It seems the present we have been watching was not Star Trek, however The Final Frontier, a Nineteen Sixties TV present whose manufacturing staff have been the topic of a homicide thriller that has been tailored within the prototype holodeck program.
Inside that story in a narrative in a narrative was a playground the place the Unusual New Worlds manufacturing staff may make a funhouse mirror reflection of Star Trek’s authentic collection.
“It was nonetheless splendidly camp and arch and absurd, and all of the completely different departments appeared to come back collectively and knew how you can tonally wink at that,” Frakes tells us. “It wasn’t as severe as TOS, it was an homage, however it was additionally its personal little wild animal.”
Frakes has an extended historical past with Star Trek. He was, in fact, Commander William Riker on Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology, a job which led to his first directing gig. He has gone on to turn out to be a prolific tv director in his personal proper, however that profession has included Deep Space 9, Voyager, Enterprise, two Star Trek motion pictures (First Contact and Riot), the videogame Star Trek Klingon, and each dwell motion iteration of the brand new subsequent technology Star Treks – Discovery, Picard, and Unusual New Worlds.
However there’s additionally one other facet to that profession. Whereas he was nonetheless on Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology, Frakes performed a comedic model of himself on the sitcom Cybill, which included a romantic scene from a Trek-esque present reverse Cybill Shepherd in full lizard make-up. He directed the pilot of the comedy, Star Patrol, sadly by no means picked up for a full collection, however which was positively riffing on some Star Trek like concepts. And rather more just lately, he has directed a variety of episodes of The Orville, a present that not less than initially marketed itself of one thing like a TNG parody, even when it will definitely turned out to be one thing way more honest. However Frakes all the time goes into these parodies carrying a respect for the supply materials.
“I feel I’m all the time acutely aware, plenty of us are, of honoring Gene [Roddenberry]’s imaginative and prescient, if you’ll. All of the reveals have been profitable due to his dedication to a world with no starvation, no greed, no sexism, no racism, and an appreciation of that,” he says.