Summary
- Jonathan Frakes was "surprised" by Star Trek: Discovery basing season 5's story on a TNG episode he directed.
- Director Frakes considers Discovery his "home" show, but didn't expect this story connection.
- Frakes shared the differences in directing for different Star Trek eras.
Jonathan Frakes described his "surprised" reaction to Star Trek: Discovery basing season 5's story on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation he directed. Frakes has directed 8 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, including season 5 (and the series') penultimate episode, "Lagrange Point". Since he joined as a director for season 2, Jonathan has always considered Star Trek: Discovery his "home" Star Trek on Paramount+ show, but Frakes didn't expect Discovery season 5 would draw its story from one of his TNG episodes.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Jonathan Frakes shared why he was "really surprised" that Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is a sequel to his Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6 episode, "The Chase". Frakes also described how directing the current Star Trek series is different from directing Star Trek during Rick Berman's era in the 1990s. Check out his quote below:
I was really surprised because I don't remember "The Chase" being that significant in the oeuvre of Next Gen. And then when Michelle explained how that was going to be the kickoff and the premise of the show... You know, I got "The Chase" only by the luck of the draw. That's how the cards played. On Next Gen, you got your episodes dealt to you by some random polling of straws, But on Discovery, and also, even more significantly on Strange New Worlds, they assign you an episode that they believe you would be suited to direct. So it was just happenstance that "The Chase" happened to be one that I had directed.
Jonathan Frakes Explains Differences Of Different Eras Of Star Trek As A Director
TNG era Star Trek was much stricter
Jonathan Frakes went on to describe how directing for Star Trek on Paramount+ series is very different in terms of how the current shows allow directors freedom with dialogue that the Star Trek series produced by Rick Berman didn't allow. 1990s and 2000s era Star Trek demanded the actors be word-perfect and say all dialogue as written, but the new shows are looser and allow for experimentation. Read Frakes' quote about his experience directing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks below:
That's an interesting point. That happened on "Those Old Scientists" where we had Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid come in. Tawny is a Second City improv specialist, and they messed around a little bit with the lines. I had Kat Lyn and Bill Wolkoff on the set with me as my writers, and we all sort of locked eyes, and I just whispered to them and said, 'What do you think? Should we just let them go?' And they said, 'Sure.' And that freed up Anson, and that freed up Rebecca, and all of a sudden, we did the scenes as written, but then we played with the scenes, and that was such a thrill to have. Because it was so strict [on Next Gen], as I'm sure you've heard. It was so strict on our show. It was strict on all the shows about the dialogue. So it was a very freeing moment.
Other differences between the past and current Star Trek eras include the cinematic visual style of the new shows where directors like Jonathan Frakes are encouraged to "shoot to thrill", the fact that directors are assigned episodes based on what the producers think they would excel at, unlike the Rick Berman era's luck of the draw, and that there are simply fewer Star Trek episodes produced in the streaming era than in Star Trek's syndication and broadcast network era. All of these changes began with Star Trek: Discovery.
