Original-Cin Interview: 'Recovering Actor' Jonathan Frakes on Directing Star Trek: Discovery

By John Kirk

I will argue there isn’t another Star Trek actor who has contributed more to the growth of the franchise than Jonathan Frakes.

A recovering actor-turned-director, Frakes has more Trek directorial credits under his belt than anyone, in addition to being a part of every iteration since Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG). Anything he does, Star Trek fans will have watched.

Fans, cast and crew are all excited when Frakes is at the helm … and it’s an excitement that is reciprocated. He tells Original-CIN more about how he motivated the cast in Star Trek: Discovery, Episode 509, “Lagrange Point”.

Callum Keith Rennie as First Officer Rayner.

“My instincts with actors are that 99% of them have already thought about their work before they got there. So, they have a better idea than anyone else. I know I felt that way about Riker. I knew what Riker would feel like in a certain situation. Because of that, my lead is that I respect what you think as an actor about your character - and if it becomes an issue, if you will, (laughs) then, I’ll defer to the writer! I’ll say, ‘Go over there and talk to that actor for me!’”

Season Five is the swan-song season for the polarized series. It’s had an admittedly tough fight for acceptance with fans, who either love it or are quick to dismiss it. The fact that Frakes is directing an episode in the last season is an undeniable reason why all fans will want to watch this one.

The story: continuing its search for the technology of the Progenitors, The USS Discovery has tracked a vital piece of tech to a location in space between two black holes. When the Breen dreadnought reaches it first, Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) makes the fateful decision to pursue and confront the Breen (maybe the most threatening Star Trek villains since the Borg).

While Frakes brings humour to his set, he also brings respect and a straightforward storytelling style that fans universally respect and love. With Star Trek: First Contact and more than 30 television episodes from every version of Trek under his director’s belt, there’s nobody who can claim as much behind-the-camera credit as him. While other actors have had their turns, Frakes is the director fans appreciate and is clearly the draw for this episode.

“Here’s my philosophy: my responsibility as an actor to do the best as I can to make the words, as they are written, work. These writers have spent months, maybe years on these scenes and I’ve only been with it as long as I’ve had the script. I think that philosophy is applicable every day and that actors should follow it.

Jonathan Frakes

“I always start rehearsal by gathering the groups together and say, ‘Let’s honour the script,’ as I put it. Then we literally run through the script without any staging or blocking. And we have the writers with us so that everyone can agree that this is the scene we want to do. That’s my approach.”

Frakes is known for the trust that he gives the performers in his set. For this episode, he praises the work of Martin-Green.

“You’ve interviewed Sonequa before, right? She’s magic. She’s not only wonderfully talented but she’s a real spiritual leader. She’ll take chances and do anything you ask as an actor.”

But there’s always a return to the humour that Frakes is known for.

” I’m lucky that I’ve worked with this cast before – I’ve been there for five seasons, but I have a rapport with them all. I think it comes from not just being a recovering actor, but also a Trek actor. Sometimes the techno-babble can bury you! But what we always look for is the levity. A little bit of levity – anywhere! And I think that’s one of the driving forces behind Season Five is that we’re seeking out action and levity wherever it can be found.”

In other words, Science later – problem now, as one of the characters in this episode exclaims.

“Yeah, exactly! That’s such a great line, isn’t it? I was always blessed on my show that LeVar (Burton) and Brent (Spiner) could always carry the techno-babble. Riker would be at the end of the conference table and say: REPORT! And then they’d ramble on for a couple of pages and I’d just reply: THANK YOU!” he says, with a laugh.

Keeping true to the overall storyline was a major priority for Frakes in this episode. We asked him what that included.

“I wanted to maintain the question about what’s going on between Book and Burnham. They have unresolved issues that she hasn’t told him, about what she discovered in the Library in 508. She has some serious psychological shit going on that she needs to share with him! That was an important runner for me.

“Also, I hadn’t worked with Eve before (Eve Harlow, who plays Moll). We were both on the same page in that her partner (L’ak, played by Elias Toufexis), who had been shrunk down to a thumb drive, or whatever the hell it was, was her driving force. I tried to put his body in evidence in scenes so that people could remember that this was the man she loved, even though he’s in, like, a casket.”

Of course, as in every Star Trek episode, there’s always love.

“The B-Story was also important to maintain. The growing relationship between Doug and Tara (Doug Jones who plays Saru and Tara Rosling who plays T’Rina) – I think it’s so lovely and a contrast to the gritty, nasty, hard-edged story of the Breen. I mean, a Kelpian and a Vulcan – who knew?”

Frakes shared what he was proud about in this episode.

“I was thrilled with the action sequences. Maia (my new DP) and I, well, the idea that the ship literally flies into the exhaust pipe of the other ship is such a great concept. So, the visual effects – which I’m always impressed with anyway – when we storyboarded this and what they delivered, was nothing short of astounding.

“It also wasn’t easy to have all your lead actors in helmets all the time! It creates a problem for the audience to connect. When we tested all those different versions, and pretended they were inside the helmet – it was difficult.

“It was hard for the audience to develop identification and empathy if they couldn’t see them, so the geography was important for me to identify the cast to remind the audience that those two Breen are actually our officers and so on. It had its share of visual challenges.”

Finally, Frakes had to acknowledge the work of Canada’s Callum Keith Rennie, who plays Captain Rayner, the recently assigned First Officer of the USS Discovery and an albeit late, but great addition to the cast.

“Ahhh! I couldn’t agree more! He hadn’t been with the cast from the beginning. He and I had a very interesting sidebar, because he was essentially the First Officer and an older, experienced journeyman actor who found himself in this world and was trying to wrap his head around it.

“I loved the pacing he did in this episode and I got him to set up the scene with Mary Wiseman (Tilly) which was so delicious. They understood it and layered it – basing it in respect though still a bit suspicious of each other. They couldn’t be more different, but their stuff together was so delicious, I thought.”

We brought up a paraphrase of the line that Rayner utters in this particular scene - “warm and fuzzy encouragement that I don’t need.”

Frakes laughed at this.

“Actually, the original line was ‘warm and fuzzy bullshit that I don’t need’ and Callum played it as if it hadn’t changed!”

This rings true as Rennie’s intensity and talent in other shows like X-Files, Forever Knight, Highlander: The Series and of course, Due South bring a much-needed hard edge to Star Trek: Discovery, albeit too late.

Frakes brings a magic to Trek. It isn’t just the experience of acting in seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the directing of one of the most successful Star Trek motion pictures or the cameos and directing of more than 30 different Trek episodes, although these surely help. It’s the fact that his career has been devoted to the successful continuation of storytelling in this continuum.

Frakes understands Trek and anything in this franchise he is associated with is going to be a success due to the level of admiration his fans have for his work, whether it is in front of or behind the camera.

But there’s also an undeniable passion that fans gravitate towards.

Episode 509, Lagrange Point, streams Thursday, May 23 on Paramount Plus and CTV Sci-Fi Channel.