“Lt. Aquiel Uhnari.”
The ceaseless romantic tribulations of the perennially hapless Lt. Cmdr. Geordi LaForge reach their dizzying zenith in “Aquiel,” where Geordi falls in love with a dead woman. Who turns out not to be dead. It’s a terrible episode, as boring as they come. At least Geordi gets the girl – although I think she dumps him in the last scene. As with all things love re: Geordi, it’s somewhat hard to tell, and even harder to care.
The writers are trying for a Laura riff here, with Geordi investigating the murder of Lt. Uhnari and “falling in love with her” (though I deeply question the facile nature of the liaison) before she turns up alive and well. The problem is, a film noir gloss requires noirish characters – and Geordi LaForge must be the least hard-bitten adult male in the history of television.
I’m writing this the week of the Ferguson riots, and with America’s institutional racism very much on my mind I’m compelled to note, at least, that Star Trek: The Next Generation does a marvelous job of never, ever concerning itself with the fact that Geordi is African-American. He doesn’t succumb to a single standing trope for Black males on television of this era (or any era more recent, for that matter). He’s a faithful, uncomplicated nerd with absolutely zero personal charm, and I remain fairly convinced that he is, in fact, asexual – and that he’d be a lot happier if he’d just figure it out.
This was the great gift of Star Trek in general and Next Gen particularly, which saw fit to look past all of the contemporary boundaries for character relationships and focus simply on the ideas within its science fiction, and the allegory available through its plots. Doesn’t do “Aquiel” a single bit of good, of course, but there’s nothing else to talk about.
Aside: I’ve been wondering about what the Constable Odo effects would look like, if CBS chooses to go ahead with a Deep Space Nine blu-ray restoration. The “coalescent” creature that attacks Geordi in his bedroom gives us the first real glimpse. The coalescent is quite similar to the Odo effect in a lot of ways, and in its high-definition up-conversion it becomes a clearer, yet weirdly jerky, 1993 CGI throwback. Which is exactly what I want from my Odo.
Giving this episode one Enterprise out of five feels kind of like I’m picking on a loser for being a loser, but whaddayagonnado.
Blogging The Next Generation runs every Tuesday as I work my way through the episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation on blu-ray. Season Six is in stores. Season Seven will conclude the blog in early 2015 – you can pre-order the final season now.