Interface - 7.03

You guys. Basically we are in a place where we have a few juicy episodes left–mostly two-parters–that I feel like Anna and I are saving for… Anna, what are we saving them for? Maybe a sleepover. Anyway, we have those and then a few of these, mostly-uni eps with like, one or two crazy things.
Also this is a case of I watched this episode a while ago and now am finally getting around to writing it up, so forgive me if I blow past some of the plot points.
Also also, it’s a GEORDI episode, and all the poor thing that that entails.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. (BA DUM DUM)

Another Saturday night, another smoky Jeffries’ Tube.
But wait a second, something’s not right here… Geordz is missing his headband VISOR! What the WHAT

Oh, that’s much less cumbersome than the VISOR
Obviously this is supposed to be a high tech outfit but to me it looks like the board game The Omega Virus just vomited all over a patchwork Kevlar top. I mean, the black background with primary color highlights is very on brand for the early nineties, along with a large, chunky chestpiece. Maybe this thing will look a little less awkward when we step back.

Hm. Hard “no” there.
He’s literally trapped inside a dancer’s cage. Riker seems pretty into it. This looks like it’s the same weird cage thing they kept Hugh in while he was learning to be a human. WE’RE ALL TRYING TO LEARN TO BE HUMAN, EVEN GEORDI.
Okay what actually is happening is that this is some VR rig that allows Geordi to control this probe that is on another ship that is trapped in a planet’s poison atmosphere and the crew isn’t responding and this is a way for them to search the ship without dying. The reason Geordi has to do it is because of the VISOR implants in his brain. See, Geordi, you are special!
But also he has some PERSONAL DRAMA that is making this mission ALL THE MORE IMPORTANT.

Crystal ball and metal party hat – must have decorations for any bachelor pad.
Who’s he talkin to?

MAMA, OOOOOOOH…
Yeah, so weirdly we get a data dump about the LaForge family in this episode. This is probably me not being imaginative enough but her hair reminds me of the saucer section of a kid’s version of the Enterprise. Just let me have it guys. She seems sweet!
She’s the captain of the Hera and it apparently the ship has gone missing. Everyone except Geordi seems pretty ready to concede that she’s definitely dead, but G is, like, not so sure? Which like, seems reasonable? Because it’s his mother?
He ends up pouring all of his mom anxiety into trying to find survivors on the ship the Enterprise is trying to help with its probe. But he’s putting a good face on it.

This is fine.
Because this is narrative television of course this system by which Geordi controls this probe is DANGEROUS, but of course he wants to keep doing it. He’s hooked on the junk. This time, because it’s the end of Act I, while he’s in the thing something catches ON FIRE and he tries to touch it or something and THIS happens:

I mean really it just looks like he tried to make a PB&J on his hands. With chunky, not creamy.
Either way, kinna gross.
So, like, clearly Geordi is not dealing great with his mom’s probably death. His dad tries to talk some sense into him.

Strong Larry Wilmore No-Nonsense Vibes from this guy
Dad is already planning the funeral and Geordi is not ready to handle it. Also, fun fact, Geordi’s dad is an “exozoologist” which means he studies animals from other planets, but that seems like a pretty Terra-centric term to use and I would like to posit that 24th Century twitter would be all over this shit. On the other hand, Geordi’s mom outranks his dad so, take that, patriarchy.
Geordi heads back into the machine even though Picard wants to give him bereavement leave and GUESS WHAT HAPPENS.

Oh hey, I’m not missing, I’m a bajillion light years from where I was supposed to be on this ship. Makes sense, right?
In Geordi’s defense, this would screw with my head too, and not in a pleasant way. Once he tells people his mother is on this ship that is otherwise filled with dead people, it’s time to bring out the big guns.

Okay, well, “big guns” was probably the wrong term to use.
I pulled this image for the tiny model of an Area 51 spaceship on the sponge spackled plinth, but, Deanna’s look is on point, so, hey girl. Not much to say about the uggo art other than I find it weirdly aggressive. The plinth has too much texture.
Shockingly, this also does not persuade Geordi to not go into the eird machine that is now definitely killing him anymore, and in a strange moment, Geordi does some ethical philosophy level shit to convince Data to help him get back into the machine even though everyone else is like DUDE, DON’T.
So he goes back into the other ship and there’s a huge fire.

Whoa.
What’s the source of the fire???

She looks like her son just offered her a dead rat as a present.
Around this point we figure out that something is really not right, and then this happens.

(wait for it) THIS. MOM. IS. ON FIIIIIIRE…
So you could probably fill these blanks in yourself but in actual fact this moms is just a manifestation of an alien life force from the planet that was stuck on the damaged ship and the only way it could manifest itself to Geordi was by using his memories of his mother or whatever, blah blah blah. How is Geordi feeling about it?

UUUUGGGGHHHH MOOOOOOOM
Actually he’s, like, stroking out or something because of the DANGEROUS MACHINE he’s wearing. Fortunately, we have a cure for that.

Bev’s tresses don’t hurt either.
That’s all I got, folks! Happy first night of Hanukkah!!!


* This article was originally published here