-: My name is Imani La Forge.
Today my alias is Blair Imani and I'm from Los Angeles.
My first point of contact
was watching Star Trek with my uncle Craig.
Trying to figure out if Worf was really like that (laughs)
later realizing that Mr. Dorn does not appear that way,
but really just being interested
in what the future looks like
and that includes black people.
Star Trek: The Next Generation is absolutely
my favorite of the Star Trek franchise,
because they really tried
to tackle difficult subject matter,
like drug addiction, different religions,
different races, different cultures,
and things that are very everyday
like youth and playfulness and puberty,
but also wish fulfillment.
Star Trek: The Next Generation represents so much
and being a historian in my day job,
it's really exciting to go into sci-fi and see not what was,
but what will be.
"Boldly going" is definitely my motto from
Star Trek: The Next Generation.
At the beginning of every episode, you have Picard saying,
-: "To boldly go where no one has gone before."
-: And I think that's powerful
because there are so many things
that we have to boldly go and do in our lives,
whether it's speaking up at school or at work or at home.
And I think if you can remember to do that boldly,
and maybe you'll be the first person to do it,
but you will pave the way for other people
to be able to learn from that.
And those are messages that you see
time and time again in Star Trek.
The other thing that I really love
about The Next Generation is that
when you have the prime directive,
it's really about honoring and preserving cultures.
And I think that's something that people can learn from.
When you have the prime directive
it's about not disrupting the state of affairs
in a given society.
We can all learn from that in the way
that we should have people who are from that region
or from that culture telling their own stories.
And so these are lessons
that are applicable to everyday life.
I was inspired to do a feminized Islamified version
of this Geordi cosplay.
Looking at other franchises,
you see a lot of Islamic inspired clothing,
but at the same time, the people who are wearing hoods,
who are wearing the head gear tend to be people
who are looked at to as villains.
So you still see some Islamophobia being written
into the context there.
I whereas in Star Trek: The Next Generation,
you see a diverse array of cultures and being uplifted,
not necessarily being derided in the same ways
as are told in present day.
So I wanted to kind of accentuate,
like the feminine form because it's one thing
to dress exactly like the character,
but it's another thing to say,
I'm going to step into this character
and bring myself too.
Oh my goodness.
Okay, LeVar Burton shouted me out
and said that this was the best Geordi cosplay,
that he's ever seen
and I believe he put ever in all caps,
I might be projecting
and he said that I not only honored him,
but also people who look to Geordi as a hero.
And I look to Geordi as a hero.
Going into the first season of
Star Trek: The Next Generation
where Geordi is wearing red,
he speaks about wanting to see like other people.
And I think that's something that,
whether you have a disability,
whether you're a person of color,
whether you're a religious minority,
we wanna feel like what it feels to be another person,
a person in the majority,
whether that's, I wanna be treated like you,
or I want to go through what you go through.
I think that's something we all experience and go through.
when gets to this very sullen place where he's in despair,
but he's also in a mind altered state.
And it kind of shows where vulnerability can appear.
Geordi La Forge was actually named after George La Forge,
who was a disabled person
that became friends with Mr. Roddenberry.
And that character was later developed to honor him
with a disability in mind as well.
So it shows that diversity.
-: I can see you.
-: The Star Trek Universe, let's pray
that we can keep our consistency.
We keep our continuity because us as fans, we will be on it.
But we are also excited for the franchise
to live long and prosper
too so to say and I do hope that
our favorite characters make an appearance.
LeVar is out here still acting, still working.
Will Wheaton's around, it'd be great
to see you in appearance
maybe in some type of alternate dimension episode.
Sorry, I was excited about that.