Geordi La Forge

Geordi La Forge held the rank of lieutenant commander and was the chief engineer of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) and USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E), both under Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

Early life
Geordi La Forge was born on February 16th, 2335 in the African Confederation, on Earth, to parents Captain Silva La Forge and noted exozoologist Commander Edward M. La Forge. Due to a birth defect, he was born blind. As an adult, he stood 170 centimeters (appr. 5'7") tall and was right-handed.

Sometime prior to 2340, Geordi was trapped alone in a burning building; he later remembered this as one of the scariest moments of his life. 

When he was five years old, Geordi received his first VISOR, which allowed him to see (although not the same way the average Human does) for the first time in his life. At age eight, Geordi was brought his first pet, a Circassian cat, and he would remember his excitement for years to come. 

Young Geordi spent time with both his parents as a child, sometimes separately. For a time, Geordi lived with his father Edward while he, Edward, studied invertebrates in the Modean system. On other occasions, Geordi would be away from his father, on outposts near the Romulan Neutral Zone with his mother Silva. 

Geordi went to Zefram Cochrane High School sometime prior to 2353. 

Early Starfleet career
He attended Starfleet Academy from 2353 to 2357, where he excelled at engineering and idolized Zefram Cochrane. 

His first deep space assignment was as an ensign aboard the USS Victory, under Captain Zimbata. In 2362, La Forge participated in the investigation of the disappearance of the Federation colony on Tarchannen III. 

La Forge later transferred to the USS Hood (Excelsior class), where he served under Captain Robert DeSoto. On the Hood, La Forge knew William T. Riker, but only professionally. Riker knew La Forge the longest out of all of their shipmates aboard the Enterprise, as the two would develop a close friendship during their later years together at that assignment. 

At one point in his career as a young officer, La Forge was assigned to pilot Jean-Luc Picard on an inspection tour. En route to their destination, Picard made an off-hand remark about the shuttle's engine efficiency not being what it should. In response to this, La Forge stayed up all night refitting the shuttle's fusion initiators. When Picard discovered what La Forge had done the following morning, he knew right then that he wanted La Forge with him on his next command. 

Conn Officer
In 2364, he was named conn officer on the USS Enterprise-D under Captain Jean-Luc Picard. 

While investigating the deaths of the SS Tsiolkovsky crew, La Forge contracted a variant of polywater intoxication, causing him to lose his inhibitions. Dr. Beverly Crusher used La Forge to test her vaccines and was able to develop a cure. 

The first test of his abilities as a starship commander came during an encounter with an advanced planetary defense system in orbit of planet Minos. With the senior officers' away teams entrenched at the planet's surface, La Forge gave the order to send the Enterprise's saucer section to safety and then returned to Minos with the stardrive section to work out a way of evacuating the away teams. While battling a cloaked drone in orbit, he devised a strategy to lure the opponent into the planet's atmosphere, thus revealing its location. In this tense situation, he proved that he had the ability to successfully lead a skeleton crew to victory. 

His special vision was impressively demonstrated during an away mission to the drifting freighter Batris. The VISOR data was directly transmitted to the Enterprise-D's main bridge viewscreen, via his visual acuity transmitter, allowing the bridge crew to gain an insight into Geordi's view of the world and to follow the progress of the mission until the datalink failed. 

Chief Engineer
In 2365, La Forge was promoted to full lieutenant. He transferred from the command division to the operations division and was named chief engineer. Over the course of the next several years, it became evident that this transfer had been a wise decision. His technical and analytical abilities, his versatility and his cooperative leadership style were very well suited to the requirements of a senior engineering officer aboard a major starship. Just one year later, in 2366, he was promoted to lieutenant commander. 

An especially demanding situation arose in 2365, after the ship's main computer had been infected by an Iconian computer virus by ways of the log files of the USS Yamato. Those files were the only useful item that remained of this starship, after a catastrophic loss of antimatter containment had caused it to explode with the loss of all hands. La Forge was eventually able to disprove suspicions of a general design flaw in Galaxy-class starships which had arisen when the alien program caused more and more shipboard systems to fail. Working with Lieutenant Commander Data, whose positronic brain had been infected as well, he found the solution to the problem in time to save the Enterprise-D from seemingly inevitable destruction. 

Geordi learned about one particular disadvantage of following in the footsteps of Starfleet's legendary engineers when members of a race known as the Pakled took him hostage, hoping to gain technological knowledge. Although injured, he successfully devised an escape method without further bloodshed. 

La Forge used a hologram of Dr. Leah Brahms, the engineer who designed the Galaxy-class, after the Enterprise was ensnared in a Menthar booby trap. He and the hologram Brahms worked incredibly well together, and figured out an escape route for the Enterprise. In the process, Geordi became strongly attracted to Brahms. 

Later that year, Geordi was trapped on a desolate planet with a Romulan. He and the Romulan at first tried to kill each other, but soon resolved their differences and worked together to survive. 

In 2367, he met the real Leah Brahms. La Forge was ecstatic at the chance to meet her, even if on a solely professional level, but he was in for a surprise. Whereas the hologram Geordi had assembled was kind, creative, and warm, the real Brahms was rude, and, much to Geordi's chagrin, married. They worked together to solve a problem on board, but Dr. Brahms found out about the holoprogram and became infuriated. They eventually calmed down and were able to laugh about it, but a romantic future for the two seemed unlikely. 

He would meet an old friend named Susanna Leijten who he had served with aboard the Victory. She told La Forge that several of their crewmates, with whom they had formed an Away team to Tarchannen III, had disappeared. Shortly after, Leijten started to transform into an alien being. He himself became infected, but before he was transformed into an alien, he discovered that shadow aliens on the planet had implanted a parasite into the away team members that turned them into the aliens. This is how they procreate. La Forge was rescued and given an antidote that stopped the transformation. 

At the end of 2367, La Forge was captured by the Romulans, who brainwashed him into assassinating the Klingon Governor Vagh. Klingon ambassador Kell worked with the Romulans from the inside. By tracing Kell's signal to La Forge's visor, they were able to stop the assassination attempt. 

When the Enterprise was hit by a quantum filament that caused massive power failure throughout the ship, La Forge and Dr. Crusher were trapped in a cargo bay with dangerous, explosive materials. They daringly decompressed the bay while they were still in it, to jettison the materials into space. 

He would work with the scientists on Penthara IV after the planet's mantle was damaged by an asteroid hit. His first plan failed but a new one more risky than the first worked and the planet was saved. 

Later that year, the Enterprise discovered an injured Borg drone in the Argolis Cluster. La Forge helped to repair the drone, and in the process made friends with him. It was Geordi who named him "Hugh". Starfleet initially planned to use Hugh to infect the Borg Collective, but Hugh's emotions, including those he felt towards his friend Geordi, dissuaded this plan. La Forge asked Hugh to remain onboard, but he declined, to ensure the safety of the Enterprise. 

After answering a distress call from a Romulan ship, La Forge and Ro Laren disappeared during a transporter cycle. They could see each other and everything around them, but no one was aware of them, and they were presumed dead. They found out that the Romulan distress call was related to an accident with their cloaking device, and decloaked themselves by creating enough chroniton fields to force Data to use anyon particles to decontaminate the fields, which also re-materialized La Forge and Ro. 

In 2369, La Forge, along with the rest of the Enterprise principal crew, traveled back to 19th century Earth to save Data. In the process, Geordi encountered Samuel Clemens. 

One of Geordi's dreams came true later that year, when the Enterprise answered a distress call sent out by the USS Jenolan. He discovered that the ship's transporters were configured in a strange manner, and was able to rematerialize someone. That someone turned out to be Montgomery Scott, the Chief Engineer from the original USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). Scott had preserved himself in the transporter buffer for 75 years. Geordi was initially overjoyed to be working with such a legend, but Scotty's constant nitpicking about 24th century technology led Geordi to snap at him. This plunged Scott into a brief depression. Geordi eventually consoled him, pointing out that age does not dictate usefulness, and the two worked together to save the Enterprise. 

He was abducted by solanogen-based lifeforms, who experimented on him. 

Later that year, he became romantically involved with fellow Starfleet officer Aquiel Uhnari, who was suspected of murdering her coworker. He eventually proved that the murderer was a coalescent organism. 

In 2370, he was captured by Lore, who was leading a group of rogue Borg, who had left the collective due to the individuality Hugh displayed, which Geordi helped to foster, in attacks against the Federation. Lore brainwashed Data into attempting to turn La Forge into a cybernetic organism. This plot was narrowly foiled. 

Later that year, Geordi's mother, Silva, was listed as missing in action during a mission. Upon further investigation, Geordi found that her image was being used by aliens to lure him into helping them. 

He would help prove that the Hekarans, Serova and Rabal, were correctly asserting that warp drive was damaging the fabric of space, which was instrumental in creating the warp 5 "speed limit". 

In 2371, while on an away team investigating the Amargosa observatory with Lieutenant Commander Data, Geordi was knocked unconscious by Tolian Soran. Soran then kidnapped Geordi, and escaped aboard a Klingon Bird-of-Prey. The Klingons traded him for Captain Picard. They put a spy device in Geordi's VISOR, and used it to attain the Enterprise's shield frequency. The device was removed after the destruction of the Klingon ship, but unfortunately, the damage caused to the Enterprise during the flight would prove career-ending for the starship. 

The Enterprise-E
After the destruction of the Enterprise-D, he transferred to the new USS Enterprise-E in 2372. He, and the Enterprise, then spent a year on a shakedown cruise.

Some time between 2371 and 2373, he had received ocular implants capable of even more impressive functions than his VISOR. This advanced technology no longer required an external apparatus to see.

In 2373, the Borg attacked the Federation colony on Ivor Prime. The Enterprise was told to patrol the neutral zone; Geordi argued that the Enterprise-E was the most advanced ship in the fleet, and should therefore be at the front lines. After Geordi made his case, Captain Picard decided to head to the battle. After destroying the Borg cube, the Enterprise followed the Borg sphere that had left the cube into a temporal vortex it had opened in Earth's atmosphere.

Geordi, along with the entire crew of the Enterprise-E, was transported to 2063. He and an engineering team beamed down to help repair the Phoenix, and got to work with his hero, Zefram Cochrane. He told Cochrane about his attendance at a high school named after him, and a large marble statue erected in his honor. This rattled Cochrane, but he pulled together and made first contact as planned. The Enterprise then returned to the 24th century. 

In 2375, while investigating an incident involving Data on the Ba'ku planet, La Forge was able to temporarily see naturally through real eyes as a result of the metaphasic radiation emanating from the planet's rings. Despite this apparent gift, he still assisted Captain Picard in working against the Federation's plans to exploit the planet, concluding that he would be unable to look at another sunrise when he was fully aware of the price that the Ba'ku would have to pay for his restored vision. 

In 2379, Geordi took part in the Enterprise's mission to Romulus. After a fierce battle with the Scimitar, he helped his best friend Data in his task of self-sacrifice to save the Enterprise crew. 

VISOR
La Forge, who was born blind, often wore a VISOR, a crescent-moon-shaped device attached at the temples, that allowed him to see. It enabled him to "see" throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, from heat and infrared through light and radio waves. With the cybernetic technology connected directly to his brain, it required such a complex and broad-based input that the user had to concentrate to focus on one area. Eventually, he received ocular implants with electric blue irises and even more abilities. 
 * Main article: VISOR

Engineering talents and specialties
La Forge had great talent for engineering and a keen judgment for needed modifications in the field; his faith in technology and his ability to master it were normally an inspiration to those around him. As a junior officer, his specialties included antimatter power, dilithium regulators, holodeck programs, and climate-control computers. His intense focus enabled him to master the complexities of warp engineering and other starship systems. Geordi's all-night refit of a shuttle engine after an off-hand comment by Jean-Luc Picard garnered the attention of this captain, as it was testament to his no-nonsense skill and insight. 

During the Zefram Cochrane project, he recalled the Phoenix test vehicle's intermix chamber from memory. 

Legendary forces
In 2063, La Forge helped his idol Dr. Zefram Cochrane, Terran scientist, eccentric genius, and inventor of the Terran warp drive, launch his warp test vessel Phoenix in order to make the historic initial meeting with the Vulcans. Similarly, when a transporter loop allowed Geordi to come into contact with the near-mythic engineer Montgomery Scott, in 2369 the two joined forces to free the Enterprise from a Dyson sphere's interior. 

Personal life
The major childhood trauma of being alone in his burning home caused him great distress, though he was pulled to safety after only two minutes. His isolation from his field-assigned officer parents amplified his feelings of solitude. 

Despite this, his outstanding characteristic was his adaptability to change and satisfaction with life. His sense of humor and affable nature remained strong, despite his growing responsibilities. 

He enjoyed the senior officer's weekly poker game, and though his artificial "eyes" allowed him to detect bluffing and see his opponents' cards in the ultraviolet spectrum, he never "peeked" until a hand was over. 

He also delighted in scale model building of old sailing ships, chess, swimming, skindiving, the history of his profession, and fencing. He was not well-suited for writing or the mandolin, despite a preference for guitar music. He liked iced tea and pasta, such as fungilli. Due to his nomadic upbringing, he was adept at various languages including Haliian. 

Friendships
La Forge always tried to be on friendly terms with everyone around him, yet he only seemed completely at ease in company of his closest friend, Data. The two of them often role-played in holodeck simulations of Sherlock Holmes stories, where Data assumed the role of Holmes and La Forge was Dr. Watson. 

Geordi was also close friends with Miles O'Brien and Susanna Leijten. Possibly because of his own tendencies to retreat to fictitious settings, Geordi became friends with the extremely shy and nervous genius Reginald Barclay, trying to keep him in reality. Geordi also forged an unlikely bond with fellow Enterprise Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott after rescuing him from the crashed USS Jenolan. 

Romance
Geordi was slightly insecure concerning dating and women, though he had significant relationships with Christy Henshaw, Lt. Aquiel Uhnari, and Dr. Leah Brahms. He may have also harbored a slight romantic attraction to his crewmate Natasha Yar. 

Being self-conscious and slightly nervous, it took him considerable effort to get in contact with potential female partners. This apparently contributed to him falling in love with two women's holographic audiovisual representations when it appeared that he would never get to meet them in person. 


 * Michael Piller once likened Geordi to "the guy who fumbles around women but is in love with his '57 Chevy". (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion'')

Christy Henshaw
Efforts to date Enterprise-D crewmate Christy Henshaw were initially unsuccessful, although she became much more interested in him after an encounter with the Zalkonian known as John Doe left him feeling much more confident. 

Leah Brahms (hologram)
Working with a holographic representation of engineer Leah Brahms, a key member of the Galaxy-class Starship Development Project and, in a way, the mother of the Enterprise's warp propulsion system, La Forge fell in love with her.

Upon meeting the real Dr. Brahms one year later, in 2367, things were everything but rosy. Both had to work hard to find a way of cooperating, but eventually became friends. 

Aquiel Uhnari
Investigating into the supposed death of one and disappearance of another officer at a remote subspace relay station in 2369, Geordi reviewed the personal correspondence of the suspected victim, Lieutenant Aquiel Uhnari. In the process, he came to know and like her so much that upon her unexpected apprehension, both formed a short relationship. 

Alternate realities and timelines
In two alternate quantum realities, La Forge was killed in 2370. In one of them he died during an attack on the Enterprise-D by a Cardassian battle cruiser. Later that year, in an alternate timeline, La Forge's optic nerves re-generated due to the anti-time particles emanating from a temporal anomaly, restoring his vision. 

In another alternate timeline, La Forge had been promoted to the rank of captain by 2390 and was in command of the USS Challenger (NCC-71099). In that year, he pursued Chakotay, Harry Kim, Tessa Omond and The Doctor in a stolen Delta Flyer to the Takara sector in an attempt to stop them from changing history by preventing the destruction of the USS Voyager fifteen years earlier. 

In an alternate future, around 2395, Geordi had retired from Starfleet to become a novelist and was married to Leah Brahms. The couple were living on Rigel III and had three children, Alandra, Bret and Sidney. Leah became the director of the Daystrom Institute as well as quite a gardener. 

Holograms
Geordi La Forge has been holographically duplicated on a number of occasions.
 * In 2366, as part of the investigation into the destruction of the Tanuga IV research station, recreations of Geordi were created based on the depositions given by the witness in the programs Deposition Program Riker One and Manua Simulation One.
 * As part of Reginald Barclay's holo-addiction, he had created at least two programs that had recreations of Geordi. One was a recreation of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), the other, Barclay Program 15, had Geordi as one of The Three Musketeers.
 * Barash recreated the entire command crew of the Enterprise-D in 2367 on Alpha Onias III to keep Commander Riker there, creating an illusion of the Enterprise crew sixteen years in the future. The La Forge hologram appeared without his VISOR- apparently the result of improved medical technology restoring his eyes-, but Riker deduced that the simulation wasn't real when La Forge took too long to conduct basic repairs on the Enterprise- really the result of Barash having trouble creating a completely convincing simulation-, informing La Forge that he was "incapable of that level of incompetence."
 * Later that year, La Forge created a holoprogram based on the reports of the Tarchannen III outpost's investigation in 2362 by an away team of the USS Victory, including himself.
 * The James Moriarty hologram recreated the entire Enterprise-D in 2369 as part of a ploy to escape the holodeck. Data finally realized the trap laid by Moriarty and revealed it to Captain Picard when they were both in the holographic engineering. Data tossed a tool to "La Forge" who caught it with his left hand, when he is actually right-handed. Data recognized this as one of the holodeck's initial malfunctions and used the visual lesson to show Picard that they were on the holodeck.
 * When Deanna Troi took Riker's version of the Bridge Officer's Test in 2370, it contained a recreation of La Forge. In order to pass the test, Deanna needed to know that on some occasions, she might be required to order one of her officers to sacrifice himself for the good of the ship. During an antimatter leak simulation, Deanna ordered the La Forge recreation to repair the leak at the cost of his own life.

Chronology

 * 2335 : Born in African Confederation, Earth.
 * 2340 : Receives his first VISOR.
 * 2353 : Admitted to Starfleet Academy.
 * 2357 : Graduates Starfleet Academy, assigned to USS Victory.
 * 2361 : Assigned to USS Hood under Captain DeSoto.
 * 2364 : Assigned to USS Enterprise-D as helmsman.
 * 2365 : Promoted to lieutenant and chief engineer.
 * 2366 : Promoted to lieutenant commander.
 * 2370 : Receives word that his mother, Captain Silva La Forge of the USS Hera, has died.
 * 2371 : The USS Enterprise-D is destroyed over Veridian III.
 * 2372 : Assigned to the USS Enterprise-E.
 * 2373 : Travels back in time to 2063 in order to defeat an attempt by the Borg to create an alternate timeline in which the Federation is never created.
 * 2375 : Assists in Picard's rebellion against Starfleet Admiral Dougherty in order to protect the Ba'ku; La Forge's eyes temporarily regain sight because of the planet's effects.
 * 2379 : Attends the wedding of William Riker and Deanna Troi. Participates in Battle in the Bassen Rift.

Background information

 * Geordi La Forge was played by LeVar Burton in all of the character's television and film appearances.
 * According to Rick Berman in an interview in the 1995 special Star Trek Voyager: Inside the New Adventure. Tim Russ auditioned for the role of Geordi La Forge, and almost got the role but was beaten by Burton. Russ later won the role of Tuvok in Star Trek: Voyager.
 * The character, and all other La Forges, were named for the late, quadriplegic Star Trek fan George La Forge. (Star Trek Encyclopedia 2nd ed., p. 256; Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion 2nd ed., p. 15) However, in the documentary "Trekkies", Jonathan Frakes states that the fan's name was "Jordan".
 * The original March 1987 Writers/Directors Guide for TNG had La Forge with somewhat different interests and talents. He wasn't listed as the helmsman, or even a bridge officer, instead being simply an "away mission regular". His "specialty": the "starship school for children". (This was inspired by LeVar Burton's participation in the "Reading Rainbow" educational television series.) It also stated in the guide that there was a plan to visit a planet where Geordi would receive the equivalent of Human eyes, "and their limitations lead to the major disappointment of his young life."
 * Geordi has held more ranks on screen than any other Star Trek character: he was an ensign in a flashback in, he was a lieutenant junior grade in TNG Season 1, a full lieutenant in TNG Season 2, a lieutenant commander in TNG Seasons 3 through 7 and the four Next Generation feature films, a commander in the illusory future of , and a captain in an alternate timeline in.
 * For further information on who has held the most ranks on screen, see also Nog.


 * Geordi is notable for easily establishing friendships with initially hostile aliens such as Bochra in and Hugh in.

Apocrypha

 * The comic book series Star Trek: Countdown, a tie-in to the 2009 film, depicts Geordi as having left Starfleet by 2387 to design starships, including the Jellyfish, which is given to Spock prior to his confrontation with Nero.
 * The novel Losing the Peace by William Leisner establishes Geordi's home town to be, , part of the African Confederation and a thriving 24th Century city.
 * In The Path to 2409, Geordi reentered Starfleet in 2397 and became the captain of the USS Challenger (NCC-71099).
 * In just about all the TNG novels set after the events of, La Forge's rank is established as being that of full commander. In the novel Indistinguishable from Magic set in 2384, La Forge was serving in a temporary detached role of operations and second officer aboard the USS Challenger when he was promoted to captain and assumed command of the starship on the recommendation from Captain Montgomery Scott upon Scott's retirement. When he returned to the Enterprise-E, Captain Picard named La Forge to the role of Captain of Engineering based on the precedent set by Scott in the same role aboard the USS Excelsior and the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A).
 * In the Genesis Wave series, set in 2377, Geordi La Forge admits his love for Leah Brahms, but assures her that he expects nothing in return. La Forge only asks her to meet him at an engineering conference in a few months' time, and she agrees.
 * In the novel Indistinguishable from Magic, set between 2382 and 2383 La Forge and Brahms are reunited during the U.S.S. Challenger's assignment to investigate trans-slipstream drive. The two begin a romantic relationship, and after the Challenger is destroyed, Brahms moves in with La Forge aboard the Enterprise-E after he accepts his original position. She is convinced to join him when he offers her the opportunity to work on only one vessel, instead of many.
 * The storyline in the Star Trek: Countdown comic indicates that La Forge and Brahms were married by 2387.
 * The eBook The Insolence of Office states that La Forge was ordered to have his VISOR replaced with ocular implants by Admiral Hayes or be reassigned to a less sensitive post. This was due to the Romulans manipulating La Forge through his VISOR in  as well as the VISOR being used by the Duras sisters in their attack on the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) in, which resulted in the destruction of the Enterprise.