in the attitude of the two different shows. The personality of Scotty represents the playfulness of TOS and how it belonged to a time when stories could be played out like games. Geordi's personality was more serious and represented the way the stories had matured and how the stakes of the games had risen. And it was the most effective passing of the torch between the two if you ask me. McCoy in the first episode was sentimental. The movie, Star Trek Generations, was a nice gesture. But this episode and the two engineers of the Enterprises was the best bridge between what was and what was to be. Starring Geordi! Geordi just rocks. His character is vital and if you removed it from the episodes, they would be missing more that just a familiar face. Three cheers for Geordi, the average guy.
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