Poll Galaxy's Child: in a tng marathon why I skipped this episode?

[Jayson1]

I love this episode and you should watch it. Geordi did nothing wrong. He didn't have sex with the hologram. Clearly he never went back seeing as how it was still setup at the moment he left. Also never spent time looking into the real person or he would have easily caught the whole marriage thing sooner. All that happened is he sort of liked the holographic version of her and got his hopes up thinking the real version of her might like him as well when she arrived for real. She shot him down and he let it go and things were fine until she walked into the holographic program and got the wrong impression. They both got angry. Talked it out like adults and became friends.


Jason

 

[DonIago]

You don't think Geordi should have volunteered his prior knowledge of her before setting her up for a romantic evening?

 

[DonIago]

LEAH: You know, I really owe you an apology.
LAFORGE: No, you don't. I should have told you straight out.

Fair, though I would have liked a little more.

 

[Jayson1]

You don't think Geordi should have volunteered his prior knowledge of her before setting her up for a romantic evening?

What knowledge? He knew one type of food she liked. That's about it. The computer wasn't going to give him any deep private information from her personal logs. Maybe he could have told her about the hologram but she was pretty hostile from the start because of the engines so I can see why he might want to hold off saying something that can inflame the situation. Especially since she is not going to understand the context of the hologram and why it was created. I am thinking he was waiting for the right time to tell her and it's very possible that dinner date would have been when he sort of told her about that old mission where he used that hologram. I mean that was the point of it. To try and get to know each other better. Granted he also had romantic feelings but he's Geordi. He's not going to go act like a asshole if she turns him down.


Jason

 

[Vger23]

The voting choices available in this poll are second to none. Bravo!

 

[Armus]

Geordi's biggest sin was not deleting the Holo Leah after they kissed at the end of Booby Trap. He needed the computer to create her for professional reasons. He wasn't looking to fall in love with an image of a real person. It just happened. He was vulnerable and the computer gave Leah such warmth and they solved a crisis together. After they kissed he should have deleted the program then and there. Or at least after he saw what Barclay was doing with images of real people.

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[Makarov]

They needed to do a holodeck malfunction episode where holo Leah Brahms gets out of the holodeck and Captain Picard must decide whether real or holo Brahms gets to date Geordi. Maybe a courtroom ep where Riker must be holo Brahms lawyer

 

[Lance]

To me Geordi's greatest crime in the episode, which undermines everything that follows, boils down to the fact that from the get-go he's not honest with Leah. He's not honest about the fact that he has interest in her, he's not honest about the fact that he looked up her profile, and he's not honest about the fact that he used her holographic likeness to research a problem.

It would have taken him all of two minutes to front-load this information into his meeting with her, and he chose not to.

He may not actively mean her any harm, but he establishes that he's willing to lie via omission to her.

I can't let him off the hook for this, because if I were in Leah's place and I found out that someone not only had used my holographic likeness, but hadn't even had the decency to tell me at some point before I randomly stumbled into it, I'd be livid.

LAFORGE: All right, look. Ever since you came on board, you've been badgering me and I've taken it. I've shown you courtesy, and respect, and a hell of a lot of patience. Oh, no, no, no, wait a minute. I've tried to understand you. I've tried to get along with you. And in return, you've accused, tried and convicted me without bothering to hear my side of it. So, I'm guilty, okay? But not of what you think. Of something much worse. I'm guilty of reaching out to you, of hoping we could connect. I'm guilty of a terrible crime, Doctor. I offered you friendship.

Where's the part where he apologizes for the fact that he was manipulative and implicitly dishonest?

Very much my beef with the episode.

 

[Jayson1]

Geordi's biggest sin was not deleting the Holo Leah after they kissed at the end of Booby Trap. He needed the computer to create her for professional reasons. He wasn't looking to fall in love with an image of a real person. It just happened. He was vulnerable and the computer gave Leah such warmth and they solved a crisis together. After they kissed he should have deleted the program then and there. Or at least after he saw what Barclay was doing with images of real people.

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I don't think he even really fell in love. Not in the kind of love were you feel like you have meet your soulmate type of feeling. More along the lines as he had a good time but knew once the threat was over it was time to move on. It would be found memory but nothing would ever really come from it. Also it's kind of hard to erase a program that isn't technically even a program. The computer created her specifically for that mission so if someone wants in theory anyone could create a Brahams program and who knows maybe this stuff happens all over the Federation from time to time. Maybe some engineer on some random ship has had to go interact with a holo-LaForge to solve a problem. It's basically using the holodeck as a tool in order to problem solve and doing it in away that feels less stuffy. Basically a like choosing a audio-book over a regular book but with more personality to make the experience feel less robotic but of course their would be rules in place like not being able to access personal logs in order to protect people's privacy.


Jason

 

[DonIago]

I don't think anyone's arguing that what Geordi did on a practical level was sound...but when the person you've created a holographic likeness, especially one you haven't been strictly professional with, shows up, the decent thing to do is tell them, especially if you're going to use your prior experience with 'them' against them.

It would have been different if things with HoloLeah had been entirely professional or Geordi hadn't tried to leverage that experience when encountering RealLeah.

 

[Jayson1]

I don't think anyone's arguing that what Geordi did on a practical level was sound...but when the person you've created a holographic likeness, especially one you haven't been strictly professional with, shows up, the decent thing to do is tell them, especially if you're going to use your prior experience with 'them' against them.

It would have been different if things with HoloLeah had been entirely professional or Geordi hadn't tried to leverage that experience when encountering RealLeah.

To me this is what he would have told her during the diner. I think it's a matter of trying to figure out the right time to tell someone which is complicated because she is basically cursing him out 5 seconds out of the transporter beam. It's like they both start off with a agenda. Geordi thinks they might hit it off and maybe even romance happens. Meanwhile she is really wanting to lay into him for fouling up her engines which she no doubt takes personal much in the way he did when he felt he was being insulted for how he has been doing his job. I think things would have went differently if they had started off on a better foot from the start.

Jason

 

[DonIago]

If the dinner itself hadn't been manipulative I might be more inclined to agree, but Geordi was pretty obviously trying to use his prior experience with 'Leah' against her at that point.

He could have just as easily asked to meet with her in a conference room or such. Who knows, she might have even appreciated his honesty.

 

[Jayson1]

But he doesn't have prior experience with her. Just the hologram. All he has is a impression of what he thinks she is like in real life and one factoid about a type of food she likes. Also diner or conference room seems the same thing. To me it's like when you got a secret and you want to tell someone and you don't know when is the best time to tell them. I am sure we can all relate to that. It's not easy sometimes to say things especially to strangers and you don't know how they are going to interact. Just because people aren't forthcoming instantly doesn't mean they are trying to hide things from others. It's just means people worry about how others we react so they feel the need to find the right time and I am sure her instant dislike for him basically through him for a loop as to how he would tell her what happened. I ma sure in his head he had this grand idea of how it would play out. They would talk about work stuff and get along. Be friendly. He would ask her out and she would be into it and then they would then get to know each other better and maybe even sex and even if that doesn't happen they still become good friends. All of which goes out the window instantly. Now you got this person yelling at you and your pissed because she is insulting you on how you have been doing your job. To me it's just classic misunderstanding going on. Lots of ill thought presumptions form both sides which isn't a good thing of course but it seems very human to me.

Jason

 

[DonIago]

If you don't feel that there's different atmospheres and expectations for interaction between a romantic dinner setting and a conference room, then I don't think there's anything I can say that will make it clear to you why I have a concern with how Geordi handled this.

 

[Makarov]

He came off a bit weird but I dont know if he really used his knowledge of her favorite food "against" her.. he definitely thought she would enjoy it. He also thought they'd get along really well. But food preference is superficial info considering he didn't even know she was married.

A meal in the quarters doesnt seem too out of place. Picard was having breakfast with Crusher and that's not considered too strange. Riker cooked breakfast for everybody in that other episode. It's just really sudden the way he goes about it, Leah wasn't even his friend
I think the episode was going more for fantasy vs reality mismatch than stalker Geordi vibe. Once he met the reality he backed way off and didn't even like her. But sometimes in discussion it comes off a lot more serious than I think it really is. And Leah jumped to a really bad conclusion about him without seeing the whole program

Meanwhile Tuvok literally murdered Neelix in the holodeck to blow off steam

 

[DonIago]

I'm somewhat left wondering whether female viewers of the episode tend to walk away with a different impression than male viewers.

 

[Jayson1]

I'm somewhat left wondering whether female viewers of the episode tend to walk away with a different impression than male viewers.

I think this tends to be true. But also the fact is we all know Geordi from all the other episodes and you can tell he is a good guy. I do think the story might have played differently if you were seeing this story from the perspective of a character we didn't know as well or even one that we did. For example it would play very different if lets say Barclay was the one who had the crush. We already know that even though Barclay is also a good guy he also tends to have issues with socialization and not really knowing how to interact with people.


Jason

 

[DonIago]

I think people would also tend to be more dubious of Barclay claiming that things with the hologram had remained strictly professional given his case history.

 

[Jayson1]

I think people would also tend to be more dubious of Barclay claiming that things with the hologram had remained strictly professional given his case history.

I agree. Barclay had holo-addiction. It's kind of weird how even though he has holo-addiction he still tends to work a lot with holograms even up until the Voyager-Project. It's like having someone with a drinking problem working in a bar.

Jason

 

[DonIago]

Starfleet does exhibit a remarkable tendency to not notice or condone or overlook peoples' psychological issues...
Crazy Admirals
Corrupt Admirals
Red Squad
Nova Squad