Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Jonathan Frakes was last seen reprising his role of William Riker in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard. He also directed a couple of episodes for that season and Frakes is headed back to the final frontier to go behind the camera again, this time to for the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Frakes’ New World
Jonathan Frakes confirmed his return to SNW in an interview with Cinemablend, saying, “I’m going back up to Toronto to direct on Strange New Worlds.” He didn’t say when he was set to head to Toronto. Earlier this week we reported pre-production has just re-started with filming for the 10-episode season starting in early December.
This will be Frakes’ second time with Strange New Worlds after directing the Lower Decks crossover episode for season 2 (“Those Old Scientists”). He wasn’t able to direct for the first season due to a conflict with directing an episode of Star Trek: Discovery.
And we are now getting some fun behind-the-scenes videos and photos from people who worked on the shows but haven’t been sharing during the strikes. This includes some great stuff with Frakes from “Those Old Scientists” from writer/producer Bill Wolkoff. This includes a video of Frakes doing the dialog for the Orion captain Harr Caras in a scene with Anson Mount as Captain Pike.
Now that the strikes are over I have much to say about #SNW s2. It was the experience of a lifetime. One of the too-many-to-count highlights was working with @jonathansfrakes @JackQuaid92 @TrondyNewman Kat Lyn and @MikeMcMahanTM on Those Old Scientists. Enjoy some bts pics! pic.twitter.com/7rWzIallCJ
— Bill Wolkoff (@flying_lobster) November 12, 2023
Actor Jack Quaid (Boimler) also shared some fun images and video from that episode on social media.
This was a story about fans and none of this would have been possible if not for you. RRRIKER! #startrek #strangenewworlds #lowerdecks #spoimler @StarTrek pic.twitter.com/O9mjQHe51t
— Jack Quaid (@JackQuaid92) November 13, 2023
Frakes’ directing work will next be seen in the upcoming fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery as he helmed the first part of the two-part season (and now series) finale. Season 5 if Discovery is expected on Paramount+ in early 2024.
Keep up with news for the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
good preparation for that final TNG feature film ;-)
Gotta get more nostagia
Do you actually say anything else?? Why are you even here if you have nothing other that this to say over… and over… and over again…
Seems like you are constantly attacking several of us whose opinions you don’t like — how about you change your act and stop the incessant, whiney, bullying posts like this one?
I think at least several of us are sick of you repeated, over and over again, bullying, near-gatekeeping BS here.
Nah, just two of you are sick of this. The two of you who keep repeating the same thing over and over again. I think most of the rest are fine with his posts. I know I am.
Nah, it’s two to three of you who are uber-sensitive — and you all reply with the same uber-sensitive, gatekeeping-like responses over and over and over again. It get’s so old.
So we enjoy reinforcing some global points we both have periodically? Just ignore and move on if you don’t like it, as these repetitive, annoying responses to us are boring, and they don’t work to stop us from sharing our opinion anyway, so what’s the point?
yes!
I’m okay with that. I feel like this era of Trek has been really good about simultaneous doing new things and keeping old things alive. If it were only nostalgia, sure it’d be a problem, but it doesn’t seem that way to me.
yeah that already happened it was called Picard season 3
A: Another TNG film, or a Picard spin off.
Q: What are figments of the fan base imagination?
So nice to have his presence with us both behind and in front of the camera for these current-day Trek shows. I appreciate him.
Frakes is so loud I literally jumped when he shouted “cut, print” LOL
Frakes is plain awesome! So glad he’s still part of Trek and I hope we get to see him as Riker again. He was one of the best characters in Picard season 3 while directing some of the best episodes in it and TOS with SNW.
totally agree.
The episodes he directs are often special; I look forward to all of SNW, but I look forward to his episode extra.
Same. There’s just something about Frakes .. he just “gets it.”
He does!
Couldn’t agree more! He’s a treasure, and I feel he just knows how to treat the actors and really anyone around him right. Kind of guy that will laugh at your bad joke just to make sure you walk away feeling good about yourself … sensitive kindness and stuff like that. It shows on screen too with that positive energy and extra sense of fun and humility. Class act!
Very much a class act!
I think he should direct even more, one or two episodes in a season are not enough. Get him his own producing/directing Trek show. I wonder if he ever thought about creating a Trek show.
Agreed! He gets Star Trek.
Frakes is the epitome of Star Trek. He oozes every inch of it and always happy to be a part of it any way he can. And it’s been so much fun to see him in front of the camera the last few years as much as he’s behind it. It truly feels like the 90s again. ;)
Absolutely agree Tiger2. And the fact he bridges the gap between TNG and Nu-Trek is especially important for legacy fans like myself. Frakes’ presence behind and in front of the camera makes me feel like a show from my youth is still here, 37+ years after TNG premiered while I was in school! It seems like many of his Discovery and SNW episodes are some of the best and the cast and crew seem to feel the same.
Even though Discovery was a mixed bag and disappointing on many levels, I can’t wait to see his work on the finale!
If I don’t post again before next week, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I miss everything about US Thanksgiving… except for maybe the marshmellow topped candied yams, lol!
Aw, thank you for the holidays wishes DeanH! One of my favorite people to talk to here! :)
But yeah you know how much I love Frakes and everything he’s done (I’m clearly not alone on that one ;)). It’s nice to see his generation of Star Trek (get it?) still have such an important influence on not just us old timey fans all these decades later, but also on both new fans and the current shows/actors working on Trek today. It is crazy that this guy is so involved in all these shows now. He’s been a part of four out of the five of them; Prodigy the only one he hasn’t had any involvement with so far. And I have a feeling he may show up on it at some point although that show feels like it will be leaning more into the VOY characters next season, but fingers crossed.
And I can’t wait to see his directed episode in the DIS finale. But if the extra reshoots included him and Marina Sirtis on screen in a holodeck sounding off about the adventures of DIS and her crew….we should all feel a bit worried. ;D
I feel bad for Frakes that he was the stuckee with the silly crossover ep.
If you ask Frakes… I don’t think he would look at it that way. But we all know of your enormous hate for anything and everything Lower Decks.
I’m referring the whole crossover concept, Einstein.
His public comments regarding the crossover episode seem to directly contradict yours.
Those Old Scientists is the highest rated episode of the season on IMDB with a 9.0 and the episode landed in the top 10 in the ratings with many fans saying it’s one of his best directed episodes yet.
I hope Frakes career can somehow recover after this debacle. 😂
Well what else is he going to say given he “cashed the check?”. He’s a thoughtful guy who I’ve talked to myself at conventions and my personal opinion is that this would not be his preference to direct if given a choice of multiple episodes across a season
Again, just my opinion.
Unless he told you “yeah, I cashed the check, but truth be told, I’d have rather ripped off my eyelids then do this project”, you have no rationalization, or even an opinion. You’re flat our speculating. He could have declined the project.
You seem confused as to about what an opinion is:
o·pin·ion
noun
a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.
Which is not to say that any opinion *shouldn’t* be based on specific facts. Certainly, anything like an informed opinion. And the only known facts in this case are that Frakes, given his current status in the franchise, could have held out for a script that he preferred to direct, and has gone out of his way to express satisfaction with the way the episode turned out. Far from supporting your ‘opinion,’ those facts undermine it. And here’s another one: not that long after the release of INSURRECTION, Frakes pretty much publicly admitted that the end result wasn’t what he’d hoped for, in spite of having already cashed the check to direct it.
Except that INSURRECTION, followed by the equally bad, NEMESIS, ended TNG movie franchise, so there was no continuous or obvious near-term work for Frakes at Paramount. That’s unlike the current Kurtzman-era, where presumably he will get 2-3 paid directing shots per year….so, after this current era ends, let’s then see what Frakes has to say about which eps he loved to direct and which he will then be more free to admit weren’t ones that would have been his first choice.
If I was in my 70’s, and still getting very nicely paid for several 3-week working assignments per year, I would be nuts to go on record and be critical of any of the projects…what moron would do that? You do the best you can with the assignments you get, and talk positive about them in public. Duh! :-)
Understanding the realities of it being your job to provide positive publicity since it DIRECTLY relates to you getting continuous work on a plum series of projects in Hollywood is REAL…so, yeah, my opinion, like yours, does actually have an “informed” component as well.
Bro stop wasting your time with this guy. He obviously hates LDS beyond reason but whines anytime someone says something bad about the great Discovery like a teenager, a show that has an audience score of 36% on RT lol.
It kills this guy people actually like LDS and that it’s even still on the air and now wants to pretend that it was somehow a step down for Frakes to direct…the highest rated show of the season and will probably go down as one of the most iconic cross over episodes in the franchise as Relics or Trials and Tribbelations.
Yeah Frakes is kicking himself for directing it lol.
This guy is just bitter, angry and biased. Let him be bitter. What’s the point of everyone arguing with him here every week and his ridiculous arguments? It’s just no point and a waste of your time and energy.
You have zero integrity to keep breaking the agreement we both had to not address each other, including indirectly.
ZERO INTEGRITY!
(and you won’t get another word out of me here no matter how much you personally attack me and whine about your BS past grievances…bye, bye clown-show!)
Not reading, nor responding.
You complain TG has zero integrity because he’s replying to you, yet you’re replying to him to say that. You make no sense.
And maybe a guy that will waste his time to look in someone’s past posts to take something out of context simply to justify his ridiculous arguments shouldn’t be calling out others on integrity.
Hell no on your first point, but I’ll certainly consider your second point, because unlike that dude, I can admit that I am wrong and entertain others’ criticisms of my behavior.
Frakes obviously loved directing this episode and he said he wants to direct more comedies because of it. I would love if they could do another cross over together!
Absolutely hope they do another crossover but next time bring Tendi and Rutherford. And Frakes should direct it again. 👍
I will meet him tomorrow at Vienna Comic Con. So excited :)
I’ve met him before. He’s really nice and hilarious. You’ll love him.
He’s a great guy! Hopefully you run into him in the hotel like I did at one convention where we talked for 15 minutes in the hallway on our floor.
Wow PLEASE give us a trip report! :)
How did your meeting go with Frakes?
Jonathan Frakes is the best. I’m a huge fan of FC and INS. His work on Picard S3 was his best work. If I could have one trek related wish, it would be Frakes directing the next trek movie or streaming event. He understands Star Trek.
so true. i do not understand why they do not contract him for another trek movie. he proved he can work brillantly with younger actors, so he surely would do a great job with the klevin-actors … or whoever would star in a future movie.
i’d love to also see the ACTOR jonathan frakes again. i found his portrayal of riker in picard s3 really touching.
All the TNG actors improved during the series’ run, but Frakes certainly did, above all. He was not, shall we say, Stewart’s equal during TNG season one. Today, he easily holds his own against Stewart.
Frakes truly bought it as Riker this season. It’s crazy he doubted he could pull it off but he was easily one of the best characters in the season although all the TNG actors did an amazing job IMO.
I don’t know what it is…something about seeing a smiley beardy Frakes hyped for more Trek just makes me happy.
We are so freaking lucky to have Frakes. For him to have been such a presence in front of AND behind the camera for all of these years, and for him to value and love that so much, is extremely awesome and satisfying.
i hope they bring back prime Lorca for S3 of SNW!
Another completely wasted DISCO opportunity.
We *could* have met Prime Lorca; instead, we met Adira Tal and their ghostly (and then returned to life) significant other.
Personally wouldn’t mind L’Rell again. Just with SNW Klingon makeup.
Getting to meet Prime Lorca would be a treat, although the impact might be less significant on SNW. His presence could have great impact if he appeared in the S31 movie.
Yeah that would be a lot of fun for sure.
Even though DSC is ending (technically already finished, production wise), I hope the powers-that-be keep giving Frakes the directing chair. Let him direct at least one (although I’d be over the moon if he got two) episodes of SNW each season, and I think he is the perfect director to start Academy off on the right foot.