Monday, December 9, 2013

Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge Appreciation Post

Lt. Commander Geordi LeForge serves as chief engineer and sometimes helmsman of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Like his predecessor Commander Montgomery Scott (Scotty) from the first Enterprise, he knows the ship's inner workings like the back of his hand. Perhaps literally too for Geordi wears a special visor to help him see having been blind since birth. The visor has special properties which allow him to see the structural integrity of warp cores and other metallic-like fixings and even auras around the human body.


Geordi often finds himself at the wrong end of a phaser, plasma burst, or electro magnetic charge. His visor makes him especially vulnerable not only to technical mishaps, but adversaries who covet his visor's usability for their own purposes, such as a Klingon spy working for the Romulans in "The Mind's Eye."


When he's not saving the Enterprise from imminent danger in such episodes as "Contagion," and "Booby Trap" (in which he ends up falling in love with the holographic image of the ship's warp core designer Leah Brahms), he's always going that extra mile for a friend, and even new found friends such as the Romulan soldier in "The Enemy." He took the socially shy and awkward Reggie Barclay under his wing and helped mold him into an outstanding officer. And let's not forget how he formed a friendship with a member of the Borg, the Federation's greatest enemy. Christened "Hugh" by Geordi, he helped the lone member of the collective become an individual.




His greatest friendship is reserved for the ship's third highest ranking officer and android Data. When Data was believed dead after a shuttle craft explosion in "The Most Toys," Geordi refused to accept the investigative findings. Not because he refused to accept the passing of a friend, but because he knew the android better than his other shipmates and realized Data's last recorded entry upon departure was missing a key element that would normally be overlooked by any other officer thinking such protocol redundant. But Data, being a strictly by the book, would not leave anything out. Geordi's persistence lead to a new investigation, which lead to the rescue of Data from a space pirate intent on keeping Data as a prized possession.

So, hears to the ship's chief engineer; a man of integrity, dedication, loyalty, and all around great guy!

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