Geordi La Forge’s daughters joining Starfleet in Star Trek: Picard season 3 fixes a legacy problem that originated with Ensign Wesley Crusher on TNG.
Star Trek: Picard season 3 will feature the daughters of Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) as members of Starfleet, creating a family legacy that Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) couldn’t quite pull off in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Geordi, who was the Enterprise-D’s trusty chief engineer on TNG, hasn’t been seen since the final TNG film, Star Trek: Nemesis. The first two seasons of Star Trek: Picard gave little detail about what became of Geordi after his days on the Enterprise, but that’s set to change in a big way with the show’s final season, which will reunite the surviving senior staff from TNG.
Not only has Geordi enjoyed a fruitful career in Starfleet — he’s risen to the impressive rank of commodore — he found success in his personal life as well. Geordi got married and had two daughters, Alandra (Mica Burton) and Sidney (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) who followed him into Starfleet. The decision to create a La Forge family legacy within Starfleet is an inspired one, recalling (and fulfilling) TNG‘s unsuccessful attempt at a similar family legacy with Ensign Wesley Crusher.
Geordi’s Daughters In Starfleet Improve On Wesley In TNG
From the very beginning of TNG, Wesley Crusher was a polarizing figure. The boy genius son of Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) was extremely off-putting to some viewers, and the notion of a teenager outsmarting Starfleet veterans, as routinely happened in TNG‘s earliest days, was objectively obnoxious. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) eventually appointed Wesley as an acting ensign, and he was generally found at the helm of the Enterprise-D for the show’s first four seasons.
Wesley came into his own in the back half of his tenure on the series, proving he was worthy of the trust Picard had in him before departing for Star Trek‘s Starfleet Academy halfway through TNG season four. Surprisingly, Wesley eventually left the Academy to pursue higher planes of existence with the mysterious alien known as the Traveler, forsaking his family legacy to forge his own path. The La Forge daughters seem to have established careers in Starfleet, suggesting Geordi’s family achieved the legacy Dr. Crusher’s couldn’t quite manage.
Will Wesley Crusher Appear in Picard Season 3?
Star Trek: Picard season 3 is reassembling the command crew of the Enterprise-D with the notable exceptions of the deceased android Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner) and Wesley Crusher. The series hasn’t forgotten about the younger Crusher though — Wesley re-emerged in the Picard season 2 finale “Farewell” to enlist Kore Soong (Isa Briones) into the Travelers, the mysterious organization he joined with the Traveler that maintains order in the universe.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Wesley won’t be in Picard season 3, though it seems unlikely he’d have a major role. It would be nice to see Wesley reunite with his mother and his friends from the Enterprise-D. However, if “Farewell” was his final appearance, the character was wrapped up reasonably well. If nothing else, Star Trek: Picard has removed the burden of legacy from his shoulders through the La Forge family.
