LeVar Burton has revealed how the #MeToo movement influenced his portrayal of Commodore Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: Picard, fixing an infamous Star Trek: The Next Generation mistake. Picard season 3 gave LeVar Burton some of his best-ever material, and revealed that Geordi was the father to two daughters, Lt. Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) and Ensign Alandra La Forge (Mica Burton). The names of Geordi's daughters honored a moment from the Star Trek: The Next Generation finale, which also revealed he had a wife called Leah. It was assumed that Geordi's wife was Dr. Leah Brahms (Susan Gibney), the Federation scientist with whom he had a problematic relationship in TNG.
Speaking to IndieWire in an Awards Spotlight interview about Star Trek: Picard season 3, LeVar Burton and Patrick Stewart talked about working on the Star Trek: The Next Generation reunion. Burton discussed the infamous TNG's infamous Leah Brahms storyline, and how the #MeToo movement improved Geordi's story in season 3. Read LeVar Burton's quote below:
I had one request: I want to rehabilitate Geordi’s canon where relationships are concerned. That little stalkerish episode with Dr. Brahms never sat well with me and I never wanted that to be his legacy: ‘He was a great engineer but he had this one #MeToo moment, and he never experienced a consequence for that.’ So I said, I want him to be a family man, I want him to have healthy relationships. And [Picard showrunner Terry Matalas] went away and came back with the LaForge sisters. My children are 42 and 28, and I was then able to bring all of that depth, all of that weight, all of that anxiety that we feel as parents, all that gravitas… it was right for Geordi. It was right where I felt he needed to be.”
Star Trek: Picard Fixed Geordi's Problematic TNG Story
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Booby Trap", Geordi developed romantic feelings for a holographic replica of Dr. Leah Brahms, causing problems when the real Leah visited the Enterprise a year later. However, despite Leah's discomfort with Geordi's romancing of her holographic replica, the two became friends, and possibly got married in an alternate future. It's this lack of consequence that made Burton uncomfortable, and revealing Leah as Star Trek: Picard would only have made matters worse.
Terry Matalas and LeVar Burton made the right choice to fix the Leah Brahms story by ignoring it and focusing instead on Geordi's evolution as a person and as a father. Geordi's story in Star Trek: Picard season 3 shows just how much he's moved in the intervening years. Geordi is still happily married, he has the confidence to stand up to iral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), and he's a dedicated and caring father to Sidney and Alandra. He's recognized his mistakes in the one-sided relationship with Leah Brahms' hologram, and has grown as a husband, a father, and a friend. It was the perfect way to acknowledge Geordi's TNG mistake while giving him a more positive Star Trek legacy.
Star Trek: Picard season 3 is streaming on Paramount+.
Source: IndieWire