Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Geordi La Forge

LeVar Burton currently holds joint first place for the most Star Trek episodes directed by a Star Trek cast member: nine of Enterprise, eight of Voyager, ten of Deep Space Nine, and two of The Next Generation. That's 29 in total. Only Jonathan Frakes is up there on the podium alongside him, with 28 episodes already directed, plus one upcoming confirmed for season five of Star Trek: Discovery. Of course, Frakes was behind and in front of the camera in both Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection, so that makes two more in the directorial one-upmanship. Frakes also directed Star Trek: Klingon the video game.

For his first ever turn as director on Second Chances, Burton would have to shoot two versions of Riker/Frakes through complex blue screen and stunt work, calling it a "trial by fire" in the season six TNG DVD extra Bold New Directions. In that, Burton also largely credits "the fine example of Jonathan Frakes" for inspiring him to take on the directorial role in the first place. He would direct Frakes again in another Riker-heavy episode, The Pegasus.

By his absence, Geordi took a more literal shot at Will Riker in Star Trek: Voyager's Death Wish. In the episode, we find out that the Q, Quinn, rescued Will Riker's wounded ancestor, Thaddius Riker, from the front lines of the American Civil War. In the first draft of the script, however, it was Geordi's great-great-grandfather who was saved by Quinn. In that version, if Quinn hadn't intervened, and in a knowing wink to the real life audition process, Geordi would never have been born and Tuvok would have become chief engineer of the Enterprise-D.