Yep! I recognized the bastard the second I saw him and was shocked that they brought him in for this moment. However, from a representation perspective of crossing from one universe into another, it’s an extremely beautiful way to do it.
Which is one of the arguments against the Federations ban on genetic manipulation. There are plenty of others against it. There’s no one answer to this situation, unfortunately.
In Bashir’s own words:
“Small for my age, a bit awkward physically, not very bright. In the first grade, while the other children were learning how to read and write and use the computer, I was still trying to tell a dog from a cat, a tree from a house. I didn’t really understand what was happening. I knew that I wasn’t doing as well as my classmates. There were so many concepts that they took for granted that I couldn’t begin to master and I didn’t know why. All I knew was that I was a great disappointment to my parents.”
When he talks to his parents about it they talk about how they saw him “fallling farther behind each day” and that’s why they did the treatments. They loved him and did want him to be more, but the cause was quite clearly a learning or mental disability of some variety. The treatments started at 7 years old and first grade would have been at 5 or 6. If you’re not able to tell a tree from a house at 5 or 6 then there’s something far more wrong than simply being slow.
He was born blind and remained blind until he got his first VISOR at 5 years old. It’s in the TNG episode Hero Worship. His optical nerve was regenerating on Ba’ku but whatever his disability, it would eat away at it once he left the planet.
Well… you just sort of answered why.
Patrick has been telling this story for a while at the panels, Frakes and others will tell it too. Sometimes it comes with that caveat and sometimes not. I’ll see if I can find the clip where he talks about that.
Let it be known, however, that Gene did say this after aggressively petitioning against Patrick Stewart as Captain. His baldness was specifically mentioned. According to Patrick anyway
That isn’t happening though.
Geordi is blind, Julian was genetically engineered to remove a learning disability and Tilly is stated as having special needs while being aggressively autistically coded.
The only one that doesn’t have something directly pointing towards it is Barclay but that man is the textbook definition of Aspergers Syndrome and people have been saying it for decades. It’s not like his issues are minor either. They’re a significant core component of the character.
My applause is begrudging.
The only thing I can think of whenever I hear that is, hilariously, an episode of Fairly Odd Parents.
Timmy wished for everyone to be a grey blob so racism couldn’t exist. People still kept saying they were grey-er or blobbier.
People just gonna hate.
They’re not totally wrong either, just missing a step and leaving a gap.
Genetic engineering is strictly outlawed in the UFP which came about from the Eugenics wars.
I’ll be in my private quarters
Tom Hardy was doing a Splinter Cell movie?
I sat here for 10 minutes trying to think of an answer. I genuinely have nothing. I was pretty depressed as a 10 year old so honestly? Probably that I’m still alive. My life being a mess and hating near everything in it? I always thought that was going to happen.
Yeah… it feels like what my mother used to say when I was a kid. “People have it worse than you in <insert country here>.” Like okay, things suck and have always sucked. Doesn’t really nullify his feelings though that they suck right now and they’re having a hard time. Just feels kinda dismissive. The rest of it is fine but that part just bugs me.
Someone with functioning eyesight wearing the VISOR would just get a mishmash of nonsensical information. Their real senses clash with what the VISOR is sending them. Coincedentally it’s also the exact same reason for another side effect. Pain. Despite Geordi not being able to see, his eyes still sort of fought the VISOR and caused him constant pain. It also had the ability to be hacked which isn’t a great option.