TNG Episode -- Geordi & His Mother

[darkshadow0001]

I just watched the episode about Geordi thinking his mother was communicating through that probe thing last night but I couldn't remember the name of the episode. It was really good, it had a lot of emotional concepts and it must of been hard for Geordi to ignore the fact his mother still could of been down on that planet even though everyone else says otherwise. I really felt for him, I think I would of done the same if I were in the situation. Do you think it was wrong for everyone to tell Geordi he was wasting his time? This kind of shocked me, because I always thought Picard & crew always helped each other out. I understand Geordi's hypothesis could of been far fetched, but it was his mother for crying out loud. Thoughts?

 

[Alrik]

The name of the ep was Interface from season seven. I caught it last night too. Its a pretty decent ep. What you might be missing from it though, is everyone around Geordi understood what had happened and that his mother was gone. Even his father and sister had made their peace with the fact. But Geordi was holding on to an almost irrational notion that she was down there, when deep down, I think even he knew better. But as he said, he had to try....

 

[Timo]

I think it was unrealistic to expect Mama LaForge to be dead - death is only one of the possible outcomes of disappearing in deep space, as everybody in Starfleet should well know.

The attempted parallel to real life doesn't really work: somebody lost at sea stays lost, but somebody lost in space in a space adventure TV show virtually never is lost for good. The emotional dilemma in this story should have been completely different: LaForge should have been facing years, perhaps decades of uncertainty. Him "letting go" would be the one thing he wouldn't be allowed to do, because that would be clinging to a fantasy!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[diankra]

Timo,
That doesn't sort out what the OP was commenting on: one way, the rest of the crew were letting Geordi down by not saying 'Yes, death is rarely death among the odd phenomena we encounter' and putting all the Enterprise's efforts into supporting any rescue; the other, the counsellor ought to be helping the chief engineer through his denial, or recommending a temporary compassionate leave to give him time to grieve.
(Admission: not rewatched before posting. I'm sure there are lines about the handling of the situation which I've forgotten).

 

[Finn]

Yeah. Somewhere in Federation space about a week after Voyager was lost, the daughter of that gray haired black guy we've seen in the background clings to the idea that she had found her father alive on a crashed starship on a planet with intense atmospheric interferene two weeks from the badlands.

 

[Mojochi]

You know what I found interesting about this episode? Geordi ends up risking his own life, using the interface devise, in order to prove his theory, but ends up needing Data's help & Data, being his friend, reluctantly chooses to help him

However, only two episodes earlier, in Decent Pt.1, Data needs Geordi's help to disable the holodeck safeties, in order to provide a genuine threat to his own life, in order to evoke the same emotional awareness he experienced on the station, when he killed the Borg, & Geordi refuses to help him.

Kind of a neat way to turn the tables, that no one ever notices. I wonder how Geordi would feel now, after having placed Data in the same position, & Data stood by him, when he wouldn't

 

[GalaxyX]

Not to derail the thread, but that's one of the things I always liked about Data. His loyalty was very high up there. In AGT he was pretty much the only one that was willing to help Picard, and the only one who came with alternate theories to "Picard is just crazy" to explain Picard's time travel.

As for the episode, it was very unsettling to me. Geordi's mom stays lost in space. There really isn't any closure, it's just basically "This wasn't your mom, just some alien pretending to be, but your mom could potentially still be out there"

Not one of my favorite episodes.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I think it's one of many weaker season 7 episodes...too much technobabble and a really contrived and unsatisfying explanation for what happened in the end. I felt bad for Geordi, but his dilemma got repetitive after awhile. Geordi complains to someone, they tell him to let it go, he won't. Ad nauseum.

The two parts that really stood out to be as memorable moments were Geordi getting so pissed that he smacks a chair, and Data staring at a blank screen, explaining what he's doing, and then saying something like "you may experience the emptiness with me, if you wish". Riker trying to console Geordi was nice too (those are two characters you don't see being pals very often), but aside from a few cute character moments, for me there isn't much to get involved in with that episode. I would just check out those fun parts and skip the rest.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Would have been nice if there was a closure episode. It's pretty lousey to suddenly bring his mother in and essentially kill her off.

Maybe if there had been a season 8, they might have cleared it up. Heck, maybe her & crew were used by Starfleet Command for a secret mission with little chance of survival.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

I kinda liked how we never learned the actual fate of Geordi's mother, actually. I'm weird, I know, but I like it when things aren't wrapped up in a neat little bow where every mystery is solved and the loose ends all get tied. On a human level, it's the kind of thing where you will never know and you know that you'll never know, so the question is do you accept it and move on or just hang on to that loose thread so tightly that you lose sight of your own life.

But I do think the Enterprise crew could have been more supportive - instead of saying 'she's lost, that means she's dead, accept it and move on,' they should have said something like 'she's missing, likely dead, but even if she were alive, she wouldn't want you to stop living your life in an effort to find her.'

 

[darkshadow0001]

The name of the ep was Interface from season seven. I caught it last night too. Its a pretty decent ep. What you might be missing from it though, is everyone around Geordi understood what had happened and that his mother was gone. Even his father and sister had made their peace with the fact. But Geordi was holding on to an almost irrational notion that she was down there, when deep down, I think even he knew better. But as he said, he had to try....

I understood that but Geordi thought otherwise. I lost a close family member once and if I came across a situation like that I may try and see if I were able to save them too, even though it does seemed far fetched. It was one of the cool TNG episodes that didn't involve holodeck fixing

 

[A beaker full of death]

Was that the one with Madge Sinclair?

 

[22 Stars]

^ Ya.

 

[Praxius]

I think the person who was in the wrong, though I suppose no fault of their own, was Geordi.

Sure I understand the point of wanting to hold out hope for one's parent who is merely lost, not yet confirmed as dead..... but he allowed this possibility to cloud his judgement on what he was seeing.

It was like talking to one of those rip-off physics who lead you into giving all the information they need. He didn't challenge or ask her key questions to determine she was who she said she was, nor did he notice she was out of character and a bit on the "Bland" side of expressing herself (compared to what he saw in her last message sent to him before she disappeared.)

He'd ask her if something (as he described) happened.... she'd say yes, and that's all the evidence he needed..... whereas in the message she sent, she was very verbal and detailed in what she was talking about.

As in every case the crew knew of where starships disappeared as her's did, they knew there'd be no chance of recovery.... now while that's not an open/shut case.... if he knew his mother as well as it seemed he did, he would have noticed something was different with her..... which is why I feel it was Geordi in the wrong, due to his own actions and bias, not the crew.

The crew does normally help one another, and they were trying to help him.... from Picard, to Troi, to even Data helping him find out for sure what was going on at Geordi's expense and risk to life..... although forced into it.

 

[Holdfast]

I felt bad for Geordi, but his dilemma got repetitive after awhile.

Yeah, I agree. Not a favourite ep of mine either. I can understand where he's coming from though. I mean, denial is common enough anyway, but when you add to that the number of weird phenomena the Enterprise has encountered over the years, it must be pretty difficult to accept the "straightforward" explanation.

Data staring at a blank screen, explaining what he's doing, and then saying something like "you may experience the emptiness with me, if you wish".

Was that from this episode? Loved that scene.

Riker trying to console Geordi was nice too (those are two characters you don't see being pals very often)

Yeah. In the first two seasons (esp. the first), they got quite a lot of time together, but that seemed to fade away over the years.

 

[Python Trek]

Was that the one with Madge Sinclair?

Yes, and for those who may not be aware, Madge played the first ever (seen) female captain of a starship. She was the (unnamed) captain of the U.S.S. Saratoga in Trek IV.