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This month marks 37 years since we first saw Jonathan Frakes playing straight-backed William T. Riker on the bright, rumpus-room bridge of Enterprise-D — yet it’s hard to think of a more glowing era for the Star Trek actor-director and meme star than this one.
Last year saw the third, final and staggeringly terrific season of Star Trek Picard, where not only did the Next Generation crew I’d boldly say outdo the golden years adventures of Admiral Kirk and co. in terms of character growth, tension and storytelling, but Frakes also directed two of its most gripping episodes — including the one where Riker orders his old friend Jean-Luc Picard the hell off the USS Titan’s bridge.
Up there with Sisko vs. former-Borg Picard, it was one of the finest moments ever to buck off franchise creator Gene Roddenberry’s odd rule of no interpersonal conflict between his leads.
Shift over to format-bucking Strange New Worlds implausibly managing a brilliant crossover with animated comedy Star Trek Lower Decks set 120 years apart, and again we find Frakes directing a peak episode, Those Old Scientists — its TOS a wink at “The Original Series.”
He also keeps popping up in the post-TNG Lower Decks as “full-on asshole Capt. Riker,” as he puts it with a big laugh in a terrific conversation in advance of his appearance at all three days of Edmonton Expo this weekend, his Q&A 2:45 p.m. Sunday in Hall D at Edmonton Expo Centre.
Here’s some of that, where we talk all things Trek, including the chair-mounting Riker Manoeuvre and Urban Dictionary “jumping the shark” opposite, “Riker’s Beard”:
Q: Were there conversations about Kirk versus Riker in the very beginning?
A: Absolutely. Riker was not meant to be like Kirk. Gene wanted him to be sort of a Midwestern-type guy who never smiled, which unfortunately you can see in my performance in season one. (Laughs.) And of course Kirk had way more luck with the women. Thankfully, I eventually got to loosen up and bring more “Frakes” into the performance.
Q: The beard helped.
A: Haha, yeah; how that happened is I don’t know if you remember but there was a writer’s strike in 1988 and no was working, and I wasn’t shaving. When Gene saw it at rehearsal he loved it and came over and said, ‘You have to keep it!”
Q: I was digging around a little and couldn’t find how the Riker Manoeuvre actually first happened — was it improv initially?
A: (Laughs.) I thought I maybe did it a few times — but you’ve seen the YouTube compilation, right? So in the bar on Enterprise-D Ten Forward, the chair backs are really low and I was supposed to walk up and sit down with, I can’t remember who, Picard or something. The director called action and I came up it just sort of happened. Then I did it in Picard’s Ready Room. But it was all improvised, I didn’t even think about it. But when you think about it now, it’s really an asshole move. (Laughs.)
Q: But it saves time on a tight TV shoot! The Original Series Star Trek movies dealt with aging and all that, but you guys had so much room to move in season 3 of Picard. How did it feel standing inside that character to throw Picard off the bridge? It’s my favourite moment of the series.
A: It’s certainly one of mine.
Q: Was it fun? Hard?
A: It was never hard. I’m sure you’ve heard our cast is thick as thieves, we’ve been friends for 39 years, and we’ve been in each others’ lives. So it didn’t have that kind of reunion quality some of these reboots have. But it was certainly a thrill, especially when we came on to the Enterprise-D bridge they built, oh man, precisely like our show. I mean, the colour of the rugs, the material on the chairs, the angle of the ramp. They told us, you’re supposed to be in awe when the turbo lift doors open. And when we first rehearsed, we all that the same look on our faces, like, holy shit, astounding to be back here.
Q: You’re such a great director, what are some of your favourite films?
A: I always watch Goodfellas when it’s on, no matter what part of the day, and I always watch Jaws.
Q: What’s your favourite Star Wars movie and why?
A: Empire Strikes Back, obviously, it’s just beautiful. And it was so sad to lose James Earl Jones.
Q: What do surprises you fans keep bringing up — Adventure Time, maybe?
A: People come to the table and see a picture of Old Finn and say, “Who’s that?” But yeah, Adventure Time, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, North and South. Or people say, “I don’t really know you from that, I know you from Gargoyles.”
Q: I know TV moves fast, but when you’re directing do you have time to get a few takes from different emotional angles, or as an actor do you just leave lots of room for them?
A: I always try to move fast and let the actors do what they want and I try to block a scene so it can be shot in the most efficient way. And now that the writers are essentially part of the deal in that they’re on set with you, you have a chance to tone the scene prior, meaning you make sure that what you think the scene is about is what the writers intended, some you can save time.
Q: What was a TNG episode you really loved performing in?
A: I like the one where Riker was insane, Frame of Mind. It was fun because it was outside the box of that weird, heroic, stoic box Riker occupied, and Jim Conway directed and I said, “You know, I feel silly doing some of these things,” and he said, “I’ll let you know if it’s too silly.” And I use that with actors sometimes, because actors are afraid to go over the top if you’re doing insanity, all the shit you’ve seen done badly. But if you don’t at least try to go out of your comfort zone, you’re not going to find good, magical stuff.
Q: When you watched Picard with your wife, how did you react?
A: I was so proud. I remember going into the first season and Patrick (Stewart) and Marina (Sirtis) were just on fire, and I literally hadn’t done any heavy lifting in acting in years and I was really afraid I was going to get my ass handed to me. But it was the comfort of being with your old friends and a character that had old relationships that really made it work.
Q: This is a weird one, but was there anything about the way Leonard Nimoy directed that you liked and tried out?
A: I didn’t notice anything about his directing, but I did steal one of his lines because people always ask about being typecast, like is it a curse and all that shit. And Leonard I think famously said it’s better to be typecast than not to be cast at all. (Laughs.)
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PREVIEW
Jonathan Frakes at Edmonton Expo
Where Edmonton Expo Centre (7575 118 Ave)
When 4 p.m. – 9 p.m. Fri.; 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. Sat.; 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Sun.
Tickets 3-Day pass $89, single day adult passes start at $34
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