Star Trek legend Jonathan Frakes says the newer Paramount+ Star Trek shows have a more "cinematic" feel to them than shows did during the Rick Berman era of Star Trek. Berman served as co-creator and executive producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise, and was fairly strict when it came to how those shows were filmed and directed. As one of Star Trek's most prolific directors, Jonathan Frakes has helmed episodes from several Trek series, and the current shows are run differently than those of the 1990s and early 2000s.

In an interview with Variety conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strikes, Frakes compared his experience directing shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager to directing the newer Paramount+ Star Trek shows. Read his full quote below:

“The lead voices of the writing staff certainly influenced that whole era, the Berman era, of ‘Star Trek.’ Shows were similar in flavor and shows were similarly produced, because of Rick. There was a tonal similarity to that that there is now with the new new ‘Trek,’ in which we are encouraged to shoot the thrill. It’s very cinematic in a way that our shows were not, necessarily.”

Star Trek On Paramount Plus Changed How Trek Shows Are Made

The television landscape has changed drastically in the last few years, and the newer Star Trek shows reflect many of those changes. While new episodes of the Paramount+ Trek come out weekly, they still have to be binge-able to fit in with the current streaming era of television. The new Star Trek shows also feel different from the older ones. Star Trek: Discovery, in particular, feels more cinematic, with its explosive set-pieces and shocking reveals. Discovery is never afraid to go big, putting its characters through multiple potentially universe-ending level scenarios. Star Trek: Picard also told complex season-long stories, with Captain Shaw actor Todd Stashwick even saying that Picard season 3 was basically "a 10-hour movie."

When TNG aired in the late 1980s and early 1990s, most television shows took a more episodic approach to storytelling, meaning each episode would tell a self-contained story. This meant that the characters would end up in more or less the same position at the end of each episode, leaving little room for substantial character development. While Star Trek: Strange New Worlds also takes an episodic approach, it still incorporates more season-long elements and character development than many of the older Trek shows did. The way Star Trek tells its stories may have changed, but the love the people behind Star Trek have for the franchise is still on full display.

Source: Variety