That’s how he taught Nog the joy of reading.

Lots of cast members ended up directing over the years. 90’s Trek had a reputation for being a factory for directorial debuts. It’s really neat, it brought a lot of variety and personality to the episodes.

Roxane Dawson (B’elanna Torres on VOY) went on to a pretty good directorial career as well. A couple examples off the top of my head include episodes of Foundation and House of Cards.

I literally watch a ds9 directed by him just today.

I could be wrong, but I think it was the episode where odo goes back to when he was the constable for the cardassians in some psychic state.

It was pretty good, but I think Kira over reacted at the end. Maybe I missed something, but she seems to be too hard on him.

Jonathan Frakes and Robert Duncan McNeill each directed a couple episodes of The Orville too.

The TNG/DS9/VOY era was pretty famous for “Star Trek Director’s School” for the actors. Most main cast folks tried their hand at directing at least once or twice. (It’s fun when you notice it for the first time. Their characters usually have bit parts in the first episode they direct.) Jonathan Frakes (Riker) directed episodes have become known for their top-down “god shots” in a lot of episodes like Cause and Effect. https://observer.com/2023/03/jonathan-frakes-on-his-journey-from-star-trek-actor-to-director/

You can do anything! Just take a look, it’s in a book.

Yeah it’s pretty cool! Star Trek had been a bit of a directors boot camp for a while, I know several members from TNG, DS9, and Voyager went on into directing.

This is news to me! Somehow I’ve never noticed.

Lavar Burton is a goddamn treasure of a man. When you yanks rip down another one of those confederate statues, do me a solid and put up one of Lavar Burton in its place.