Star Trek: TNG: LeVar Burton Calls La Forge's Lack Of A Love Life 'Lazy' Writing
In "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) never had a genuine romantic relationship. The closest to this is when Geordi pursued a relationship with a hologram of a woman he never met in real life; however, it's a stretch to call this a relationship, and it's one of several questionable things from the "Star Trek" franchise.
Burton had other ideas when it came to his character's love life. He thought that Geordi should meet a real person and fall in love instead of being happy with a hologram. That's what Burton had to say on "The View" when he was asked about why it was important for Geordi to have two daughters by the time "Star Trek: Picard" rolled around.
"It just didn't sit well with me," Burton said of La Forge's difficulties forming romantic connections on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." "I thought it was lazy, and I felt that the white male writing staff had a little unconscious bias going on."
Levar Burton thinks Geordi deserved more than hologram girlfriends on TNG
LeVar Burton, who played Geordi La Forge for seven seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and its four spin-off movies, had a lot of time to consider his issues with the Geordi's poor relationships with women before returning to the character for 2023's final season of "Picard."
"It never struck me as okay," Burton said on "The View." Not only was the engineer — the nerd — uncomfortable with women, if you count Worf [Michael Do] as a Klingon and not a human, Geordi was the only Black man on the crew, and to have the Black man have that sort of personality twitch ... it just didn't sit well with me."
Burton has been vocal about his frustrations with his character's sexuality for years. In a 2012 interview with Gizmodo, he lamented the fact that "TNG" never seemed to get past the stereotype of the "nerd" having romantic troubles. He also defended the shortcomings as the result of the series being "20th century men, for the most part, writing a show about 24th century people."
The bright side is that Geordi has a family of successful daughters in "Star Trek: Picard," implying he found love off-screen. His daughter, Alandra, is even played by Burton's real-life daughter, Mica Burton.