With Picard driving Trekkies wild, fans can't help but look back on old favorite characters and remind themselves how much they loved them. One top Star Trek: TNG favorite was Geordi La Forge, the awkward but brilliant chief engineer. His friendship with Data, and his amazing skills — and top-tier nerdiness — really made him a delight to watch on-screen.
Along with great characters, though, always come great fan theories. So, let's look through some old favorite before Geordi inevitably shows his face on Star Trek: Picard
Data Was His Soulmate
Despite all of Geordi's attempts at relationships over the years, none of them seemed to really stick. The only person he had a deep, personal relationship with was fellow officer, Data. Now, fans can argue for days if Geordi and Data were actually hinted at being romantic or not.
However, everyone can agree that they both were vital parts of each others lives and the closest friends they ever had. Geordi was open and accepting of Data's android idiosyncrasies, finding a devoted, loyal friend in him. The pair really complemented one another. Dating or not, if it wasn't for Nemesis, it would be easy to see these two growing old together.
He'd Move Beyond The Visor
While Geordi's visor was absolutely iconic and brought together his whole character, fans totally knew that one day his look would move past it. And while that didn't happen in TNG itself, it did in later stories. Geordi eventually moved on to tech-heavy contacts that made his eyes electric blue and gave him even more abilities than before.
Everyone loves his classic visor, but the contacts were a really great, sleek look for the awesome engineer as he aged. Fans were probably pretty proud of themselves when they showed up in Star Trek: First Contact.
The Promotion
During the first season of TNG, Geordi was just an engineering officer that shared his know-how on the bridge. Down in engineering, though, the Enterprise shifted through a whole host of chief engineers. It seemed the writers wanted Geordi on the bridge so that he could be with the other main cast. However, the dude was solving most of the mechanical problems even though he wasn't in charge.
So, no wonder fans theorized that Geordi would get a career boost after that first season. Lucky for Geordi fans (and Geordi himself), he got Chief Engineer the second TNG hit Season 2.
Geordi's Crash-and-Burn Leah Infatuation
When Geordi was struggling to deal with a serious problem with the Enterprise, he consulted the person who helped design it: Dr. Leah Brahms. Well, not exactly her. He constructed a hologram version of her to help talk out his ideas and save the ship. Geordi didn't bounce well off her robotics, though, so he added as much of her personality as he could and she became more human. And yeah, like one does, Geordi fell in love with her.
Since Leah Brahms was a real, in-universe person, fans theorized that Geordi and Leah might eventually meet and worse, knowing Geordi, it would go badly — but they never could've guessed just how much.
Can See More Than Others
With so many humans in Starfleet, the directors had to find a way to add interest and diversity into the cast. That's what Star Trek is all about. So they added a new fascinating character of an ace engineer who is blind, but uses a visor to help him see well enough to do his job. He sees differently, but the technology helps him live up to his potential.
However, the second fans saw pictures of Geordi, they theorized that his visor would also mean he could see some things his crewmates couldn't. It not only let him see, but also gave him more stats and readings than the average person could detect.
And yep, they were right. Geordi's visor has helped them out on tons of missions. But he doesn't use it to cheat at the weekly poker games.
Geordi Mentoring Barclay
The second fans met Reginald Barclay, he was like all the more awkward, anxious sides of Geordi on steroids. Though Geordi was initially very annoyed with him and struggled to understand his holodeck addiction, at the end of the day, Geordi just wanted one of his best engineers in top form.
After the crew got Barclay into therapy, Geordi started to take Barclay under his wing. He encouraged him when he did well, and he tried to support him when he was having rough times. They didn't have a perfect relationship, but fans guessed Barclay might become an important part of Geordi's growth as a leader, and he was.
Bad Luck With Women
Okay, people can make all the jokes they want about engineers being bad with women —but when it came to Geordi, that really wasn't a joke. His most passionate relationship was with a hologram version of another engineer, whom he subsequently creeped on in later episodes.
The second he had that awkward date with Christy, fans assumed things would never really get better, and they were right. When it comes to romance, Geordi was a serious Harry Kim and it showed. But, supposedly, somehow Geordi might get a wife in the future.
Fixed Vision Would Never Stick
Several times the series played with fixing Geordi's vision, but they never stuck with it. We're happy about this because, for one thing, Geordi always appreciated the augmented readings his visor gave him that helped with his job. Secondly, because it would've really sucked for disability representation.
Star Trek has always done really well with letting disabled characters exist in their stories as they are, not "fixing" them. So even though Geordi has flirted with and at times enjoyed fixed vision, fans were right — Geordi is himself with his visor or augmented contact tools. That will never change.
Future Captain
It's a bit of a meme that all the characters in a Star Trek series end up captains. After all, Sulu, Riker, Worf, Nog, and others all ended up with captainships after their respective series.
However, of all the side characters, Geordi was one of the few TNG cast that flexed his growth as a leader. He started a basic engineer, then became chief, and then over the years built his engineering crew to be one of the best in Starfleet. He mentored the brilliant Reg Barclay, he refined warp drives, and he even helped Zefram Cochrane make first contact.
Fans guessed Geordi was a perfect future captain, and in alternate universes and Picard's possible future, he gets the title.
Bond With Synthetics
From the second fans saw Geordi with Data, they theorized that the engineer might be better with robots than people, that he'd find a way to bond with synthetics easier than the average person. Over the years, that proved to be true. Geordi fell in love with a hologram he made, his best friend was an android, and he was the first person to bond with the Borg individual, Hugh.
Geordi manages well enough with humans, but for some reason, he's a synthetic-whisperer. Other people may struggle with understanding beings made from matrices and algorithms and tech, but not him. And that's beautiful. Considering the current synthetic situation, maybe Geordi could play a meaningful, emotional part in Picard, since he cared for them so deeply.