20 Things You Never Knew About Star Trek: Insurrection
3. A Beautiful Sunrise
There is one scene in Star Trek: Insurrection that stands out, which is of course the sunrise scene featuring Geordi LaForge using his new eyes for the first time. Though the character had managed to ditch the VISOR in Star Trek: First Contact, this scene marked one of the very few times that Levar Burton got to appear without any prosthetics or appendages over his eyes in Star Trek.
The scene was included, not to make Levar Burton's life any easier, but to make Captain Picard's life more difficult. Rick Berman initially wasn't sold on the idea of having LaForge's eyes regenerate, feeling that it was a little too heavy on the emotional side of things. However, Piller managed to argue his case successfully.
He felt that if Picard had to make the choice of asking his officer to give up his eyes, it would help to give him a bit of pause - but that he ultimately would decide to go ahead with saving the Ba'ku, thus giving him an even greater ethical and moral standing.