# Geordi LaForge's VISOR (and lack thereof)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 4, 2003, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673 "2003-06-04T19:19:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/1 "2003-06-04T19:19:02Z")
In the film _Star Trek Nemesis_, Geordi LaForge is seen without his VISOR. There are little lines all through his eyes, so I imagine he got some surgery that renders the VISOR useless. Was this ever shown in one of the three early films that featured Picard and his crew? (I saw all three, but I’ve forgotten.)
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/2 "2003-06-04T19:24:58Z")
No, it was never shown, but he also had the artificial eyes in _First Contact_ and _Insurrection_ as well. I imagine they decided since we’ve been talking about him losing the VISOR for eight years, they didn’t have to explain it.
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/3 "2003-06-04T19:28:43Z")
I forgot to add, in _First Contact_ we get a taste of what Geordi-vision is like. He has infrared and zoom capabilities, apparently, and he can detect leaks. 🙂
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/4 "2003-06-04T20:23:28Z")
He had repaired eyes in the future part of “All Good Things”.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/5 "2003-06-04T20:29:40Z")
It’s just one of those things that happen during the movies that’re never explained, like Chekov being the Enterprise’s Weapons Officer after being an XO on the Reliant and Sulu becoming a Captain in ST: VI without any foreshadowing.
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### Author:  [@GoldenGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoldenGael)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/6 "2003-06-04T20:58:02Z")
Visor???
I thought it was an **air filter**.
I’m going to have to rethink an awful lot of stuff tonight that I thought I had nailed.
Damn!!!
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/7 "2003-06-04T21:03:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by GoldenGael \*
> \*\*
> I thought it was an **air filter**.
> \*\*
It was a barette.
With gold spray paint.
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### Author:  [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/8 "2003-06-04T21:32:21Z")
Wasn’t it in _Insurrection_ that his eyes get “fixed”? Courtesy of the healing-planet?
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### Author:  [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/9 "2003-06-04T21:48:48Z")
In _Generations_ the Duras sisters used the interface between the VISOR and Geordi to plant a bug and gather information that ultimatly led to the detrcution of the _Enterprise_. In _First Contact_ we see that he’s got cyber-eyes, instead of a VISOR. He traded to close the security breach.
In TNG, Geordi once talked to the doctor (I think it was Pulaski, but I’m not sure) about gettine real eyes put in. He rejecte dit, since he can see so much more with the VISOR. Apparently, he either changed his mind, or VISOR-like capabilities had been made in cyber eyes by the time _First Contact_ rolled around.
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### Author:  [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/10 "2003-06-04T21:50:31Z")
I should note that the above is an inference of mine. It’s never explicitly stated how or why Geordi got cyber eyes.
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/11 "2003-06-04T22:15:25Z")
I like your inference. And really, I think his cyber-eyes are closer to VISOR contacts than they are to organic eyes, so his objections in second-season TNG probably no longer applied. Does anyone remember the very beginning of the movie _Lost In Space_? They showed something like this, and then completely failed to mention it again. I imagine it’s shown up in SF a few other times, too.
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by bernse \*
> Wasn’t it in _Insurrection_ that his eyes get “fixed”? Courtesy of the healing-planet?
His real eyes grew back, and rejected the implants. When they left the planet, he returned to having artificial eyes. But he definitely was rid of his VISOR before that.
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/12 "2003-06-05T02:18:03Z")
Finally someone realized that banana clips went out of style.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2003, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/13 "2003-06-05T02:35:07Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Achernar \*
> \*\*I forgot to add, in _First Contact_ we get a taste of what Geordi-vision is like. He has infrared and zoom capabilities, apparently, and he can detect leaks. 🙂 \*\*
We also see Geordi-vision in the TNG episodes _The Mind’s Eye_ and _Interface_.
In all three cases, like many Star Trek effects, it looks completely different.
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/14 "2003-06-05T02:47:07Z")
Well of course it looks different in the movie; he’s wearing a different device. I don’t remember ever seeing Geordi-vision in _Interface_, but I could be wrong. There were some scenes that were “effectively” what was going on with the probe, but those weren’t what Geordi sees, unless he sees himself in third person.
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### Author:  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2003, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/15 "2003-06-05T04:03:39Z")
> [@](#):
>
> In all three cases, like many Star Trek effects, it looks completely different.
He might be capable of cycling through different vision modes, _a la_ the Predator in _Predator II_.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2003, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/16 "2003-06-05T04:54:19Z")
My eyes must be failing. Did **SPOOFE** just _defend_ a Trek concept?
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### Author:  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2003, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/17 "2003-06-05T06:09:17Z")
Hey, it’s not Trek I dislike. It’s the ABSOLUTELY STUPID HAIR-PULLING CRAP that I dislike, such as cracks in event horizons and “predictable” paths of evolution.
'Course, that was _Voyager_ stuff, and EVERYONE knows that it was just fecal matter on film.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2003, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/18 "2003-06-05T06:35:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by SPOOFE \*
> \*\*He might be capable of cycling through different vision modes, _a la_ the Predator in _Predator II_. \*\*
I’m pretty sure he’s said as much.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2003, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geordi-laforges-visor-and-lack-thereof/179673/19 "2003-06-05T06:39:54Z")
Bah. He also said he could tell when humans are lying, the big… uh… liar.