Did they discuss phasing out Geordi's visor during TNG?

[tim0122]

All Good Things shows future Geordi with the eye implants, Soran asks Geordi in Generations if he's considered a procedure to that'd make him "look more normal," and in season two Pulaski mentions something about Geordi having a procedure done to replace his visor with something else (can't remember if it's implants or not).

There seemed to be this idea, possibly as early as season two, of Geordi's visor being replaced. But was it ever discussed BTS to implement it during TNG's run? Seems like it'd be a great favor to LeVar Burton.

 

[Takeru]

I think I remember them talking about it, it was considered, this is why Pulaski brought it up. She talked about regrowing his optical nerve iirc so presumably they simply would have had Levar Burton use his actual eyes without contacts or anything that would have made them look artificial.

 

[Mojochi]

It was always floated around in dialog, but I doubt they actually wanted to do it, from a production POV, because during the show's run, that visor was one of the most iconic artifacts about the whole show

 

[Q'OrnamentalDeqor]

Awesome artifact, awesome character, awesome actor. The irony is no less awesome, given LeVar has some of the most expressive eyes any actor could have but he's hiding behind what amounts to 80s fashionable style, which really is iconic.

In season 2, there was the Pulaski scene. Early season 1 had another scene... not until the TNG movies did they get rid of it, culminating with NEM telling us backhandedly how pointless INS was because Geordi's restored eyesight ultimately was temporary, though hose blue contacts really looked good - if TNG was going to ditch the last of 80s-cool in favor of 90s-meh. Also, how come the Sof'a and Ra'gu along with Admiral Doughforbrains there didn't figure this out by leaving the Briar Bunny Patch for a couple of weeks? If nothing else, that does remind how it's not untrue that real research takes time, but how bad was the Dominion war going that they needed a restorative to heal more people than Doctor Who during every regeneration story as the Doc is up to their 8 zillionth regeneration by now-- Hey, there's a cool crossover idea in the waiting right there! Or maybe not...

 

[Outcast91]

I sometimes wonder if LeVar could actually see through the visor, lmao.

 

[tim0122]

I sometimes wonder if LeVar could actually see through the visor, lmao.

He's said he could only see straight ahead. He had zero peripheral vision, and he might've said he also couldn't see anything below or above his eyes.

 

[Outcast91]

He's said he could only see straight ahead. He had zero peripheral vision, and he might've said he also couldn't see anything below or above his eyes.

Sounds like a nightmare, but he acted so well, lmao.

 

[Crazy 4 Xmas Lights]

The lore goes that after his VISOR was used to facilitate the destruction of the Enterprise D, Geordi was informed that if he was going to keep serving on starships, he was going to have to go to less hack-able accommodation.

Don't know if there was planning to replace it earlier.

 

[Mojochi]

The lore goes that after his VISOR was used to facilitate the destruction of the Enterprise D, Geordi was informed that if he was going to keep serving on starships, he was going to have to go to less hack-able accommodation.

Don't know if there was planning to replace it earlier.

I doubt that was ever ordered. Data has proven just as "hackable", in not only Brothers (understandable given it was Soong) but also by Ira Graves & Lore

Plus, all the other humanoid officers have been "hacked" via possession, 3 of them in Power Play alone. Data was one of those too lol. Troi's got another in Clues. Picard had the mother of all hackings, by the Borg, which threatens virtually everybody, & then everybody BUT Data got hacked in The Game.

Besides, I'm not so sure the VISOR ever really got hacked. Geordi had his VISOR inputs used against him in The Mind's Eye, and I don't think Soren actually hacked the VISOR, so much as he somehow installed a surveillance device in it, that went undetected, because the Klingons aren't seeing Geordi's actual VISOR feed. (that we've seen before) It's just a normal video feed, & it would make sense that Soren just cob-jobbed the easiest thing, to appease them, as he had other more preoccupying goals.

However, after losing his ship, having the Romulans brainwash him, & even Lore was tinkering with it in Descent, all within a 5-6 year span, I do imagine discussions were had, & Geordi voluntarily decided to look into upgrading. Let's not forget that his later implants DO look like an upgrade too, unlike what the docs had proposed to him, in the early seasons of the show.

It's likely by nearly a decade later, improvements had been made in ocular implant tech... OR! my head canon... In the absence of suitably equivalent implant tech, Geordi, Data, & maybe Beverly worked the problem themselves, in the downtime between ships.

By using the best current ocular implant research, PLUS involving their own even rarer knowledge of Data's android eye tech, & the fact that both Data's body & Geordi's VISOR had been, in some ways, already compatible with other Starfleet tech, they devised a NEW ocular implant that incorporated ALL of these advantages into one advanced, all-in-one super-implant, which I'd like to hope Data himself even considered incorporating into his own hardware, but would certainly revolutionize the science of it for humanoids.

 

[TroiFan4ever]

FWIU (and I could be mistaken) Levar Burton kept bumping into things while wearing the VISOR on set, so around Season 2-3-ish he had a meeting with the producers about phasing out the VISOR and curing Geordi's blindness but Levar said no to this because despite how inconvenient it was to wear it on set he wanted there to be that representation for the visually impaired or disabled people in general.

Depending on how accurate this is, Levar has my respect; that he would rather be that representation than be relieved of the inconvenience of having to wear that prop causing him to bump into things.

 

[Mojochi]

FWIU (and I could be mistaken) Levar Burton kept bumping into things while wearing the VISOR on set, so around Season 2-3-ish he had a meeting with the producers about phasing out the VISOR and curing Geordi's blindness but Levar said no to this because despite how inconvenient it was to wear it on set he wanted there to be that representation for the visually impaired or disabled people in general.

Depending on how accurate this is, Levar has my respect; that he would rather be that representation than be relieved of the inconvenience of having to wear that prop causing him to bump into things.

It would've been a loss, both to the tangible disabled representation it offered, & to the sci-fi aesthetic of the show IMHO. It was a hallmark. That simple little stupid piece of plastic made Geordi one of the coolest characters on TV at that time. I remember being a teen thinking he was like bloody Batman.

In The Enemy he literally saves himself with that Visor, a tricorder and a phaser. You add in the communicator pin, & he seemed unstoppable. Plus, he engineers a neighborhood sized spaceship & his best friend is a machine man. C'mon

I was so pissed seeing that Rassmussen had stolen one from him in the time travel ship of his. I don't know HTF he got it, but GTFO dude. You ain't going nowhere with that

Rassmussen's Stolen Items