Even though the future of "Timeless" (Voyager) won't happen, since obviously Voyager never crashed, will Geordi - over the course of future TNG novels - still eventually become a Captain like he was in that episode?
Geordi in future TNG novels
- Thread starter Mr. Laser Beam
- Start date
Who knows? He could become a captain like in "Timeless," or he could become a novelist like in "All Good Things," or he could die heroically, or he could become the host of a children's show promoting reading. The future isn't written yet -- literally, in this case.
Personally, I think LaForge should be the new second officer on the Enterprise and really begin to display even more of a command presence on the ship in the same way that Data or even Tucker did. While he should never entirely leave engineering, I would like to see him begin to delegate more authority to his engineering staff and spend a bit more time on the bridge, especially when the XO is leading an away mission.
I disagree, and expressed my disagreement that La Forge should leave the engine room in A Time for War, a Time for Peace when Riker offers him the job of first officer on Titan, and La Forge turns it down (though he agonizes over the decision). It's Scotty, in part, who talks him out of it.
You just want to keep a nerd in his place, don'cha?
Geordi seems to "belong" in Engineering.
Or we're just used to him being an engineer even though he originally started out in command.
Even thought Scotty was chief engineer of Kirk's Enterprise, he was also the second officer, and I don't see any reason why LaForge can't be the second officer as well.
Heck, Sonya Gomez (who was his subordinate way back when) outranks him as a Commander in the first SCE Novel (Which I've finally started) and I Believe Worf's inching his way up the ladder as well. Even if he stay's in Engineering and doesn't become second officer. He's been a Lt. Commander since 2366. It's 2380 in Resistance that's 14 years or so...The guy needs a promotion to Full Commander.
Heck, Sonya Gomez (who was his subordinate way back when) outranks him as a Commander in the first SCE Novel (Which I've finally started) and I Believe Worf's inching his way up the ladder as well. Even if he stay's in Engineering and doesn't become second officer. He's been a Lt. Commander since 2366. It's 2380 in Resistance that's 14 years or so...The guy needs a promotion to Full Commander.
Except in "The Arsenal of Freedom." His subplot in that episode (from the first season, before the decision was made to move Geordi from conn to chief engineer) was all about learning what it took to be an effective commander.
Why does he "need" that? In general, why does anyone "need" to keep advancing arbitrarily just for the sake of advancement? That kind of thinking is what underlies the Peter Principle. If you're good at the job you're doing, where's the sense in getting promoted out of it? If you're happy where you are, where's the sense in craving more?
And really, the TOS movies created an unrealistic image of how promotion in a military organization works, what with half the cast ending up as captains and the other half as commanders. No service can function if it's that top-heavy, if the people making decisions outnumber the people actually doing the work.
This is like that horrible scene in Voyager's Unimatrix Zero, where Kim was like, "Hey, I don't see a little box [with a promotion pip] on my chair!" LaForge really deserves to be second officer - heck, first officer (on Titan).
Your right, the movies established a pattern of promotion in Starfleet. Maybe that's why I mentioned it. (Of course it's not like a real military, it's Star Trek) [Of course in a real military if you're up for promotion more than a few times and don't get it you're out.]
No one "needs" a promotion. So instead we'll take the word "needs" and switch it up with the word "deserves", tack on the fact that he's proven himself an admirable leader and quick thinker more times than I can count, and leave it at that.
I mean seriously, GOMEZ is a Commander, if that jump in rank can be explained in such a quick time, why is it so hard to believe that Geordi would of been offered a promotion by now?
Unless he's really an operative of Starfleet Intelligence and the cabal that runs with Elias Vaughn and attempting to stay off the radar...
Seemed to me that in the movies, Kirk was the only one still makin' decisions, and every captain (Spock & Scotty) & commander (Uhura, Chekov, Sulu) under his command still had to do the work.
Still hopin' something happens to move Geordi up the chain of command. Possibly a tragic explosion on the Titan that for some unknown reason is tightly focussed in the vicinity of Vale, and Will has to call on his ol' buddy Geordi to fill the vacancy...
Geordi went "up the ziggurat lickety-split" fairly quickly on the show. He should keep doing it in the novels. 
As for his possible futures: I don't think the writers would dare still give Picard the crippling Irumodic Syndrome he had in AGT's future, so that one won't happen. (The whole thing was a Q-generated illusion anyway.) So I would think that Geordi's future in "Timeless" would be more likely to happen anyway.
I mean, doesn't Jake Sisko marry Korena "for real" just like he did in The Visitor?
As for his possible futures: I don't think the writers would dare still give Picard the crippling Irumodic Syndrome he had in AGT's future, so that one won't happen. (The whole thing was a Q-generated illusion anyway.) So I would think that Geordi's future in "Timeless" would be more likely to happen anyway.
I mean, doesn't Jake Sisko marry Korena "for real" just like he did in The Visitor?
Which just makes it even sillier. Concentrating that many high-ranked veterans on the same ship in their decades-old roles, rather than spreading them out into command roles throughout the fleet, is absurd. Now, I can buy it in TWOK and its immediate sequelae, since they were apparently reuniting for Kirk's birthday in TWOK after serving separately for a while, and in the next two films they weren't on a Starfleet mission. But having them together as a crew in TFF was just contrived as all get-out. At least in TUC it was presented as a special mission they were reassembled for, but did that mission really require all of them in their old roles?
But that's way off-topic.
As for Geordi, I'm with Keith on this. Why does everyone have to be a first officer or a captain? Those aren't the only important or worthwhile jobs on a starship. Heck, they're just the people who sit around while other people actually do stuff. They're management. What's so glorious about that? Ships need good engineers, good science officers, good doctors, good transporter chiefs, etc. Geordi's become the top engineer on the top ship in the fleet -- that's just as worthy an accomplishment as being the commander of a ship, and just as vital a post. Moving to command wouldn't be a step up for him, just a step sideways. It isn't something he needs.
Speaking for myself, I've found advice based in nostalgia to generally be poor advice. And nostalgia over a century out of date?
LaForge has never expressed a great desire in command, it's true, although we do have canonical hints that he wouldn't be opposed to the idea eventually. He did not start his career as an engineer, but a pilot in the command track. We've seen him take command a number of times, including the Jenee over and above the aformentioned eternal engineer. And then there's the appearance of Captain LaForge in "Timeless", which was just kick-ass. I think it's an idea whose time has come.
When was the last time LaForge got any character development? Really? The best I can come up with is prior to First Contact when he got his new eyes and generally changed his look, but that wasn't touched on in the film. And the fiction hasn't done better; there was a brief fling with Brahms in Genesis Wave, and then back to zippo. LaForge desperately needs something relevant to do beyond fixing busted warp coils before he becomes the invisible man redux. Given his history and "Timeless", I'm of the opinion that the best way to impel LaForge forward is to give him some command responsibilities.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
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