Star Trek: The Next Generation star (and new Star Trek shows director) Jonathan Frakes is doing his part to help out during these trying times by stepping into the shoes of James T. Kirk. Frakes has joined up with other actors from the “nerdosphere” for a video series performing beloved nerd monologues to raise money for No Kid Hungry.
Frakes lends his voice to “The Plague Nerdalogues”
The Plague Nerdalogues video series features a roster of actors who’ve worked in the nerd space doing something they’re all intimately familiar with: self-taping monologues. The series has each actor reenacting classic scenes from genre film and television, all for charity. Frakes will be doing a Kirk speech from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Other actors who’ve contributed their time include Rekha Sharma (Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: Discovery), Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica, Lucifer), Phil Lamarr (Justice League, Samurai Jack), Cameron Cuffe (Krypton), David Dastmalchian (Ant-Man, Dune), Azita Ghanizada (Elementary, Alphas), Todd Stashwick (12 Monkeys, Gotham), Rob Benedict (Supernatural), Yuri Lowenthal (Spider-Man, Batman: Gotham By Gaslight), Tiffany Smith (Supernatural, Masters of the Universe: Revelations) and Damion Poitier (The Avengers, The Flash).
Jonathan Frakes In “The Plague Nerdalogues”
The series is produced and curated by podcast host and television writer-producer Marc Bernardin, who also happens to be a supervising producer on Star Trek: Picard. “I’ve been sitting here, day after day, both watching the world slip and watching people do their best to stop it from slipping,” said Bernardin. “I’ve done a lot of the former and thought it was high time I tried doing the latter. I’m a nerd, through and through, so in thinking what we could all do as a nerd community, I came up with…The Plague Nerdalogues.”
The monologues are located at theplaguenerdalogues.com — where users will be greeted with a paywall. Viewing the monologues will require a donation to No Kid Hungry — as little as $10 will grant admission to the gallery, which will continue to grow as new submissions come in.
They also released a trailer. The Frakes monologue isn’t included, but it is available now on the site.
Frakes joins Stewart for a sonnet
For some more Frakes goodness, over the weekend he joined his TNG co-star (and star of Star Trek: Picard) Sir Patrick Stewart, to contribute to Stewart’s quarantine “Sonnet A Day” series.
Pleased to share that we have our first guest sonneteer today. Socially distant yet always a close friend, @jonathansfrakes performs Sonnet 57. #ASonnetADay pic.twitter.com/DNFiC5Qr2T
— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) May 16, 2020
Frakes goes to space for Q&A on Thursday
If you want even more Frakes in your life, he will be participating in the “Full STEAM Ahead: The Storied Partnership of Space & Hollywood” virtual event from Explore Mars on Thursday, May 21, at 1 PM ET (10 AM PT). The special Q & A with Frakes will be facilitated by astrophysicist and Star Trek science consultant, Dr. Erin MacDonald (see her recent TrekMovie interview). Tickets for the Zoom event cost $10 and can be purchased at eventbrite.com.
Keep up with all the Star Trek celebrity news at TrekMovie.com.
I need more Star Trek in my life. Star Trek is therapy to me.
Spending most of my time in quarantine has really made me get depression.
You reach a point where your sanity is just gone.
Donating to a charity I would do that.
Get a grip.
Sorry Mr. Frakes that we woke you up from your nap?
(referring to his still photo above) :-)
LOL
Here’s MY monologue:
You guessed it! Join with me, everyone!
Star. Trek. Pike. NOWWWWW!!!
I’m so excited!! Yippy!!!!
How can you not love these guys?!?
God damn give me “Riker” the series please.
Not gonna lie, Frakes reading of Shatner’s eulogy in TWoK is not great. First, it seems as if he didn’t memorize is, and is thus reading it – with him regularly glancing at notes. Second, the tone is all off – he seems way too happy (which, it’s Frakes, when is he not happy?!). Third, and I’ve never really noticed this before, but I think Frakes lacks the gravitas to pull of the speech that Shatner gave. Frakes is really good with certain one-liners (“Shield’s Up!” “Fire!”, etc.), but apparently not with longer speeches.
With that being said, this is all for fun and for charity, so good work there! If you haven’t, I highly suggest donating whatever you can to watch the other speeches – some of them are really good. Specifically, Rekha Sharma, doing the flash-back speech from V for Vendetta – she does an absolutely phenomenal job with.
His hair varies tremendously between gigs
I’m not complaining about Patrick Stewarts acting abilities…He’s one of the best!!! I am concerned about the weakness of his voice or his vocal cords. Please tell us that there’s no health issues with his throat?!!
Given how he now shills for monsterous nu Trek he could be reading a shopping list, but if you paid him to do it he’d tell you it was Shakespeare.