Nemesis, and Geordi's lovely brown eyes.

[T'Girl]

In the prior movie Insurrection, Geordi's natural vision was restored, he made a comment that strongly suggested that the "repair" wasn't going to last.

But is it possible that Geordi's eye sight was in fact permanently repaired, despite his statement in the movie? Was it made clear (spelled out) in Nemesis that Geordi once again was a blind man with a visual prosthesis of some kind?

Any close ups of his eyes with the technological contact lens, any scenes of Geordi manifesting unusually visual abilities? In the future segments of the TNG series finally, Geordi seemed to possess normal eye sight.

Were the repairs from Insurrection still with him?

 

[ALF]

Not sure, but the whole point of Geordi's character was to encourage disabled viewers that the future would be a world in which more options would be available to them.... or perhaps that they could overcome obstacles in their lives, in the present.

Having Geordi's eyes magically 'fixed' forever would ruin that. The fact that Geordi was able to see but in shapes and colors very much unlike usual eyesight was a compromise that he had chosen to live with... as well as the pain associated with wearing the VISOR.

Of course, Burton has attractive eyes. We can enjoy them in Reading Rainbow!

 

[Anji]

Yeah, covering up LeVar's eyes was a huge mistake. They are gorgeous!

 

[Timo]

In-universe, it seemed LaForge always had the option of getting "normal", biological eyes - he just didn't realize it until Pulaski told him so. But he always flat out refused it, on basis of not wanting to be handicapped that way. Now there's an exemplary attitude and a nice twist in the story!

Riker apparently didn't believe in LaForge's conviction, but did believe in Pulaski's technique, as he gave Geordi a pair of pretty human eyes in the fantasy of "Future Imperfect". Q may have fantasized the same thing for Picard's benefit against his better knowledge in "All Good Things...".

But it is quite possible that LaForge did finally succumb and got the operation done, even if the Fountain of Youth cure from ST:INS didn't stick.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Melakon]

But is it possible that Geordi's eye sight was in fact permanently repaired, despite his statement in the movie?

The answer is dependent on whether Troi's and Crusher's (and Worf's) boobs went back to sagging.

 

[R. Star]

I had always just figured the Insurrection restored vision just stuck. Usually the simplest explanation is the most likely one and there was nothing on screen that said one way or the other. One line of dialogue in Nemesis really could have solved this.

 

[jpch]

I loved hes eyes <3 and it seems the effects were permanent.

 

[-Brett-]

I would think that the first step after inventing prosthetic eyes would be making them look like the real deal.

 

[sbk1234]

If it matters, in the Voyager episode Timeless, his eyes looked like prosthetics.

 

[R. Star]

If it matters, in the Voyager episode Timeless, his eyes looked like prosthetics.

Does that mean we can blame Chakotay and Kim for Insurrection and Nemesis?

 

[Timo]

FWIW, the slipstream flight to home in "Timeless" is launched around stardate 52100, while ST:INS probably takes place after the end of the war and thus of the 52000-stardated season. So yes, Kim and Chuckles would have had time to affect the outcome of the movie.

Prosthetics that are perfectly like human eyes were an option in the second season of TNG already. What LaForge apparently kept hoping for was prosthetics that would both be less clumsy and painful than the VISOR, and capable of the same things as the VISOR. That combination evidently couldn't be provided in an aesthetically perfect package in ST:FC yet.

So we have three leading possibilities for the "future" humanlike eyes:

1) LaForge finally got human eyes installed, despite so often stating he hated those and wanted nothing to do with them, well, except perhaps for short peeks at Tasha Yar or a pretty sunrise. Perhaps Leah Brahms finally came clean and told him she considered him an okay guy otherwise but, you know, couldn't live with a freak?
2) LaForge got human eyes as the result of the Fountain of Youth experience, and is stuck with them now, feeling handicapped and invalid and crying himself to sleep every night. Pious UFP doctors refuse to remove the eyes and replace them with something more useful, though. Plus, there's the Anti-Borg League to consider, ambushing and electrocuting people with artificial implants.
3) LaForge got an aesthetically improved type of VISOR installed, and Leah proposed the very next day. LaForge still carefully keeps the true nature of his eyes secret from his wife.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

The bit Geordi shows up in in Timeless is like, 20 or 30 years in the future or some such. He's captain of a ship.

 

[Timo]

Yup. But if his failure to have human eyes by that time is related to what happened or didn't happen back in ST:INS, then it's sort of crucial that Kim and Chakotay arrived just in the nick of time to do something about that movie...

And it might not have been difficult to change things there. The Son'a would have wanted to destroy the Ba'ku in any timeline, and would have needed UFP permission to enter the Briar Patch for that. If the Feds gave that but did not send Data there so that Picard, LaForge and the rest would eventually get involved, the Son'a vengeance plan would probably have succeeded, and nobody would have access to the fountain of youth, least of all LaForge.

Perhaps Picard and Data had their hands full searching for the Voyager crash site (the effort Kim refers to as having ended only nine years before the future events) and for that reason never went to the Briar Patch?

Timo Saloniemi