Kind of a ho-hummer. I love Geordi, but a lot of stories that go towards his character development fall flat. At least for me. It's a good episode, but it doesn't excite me like others do.
It has a surprising start as we see Geordi walking around on a ship that so badly damaged he shouldn't be able to survive. But something is obviously amiss because he's not wearing his VISOR and his eyes look normal. He begins communicating with Data and the scene switches to show you that Geordi is in a chamber and hooked up to a device. The concept is actually pretty cool. They've created a virtual reality probe so that a person could explore the surroundings of places that are normally uninhabitable. As he's exploring this damage ship, Riker asks questions about the set up so that it can all be laid out for the audience. Data tells him that Geordi's VISOR implants make him the perfect candidate for this experiment since the imagery can be transmitted directly to his brain. The suit is designed so that he can feel what he's touching while in the area being probed and interact with it. Crusher is also there to make sure his body isn't overtaxed while they work out any kinks. At one point he has trouble moving his leg. The character of Riker was originally supposed to get the lead in this episode, but it was felt that he already had too many mind bending and hallucination type of episodes under his belt. And it's refreshing to see Levar Burton's real face. He actually has pretty eyes. The captain's log details how they're going to use this new VR probe as they are headed for the wreckage of a ship called the Raman that has been trapped in the atmosphere of a gas planet. Picard then gets a communique from and Admiral Holt telling him that the star ship Hera has gone missing on a routine mission. A search had taken place but nothing had been found and all hands are suspected to be dead. Silvia La Forge, Geordi's mother, was the captain of the Hera. Picard informs Geordi in private of the tragedy. There wasn't much for Picard to do in this episode, so this scene was on him, but I think if someone's family member had died, they'd have called that person directly, not his captain. Anyway, while they continue on their route, Geordi spends time in his quarters looking at personal messages sent to him by his mother. Riker comes in to tell him that they've reached the Raman and offers to use the probe while he take some time off. Geordi protests because the probe had been fine tuned for him personally. He's also in denial that his mother is dead since no trace of her has been found. So he opts to carry on with the mission to probe the wrecked vessel.
When he's hooked back up to the probe they have to readjust for the new circumstances. They have to boost some sensory inputs which increases his heart rate, but otherwise doesn't harm him. He searches the Raman to see if anything is still functioning so he can navigate the ship out of the atmosphere. There doesn't appear to be any survivors as he finds several dead people. Then a fire burst out near him. On the Enterprise, Geordi starts yelling in pain so they break the connection. He discovers that his hands have been burned. While treating him in sick bay they determine that the sensors that were transmitting the sensation of heat overloaded. Picard comes in and says that he would like to have salvaged the vessel, but not at the expense of Geordi's life. Geordi insists on dialing back the sensory input and going back to at least retrieve the data from the ship otherwise their deaths will mean noting. It'll be a while until they can manage since they'll have to bore further into the Raman with the probe to find a good spot so Geordi has time to recover.
His dad contacts him to tell him that a memorial service will be held on Vulcan since that's where most of the crew of the Hera was from and wants to plan a private service for just their family - himself, Geordi and Geordi's sister. But Geordi is still in denial and doesn't want to help plan the memorial. His dad is sad, but he understands. He then goes to talk to Data. He couches his arguments for her being alive in the fact that she's a captain that's gotten out of worse situations before and that it doesn't seem possible that she could be killed in such a meaningless way. He's got a point... Even though we've never seen her at this point, Silvia's death is a classic "red shirt" death like Tasha Yar's; completely senseless and simply a way to advance a plot. He goes back to the probe interface to search the Raman some more. While he's there, his mother appears to him. He starts talking to her, thrilled that she's still alive. She's hesitant about talking to him at first, like she doesn't recognize him. But then she tells him that they need to return to the surface. Of course, a gas planet doesn't have a surface, but I think we all just assume she means a lower atmosphere. Geordi begins to make a lot of assumptions thinking that the the Hera and the rest of her crew are down there. Data and Beverly try to ask him who he's talking to but he's ignoring them, and the interface is starting to overload his body. Silvia continues to beg Geordi for help but when he reaches out to touch her he receives a shock that forces his disconnection from the interface.
He goes into neural shock and they bring him out just in time to save his life. Picard doesn't want him to use the interface again, but Geordi is convinced that his mother was on the Raman talking to him. The others are all obviously worried that he's losing his mind a little. They think he was having hallucinations based on sensory overload from the interface. Since his mother had been on his mind lately, Crusher proposes that his mind was substituting her for something that his brain could process. Picard tries to make him see reason since the Hera had disappeared over 300 light years away. He orders him to go to Troi. She draws out of him that he didn't respond to his mother's last message and feels guilty over it. But he stubbornly refuses to give up hope that his mother on the ship communicating with him. He even develops a theory based on the things she'd been telling him about the way the Hera's engineer had been experimenting with the warp drive. He thinks that whatever they were doing caused a subspace funnel (suspiciously a lot like the transwarp conduit from Descent) so that the Hera accidentally traveled a long distance in a short time and got caught in the planet. Data can confirm that the scenario Geordi is laying out is possible, but Picard decides to go with Data's idea of modifying a tractor beam to drag the Raman out of the planet. Geordi decides to go back to the interface himself. Data guesses his intentions and follows him. He informs him that he's disobeying the captain, but decides to help him anyway since he would certainly be killed if he tries it alone. Once he's back on the Raman he sees his mother again. She's glad to see him and says that they're finally going home, which puzzles him.
He pushes the sensory inputs beyond their tolerance point as he navigates the ship a little further down to search for evidence that the Hera is in there but he finds nothing. The others soon learn what's going on and go down to try and stop him. His mother tells him they haven't gone down far enough, but he resists going farther because he's convince that he'll be picking up traces of the ship soon. She grabs him and causes him pain once again claiming that he's killing them and that they need to go lower. But Data can't pull him back from the interface because the shock will kill him. Finally he understands that the woman he sees isn't his mother but a creature that is native to the planet's lower atmosphere. When they tried to communicate with the Raman they accidentally killed the crew and became trapped on the ship. Now they are too high in the atmosphere to survive. They were able to read Geordi's mind because of the probe and communicate with him that way. So Geordi decides to take the ship further down to save their lives even though it's a serious risk to his own. The ship's shields are failing which threatens to tear Geordi out of the interface prematurely. Once he's down far enough the creature that looks like his mother assures him they are safe now and disappears in a flame. Beverly works diligently to switch his sensory imput and manages just before the ship explodes.
So Geordi comes back safe. Picard is very unhappy about his disobeying of his orders and intends to write it up on his permanent record. Data tries to take collective responsibility for aiding him and Picard says he'll deal with him later. We never know how he deals with Data's insubordination, but after things calm down he takes a minute to convey his condolences to Geordi on not finding his mother. He's finally accepted her death and credits the creature taking his mother's form as a chance to say goodbye to her.
So, kind of cool as far as the VR probe goes. I would've liked to have seen more of that and perhaps there was more... I do have memory gaps regarding DS9 and I haven't seen all of Voyager. It was also kind of a downer with the rest of the content. Like Aquiel, the foundational story is really good science fiction. But the personal story is a snoozer. Whenever Geordi get to express any emotions other than expertise in his field, he always seems to get the short end of the stick and has to suffer a lot for the story lines. It's not very fair, but I guess it helps to put forth stories that are meaningful to some. It's not a favorite but I'm giving it four stars anyway cuz I liked the base story of the probe and the aliens inhabiting a gas planet. And also cuz I have a soft spot for Geordi even if he did get a lot of crappy personal story lines.
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