Star Trek's Jonathan Frakes Calls One Strange New Worlds Season 3 Episode His 'Best' Ever
"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" has a knack for proving skeptics wrong. You say Paramount+ can't do a prequel "Star Trek" series that reimagines iconic characters like Spock, Kirk, and Uhura with a cast of new actors? Watch them. Think it's impossible to strike the original series' balance between earnest pathos, sci-fi geekery, warm-hearted hijinks, and indelible camp? Think again. Don't even get this show started on which genres do and don't check classic "Star Trek" boxes; it'll blow your personal definition of classic "Trek" wide open with a Medieval costume drama, an animation-live action crossover, a musical, or — in the upcoming season, according to Variety – a "Hollywood murder mystery."
In Variety's new cover story about the future of the franchise Gene Roddenberry first created in 1966, the future of "Star Trek" is bright. The dynamic, weird, hilarious, and sometimes heartbreaking prequel series "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" comes across as the central star in that constellation, and the powers that be don't seem inclined to stop trying new things with the series anytime soon. "As long as we're in storytelling that is cogent and sure-handed, I'm not sure there is [any genre 'Strange New Worlds' can't do]," says series co-showrunner and executive producer Akiva Goldsman. "Could it do Muppets? Sure. Could it do black and white, silent, slapstick? Maybe!"
That's high praise
Thrillingly, the show is bringing Jonathan Frakes, the actor and filmmaker behind season 2's "Star Trek: Lower Decks" crossover episode "Those Old Scientists," on to direct the murder mystery episode of season 3. Frakes, who played William Riker for seven seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" as well as several movies and the final season of "Star Trek: Picard," says the upcoming genre outing is "the best episode of television [he's] ever done." That's certainly saying something coming from the actor-turned-director, as he's stepped behind the camera for 29 episodes of "Trek" and counting.
In addition to "Those Old Scientists," Frakes' past "Star Trek" directorial efforts include several standout episodes of "The Next Generation," from the trippy time loop story "Cause and Effect" to the courtroom drama "The Drumhead" to "The Offspring," a one-off in which Data (Brent Spiner) raises a child android. Other well-received "Trek" episodes directed by Frakes include the Odo-centric "Deep Space Nine" premiere "The Search, Part II," the intense Section 31-set "Star Trek: Discovery" episode "Project Daedalus," and two of the best episodes of "Star Trek: Picard" season 3 – and the show in general, for that matter.
With so many epic "Trek" episodes under his belt, the fact that Frakes thinks his return to "Strange New Worlds" is a career-high makes us all the more excited for it. Elsewhere in the cover story, the actor-director spoke positively about the behind-the-scenes teams that have brought the Paramount+ era of "Trek" together. "The scope was so much different than anything we had ever done on 'Next Gen,'" Frakes said when talking about the property's epic return to TV in the 2010s. "Every department has the resources to create." Fans will get to see just what they've created with the new murder mystery episode when "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" returns to the streamer sometime in 2025.