# Star Trek TNG question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2004, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-question/276275 "2004-11-23T14:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-question/276275/21 "2004-11-24T02:10:53Z")
No, I meant Geordie. Yeah, I know, they fixed his eyes in the movies. He was blind for 20 years. They can put a man on Mars, and it takes 20 years to fix some eyes? ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-question/276275/22 "2004-11-24T02:15:02Z")
Crusher offered him ocular implants at least once during TNG’s run but he turned the offer down so it’s plausible the technology existed but Geordi just preferred the greater EM sensitivity of the VISOR for one reason or another. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-question/276275/23 "2004-11-24T04:10:11Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Taking your post seriously, I remember reading a plausible explanation for pudginess, baldness, and other defects in the Trek universe – gravitas. > > Picard looks very distinctive and commanding with his bald pate and many of the overweight admirals look more foreboding with a little bit of girth around their waists. It’s a conscious choice on their part to keep these “flaws” and could gain the hair back or lose the weight if they wanted to. Ah, but you forget the time, during the transporter accident, that Picard was beamed in as a young man, replete with hair. When they re-beamed him at the episode’s end, he wistfully ran his hand over his bald pate. Didn’t look like intentional gravitas to me. Looked like regret. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-question/276275/24 "2004-11-24T04:24:55Z")
I’m not familiar with the episode but will take your word for it. I don’t actually believe what I posted but it’s as good an explanation as any I’ve seen and thought I’d post it. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-question/276275/25 "2004-11-24T06:19:45Z")
> [@Atreyu](#): > > I’ve occasionally wondered whether or not Federation medicine would have been advanced enough to eliminate deafness, and hence eliminate the need for sign language. Seems advanced enough to handle damn near everything else. The episode here doesn’t seem to answer that question, since the character of Riva is apparently from a non-Federation world (corrections on that point welcomed, of course). The book describes Riva as a “Ramatisian mediator”, and I don’t know for certain whether that world is really a member of the Federation or not. Wasn’t deafness a genetic trait of the ruling class of that world? I would imagine that they would have quickly refused any medicine that would have made their ruling class less special. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-question/276275/26 "2004-11-24T22:11:56Z")
I can’t provide a cite, just a memory. I recall reading somewhere that (as is often the case in such situations in film/TV), Brent Spiner translated too fast, and in a couple instances spoke the word(s) before Howie Seago signed them. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-question/276275/27 "2004-11-24T22:53:26Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > IIRC, Data learned several different sign languages from the Enterpise’s computers. Maybe it could have contained elements of all, or sign languages were amalgamated somehow later on in Earth’s history 😕 Thlis is always been a question in my mind. I recall, Data went through ALL sign languages with the Ship’s computer. The Officers then conferred and discussed the situation. And somehow picked the correct one. My point is that the people involved did an _analsys_ which involved all concerned, and were correct. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-question/276275/28 "2004-11-25T00:25:46Z")
IIRC, many forms of deafness had been eliminated, but that particular line lacked the centers in the brain that formed an aural image. The ears worked fine and the signals were delivered, but the brain wouldn’t transform the signals into sound. As long as the Chorus was an option, I wouldn’t want someone mucking around with my brain to try to create a hearing center. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-question/276275/29 "2004-11-25T01:39:26Z")
I wanna know why the Universal Translator can handle the spoken languages of aliens the Federation has never met before, but can’t handle sign languages. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-question/276275/30 "2004-11-25T04:43:22Z")
> [@Sir Rhosis](#): > > Brent Spiner translated too fast, and in a couple instances spoke the word(s) before Howie Seago signed them. Yeah, they do that on the West Wing, too. The delay would take up too much time. Seago? I think that’s the guy who does the ASL lesson tapes I hate so much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tng-question/276275.md?page=1)