Summary

  • Jonathan Frakes reflects on his time as a director on Star Trek: The Next Generation, describing the cast as "rambunctious" and admitting to being one of the leaders of their mischievous behavior.
  • Frakes recognizes the challenges that other directors faced when working with the cast and admits that they were difficult to manage due to their constant talking and lack of focus.
  • The cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, including Frakes, continued their lively behavior during the filming of Star Trek: Picard season 3, singing, dancing, and joking on set, much to the showrunner's amusement.

Star Trek icon Jonathan Frakes reaffirms how "rambunctious" the cast was when filming Star Trek: The Next Generation. Frakes first joined the Star Trek franchise with the premiere of TNG in 1987 where he played Commander William T. Riker, the First Officer of the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). In TNG's third season, Frakes took a turn in the director's chair and helmed the Data-centric episode "The Offspring." Since then, Frakes has become one of Star Trek's most beloved and prolific directors.

In an interview with Variety conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strikes, Jonathan Frakes discussed his time as a director on TNG. When reflecting on his first time wrangling the TNG cast, he had this to say:

“Our cast, as you probably know, is notoriously rambunctious. I was, for better or for worse, one of the leaders of that kind of behavior on the set. Some directors really didn’t like coming to work with us because we were that bad. We would be yakking right up until action. Part of it was because we were so well-prepared because Patrick [Stewart] had set his high bar from the moment he showed up, that when you come into the morning, you have done your homework, and you’re in good shape. The smart ADs actually built time into days that were all on the Enterprise bridge, knowing that we’d all have to catch up because we hadn’t seen each other."

Frakes went on to add:

"I realized what these other directors had gone through and what a**holes we were. And I had not a leg to stand on in terms of asking them to behave."

TNG's Cast Didn't Change When Filming Star Trek: Picard Season 3

The cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation on the Enterprise-D bridge

In 2021 and 2022, the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation returned to film the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard. While they may have been a bit older, it seems the cast members of TNG had not changed that much. In an April 2023 interview with Screen Rant, Picard season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas discussed his experience with the cast, saying:

They're maniacs, that cast. Anytime you call 'Cut!,' they're singing, they're dancing, they're joking, they're blah-blah-blah. They're doing all the things that they tell you to do. And this isn't a movie set where you have the time built in to let them do that. It's television, you're like, 'We gotta go!'

By all accounts, most of Star Trek: The Next Generation's cast members became lifelong friends, and it seems they cannot help but joke and laugh when they're together on set. Back in the days of TNG, they filmed more than twenty episodes per season and the cast spent more time together on the bridge of the Enterprise. Star Trek: Picard only had a short amount of time to film on the Enterprise bridge, and then the characters went off to complete different parts of the mission. Still, it was undoubtedly great to see the TNG cast again. Whether or not the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation ever reunites on screen again, Star Trek: Picard season 3 serves as a fitting send-off for these beloved characters.

Source: Variety