How many people used a VISOR?

[ToddKent]

I was wondering how common Geordi's VISOR was for people in the 24th century. It seems like I remember him being asked by Crusher (or possibly Pulaski) in an early episode about why he didn't have implants. Also I don't recall seeing any other character in any of the shows or movies using one. Plus with the advanced medicine of the 24th century it would seem like most visual impairments could be healed or repaired in some way so I would imagine Geordi's situation was somewhat unique.

But at the same time, I also don't recall any guest character saying, "Hey what's that thing on your eyes?" so maybe VISORs were somewhat common? Or maybe interacting with aliens with unique headwear or accessories was so common that it just never attracted attention? Has the commonness or uncommonness of VISORs ever been covered?

 

[Christopher]

This is the problem with all the staff changes TNG went through in its first few seasons. The people who actually came up with the characters and concepts of the show were pretty much all gone by season 3 (Roddenberry was still around but basically as a figurehead with little creative input, due to his failing health), so a lot of the original ideas were forgotten or abandoned. At first, Geordi wasn't meant to be unique, but merely an example of a larger increase in bionics/transhumanism to show how humanity had advanced since the 23rd century. Picard himself was revealed to be a cyborg with a bionic heart in season 2, and we saw Federation scientists experimenting with genetic engineering that season too ("Unnatural Selection"). But then the later creators just had no interest in portraying humans as anything other than physically ordinary, and we eventually ended up with a surprisingly Luddite vision of the future that portrayed bionic enhancement as dehumanizing body horror (the Borg) and genetic engineering as a crime. And they mostly stopped exploring the abilities that Geordi's VISOR gave him and pretty much ignored it except when it was used to brainwash or torture him.

All in all, it's a hell of a wasted opportunity. We should've seen more people with VISORs and other bionics, more genetic engineering, more transhumanism in general. And they should've kept taking advantage of the VISOR as an essential superpower. I mean, "Up the Long Ladder" established that Geordi could tell when humans were lying, and that ability was never, ever referenced again.

Which gives me another chance to repeat my opinion that TNG made a mistake by making Worf the security chief and Geordi the engineer at the start of season 2. Both characters would've been served better if it had been the other way around. Geordi could've used his vision to help him as a detective, and Worf would've been less stereotyped as Warrior Guy if he'd been in a technical job.

 

[Hey Missy]

There was a TNG comic about Geordi and a blind alien who was receiving a VISOR, and a novel too.

 

[Tosk]

But at the same time, I also don't recall any guest character saying, "Hey what's that thing on your eyes?"

A woman in Loud as a Whisper does.

Plus with the advanced medicine of the 24th century it would seem like most visual impairments could be healed or repaired in some way so I would imagine Geordi's situation was somewhat unique.

Again in Loud as a Whisper, Pulaski offers Geordi implants that look more like eyes but are less advanced than his VISOR. So many of the others who would need help wouldn't even be noticed. Pulaski had also repaired the natural vision of two people at that point, so even if it's a new procedure people are getting their real eyes back.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I'm sure there was a medical assistant wearing a VISOR when Picard went in to get his artificial heart looked at in Season 2.

 

[Tosk]

There was a dude with a viewer of some kind over one eye, but I assumed it was to help perform the procedure. Only covers one eye, and he doesn't wear it when they aren't operating. Unless I've forgotten a different eyepiece, which is entirely possible.

 

[Timo]

DSC now gives us implants galore, supposedly for coping with war wounds. No one-size-and-shape-fits-all gear there, though. For all we know, LaForge is indeed unique in the sense of demanding top performance at the expense of aesthetics, and for that reason has an exceptionally bulky vision aid that makes him Superman, where people like Detmer want their prosthetics to look like jewelry even if that keeps them at mere human level.

DS9 could have done with a few war wound prosthetics, too. But they did a whole episode on Nog's leg, showing how mere restoring of previous abilities can be done without much ado. And LaForge was never about "restoring".

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Roundabout]

A woman in Loud as a Whisper does.

Yes. She was one of the translators who was speaking on behalf of that deaf dude. When they were talking to each other, I think Geordi and that dude were sort of complementing one another on overcoming their respective disability.

-----

It didn't really make sense that Geordi, while wearing that visor, would be able to function as efficiently as he was shown to have performed throughout the series.

There were a couple of times where we were shown how things looked to Geordi through the visor, i.e. from Geordi's perspective. He saw things from a different spectrum of light, through different wavelength than normal human vision.

The Enterprise's panels, consoles and displays were designed for normal human vision. It really didn't make sense that Geordi would be able to see those instruments as they were intended to be seen. I would assume there would be displays, details and buttons that might not even register on Geordi's vision.

This might be nitpicking, but shouldn't there have been many instances where Geordi would have pressed the wrong button, or misread displays? Instead of saving the Enterprise from a warp core breach, couldn't Geordi have easily pressed the "red" button instead of the "yellow" button and caused a warp core meltdown? Stuff like that could easily have happened, right?

 

[Christopher]

I don't think the depictions we got of Geordi's VISOR vision were entirely accurate to what he was supposed to be seeing. After all, what we saw was false-color imagery interpreted to our senses which are limited to visible light, while he could see across nearly the whole spectrum, visible plus infrared, ultraviolet, etc., plus telescopic, microscopic, etc. He was supposed to see far more than we did, not less. So what we were shown was more symbolic than literal.

 

[F. King Daniel]

FASA's Next Gen Officer's Manual has some giant ground-based photonic cannon thingie in their weapons section, and the user wears a VISOR for targetting.

 

[General_Phoenix]

Wasn't there a brief shot of a person wearing a VISOR in Star Trek 6? Think it was when they were looking for the magnetic boots, the person was using what looked to be a metal detector.

 

[Christopher]

Wasn't there a brief shot of a person wearing a VISOR in Star Trek 6? Think it was when they were looking for the magnetic boots, the person was using what looked to be a metal detector.

A visor, maybe, but not a VISOR, which is short for Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement.

 

[Damian]

Geordi could've used his vision to help him as a detective, and Worf would've been less stereotyped as Warrior Guy if he'd been in a technical job.

I don't know. It seems Geordi's unique vision could help with engineering also.

And come on. If you had to choose a security chief who would you choose? No one's messing with you with Worf watching your back. Plus, it was just a step in his career. He became a strategic operations officer in DS9 which included opportunities to be in command, and ambassador, and in the novels first officer.

But still, if I'm caught in an alley with a bunch of bullies, no offense to Geordi, but I'd rather Worf with me. He wouldn't even need to fight them---he could just give them 'the look.'

 

[Christopher]

I don't know. It seems Geordi's unique vision could help with engineering also.

If so, then why did it never happen? Here's the list of things Geordi used his VISOR for, and the only one that had anything even peripherally to do with his work as an engineer was the probe interface in, well, "Interface." But it's pretty obvious how a device that lets you see invisible and microscopic things or recognize when people are lying would be useful to a security officer or criminal investigator.

And come on. If you had to choose a security chief who would you choose? No one's messing with you with Worf watching your back.

It's strange to me that Trek writers and fans tend to assume that the job of a security chief is to fight. Their job should be to prevent violence, to watch out for potential dangers and neutralize them before anything happens. They should be protectors, investigators, diplomats, whatever it takes to keep the peace. That's what "security" means, after all. DS9 got this right -- Odo wasn't a fighter, he was a police officer and a detective. Tuvok was often portrayed as a detective as well. I don't know if we ever saw Worf portrayed that way, except in John Vornholt's novel Contamination.

Anyway, you're just pointing out the obvious -- make the tough guy the fighter. What I'm saying is that the obvious choice is not the most interesting choice for storytelling. I'm talking about what would've served Worf's development as a character. Once he got put into the security role, he became stereotyped as The Klingon Warrior, period. It was a limiting characterization, basically defining him by his race and the expectations attached to it. Yes, you're right that he became a richer character eventually, but that's my point -- that it didn't happen until DS9 put him in a less stereotypically Klingon role. So it stands to reason that if TNG had done that -- if they'd cast Worf against type as chief engineer -- then that would've created opportunities for developing his character in less obvious and more interesting ways.

But still, if I'm caught in an alley with a bunch of bullies, no offense to Geordi, but I'd rather Worf with me. He wouldn't even need to fight them---he could just give them 'the look.'

You're not caught in an alley, you're reading or watching a story about fictional characters. I'm talking about what would make those characters more interesting to read or watch.

 

[Kor]

Didn't Geordi's visor once let him spot a hairline fracture in the warp core or something like that?
That's quite useful in the setting of main engineering.

Kor

 

[Christopher]

Didn't Geordi's visor once let him spot a hairline fracture in the warp core or something like that?
That's quite useful in the setting of main engineering.

The VISOR could have been useful for engineering, sure, but my point is that the writers didn't seem interested in showing that. The thing about TNG is that it underwent a complete turnover of the writing staff several times in the first couple of years, so a lot of its foundational ideas that were important to the creators ended up getting glossed over or ignored by the "mature" writing staff that finally settled in. And Geordi's VISOR was one of those things. If you look at the list of VISOR uses I linked to above, the majority of them are from the first 2 seasons and change. After that, the VISOR was only rarely acknowledged at all, and when it was a plot point, it was usually as something the bad guys used to brainwash, torture, or spy on Geordi, a weakness rather than a useful tool. The later writers just weren't interested in the potential of a guy with a literal superpower, and instead focused more on Geordi's lousy love life and such.

But maybe if the season 2 writers had made Geordi the security chief and had established how his VISOR was useful for detecting threats and investigating crimes, then the later writers might've built more on that precedent because it would be integral to his job. And then the whole concept of the VISOR might not have been as wasted.

 

[Damian]

Their job should be to prevent violence, to watch out for potential dangers and neutralize them before anything happens.

Ah, yes, but Worf didn't always have to fight. He had 'the look'. And he was good at his job. It was the first time I really paid attention to the security chief.

You're not caught in an alley, you're reading or watching a story about fictional characters. I'm talking about what would make those characters more interesting to read or watch

Ok, I was just joking. But when you think about Worf, his job was just one part of his very complicated life. Sure, his job on TNG might have been a bit obvious. But there was so much more to his character then just being a security chief on TNG. We learned a lot about his background, his interactions with others, and with other Klingons. And he was a trusted member of Captain Picard's inner circle. I found him to be a well rounded character by the end of TNG, even if his job was a bit convenient for someone from a warrior race.

Actually, the way they wrote his character I'm not sure he would fit in any other role at the time. He was always about proving he was 'Klingon' enough in those early years. Being an engineer, or some other job, probably would not have satisfied him (or his character may not resemble the character we all know and love). Now as he grew older, and wiser, he realized that there was more to being a Klingon, he grew more comfortable with who he was, and he started taking on other responsibilities. But I saw it as a progression.

And in a way they did make the less obvious choice on Voyager with B'Elanna with her becoming an engineer. I just think the way they developed Worf over the years, security chief worked for him for that period of his life.

Re: Geordi's visor, there are probably ways they could have made use of that more. Part of it may have been that they wanted to treat his blindness as 'no big deal'. To sort of set that example to the viewers that he was the same as anyone else and everyone treated him as such.

 

[Christopher]

Ok, I was just joking. But when you think about Worf, his job was just one part of his very complicated life. Sure, his job on TNG might have been a bit obvious. But there was so much more to his character then just being a security chief on TNG. We learned a lot about his background, his interactions with others, and with other Klingons. And he was a trusted member of Captain Picard's inner circle. I found him to be a well rounded character by the end of TNG, even if his job was a bit convenient for someone from a warrior race.

Well, YMMV. I felt he was defined way too much by his race on TNG. He was just the one-note guy who always wanted to fight. I just find it interesting to imagine what a different approach might have produced. I like things that defy expectations and cliches, and a Klingon chief engineer and a friendly, soft-spoken chief of security would've both done that. And I think both roles would've let the writers take Worf and Geordi in directions that might've been richer than the niches they settled into on the show.

Actually, the way they wrote his character I'm not sure he would fit in any other role at the time. He was always about proving he was 'Klingon' enough in those early years.

Yes, after they made him security chief and he became defined by that aggressive role. If you look at the first season, Worf's job was the bridge watch officer -- he was the guy who did everyone else's jobs when they weren't around. So he had to be a generalist, to be capable of everything from flight control to ops to security to science to command. That was his original conception. This is what I'm saying -- that Worf's and Geordi's familiar roles weren't established until the end of the first or the start of the second season, that both were changes from their original roles. And how their characters developed from season 2 onward was shaped by the roles they were put into at that point. What I'm saying is that if they'd been put in the opposite roles, it could've led to their characters developing differently, and maybe Worf would've been written as something less essentialist than "The Klingon whose entire personality is about how Klingon he is." Think about how racist that would be if it were a human ethnic character being written that way.

Being an engineer, or some other job, probably would not have satisfied him (or his character may not resemble the character we all know and love).

Which is basically what I'm advocating. He was a one-note character on TNG. He didn't become complex until DS9. I think he would've been a more interesting character on TNG if he'd been written against the stereotype of a Klingon warrior instead of toward it.

Re: Geordi's visor, there are probably ways they could have made use of that more. Part of it may have been that they wanted to treat his blindness as 'no big deal'. To sort of set that example to the viewers that he was the same as anyone else and everyone treated him as such.

I think they just weren't interested in the possibilities. Like I said, the change in writing staff led to a lot of ideas falling by the wayside. Geordi wasn't meant to be unique; he was meant to represent how 24th-century science and medicine had advanced to the point that many people (Captain Picard also, with his heart) were part-bionic. Had the original staff continued, they probably would've shown us more Federation cyborg characters over time, like Discovery is now doing with background characters like Detmer and Airiam. But the later staff had zero interest in exploring transhumanist themes, except in the context of villains like the Borg. So Geordi's VISOR became a non-issue to them except when they could make it his weakness.

 

[Damian]

Well, YMMV. I felt he was defined way too much by his race on TNG. He was just the one-note guy who always wanted to fight. I just find it interesting to imagine what a different approach might have produced. I like things that defy expectations and cliches, and a Klingon chief engineer and a friendly, soft-spoken chief of security would've both done that. And I think both roles would've let the writers take Worf and Geordi in directions that might've been richer than the niches they settled into on the show.




Yes, after they made him security chief and he became defined by that aggressive role. If you look at the first season, Worf's job was the bridge watch officer -- he was the guy who did everyone else's jobs when they weren't around. So he had to be a generalist, to be capable of everything from flight control to ops to security to science to command. That was his original conception. This is what I'm saying -- that Worf's and Geordi's familiar roles weren't established until the end of the first or the start of the second season, that both were changes from their original roles. And how their characters developed from season 2 onward was shaped by the roles they were put into at that point. What I'm saying is that if they'd been put in the opposite roles, it could've led to their characters developing differently, and maybe Worf would've been written as something less essentialist than "The Klingon whose entire personality is about how Klingon he is." Think about how racist that would be if it were a human ethnic character being written that way.




Which is basically what I'm advocating. He was a one-note character on TNG. He didn't become complex until DS9. I think he would've been a more interesting character on TNG if he'd been written against the stereotype of a Klingon warrior instead of toward it.




I think they just weren't interested in the possibilities. Like I said, the change in writing staff led to a lot of ideas falling by the wayside. Geordi wasn't meant to be unique; he was meant to represent how 24th-century science and medicine had advanced to the point that many people (Captain Picard also, with his heart) were part-bionic. Had the original staff continued, they probably would've shown us more Federation cyborg characters over time, like Discovery is now doing with background characters like Detmer and Airiam. But the later staff had zero interest in exploring transhumanist themes, except in the context of villains like the Borg. So Geordi's VISOR became a non-issue to them except when they could make it his weakness.

You make interesting points. I guess when I take the character as a whole, from his first appearance to his last I enjoyed the character overall. What you described probably would have made him a much different character, but we have no way of knowing if it would have been better or worse. Like all the characters I saw some growth with Worf and he become more than just the fighter, gaining wisdom over the years. I'm not sure now that I would go back and change anything with him. He turned out to be a pretty good character when all was said and done.

And yeah, you're probably right with the change in writers and so forth. That was probably inevitable with some of the early turnover. There were probably things the new writers wanted to focus on that differed from the initial writers. Their focus on where to take the show obviously was down a different path. And by and large when you look at the overall product, I at least think the show markedly improved with the new writers. Not perfect, of course, there were things they could have done differently in areas, but the overall storylines seemed to improve, at least IMO.

As an aside, I had to look up what YMMV. I hardly ever text so I don't know all the abbreviations, LOL (that one I know). I should have my daughter teach me proper texting abbreviations (I'm so bad when I do text I actually spell the words out most times I know).

 

[Roundabout]

I don't think the depictions we got of Geordi's VISOR vision were entirely accurate to what he was supposed to be seeing. After all, what we saw was false-color imagery interpreted to our senses which are limited to visible light, while he could see across nearly the whole spectrum, visible plus infrared, ultraviolet, etc., plus telescopic, microscopic, etc. He was supposed to see far more than we did, not less. So what we were shown was more symbolic than literal.

I see your point.

Now that I am thinking about it, I do wish the VISOR had been explained more thoroughly.

Was Geordi supposed to have been able to see the entire spectrum simultaneously? From what I understand of it, IRL, if someone were to put on infrared, night vision, or thermal imaging goggles, that person would see just the light spectrum that the goggles were intended for. That person wouldn't see both the infrared, thermal, or whatever; and the regular spectrum at the same time.

I guess if one eye had on the goggle but the other eye did not, then that person would see both spectra simultaneously. But that would be really disorienting; not only that, but wouldn't that negatively affect that person's stereoscopic vision? Would the human brain be able to process all those visions simultaneously and in a non-disorienting way?

What if a person with normal vision put on Geordi's VISOR, would that person get the same super vision that Geordi gets? If so, every crew member should be issued one, just in case it's needed. Who would need Troi to say, "Captain, I think they are hiding something", when Riker could put on a visor and determine if the alien is lying.

Actually, the way they wrote his character I'm not sure he would fit in any other role at the time. He was always about proving he was 'Klingon' enough in those early years. Being an engineer, or some other job, probably would not have satisfied him (or his character may not resemble the character we all know and love). Now as he grew older, and wiser, he realized that there was more to being a Klingon, he grew more comfortable with who he was, and he started taking on other responsibilities. But I saw it as a progression.

And in a way they did make the less obvious choice on Voyager with B'Elanna with her becoming an engineer. I just think the way they developed Worf over the years, security chief worked for him for that period of his life.

Re: Geordi's visor, there are probably ways they could have made use of that more. Part of it may have been that they wanted to treat his blindness as 'no big deal'. To sort of set that example to the viewers that he was the same as anyone else and everyone treated him as such.

Worf, himself, perpetuated the Klingon warrior stereotype. Worf was a member of Starfleet. He was under no pressure to be a warrior, not from his adopted parents or anyone else. He could have chosen any occupation, yet he chose the one job that was closes to being a warrior.

Worf chose to live as close to the Klingon lifestyle as possible, even though he lived in the Federation. He seemed to have approved of almost all of the barbaric, or uncivilized (from human/Starfleet perspective), behavior of Klingons. Revenge killings, blaming children for the sins of the father, etc. Worf didn't seem to learn a darn thing while living in Starfleet, except, generally not to behave like a real Klingon while around humans.

Did Worf prefer Starfleet values more or Klingon values?

I don't know, maybe Worf had a biological imperative to be barbaric (from a human/Starfleet perspective) like a real Klingon. I don't know if it was just cultural or if there was a biological component to why the Klingons were so obsessed to live the way of the warrior. Maybe the Klingon stereotype was a fact of Klingon life.