Jonathan Frakes is rarely far from ‘Star Trek’ and that is still the case. After directing episodes of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’, he has stepped over to helm two episodes of the upcoming ‘Picard’ and will return to the front of the camera as Commander William Riker, Picard’s “Number One” for so many years on ‘The Next Generation’ and the tie-in movies.
Frakes was among the celebs present at Star Trek Las Vegas 2019, where he raved about the new ensemble cast, although he had to be careful not to reveal too much.
“I had done a show with Michelle Hurd, who is spectacular. Alison Pill, I had no idea. She can do anything. We have a new guy named Evan from Australia, who is wonderful. And there is the hot Santiago Cabrera, who is just crushing it. He is playing – Oh, I shouldn’t tell you anything about what he is doing. That is exactly the kind of thing I get in trouble for. It is a great cast.
“The cast is spectacular, needless to say. And Patrick [Stewart] is crushing it now, is he not? His confidence, his vulnerability, his sense of humor, his emotionality is up on the surface. He’s as great as he has ever been. And because he loves the project and because the writing is spectacular.”
One complaint longtime ‘Trek’ fans have had with ‘Discovery’ is the adoption of the modern standard of season-long storylines, tailored to make the show more binge-able, and the abandoning of the past threat-of-the-week format. Frakes indicates that ‘Picard’ will be more of a throwback to the older style.
“‘Picard’ has been advertised as ten movies, by Patrick and Alex [Kurtzman] and all of the people involved. And the two that I did were completely different stylistically and were written differently and shot differently and therefore each will have their own identity. Discovery is much more of the J.J. [Abrams] cinematic filmmaking, shoot-to-thrill sort of approach, which is a blast, I have to say. Picard is a more thoughtful show, and very elegant. We still got some lens flares. But it is stylistically, each episode is driven by the story and therefore the shooting style is different.”
Fans can judge for themselves when ‘Star Trek: Picard’ arrives on CBS All Access in 2020.
Source: Trek Movie
