Watch: LeVar Burton’s Star Trek TNG Event Q&A + Responds To ‘Jheri Curl Geordi’ Viral Image

Earlier this week in our review of the Star Trek: The Next Generation theater events we also reported that TNG actor LeVar Burton surprised fans at the Times Square theater screening in New York. Video of Burton’s Q&A with the fans. Burton also tried to clarify that an image from the set that has gone viral is not him.

 

 

LeVar Burton’s NYC Star Trek TNG event Q&A. NOTE: Mr. Burton uses some mature language.

Here is LeVar’s Q&A.

Image goes viral – but not Levar

As noted in the TrekMovie review of the the Blu-ray set, there is some footage of make-up and wardrobe tests in the special features. Someone took a screencap of a test of one of Geordi’s VISORs and reported that it was of LeVar Burton, albeit with a very different look. This was NOT LeVar, as he stated in the above video, however it has already gone viral.


THIS IS NOT LEVAR BURTON

Available Now  – price drop to $59.99

The six-disc TNG Season 1 set includes HD remasters (in 1080p and 7.1 DTS audio) of all 26 episodes, plus brand new special features You can order the set at discounted prices: Amazon has the lowest price currently at $69.76.

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The set is also available for pre-order at Amazon sites around the world.

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Thanks to TM readers Joseph Sebring and Wil Johnson for the video.

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ouch

Hip!

Looks like him. Hey. If they recast a Tng Movie they could use this guy.

LeVar really loves the fans, you can see it in just how warm he is towards the crowd. A true class act.

I assume this guy would also be 25 years older, so I’d say he wouldn’t make a good recast Geordi.

Looks like “In Trekking Color.”

Yes, he really love he fans, especially the one that was costumed as ‘Lt Cmdr LaForge’ he acknowledged….wait, that was ME!!!! <;-D

They really should bring one of these TNG actors in for a cameo.

The kind of personality he showed on the stage was something that was missing from his character and the Next Gen cast as a whole.. everyone had to act so “g” rated it seems, or the writers never knew how to tap into their true personalities..

I always found myself thinking the Next Gen cast as a whole was way cooler not on a Star Trek set, and just on stage talking to people..

Many wardrobe and makeup tests are done without the principal actors- in movies, it’s sometimes the actual stand-ins for the actors who also help set up the blocking and lighting of a scene and sit opposite actors who are onscreen when one side of a dialogue is being filmed.

BTW, I found the Best Buy price broke down my last wall of resistance to the purchase. If the subsequent sets are priced the same, I’ll double dip ’em all and donate my regular DVDs to my library, as I did when some of the movies hit BluRay.
Anyone else bothered that all the Blu Rays movies are the theatrical cuts only? I thought the Director’s editions of 1,2, and 6 were superior to the theatrical cuts…

11) no reason to doubt that they wont be the same price, as its the same price point each of the bluray sets of TOS Remasterd was on their release weeks.

Just a heads up now that its a new week, best buys price has gone up to Best Buys regular 79.99 price point.
For now its still 59.99 at amazon with free shipping, but Iam sure in the next day or two it will also go back to the 79.99 price, which is still well worth it in my humble opinon

11

Unless your heart is set on the library donation (commendable), you can take the sets into your Best Buy and get a $5 “upgrade” voucher.

As for the price jump, that 59.99 was a “week of release” discount (why I almost always get my titles the week of release). We may see it again in December when Season 2 hits.

I just finished the set and, except for a few previously audio issues, loved it. Well worth sixty bucks!

Yikes. That’s a toe-curling mistake, worthy of Ricky Gervais.

IT IS A…………………….FAKE ………………………………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think he’s being sarcastic. It is him.

How can ANYONE in their right mind actually think that is LeVar?

That person and LeVar have completely different facial features.

11,

I agree that the TMP and ST II directors cuts were better, but 6?
I like the theatrical cut much better, no “scooby-doo” ending.

Makeup tests were done for TOS…
.
There are classic shots of Majel Lee Hudec colored green!
.
The film developing guy wasn’t told they were making a green person, so he kept color correcting, and they kept going back and making her greener!

With Mr. Burton mentioning how Rick Berman worked with him so he could do Reading Rainbow and TNG at the same time, I have to say that really miss “Berman Trek” and I would not have complained so much about the bad episodes which really weren’t that many.
Some Trek is better than no Trek.

Have they corrected the audio problem on the BDs?

#11 – The fact that they’re only the theatrical cuts kept me from buying the Original Cast movies on Blu until last week, when Amazon had the set for $40. I’m fully aware that we’ll likely see Special Editions of I, and possibly 5, at some point; I’d also love to have the extra few minutes of II and VI in High Def too. But the improvement I see in the Blu Rays for the TNG films over the DVDs made me finally pull the trigger on the TOS movies.

Geez, I may be a robot from year 3012, but even I can tell that’s not Mr. Burton. I think we may have stumbled on the JJ verse Gordi…

Hehe.

Is it just me, or am I finally witnessing the true disconnect between Trek fans and reality and celebrities and why they’re celebrities? Both were trying to impress the other. The fans were obviously dumbfounded and heartbroken to hear that Levar hasn’t seen half of the TNG Episodes, especially when he hadn’t seen Arsenal of Freedom and instead responded about the Voyager episode he directed. And then there’s Levar confusing his act with that of a a stand-up comic, forgetting that it’s probably not a good idea to make fun of nerds for pretending that Data if the one in the make-up chair instead of Brent Spiner when your entire fortune comes from the people who live withn this dilusion.

That’s clearly not LeVar, but the hair is awesome!

I always felt that TNG was too sanitized, and the characters too “boy scouty” and I would have liked a little more grit. That’s what we were promised with Enterprise, but I never thought it came to fruition.

Anyway, I agree with the consensus that seasons 1 and 2 of TNG were pretty unspectacular, and the show didn’t really come to life until season 3, but it came to life in a big way. It’s too bad shows aren’t given that kind of chance any longer. So many are canceled so quickly, so prematurely. Imagine the Trek we never would have seen if they’d been made in today’s creative climate.

With all the intense work they’ve done in reconditioning these episodes, I’ll eventually have to get them. I just hope they sell well enough to justify giving DS9 the same treatment.

#25

It’s easy to forget now that Cheers was near the bottom in ratings in its first season. But for whatever reason NBC decided to give it a chance to grow. Same can be said for TNG, Seinfeld, MASH and several others now considered successes.

Times have changed. And not for the better it seems. Those shows would be yanked after a couple of episodes today.

TNG was not a ratings loser in its first year. On the contrary, most TV folks were shocked at how good its ratings were.

26. Vultan – excellent point. Many low-rated shows were given a chance “back in the days” and we were rewarded with some true classics. If we ever get a new Trek series, how will it be treated? WIll it be given a chance, or will it be another Firefly and many other fine shows that died long before their time?

#27

You’re right. I meant the quality of TNG’s first season, not so much the ratings.

#28

I really have no idea how it would be treated. Depends on the quality of the show, I guess. But I really wouldn’t want to see it trying to compete on prime time network TV the way Voyager and Enterprise did. Cable would be much more hospitable, I think. And whatever happened to syndication the way TNG and DS9 did it?

maybe it’s just me…..but I am so glad they did not go with the “Jerry Curl” look for Geordi. Maybe if they had cast Eddie Murphy (who would then secretly be playing all the other roles as well.)

He’sa Trek fan, so that actually could have worked…..but I shudder at the thought.

It’s Eazy E!

is the guy filming this using a 8mm camera?

I’d also like to know what is being used to tape this. The theatre was much darker than it would appear in this recording. I was seated just a few rows behind this center section and from that similar point-of-view I never saw this camera recording anything. I saw the professional videographer which you can see behind and to the left of Lavar in this clip, he was also the guy taping the interviewing people on line, but not the person holding this camera. Was it a DSLR with video capabilities? Interesting material. It’s fun to see it again.

I think the reason the first year or two of TNG was awful (or at least pretty boring) is because they didn’t have their own “brand” yet and were rehashing TOS, sometimes literally. There are episodes I really like, but mainly it felt like Star Trek: NPR because it was very sterile. I wish the whole show were more like the universe shown in Yesterday’s Enterprise.

Why do you keep posting the purchase info boxes for Canada, UK and Germany without anything in them? If you’re not going to bother to include the appropriate links for us international fellows, can you please stop posting the empty boxes too. K Thx :-)