Summary
- Lt. Geordi La Forge struggled with romance on Star Trek: TNG, particularly with Dr. Leah Brahms.
- In TNG season 3, Geordi enlists holographic Dr. Brahms to free the Enterprise from a booby trap.
- Geordi's infatuation with holographic Brahms led to a problematic encounter with the real Leah.
On Star Trek: The Next Generation, Lt. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) had bad luck with romance, and his relationship with Dr. Leah Brahms (Susan Gibney) was particularly problematic. As the Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise-D, La Forge's first love was the ship and he often struggled to make meaningful connections with actual women. Although TNG focused on the adventures of the Enterprise and her crew, the show regularly checked on the characters' interpersonal lives. Every crew member, from Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) on down, had at least a few romances throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation's seven seasons.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3, episode 6, "Booby Trap," the Enterprise gets stuck in a centuries-old booby trap and Geordi must figure out a way to break the ship free. Needing to better understand the nuances of the warp engines, La Forge enlists the help of the computer's version of Dr. Leah Brahms, one of the original developers of the Enterprise's warp drive. La Forge moves to the holodeck with a holographic version of Dr. Brahms, and the two eventually find a way to free the Enterprise from the trap. This also revealed Geordi's feelings toward Dr. Brahms, which remain infamous decades later.
Who Is Dr. Leah Brahms In Star Trek: TNG & Why Was Geordi Infatuated?
Brahms was portrayed by Susan Gibney, who later appeared as Captain Benteen in two episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
After studying at the Daystrom Institute of Technology, Dr. Leah Brahms began working for the Institute, eventually becoming a design engineer. In this position, Brahms oversaw the improvements to the engines of the USS Enterprise-D, and she later became a professor of Theoretical Physics at the Daystrom Institute. Although the real Leah Brahms does not appear in "Booby Trap," the Enterprise computer constructs a hologram based on Brahms' personality profile and various public appearances. While working with the hologram of Brahms, La Forge began to develop feelings for her, despite the fact that he has never met the real Leah Brahms.
Feeling the sting of rejection, La Forge forms a quick connection with Holo-Brahms.
Geordi is obviously impressed by Brahms' engineering knowledge and general intelligence, and the two develop a rapport as they work to save the Enterprise. In the opening scene of "Booby Trap," Geordi strikes out with a woman while on a date, and later discusses his romantic woes with Ten Forward bartender Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg). Feeling the sting of rejection, La Forge forms a quick connection with Holo-Brahms. La Forge rarely encounters people who know as much about the Enterprise's engines as he does, so it makes sense he would fall in love with one of the minds who helped design them.
What Happened When Geordi Meets The Real Brahms in Star Trek: TNG
The real Leah Brahms visits the USS Enterprise-D in TNG season 4, episode 16, "Galaxy's Child."
In Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Galaxy's Child," Dr. Brahms visits the USS Enterprise-D to inspect the modifications La Forge has made to the engines. Brahms is mostly unimpressed by La Forge's updates to her engine design, and she quickly grows weary of his overly friendly behavior toward her. Geordi feels like he knows Brahms because of his experience with her hologram, but she obviously has no knowledge of that encounter. When La Forge gets a bit too forward, Brahms informs him that she is married, which comes as a shock.
When Leah later learns of Geordi's hologram program from "Booby Trap," she is understandably upset, saying: "I'm outraged by this. I have been invaded. Violated. How dare you use me like this?" La Forge then gets mad at her for the way she has been treating him, accusing her of "badgering" him, which is not a great look for the Enterprise Chief Engineer. In the end, however, La Forge and Brahms put aside their differences to save the Enterprise from a newborn space creature that has been draining energy from the ship.
An illusion of Dr. Brahms appeared in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 3, episode 3, "Mining The Mind's Mines," offering to design warp cores with Ensign Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero).
Why Geordi's Most Famous Star Trek: TNG Romance Was So Problematic
"Every time you're touching the engine you're touching me. Real professional."
Geordi La Forge's "romance" with Leah Brahms is problematic for a number of reasons. Creating a realistic hologram of a still-living real person is already questionable, but La Forge goes even further by developing feelings for the holographic Leah. As La Forge later discovers, Leah Brahms is a real person with real feelings, so recreating her on the holodeck in this way is not only an invasion of privacy but also just creepy. La Forge was supposed to be working, and he didn't need to create a hologram of Brahms considering he had an entire engineering team at his disposal.
Holo-Brahms delivers the particularly cringe-worthy line: "Every time you look at this engine, you're looking at me. Every time you touch it, it's me," which the real Leah rightfully calls out.
La Forge's holodeck romance is bad enough, but then he behaves terribly toward the real Leah Brahms when she visits the Enterprise. La Forge acts overly friendly toward Brahms and then yells at her when she explains how his holodeck recreation made her feel. Then at the end of "Galaxy's Child," Brahms apologizes for her behavior, even though everything she said and did was perfectly acceptable given the circumstances. Geordi does not come off well at any point in this storyline, regularly behaving out of character.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Fixed Geordi's Problematic TNG Romance
By the time of Picard season 3, Geordi is married and has two daughters.
Thankfully, by the time of Star Trek: Picard season 3, Commodore Geordi La Forge had become a family man, with two adult daughters. Lt. Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) and Ensign Alandra La Forge (Mica Burton) both followed in their father's footsteps and joined Starfleet, though Sidney became a pilot rather than an engineer. Geordi's family came about in part because of a request from LeVar Burton. In an interview with IndieWire, Burton spoke about La Forge's infamous "romance" with Leah Brahms, saying: "That little stalkerish episode with Dr. Brahms never sat well with me."
Despite La Forge's problematic romance story in TNG, the character never suffered any consequences, as he and Brahms later became friends. A line in the alternate future of TNG's series finale "All Good Things..." even suggests that La Forge and Brahms may have eventually gotten married. Star Trek: Picard made the smart decision to ignore Geordi's relationship with Leah Brahms, and instead focus on his relationship with his daughters. Geordi appears to be a dedicated father and, though we didn't meet his wife, he has clearly moved on from his infatuation with the holographic Leah Brahms from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
