TNG - Galaxy's Child

[MightyDavidson]

The holodeck's recreation of Leah Brams is not remotely accurate to her but that makes sense because OF COURSE a person's public persona is not going to be an accurate reflection of them. It also would have been damned weird to have Leah Brams talking about how the engines were her and in love with Geordi too so the computer really did have a weird idea of her even back in the previous episode.

Divorced of the holodeck, though, Geordi is TERRIBLE at reading signals. Leah shows up and is clearly there to be a hardass because she's had Geordi making a lot of modifications to her stuff that is his prerogative but reflects back on her as an engineer. We had this conversation in Mass Effect: Andromeda actually and it was one of the few elements of the game I liked. We're inclined to like the jury-rigged guy but the engineer is like, "We tested this shit a lot. We know what we're doing!"

The problem is Geordi isn't actually interested in proving his modifications. Geordi wants to seduce Leah and make the move on her because he fell for her holoprogram. Leah is being a "bitch" only in the context that this guy is being WAY overly familiar with her when she's coming to evaluate his work. He even makes a romantic date in his room.

I'd be thrown too.

I'd say Geordi is terribly written in this episode, to be honest. I mean there's been episodes before and after this where he's interacted with women without being a horrible creeper, so why would he act like one now? Sure there's the interaction with the holographic Leah in the previous episode but Geordi's smart enough to know that that's not the real her, or he ought to be. It's like whomever wrote this episode hated the character of Geordi and wanted to cast him in the worst light possible as a result of it.

If memory servers Leah wasn't written much better, given that she was all up in arms about the engines being modified. I mean yeah, they've tested this shit they know what they're doing but Geordi knows what he's doing too and she seemed to be taking the modifications as a personal affront even before all the other stuff.

So yeah in my opinion it's not Geordi or Leah that needs to apologize, it's the writer of the episode.

[Thebestoftherest]

I am also wondering if no one have privacy since Leah could just walk into his holodeck program at will, you would think you would need a password to do that.

[Hero_Of_Shadows]

Its definitely an early 1990s piece of television. True, Geordi didn't have sex with the hologram, but she didn't know that and its not an unreasonable assumption. And yet her views of feeling like she had been raped were dismissed as ''she's being a bitch.'' This wouldn't fly today.

That said Geordi has been shown as terrible with women. If my memory is accurate he started the episode booby trap on a 'date' on the holodeck where the woman looked utterly bored. He tries a little too hard on 'romance' without knowing why certain things are romantic. Also not setting up false expectations. If Geordi had invited her to a quiet dinner and night in his quarters. Then his preparations come off as the setting he was suggesting. The come discuss things over dinner. He should have approached it as a dinner meeting with Data or Chief O'brien. But make it a woman and not a crisis and he got flustered. (And yes cringe worthy)

I've focused on the part about Geordi that interest me because I agree that the writers could have portrayed Brahms much better and that her objection to Geordi's actions is totally reasonable.

That being said to me Geordi seems to be put on trial for being terrible with women/awkward/suave, to me it seems like the same discussion happens once every 2 or 3 months on the star trek reddit, a new fan will watch early DS9 and complain "Why is Bashir such a stalker why didn't he stop interacting with Kira/Jadzia the instant they didn't return his flirtation ? Are they setting him up to be a stalker/serial killer ? I thought he was a good guy."

The persons making these threads come from a media/society where every man has to be either:

a) a dream boat hunk which the heroine needs to chase

b) a stalker/serial killer in a "serious" work

c) be decried as a fantasy wish fulfillment self insert if he gets the woman and isn't a)

We don't do stories about awkward men finding love so when people who are convinced either a/b/c are possible.

Well it can't be c) because they like ST.

It can't be a) because Brahms/Jadzia aren't the initiator of the romance and Geordie/Bashir (as characters I'm not talking about the actors) aren't good looking enough .

So it must be a b) situation, and then they see that the characters of Geordie and Bashir are well explored on the shows these are not serial killers these are good men hence the cognitive dissonance and all the threads about Geordie/Bashir/Scottie.

[clearspira]

The holodeck's recreation of Leah Brams is not remotely accurate to her but that makes sense because OF COURSE a person's public persona is not going to be an accurate reflection of them. It also would have been damned weird to have Leah Brams talking about how the engines were her and in love with Geordi too so the computer really did have a weird idea of her even back in the previous episode.

Divorced of the holodeck, though, Geordi is TERRIBLE at reading signals. Leah shows up and is clearly there to be a hardass because she's had Geordi making a lot of modifications to her stuff that is his prerogative but reflects back on her as an engineer. We had this conversation in Mass Effect: Andromeda actually and it was one of the few elements of the game I liked. We're inclined to like the jury-rigged guy but the engineer is like, "We tested this shit a lot. We know what we're doing!"

The problem is Geordi isn't actually interested in proving his modifications. Geordi wants to seduce Leah and make the move on her because he fell for her holoprogram. Leah is being a "bitch" only in the context that this guy is being WAY overly familiar with her when she's coming to evaluate his work. He even makes a romantic date in his room.

I'd be thrown too.

I feel like its people like Leah and their ''here's my degree and you ain't shit'' mentality are the reason why so many people dislike experts nowadays.

[clearspira]

Its definitely an early 1990s piece of television. True, Geordi didn't have sex with the hologram, but she didn't know that and its not an unreasonable assumption. And yet her views of feeling like she had been raped were dismissed as ''she's being a bitch.'' This wouldn't fly today.

That said Geordi has been shown as terrible with women. If my memory is accurate he started the episode booby trap on a 'date' on the holodeck where the woman looked utterly bored. He tries a little too hard on 'romance' without knowing why certain things are romantic. Also not setting up false expectations. If Geordi had invited her to a quiet dinner and night in his quarters. Then his preparations come off as the setting he was suggesting. The come discuss things over dinner. He should have approached it as a dinner meeting with Data or Chief O'brien. But make it a woman and not a crisis and he got flustered. (And yes cringe worthy)

I've focused on the part about Geordi that interest me because I agree that the writers could have portrayed Brahms much better and that her objection to Geordi's actions is totally reasonable.

That being said to me Geordi seems to be put on trial for being terrible with women/awkward/suave, to me it seems like the same discussion happens once every 2 or 3 months on the star trek reddit, a new fan will watch early DS9 and complain "Why is Bashir such a stalker why didn't he stop interacting with Kira/Jadzia the instant they didn't return his flirtation ? Are they setting him up to be a stalker/serial killer ? I thought he was a good guy."

The persons making these threads come from a media/society where every man has to be either:

a) a dream boat hunk which the heroine needs to chase

b) a stalker/serial killer in a "serious" work

c) be decried as a fantasy wish fulfillment self insert if he gets the woman and isn't a)

We don't do stories about awkward men finding love so when people who are convinced either a/b/c are possible.

Well it can't be c) because they like ST.

It can't be a) because Brahms/Jadzia aren't the initiator of the romance and Geordie/Bashir (as characters I'm not talking about the actors) aren't good looking enough .

So it must be a b) situation, and then they see that the characters of Geordie and Bashir are well explored on the shows these are not serial killers these are good men hence the cognitive dissonance and all the threads about Geordie/Bashir/Scottie.

This is one of the reasons I claim that this episode is very 1990s because automatically assuming Geordi and Julian to be creeps is a very Gen Z mindset to have. Nowadays men are meant to be hyperalert to every signal a woman gives you out of fear of not catching the ''no'' she sends your way and then desist immediately. And don't get me wrong, i'm NOT saying that you ''shouldn't'' be staying alert for her ''no'', and that you ''shouldn't'' desist once you work out that you are bothering her, i'm merely noting that the 20th century was a different place. Films and TV back then was full of women just casually accepting the advances of men that we today would consider to be creeps but back then were just considered to be comic relief characters.

Have you ever seen the film Bridget Jones's Diary? Because that has a good example of what I am talking about. In that film, Bridget has an uncle who gropes her ass every time he meets her. And her response isn't to slap him, or tell her mother, or kick his nuts down his throat, or call the police... its to smile and get on with life. There is also a man in her office that she has nicknamed Mr TitsPervert as all he does is stare at her boobs all day. Same response. And both are played for laughs.

[Riedquat]

This is one of the reasons I claim that this episode is very 1990s because automatically assuming Geordi and Julian to be creeps is a very Gen Z mindset to have. Nowadays men are meant to be hyperalert to every signal a woman gives you out of fear of not catching the ''no'' she sends your way and then desist immediately. And don't get me wrong, i'm NOT saying that you ''shouldn't'' be staying alert for her ''no'', and that you ''shouldn't'' desist once you work out that you are bothering her, i'm merely noting that the 20th century was a different place. Films and TV back then was full of women just casually accepting the advances of men that we today would consider to be creeps but back then were just considered to be comic relief characters.

Whatever your position of when enough is enough (and I really don't think not backing off completely at the first hint of lack of interest is required, just accept it, sit back, and see if there's any change of view in the long run, nothing creepy about that IMO) Geordi's meeting as an excuse to set up a very obvious date definitely crossed the line into creepy, at any time, even though it might've not been viewed as quite as odd as it would be now.

[CharlesPhipps]

I feel like its people like Leah and their ''here's my degree and you ain't shit'' mentality are the reason why so many people dislike experts nowadays.

Call me crazy but when assholes like Zimmerman show up, they tend to get more space than assholes like Brahms. People like asshole Sherlock Holmes. They dislike asshole Judi Dench M. This isn't 100% sexism but the fact the episode is framed as Geordi expecting a lot more niceties from her than he has any reason to.

This is one of the reasons I claim that this episode is very 1990s because automatically assuming Geordi and Julian to be creeps is a very Gen Z mindset to have. Nowadays men are meant to be hyperalert to every signal a woman gives you out of fear of not catching the ''no'' she sends your way and then desist immediately. And don't get me wrong, i'm NOT saying that you ''shouldn't'' be staying alert for her ''no'', and that you ''shouldn't'' desist once you work out that you are bothering her, i'm merely noting that the 20th century was a different place. Films and TV back then was full of women just casually accepting the advances of men that we today would consider to be creeps but back then were just considered to be comic relief characters.

Have you ever seen the film Bridget Jones's Diary? Because that has a good example of what I am talking about. In that film, Bridget has an uncle who gropes her ass every time he meets her. And her response isn't to slap him, or tell her mother, or kick his nuts down his throat, or call the police... its to smile and get on with life. There is also a man in her office that she has nicknamed Mr TitsPervert as all he does is stare at her boobs all day. Same response. And both are played for laughs.

Actually, I feel that Levar Burton is the guy who said it best that the problem wasn't that he was in love with Leah Brahms but the fact that she was the only time in the history of Star Trek: TNG that he had form of romantic interest. Hence we have the weird fact he seems to have married her decades later after her divorce/widowing. The thing is there's no reason why Geordi should be awkward in our transecdent utopian future of the 24th century. Dude is a well-liked and respectable position and yet they're making him weirder than Barkley.

Him being obsessive over "Hot Female Scientist who invented his engines" is a weird character beat that does him no service. It's not like there's not plenty of other women in the ship or other locations who'd be happy to date him even if he struck out.

And I felt the same for Bashir and Jadzia. Bashir being obsessed with her was weird and it got better when he realized he could date any number of other women and did.

[Trooper924]

Random brainwave I had while watching this review: the reveal that Leah was married could've been work in a bit better if they had Leah explain--possibly while apologizing for her earlier behavior--that it was her wedding anniversary and she was just about to leave to meet her husband for their vacation on Risa or wherever when Starfleet abruptly dropped this job on her at the last minute (and since she designed the engines, she was the only person qualified to take a look at them). So naturally she was more than a bit irritable when she first arrived on the Enterprise.

Also, on a side note, it's been years since I last watched this episode and I completely misremembered how it went. In my memory, Leah was actually quite friendly with Geordi until she came across the Holo-Leah.

[CharlesPhipps]

My interpretation is she started a bit unfriendly, Geordi tried to warm to her, and then she was put off by his attempt to do a romantic date THEN found holo-Leah.

[remagynona]

I always remembered this episode being crap and wondered why something that felt so early TNG was still being churned out in season 4. Then I noticed the name Maurice Hurley and put 2 and 2 together. Surprised the guy was still around at that point.