Star Trek Almost Gave LeVar Burton's Geordi La Forge A Wild Alien Backstory
While there are plenty of fantastical alien species that call the world of "Star Trek" home, the vast majority of main characters throughout the franchise are plain old humans. Spock aside, just about every single Enterprise captain across "Star Trek" history hails from Earth, as do a large swath of their Starfleet-affiliated crew members. However, it just so happens that one beloved human character from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was originally slated to have a far more sci-fi-infused backstory. Indeed, LeVar Burton's Geordi La Forge was once primed to learn of his very own alien heritage.
In the "Star Trek" oral history "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years," "Star Trek: The Next Generation" writer Jeri Taylor revealed that the show's creative team once played around with idea of Geordi turning out to be of half-human and half-alien descent. "He was going to discover that his father was not who he thought he was, and his mother had an almost 'Rosemary's Baby' kind of thing and had been impregnated by an alien," Taylor explained. "As a result, Geordi was actually half alien and now, at his present age, his people were coming back to get him. I thought that would have given Geordi's character a lot of elaboration."
Geordi did have alien and family-related storylines
While the proposed storyline of Geordi La Forge turning out to be half-alien was ultimately scrapped in its entirety, the character's family life does end up being a point of focus later in the life of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Not only that, but the series also actually sees him become an alien at one point — if only for a little while.
In "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season 4, Episode 18, titled "Identity Crisis," Geordi gets caught in the crosshairs of a bizarre alien conspiracy. In the episode, he reunites with a member of an exploration team he was once a part of, only to discover that the alien residents of the planet they once ventured to have infected them with parasites meant to transform them into aliens as well. Indeed, the Enterprise crewmate nearly becomes a permanent alien, though the rest of the team manages to synthesize an antidote to save him just in time.
Meanwhile, Season 7, Episode 3, titled "Interface," puts the story of the La Forge family front and center for one of the saddest "Star Trek" episodes ever. In this installment, Geordi discovers that his mother, Silva (Madge Sinclair), a Starfleet captain, has completely vanished in space alongside her crew. With the help of his crewmates and his father, Edward (Ben Vereen), Geordi works through his grief and ultimately accepts the loss of his mother.