Jonathan Frakes Asked Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Cast: "Am I Being Punked?"

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Melissa Navia tells a fantastic story about Jonathan Frakes directing season 3's 'Hollywood murder mystery' episode. Strange New Worlds has wrapped filming season 3, with Frakes directing a follow-up to his acclaimed season 2 comedy crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks. In Frakes' two stints directing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, it's clear the Star Trek: The Next Generation legend has made an indelible impact on the current cast playing the crew of the USS Enterprise.

Strange New Pod hosted a panel at Trek Long Island with Melissa Navia and Yetide Bakadi to discuss Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. While Navia is sworn to secrecy about divulging Strange New Worlds season 3 details - noting that she wouldn't even have leaked that Jonathan Frakes directed a 'Hollywood murder mystery' - Melissa describes what it's like being directed by Frakes and an instance that caused Frakes to ask aloud, "Am I being punked?" Check out Navia's quote and watch Strange New Pod's video below:

Jonathan Frakes also directed one of our season 3 episodes, which I believe something has been released about that... [referring to “Hollywood Murder Mystery”] It is an incredible episode, and he brings this energy that I aspire to bring to all of my life. Which is, on one hand, I grew up on The Next Generation as well. So I remember the first time being on the bridge and [Frakes] was there. He was voicing an actor what we did not have on set at the time. Somebody who was going to be on the viewscreen. And he was voicing that actor. I remember sitting at the helm and looking down at my likes as we were blocking the scene, and hearing his voice. Hearing Riker, and being at the helm, on the bridge, and being. “This is not real.” But it is.

He just brings this great joy and this expertise as an actor, as a director, as Star Trek royalty. As somebody who’s a consummate professional, and also [he’s] just a really great guy. He’s fun to be around in season 3… I remember every day, he was walking around, even in prep going into the episode, it felt like he was a politician. He was surrounded by his people, his people being our crew, but everybody was with him. He would show up, we would discuss things, and then he would be off to the next stage, to the next meeting, to the next thing. But every day, it was just this excitement and this energy…

Jonathan Frakes, to me, is Star Trek. He did a funny thing this season, in this past episode we can’t speak about… We were on the bridge and a scene was happening. What I love about our crew is we take everything very seriously. We also have fun while we’re doing it. When things happen on the bridge where sometimes [there’s] a line where, [I say], ‘Well, my character wouldn’t necessarily say that line’, or ‘That would be something she would say’, or we’re hit by something and we have to do the bridge shake.

So we have questions. We’re always like, ‘Is it directional? Non-directional? What is the speed, the velocity? What’s happening? Where is it coming from? Where did it come from?’ It was like a domino effect. We were all asking questions about this particular scene, and at one point, Frakes was like, ‘Am I being punked? What’s happening?’ And I was like, ‘What are you talking about? You of all people should understand that this is serious. And then a line that we were gonna change turned back, and we all kind of figured out where we were.

But yeah, [Frakes] is just wonderful to have on set, and to be friends and hang out with actors from The Next Generation crew is very surreal. But they’re human beings, just like us. So Frakes is wonderful, and you guys are going to absolutely love the episode which I will tell you nothing about except those three words.

Strange New Worlds Season 3 Is Paramount+'s Biggest 2025 Star Trek Event

It'll be a 2-year wait for Strange New Worlds season 3

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 wrapped filming at the end of May, and it's most likely the new episodes won't premiere on Paramount+ until 2025. This would make Strange New Worlds season 3 Paramount+'s big Star Trek event of 2025. There are no other Star Trek projects in the can for 2025 besides Star Trek: Section 31, the made-for-streaming on Paramount+ movie starring Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh that is also waiting for a release date. But even if Section 31 premieres in 2025, Strange New Worlds is a bigger event as the incredibly popular series taking over the mantle of Paramount+'s flagship Star Trek series from Star Trek: Discovery.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' cast is enjoying their hiatus before they reconvene to begin promoting season 3, and then they will return to Toronto in Spring 2025 to begin filming Strange New Worlds season 4. For Melissa Navia, part of her downtime involves learning how to be a real-life pilot, just as Lt. Erica Ortegas flies the Starship Enterprise. Navia even receives flying lessons from another Star Trek: The Next Generation legend, Michael Dorn, who has been an accomplished pilot for decades. If Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 does premiere in 2025, it'll be about a two-year wait in between seasons, but episodes like the Jonathan Frakes-directed Hollywood murder mystery will be worth it.