Star Trek Star Jonathan Frakes Reacts to Directing New Picard Episode
Jonathan Frakes has reacted to reuniting with his Star Trek: The Next Generation co-stars when directing the newest episode of Star Trek: Picard. Frakes is best known for playing the character William Riker, the first officer of the USS Enterprise beneath Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart. In addition to his acting career, Frakes has become a notable director in his own right, helming the TNG films First Contact and Insurrection as well as episodes of many different Star Trek series, including 8 episodes of The Next Generation.
Although he has already reprised the role of Riker on two episodes of Picard season 1, he returned to season 2 in an entirely different capacity, directing the new episode "Fly Me to the Moon," which premiered on March 31, 2022. The episode, which features the Borg Queen (now played by Annie Wersching), is a callback to his film First Contact, which is the first appearance of the original Borg Queen played by Alice Krige. It also gave him another chance to reunite with his TNG co-stars Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, and John de Lancie (returning as his character Q).
Following the release of his Picard episode, Frakes sat down with THR to discuss returning to the director's chair. He compared directing Star Trek to "putting on your favorite pair of shoes" and reminisced that shooting with DeLancie and Spiner "was a gift." He also gushed about the new Borg Queen, saying that while he "was a huge fan of the Borg Queen with Alice," Annie "expanded on [her] brilliantly." Read his full quote below:
I was thrilled. I was a huge fan of the Borg Queen with Alice. I always liked the Borg story. Alice, because she was our first queen, established the nastiness and the sexiness of the character. Alice established the groundwork for which Annie expanded on brilliantly. Annie works with a fearlessness that I really admire. It is not easy to work through all that rubber-head stuff. She really embraced it.
This Borg Queen design is so out there. They embellished it, but did not change it to the point where it was unrecognizable. And the visual effects team used a lot of the same references [from First Contact] but then expanded, given the new tools they have to work with.
[Directing Star Trek] is the feeling of putting on your favorite pair of shoes. I think about the day I spent with Brent and De Lancie in the diner. The scene is brilliant. The acting is fabulous. And the schmoozing, while we were having lunch together, was a gift. I think Brent and de Lance have gotten better with age. There is a real confidence in the way they embrace their characters.
There's clearly a reason that Frakes keeps returning to direct episodes of the Star Trek series (his long list of projects also includes Discovery, Voyager, Deep Space Nine, and even the Star Trek-inspired comedy The Orville). The director could easily have left the franchise behind, because his successful directorial career includes other hits like NCIS: Los Angeles, Burn Notice, Roswell, and the 2002 teen sci-fi film Clockstoppers. However, his passion for the universe, cast, and characters of Star Trek shows through in his quote, which displays boyish enthusiasm even three and a half decades after he first stepped foot on set.
Appropriately, Star Trek: Picard season 2 itself has been looking to the past. This season has included a time travel element that brings its main cast to Earth's not-too-distant future, bringing Picard into contact with his ancestor Renee (Penelope Mitchell). This interest in looking back is a perfect fit for Frakes, whose past is as entangled with Star Trek lore as Picard's himself.
Source: THR