The good Captain and his Number One are partnering up for a new mission.
Jonathan Frakes has made quite the return to sci-fi recently from his command station in the director’s chair — from of course, to The Orville, and even dabbling in the world of The Gifted. But now Frakes has confirmed that he’ll be heading back to Star Trek once again…and this time it’s to meet up with an old friend from the Enterprise.
Speaking on the podcast Writer Experience, Frakes casually noted that he will indeed direct some of the Picard series’ first season, before going on to heap platitudes on the joys of getting to direct stars like Sonequa Martin-Green, Anthony Rapp, and Doug Jones on Discovery as well as dear friends like Patrick Stewart:
Now my season looks like Star Trek: Discovery – the new wonderful Star Trek series, the Picard show – which Patrick [Stewart] is launching, and The Orville, which is some people’s new Star Trek. And I just finished The Gifted, which is a sort of X-Men Marvel origins show. So, I am back in that world.
… My favourite part of the job is directing the acting, and enjoying the actor, and being sure I capture the moments that the actors created for us, especially with actors at the level of some of the stars of these shows. Sonequa [Martin-Green], and Patrick [Stewart]…and Anthony Rapp and Doug Jones. When you give them a note they take the note and you can watch them fine tune it. It’s like a musician, like a fine violin player. They don’t over-dramatize the note. They just tune the instrument ever so slightly in an elegant, creative, stylish way. That’s the real treat of a day’s work.
It’s not the first time Frakes will have directed Stewart as Jean-Luc, of course—he directed several episodes of TNG, as well as the movies Insurrection and First Contact. But it’s nice to hear that as Picard boldly goes into his own new adventure, he’ll be bringing along his faithful Commander for the ride too. Behind the camera, at least. Who knows, maybe they could tempt Frakes to step back into Riker’s jumpsuit once more while he’s there?