9/8/2023 0 Comments Crossover for work linkedinAnd I had not a leg to stand on in terms of asking them to behave.” But I realized what these other directors had gone through and what assholes we were. I had a lot of support, including from my acting company. “It happened to be a Data episode, which are always great, because Brent is a genius. The smart ADs actually built time into days that were all on the Enterprise bridge, knowing that we’d all have to catch up because we hadn’t seen each other. Part of it was because we were so well prepared because Patrick had set his high bar from the moment he showed up, that when you come into the morning, you have done your homework, and you’re in good shape. We would be yakking right up until action. Some directors really didn’t like coming to work with us because we were that bad. I was, for better or for worse, one of the leaders of that kind of behavior on the set. “Our cast, as you probably know, is notoriously rambunctious. Wrangling his fellow actors, however, proved to be a challenge. Data (Brent Spiner) attempts to create an android child he names Lal (Hallie Todd). “The Next Generation,” Season 3, Episode 16įrakes’ directorial debut is one of the best episodes ever of “Next Gen,” in which the android Lt. To commemorate his “Trek” directing career, the 70-year-old filmmaker shared (in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike) some candid memories and insights from some of the standout episodes he’s helmed over the past 33 years - and the one he regrets doing. It was like we were doing Shakespeare or Chekhov.”įrakes says one of the funniest moments of the episode - when Mariner tells Boimler that she didn’t expect young Spock would be so hot - was improvised by Newsome, and eventually, that energy “had an infectious effect” on the “Strange New Worlds” cast as well. “I mean, especially in our fucking show” - i.e. “Which doesn’t happen a lot on ‘Star Trek,’ as you probably have heard,” Frakes says. So I secretly knew that this was going to be a playground.”įrakes was especially thrilled when executive producers Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman, and the episode’s writers Kathryn Lyn and Bill Wolkoff, allowed Quaid and Newsome to improvise during several of their scenes. And Ethan has a delightful sense of humor. “Rebecca, she’s a singer as well as a comedian. “I knew from having done ‘Discovery’ for a year with Anson that he is really sneaky funny, even though you don’t see much of that with Pike,” Frakes says. But Frakes never lets the episode curdle into fan worship, or spiral into silliness instead, it becomes a poignant (and deeply funny) expression of how “Trek” has captivated multiple generations of fans for over half a century.įrakes also had the advantage that he’d directed Mount, Peck and Romijn when they originated their roles on Season 2 of “Discovery.” Pike, Ethan Peck’s Spock, Rebecca Romijn’s Number One, and Celia Rose Gooding’s Uhura. “Those Old Scientists” deftly weaves the madcap comedy from “Lower Decks” into the more grounded tone of “Strange New Worlds.” The episode mines humor out of Boimler and Mariner’s starry-eyed interactions with their heroes - like Anson Mount’s Capt. And I think because of all the ‘Star Trek’ canon involved and because I knew the tone of ‘Lower Decks’ because I played Riker on that show, it made sense.” “But I’m told that the philosophy on ‘Strange New Worlds’ is that they try to assign a director to an episode that would be a good fit. “I didn’t campaign for it,” Frakes says of the gig. Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), meet the crew of the Enterprise when they travel back in time 120 years - and into live action, with Quaid and Newsome embodying their roles for the first time. Titled “Those Old Scientists,” the episode posed a unique directorial challenge: Two characters from the animated “Lower Decks,” Ens. That expertise was particularly important for his 222nd episode of “Trek,” directing last Saturday’s outrageously entertaining episode of “ Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.” Each of these shows have their own distinct dispositions and visual approaches - “DS9” skews darker, for example, while “Discovery” is more cinematic - but Frakes has managed to navigate each of them without ever losing sight of their innate “Trek”-iness. All told - including his work on “Star Trek: Enterprise,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” “Star Trek: Picard” and “Star Trek: Lower Decks” - Frakes has worked on 221 episodes of “Star Trek” over the past 36 years.
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