Jonathan Frakes on the Open Pike Night Stage!

[00:00:00] This is Jonathan Frakes and you're listening to Open Pike Night. Or are you? Nope, we made that one up. Complete fabrication. Who's the tallest man you ever saw? You ever been to a Chinese restaurant? Have you ever wanted to write your name in wet cement? Have you noticed how real estate agents have become celebrities? No, not this time. No, the writers made that one up. I'm sorry.

[00:00:33] Is this thing on? Hello? Hello?

[00:00:50] Welcome to Open Pike Night, the Strange New Worlds podcast where your calls are the prime directive. I'm your host, Jon T. Boulds, here tonight with our amazing guests and our wonderful callers on stage to help us welcome a voice we promise you'll recognize. But first, let me introduce my co-hosts. The man who has had the foresight to grow a full beard just for this interview, Jesse Bailey. That's right, Producer John. And my sideburns don't peel off.

[00:01:17] And the man who decided he was better than the rest of us and is experiencing all of Riker non-stop without any of those pesky 20-year breaks between shows, Cameron Harrison. Guys, I am so excited. I may have pulled a groin muscle stepping over the back of my chair to get here today, but I'm going to power through. I'm ready. And tonight, a man whose name appears in the credits of no fewer than nine different Star Trek series and four movies with a commanding presence both in front of and behind the camera.

[00:01:47] The single most famous combination of trombonist, chef, and poker player in all of science fiction. Some would say a man who is truly beyond belief. Welcome to the Open Pike Night stage, Mr. Jonathan Frakes. Whoa! What a fabulous introduction. Red alert! These guys are killing it! That's all downhill from there, though. Yep. Day made. Yeah, we use all our energy in the first two minutes and then it just tapers off, so. Well, that's how they do it on Smartless.

[00:02:18] Well, thanks for being here with us. The pleasure is Bob. Well, we are definitely going to get to Strange New Worlds and your work there, but we do kind of want to pave the road to your director's chair there. So let's start way back at the beginning, Jonathan. How did a young Jonathan Frakes first get interested in acting? Where'd you get the bug? Oh, I did play in junior high school and high school and it was a blast, but I had no concept of it as a profession.

[00:02:48] I mean, I had no concept of it, but I didn't dare dream. So, here we go. In the beginning... Uh-oh. No, I did... Actually, I so enjoyed it and I never considered. I went to Penn State and I went over to the theater department to sign up to be an usher so I could get him to see the plays for free that summer.

[00:03:15] And it was a professional company from New York had come in and they were doing... Parasel, I think. They were doing Arthur Coppett's Indians. And the director of the play came down the hall and said, what are you doing? I said, I'm signing up to be an usher. He said, oh, you're a tall guy. Are you interested in acting? I said, well, yeah, but I'm a psychiatry major. I wanted to be a shrink, by the way. Which has paid off in the long run, as it turns out. So, Richard Abelman, who became one of my mentors, said to me, how would you like to be in this play?

[00:03:45] I said, are you kidding me? He said, no, all you got to do is you sit on the ground, you're going to play the drum. It was a play about Wild Bill Hickok and it took place in the... It was kind of a dark vision of those old Western... You know, those rodeo shows. And actors from Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Arena Stage in Washington and Neighborhood Playhouse and Actors Studio. All these wonderful New York actors are there.

[00:04:13] So I started to go to rehearsal and it dawned on me, as the summer went on, that these guys go to work at like two in the afternoon. Rehearse for three hours on the play that's coming up next. Get a break. Come back to the theater at 7.30 for half hour. Put their makeup on and do the play. Because there was a repertory deal, obviously. Work till 10.30. And they're in the bar by 10.45. And, you know, watch them repeat.

[00:04:42] Then I thought, what a fucking gig this is. Can I do this? So I changed majors and got the single most useless degree one could ever ask for. I got a BFA in theater arts with a focus in acting. Now there's something that guarantees you success. Hard relate. Hard relate. Jesus. Oh, you all did the same thing? Some of us. Some of us. Yeah. I'm just going back for my bachelor's degree right now, actually.

[00:05:12] As an actor? No. Communications. Communications. Yeah. Yeah. That's much more useful. At least that is a real job ladder, doesn't it? Communications. It seems like it. Looking at the degree tree there. It's like, okay, this can go a lot of different ways. Yeah, because the acting ladder is on the ground. Yeah. That's what we've heard. Somehow it propelled you to space, eventually, into the next generation, where, I'm assuming, but I'll let you answer, how did you then get the director's bug?

[00:05:40] Well, I directed a little bit in college and did a couple of scenes and a couple of workshops and all that kind of business. But I've found that as great as it is to be a regular on a television series, and let me tell you, there is no better gig. There's a lot of waiting around, as you have probably heard from every actor you've ever spoken to. So, somebody famous, I'm not sure who, let's give the credit to Gene Hackman, maybe, said, I act for free, they pay me to wait.

[00:06:10] And I like a nap. I don't like a nap as much as Brent Spiner likes a nap. But I like a good nap. But you can only take so many fucking naps during the day. So, I went back and I used to go back to the set and hang out. It was very clear to me that the hub of the TV-making universe is around Video Village, where the director was and the cinematographer was hanging out and the ADs were there. So, I started to shadow and started to hang out casually.

[00:06:35] And then I asked Rick Berman, who was the keeper of the flame, and Roddenberry, if I could, and they said, sure. So, I became a shadow everywhere while we were shooting. And then I'd go into the editing room. I was, they let me in reluctant because all the editors, of course, wanted to be directors as well. So, that was the area that I knew the least about. And I spent about 300 hours there.

[00:07:02] And then I started to get invited to the pre-production stuff and the casting stuff and the visual effects and the concept meetings. And then the scoring sessions, which were spectacular because in those days we had complete orchestras. So, on the lot at Paramount, I was given this opportunity to really see everything. All the sausage-making.

[00:07:27] And I did this for almost three years before Berman finally relented and gave me an episode. And it happened to be a data episode with Brent Spiner, which were invariably wonderful. And it was the spec script, the first script written by Rene Esha-Varia, who went on to do Castle and all these other shows, as you probably know the CSI show. And it was his spec script. It was my first effort. It was a data story.

[00:07:54] And it was called The Offspring, where data builds a daughter. And it went very well. As you also know, we used to do 26 episodes a year. So, believe me, they weren't all home runs, you know. So, if you got a shitty episode and you also didn't come in on time and things did not go well, it could have been my last episode. But because things sort of fell into place and I had the support of the crew knew that I was dying to do it.

[00:08:24] And the actors just hooked the piss out of me as they would anyway. So, in their strange way, they provided that support. So, it worked out. It worked out so well. And I'm so much better at it than I ever was as an actor. And I enjoy it because, you know, there's no control like total control. Yes, directing is for people who just really want to play God. Again, I can relate.

[00:08:50] And it's only you have that delusion that you're in charge until you turn in your cut. And then the shooters just rip it apart and, you know, use nothing but close-ups on their favorite lines. But that's another story. Well, we are going to get to how well that directing turned out for you. But let's pause and listen to some calls who, obviously, some of our callers have questions about TNG and Riker. Cool. Yeah. Here we go. Here is Vernon. Hey, gang.

[00:09:17] World-famous Star Trek comic book artist Vernon Smith here. And my questions for Mr. Jonathan Frakes are... One. What did you have for dinner last night? Two. What should I have for dinner tonight? And three. What's the one thing in Star Trek that you wish there'd be a follow-up of? For example, the alien bugs from Conspiracy. No! Or whatever happened to Tasha Yar's Romulan daughter, Selah? Maybe. Bonus question. Will you be at Star Trek Las Vegas this year?

[00:09:47] All right. I'll hang up the phone now and listen to your answer on the radio. Thanks. Have a blessed day. Wow, Vernon. You are fantastic. Salmon with potatoes and vegetables. I would recommend the same for you. Maybe change to halibut. But I love the... I think the missing link, besides Celia, obviously, is that Thomas Riker, William Riker's doppelganger,

[00:10:13] whatever he was, a clone, was mysteriously left in jail by the beautiful and talented then not Visitor. And that story is waiting to be told. Does she come and spring me out of jail? Does she miss me? Is there something there? It just feels like that should have been brought back. And I will stay with Vegas. How about that? All those fucking questions. Yeah, he really crammed him in. He kind of gamed the system a little bit, but... That was not a first-time caller. Yeah, for sure. He was actually our most recent guest as well.

[00:10:44] All right. We got another caller here in line, actually, too. Here is our friend Bobby. Bobby, baby. Bobby, Bobby, Bobby. First, thank you, Jonathan Frakes, for being on Open Pike Night. That is just amazing. I'm Bobby Blue. We met briefly when you were at Portland, Oregon at a fan expo. And by meat, I mean, basically, I held around your waist as long as I could. So probably not really meat for you. But I do remember how warm and friendly and generous you were with your time. So thank you for that.

[00:11:13] Your fans always love that. My question for you is, when you think back about William T. Riker's character, is there anything about his arc that you wish didn't happen? And also anything about that character's arc that you wish would have happened or seen further develop? And you can answer that thinking all the way back to through TNG, but also from the end of TNG up through the character in Picard.

[00:11:41] I'm just curious what you think about that. At any rate, thank you for being on the podcast. Your fans love you so much. I love you so much. Come back to Portland and I will try not to squeeze you so hard next time. Live long and prosper. Thank you, Bobby. I have two comments for that. I always thought that it seemed less than heroic for Riker to continue to say throughout the

[00:12:08] first few years of next gen, I want to get my own ship. I really am looking to have my own command. And then he's offered a couple of those ships. I can't remember the titles, the names of them. But he says, I'm not ready yet. Or no, I don't want to really go. And what Riker was really saying was, Frakes really doesn't want to be cut out of his show. That's what I thought. And then I confronted Michael Piller, who I think was running the show at that point.

[00:12:35] I said, so what is the deal with Riker saying he wants to be captain and then getting offered the job and turning it down? He said, yeah, I hear you, Frakes. And conveniently, I think it was in Best of Both Worlds when the Borg were attacking us. Most of the ships that Riker had been offered were blown up. And disappeared into oblivion. And I will say that's a great credit to Mr. Terry Metallus.

[00:13:01] For my money, the best Riker character work is in Picard Season 3 or Star Trek Next Generation Season 8, however you choose to see it. And it was because Terry cared so much about the characters and he knew so much about the characters. He also spent a lot of time with us individually about how he thinks, we think they would have changed over the last 20 years.

[00:13:28] And I thought he very cleverly wove into the plot and well-earned entrances for everybody. I was lucky to be throughout. But Jordy brought something special and Marina brought something special. And we were all, you know, trying to find a way to overcome Amanda Plummer. But it was a...

[00:13:53] And the thrill, the thrill of throwing Patrick Stewart off the bridge, I can't tell you. It was quite a moment. It was, wasn't it? Yeah. It was a fantastic moment. And the double layer of it being Riker and Picard and then Frakes and Stewart and us looking at each other. Can you believe? And then also I went into his quarters, I think, in, I don't remember what episode. And I said, this is the end, my friend. This was, and we thought we were going to die. That was awesome.

[00:14:23] You're going to bring the tears back right now. I'll tell you where the tears were on both sides of the camera was when we went back to the bridge of the Enterprise D. The... Oh, yeah. Those guys, Dave Blass and Liz Kozlowski, the people who... And the Akudas, obviously, who obsessed about getting the angle of the ramps right and the horseshoe that Worf stood behind and the style and texture of the chair and the materials that were used and all the Akudagrams. It was so exact.

[00:14:54] It brought... Well, I had watched it being built because I think I was directing prior to when we actually introduced the scene. But when we were first called to the first rehearsal on the bridge, it was on a different soundstage. I was riding with LeVar and Marina. And I got out of the car first and I watched and I ran into the stage. And as I looked back, I watched their reaction to seeing the bridge.

[00:15:18] And it was so real and it was so clearly emotional and tear-filled that it was very easy to play that scene where we opened the turbolift door and all of us walked out and had the same... The characters had the same reaction as the actors. And it was... I've talked to people, tens of thousands of people at these conventions about... And the emotional reaction that they had is very similar to the emotional reaction that we had.

[00:15:47] Which only is a credit to what Terry did and what all the production designer did. It's an all-time moment. It really is. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, speaking of Riker's arc, I want to go back to the very beginning of his arc. In fact, his birth, which at least according to the back of the action figure, is in my hometown of Valdez, Alaska. And I am one of the people spearheading the effort to get a statue. I met one of your partners in crime in Indianapolis. Oh, he sent a picture.

[00:16:17] You had signed our poster. Thank you. Yeah. What a great honor. An honor for us. I mean, growing up in a place known for... Clearly, you're having trouble getting it off the ground. I didn't think you'd have that much trouble with fucking Spock over at Vulcan. Right. You paid to get it up. But we're still working hard. And so, I mean, I have to ask, when you found out that your character was from Alaska, did that inform the performance in any way? Or was it just a bit of biographical datum for him? It was a bit of biographical datum.

[00:16:47] I hadn't been to Alaska. I had an imagination of what it's like there. My son has fished there and loved it. And I'm told by everyone who comes back from there, who has worked... I know people who've worked up in an anchorage at the Alaska Rep. A lot of Alaskans come and talk to me and feel as if I should know, and I should know. But I'm not sure what Roddenberry's intention was, unless it was the idea that he is from... I don't really...

[00:17:16] I was going to try to vamp on that. I don't know what his intention was, to be frank. Yeah, what I've read is that he visited there and just thought it was beautiful. But I feel it does lend to the character's independence and resourcefulness. That's all things Alaskans at least pride ourselves on, whether it's true or not. Well, that makes sense. That feels a little like the mayor said, I am proud to... I just picture Riker there, phasering snow off the roof. You know.

[00:17:44] Well, speaking of Alaskans, we've got another call. Yeah, here is Marcy. It's Marcy from the Idle Ride podcast. So I'm going to speak directly to you, Jonathan Frakes. I am one of your biggest fans. I'm currently really nervous. Thank you for all the work that you've done on Star Trek. I'm going to talk about my favorite thing about your character, Riker. It's that twinkle in your eye. Every scene with another character, I'm not really looking at them when they're doing their funny straight man stuff.

[00:18:13] I'm definitely looking at you in the background, waiting for your classic Riker grin with that twinkle. It makes me think that if we were like co-workers and at a meeting, you would be the person I could look at and your eye would twinkle at me and my eye would twinkle at you and we'd be laughing at the stupid stuff that our co-workers are saying at a meeting.

[00:18:39] So you as a person I've met at a Comic Con and obviously I get nervous around actors and I was coattailing off of Cameron and Cameron was asking you all these questions and then you look directly at me and addressed me and I felt like you truly saw me. And then also my husband got a cameo from you for our wedding reception and you did such an amazing job. You were so sincere.

[00:19:07] So anyway, I feel like that comes out in your acting and your directing everything. Your sincerity, your silliness, all of those things. We love you. Thank you, Jonathan Frakes. Marcy, that was lovely. I will, the twinkle reminds me a little bit of two things. Roddenberry, when he hired me or when they finally after seven auditions, six weeks, decided

[00:19:34] that they were going to give me the job, called me back into his office and said, I want Riker to have a Midwestern Gary Cooper glint in his eye and never smile. Which, as you can probably tell from knowing me now, that was a complicated ask because that's not really how I rolled. So I tried that and I kept thinking about that whenever I was on stage, which is why I

[00:20:03] looked so uptight. I felt like I had a stick up my ass for those first couple of seasons. And eventually Roddenberry asked me to, you know, said, well, let's get rid of my Frakes in. And also, if you recall, in the beginning of the show, it certainly encountered Farfman. The story was that Riker and Troi had a relationship. And her empathy had been passed a little bit into Riker. And we shared, first of all, we were in love with each other.

[00:20:33] We had been asked to serve in the same ship. And there was clearly a relationship. And somewhere, very quickly, the writers decided, oh, no, we've got to free both of these characters up for whatever reason. But obviously, some of it had to do with having relationships with other characters that would be as guest stars.

[00:20:56] So Marina and I collectively and consciously made a decision to not let Riker and Troi's love for each other disappear, even though the writers had completely ignored it. So there are many times where Riker and Troi exchange looks, much like Marcy and I do. And it was, as a director, it was great in the cut.

[00:21:25] I always knew I could find something great if I cut to Marina. That was just a general truth. But also, it kept us alive in scenes in which we often didn't have much to do. Or if something in the scene could trigger a reaction from a people who cared about each other the way we did. And then fast forward whatever took 25 years. They decided, oh, maybe it'd be great if Riker and Troi got married. So we, of course, take credit for keeping that relationship alive.

[00:21:55] That's awesome. That's great. And yeah, all of us were there to see Andrew and Marcy's wedding reception cameo from you. And it was, we couldn't think of anybody better to announce their wedding date. That's sweet. It was fun to watch that. Yeah. You guys, this is a good format. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we've got a handful of more callers. We'll try and get through as many as we can.

[00:22:20] We are about to cover First Contact on Cam's other podcast, Green Chirt, and Newbies Trek for the Next Generation. Which Marcy is also on. Which Marcy was on, and I'm the producer of too. What's something about this movie that you think goes unnoticed or doesn't get commented on enough that we should look for as we rewatch it? It's interesting. I was talking a lot about First Contact this weekend. I think, I mean, obviously it was my first movie. But also was a bulletproof script.

[00:22:50] Thanks to Bran and Ron. And I've always thought that I had been given a bulletproof script. It was mine to screw up. But maybe the element that made it work so well is that the guest stars who we invited to work with us, James Cromwell, who was just coming off Babe, the incredible Alice Krieger.

[00:23:12] It's hard to imagine anybody nastier or sexier or wiser than she is the Borg Queen or the first Borg Queen. We had a couple of wonderful actors since. And my godmother, Alfre Woodard, as the human through which we meant to see the whole world.

[00:23:34] Those three guest stars joined our Star Trek family, if you will, so easily, so hand in glove, that there was, it felt like they were part of our world right from the very beginning. I think there was some magic in that. My favorite moment is, or moments, is Troy getting drunk with Cochran. I think that is absolute gold.

[00:24:05] Agree, agree. And let's not also forget. Hands down. Let's also not forget Adam Scott as the defiance helmsman in one scene. I listened to Adam Scott on SmartList yesterday, as a matter of fact. And they were going through his career. And I got to say, selfishly, I was hoping he would mention that he is. Yeah. Because they were talking about the early part of his career. It may have been his first big gig. I was shocked to see him there. I just, like this last week, got hard into Severance.

[00:24:33] And then I saw him pop up there and was like, this is surreal. What is happening? Oh, and he was so perfect in that one little moment. And then I'm obviously a huge fan of his, and from Parks and from Severance. But I was listening, and I had this selfish, guilty, I had my earbuds in, I was walking my dog, and I thought, God, wouldn't it be great if he remembered me? And then, ironically, they were referencing somebody from another story or another show. And they said, well, that's DeForest Kelly.

[00:25:03] He said, no, no, DeForest Kelly is the guy from Star Trek. I said, oh, here it is. There's a Star Trek opening he's going to take. Well, when we get him on, we'll play this clip for him. Please do. Yeah. What a first line for your first big movie. Like, just to get to announce the Enterprise. Man. Yeah. That's amazing. All right. Well, we have another caller here. Here is our buddy, Steve. Happy St. Patrick's Day Open Pike Night. It's Sincera.

[00:25:31] I'll catch up with you lads later. Today is all about the man, the myth, the beard, Jonathan Frakes. I bet my fellow callers have gotten the new Trek questions covered, so I'll just say it was always truly exciting to see your name in the director's chair on Disco and Strange New Worlds. So, Mr. Frakes, as someone in the rare camp that loves insurrection and would even if there were a hundred scenes of Sovereign Class joysticks.

[00:25:59] What were your plans for directing a sequel before Nemesis was made? I was betting on a revisit of Season 1's Conspiracy, but bad merles instead of maggots. Lastly, I gotta plug my own show, Battle Stage Theatrica, and ask if you had directed an episode of Battlestar Galactica, what would it have been? And what ship would Riker have served on? My guess is the Battlestar Dionysus. It's been an honor, sir.

[00:26:28] Live long and prosper. Wow. Was he doing his Will Arnett voice? Oh. We've met him in real life. He actually just sounds like that. Yeah. I'm not sure why he was being so quiet, but yeah. Oh, it's the boss I was thinking about. Yeah. It's very engaging. I didn't know there were plans for Insurrection sequel. I don't have any idea what he's talking about.

[00:26:54] I do know that Nemesis was unfortunately our Nemesis. It was the first Star Trek movie I'm told that lost money, and therefore that's when the franchise closed down, and the door was locked until J.J. reopened it, I guess five, six, seven years later, with that wonderful success with that new cast, of whom Carl Urban as Bones was, he just channeled it, didn't he?

[00:27:25] Yeah. Oh, yeah. We're kind of just hoping he shows up as Bones in Strange New Worlds. Oh, yeah. Oh, there's so much good stuff in there. Oh, you know that Scotty is on Strange New Worlds now. Oh, yes. We've talked to him. He's fabulous. Yeah, we had a good discussion with him. He's just so good. I had him in my episode last year. That's all I got. Get yourself in trouble, John. Get yourself in trouble. Well, speaking of your episode,

[00:27:54] you've described it as a classic Hollywood murder mystery. Did you do any prep by watching murder mysteries for that episode? I'm not allowed to say anything more about that episode because I have a horrible, long history with pissing people at CBS off. That's fair. We won't get you in trouble. Oh, I have gotten in such trouble. You've heard the story about the Mirror Universe? Yep. Yeah. Oh, God in heaven. Please forgive me. Please forgive me.

[00:28:23] Just blame it on your Mirror version. That's who did it. Yeah. Yeah. That's who it was. It's Thomas. That's who everything. Very good line. I'm going to use that going forward. Yeah. Let's move right on then to our good buddy, Platty. This is going to be a fun one. Hey, OpenPikeNight. This is PlattyM3 calling in with my hits, shits, and giggles for Jonathan Frakes. But in a twist, it's not going to be me telling him what his hits and shits were. I want to ask him. Hello there, Mr. Frakes.

[00:28:52] I know my OpenPikeNight friends are obviously focused on Star Trek, but I'd like to know a couple answers from your time outside the Star Trek franchise. What was a show you either acted, produced, or directed that was completely a surprise hit for you when you didn't see it coming? What was one that, looking back, was maybe a surprise shit? Or, you know, we could just keep it nice. Maybe it was an A- experience instead of an A-plus one. And what was one experience that had you giggling or just laughing out loud behind the scenes

[00:29:21] that, for us fans watching nowadays, we'd never guess how much fun it was? Thanks for all your years with Roswell and Star Trek and librarians and dozens and dozens more. This is Platy M3, signing off. Oh, the wonderful producer of Librarians and Leverage, of which I'm very proud, is Dean Devlin, who, after I had been sent to movie jail, which happened when Thunderbirds took a shit, which was the biggest surprising shit I've ever experienced,

[00:29:50] and I haven't been asked to do a movie since, Devlin called me and said, can you take over and do the second Librarians movie in Africa? Because I can't do it because I'm involved with something else. I said, oh, go to Africa and shoot a movie with Noah Wiley and Bob Newhart and Jane Curtin. Let me think. Yes. So that was an absolute game changer, and it turned into a lifelong relationship with both Dean,

[00:30:18] who loves the action-adventure comedy genre as much as I do, and Noah Wiley, who is now currently on probably the best new show on television, The Pit, which if you haven't seen, you need to. I've heard it's fantastic. Each week it just gets better and better and better. So those franchises, both Librarian and Leverage, have been nothing but fabulous. I just did a Leverage set on, I think, in April. A Leverage Redemption, I believe, is what the new show is called.

[00:30:47] It is my second home besides the Star Trek home. All right. Our next caller here is our friend Michelle. Hey, OpenPike Knight. This is a milestone episode, and as a big TNG fan, I am psyched that you're having Jonathan Frakes on the pod. I am incredibly grateful for everything Jonathan has done and continues to do for the Star Trek franchise, and especially the way that he's embraced not just Star Trek, but also the fans.

[00:31:15] And of course, I have to talk about the iconic character of Will Riker. Love Will Riker and everything that Jonathan brought to that role. The humor, the heart, the depth. Just a really iconic Star Trek character. Very beloved. But also, Jonathan has directed some of my favorite TNG episodes, from The Offspring to Cause and Effect to Attached, which brings me to the crusher connection that I usually make here on OpenPike,

[00:31:44] because I do love the character of Beverly Crusher as well. And it's really just that friendship between Riker and Beverly, and just that really great bond, the playfulness, but also the depth that they had with each other. I wish we could have seen more of that, but I'm grateful for what we got. Finally, just a two-fold question for you, Jonathan. Number one, how do you think technology has changed the way that you direct Star Trek?

[00:32:14] Or has it changed the way you direct Star Trek? And number two, is anything happening with the Brent and Johnny show? I was really looking forward to that. I don't know if it was a bit. I know you guys had an email, but it just sounded like a lot of fun, so I was looking for an update. Thanks so much for coming on the pod. Live long and prosper. Oh, Michelle, the Brent and Johnny show is alive and well in our minds. I was just with him this weekend, and we can't believe that they haven't gotten that off the ground yet.

[00:32:43] I will tell you this, so I have a serious answer for the first question, which is the technology of the volume or the AR wall, which I'm sure you've heard about, which has literally changed the shooting process, the experience of making a show, because no longer do you have to stand in front of a green screen and pretend that the X is some angry Romulan yelling at you or hold a stick with a green tennis ball and run back and forth in front of the camera

[00:33:11] and tell the actors to watch your tennis ball moving around. You actually have 30,000 LED lights in this almost 360-degree environment, about 80 feet high, that literally is the environment in which the scene takes place. And learning to use that wall effectively and giving the actors and the technicians the opportunity to actually be in the environment

[00:33:36] has completely changed the landscape in the most positive way. So each time I have the privilege of working on the wall, it has, I think you get better at it and you get, because the camera, you can't work the cameras the way that you ordinarily can to get multi-camera shots. The A camera, not to get too far into the weeds, determines the movement of the LEDs on the wall, so you can't piggyback a camera behind it

[00:34:03] because that camera will have a different stuff to lock in focus, essentially. But it is a spectacular tool and can be used. It's good for everybody. Unfortunately, we're told that you need to give the AR wall builders and artists 12 weeks' warning of what your set is going to be, so the writers have to be very far ahead of production. So moving into Strange New Worlds territory,

[00:34:31] we do have one more call for that, but I do have to ask, so those old scientists, instant classic, universally loved by the fandom. What a gift. But you really managed to balance those moments of very funny comedy with really moving drama, and we feel like we've noticed that on the episodes that you direct, the camera gives actors a little more time

[00:35:01] to move through their emotional beats. Is that all in our heads, or is that something you make time for? That's a fabulous observation. My objectives when I'm given a script is to not get caught up in the fancy technology of making shots that are spectacular, because you'll lose the two most important elements of Star Trek, in my opinion, of successful Star Trek, which is the heart, which is what I think you're referencing, and the levity. And on those old scientists,

[00:35:31] we had those elements in spades. With the addition of Jack Wade and Tawny Newsome to the set, they brought this, they're both, I mean, Tawny's a big improv star, but Jack's a wonderful improv actor. And at one point, they were improvising, and Kat Lynn and Bill Wackhoff, who were the writers of the show, and I looked at each other and thought, what do you think? And we said, well, we're supposed to be the adults here. I loved it. What about you? They said, we loved it too.

[00:36:01] So that opened up Anson and Rebecca and Ethan and Melissa and Chrissy. And so the show, that episode, was free in a way that Star Trek virtually never is. I'm sure you've heard from others. It is the most pedantic, strict, draconic writers need their words spoken exactly the way they're written, and it's been that way, I gather,

[00:36:30] from Chatter's days. So the magic of having these animated characters come to life, who conveniently, for all of us, looked like the characters from Lower Decks. I mean, it was a gift. It was a great script, and I was thrilled to be given that one. Speaking of letting the camera linger on the actors' faces, how did you direct Ethan Peck to give the creepiest smile of TV history? Well, he found that in there. We worked on that, believe me.

[00:36:59] And I went in really tight on it when I saw how disgusting and weird it was. Yeah. He's unafraid. And that's the other thing, you provide an environment on a set where the actors feel like there are no mistakes. You know, I say it out loud because we're not wasting film. They're just little X's and O's and, you know, it's digital and it's not like we're killing anybody for the amount of time it takes. There are no mistakes. If we need to do another take, we do another take. And I said,

[00:37:29] I will bring you back. If you think you've gone over the top, I will bring you back and it's much easier for me to reduce than it is to try to find something. And that smile is a perfect example of that because the tone of that show, there was room for that bizarre smile. There you go. There it is. Brilliant. All right. Well, our last caller for the interview is our good friend Melanie. Hi, guys. Hello, Jonathan. This is Melanie. I don't have a question, but Jonathan,

[00:37:58] let me tell you something you've probably heard before. You've been in this business for a long time. I was there in Dortmund at a German film and Comic Con at the end of last year and I was standing in the queue to get your signature on Saturday morning after driving through the night and the rain and it was amazing. Then you came walking in and the crowd was like, oh, there he is. And for me, hearing you call out to us, it felt incredible. Hearing your voice and seeing you. TNG was the first series I started to listen to in English and your voice was suddenly all in my head.

[00:38:28] I recalled parts of the dialogue from Frame of Mind, the episode where Riker is hallucinating after being given drugs when captured and is reliving a theater play. It's one of my favorites. So, a shiver ran down my spine and I was so happy to meet you. I still remember what you told me after our picture was taken or the autograph table. I asked Ethan for a mind-meld pose and Babs, who I met a week later for a fighting pose for the pictures. But I was so nervous I couldn't ask you for anything. I'm smiling looking at my picture with you now.

[00:38:57] It turned out so great. So, yes, Will Riker was my favorite in TNG after being a Kirk fan and now I'm a definite Pike fan. But meeting you, it was so awesome. Thank you for being there and thank you for coming to FatCon in June. I'll be there as well. Maybe you can tell us about some of the jokes you do on the Strangered World set or the prank Anson played on you. But now, take care and live long and prosper. Melody, may you live long and prosper as well. I will close

[00:39:27] with a little anecdote from the Strangered World set. Before we broke for lunch one day when we were shooting local scientists, Anthony asked everybody to stay around. He said, I've got something I want to play. And he had found somewhere, have you heard this story before? I have so. He had found a clip of my audition for a character in Welcome Back, Potter. Wow. Wow. And I was dreadful in it. And he had arranged

[00:39:56] somehow with, I think, with Peel, who was our, you know, to get him into the monitors. So before lunch, we broke. They had to watch me at probably 22 doing some real bad audition acting for Welcome Back, Potter. And Anthony couldn't have been prouder of embarrassing me. It was great. It was very loving in a strange way. Anyway, guys, this has been a delight. May you all live long and prosper.

[00:40:25] And thanks for coming. I wish I had a good joke for you. I told you a number of jokes today. No, no, you're totally fine. You're close with an Anson joke. Yeah, we appreciate that. You're welcome, guys. That was great. Thank you once again to Jonathan Frakes for, thank you once again with, oh my God, I'm starstruck. I was sitting there and like, oh, I'm actually kind of starstruck. Yeah. That's the first time. I'm not saying I'm not like impressed

[00:40:55] with the people we've interviewed before. This is freaking Will Riker we were talking to. Okay. Not seeing him also made it feel a little more like Riker. Like we didn't see old Frakes. Yeah. We saw, yeah, we were hailing him. We just heard Riker, yeah. Yeah. Oh, but we also heard some fantastic callers tonight and we really appreciate all of them for lending their voices to Open Pike Night. Jesse, if any of the listeners, hopefully some new listeners today, want to call into Open Pike Night, how can they do that? It's really easy, John.

[00:41:25] All they have to do is go to openpike.com. There's a little tab that will pop up no matter what page you're on that says record your message. You can add your voice to the show there or if you prefer to record an MP3 and email it to us at openpike at gmail.com, we will get it all the same and we will play it for the guests. And I have to echo John, thank you all so much for sending your calls. I know this was a quick turnaround but we really wanted to make this happen and we literally could not have done it

[00:41:55] without you. So thank you. Absolutely. And Cam, what have you been doing that's related to Jonathan Frakes lately? Yeah, like we mentioned we are covering First Contact next which if you've heard this and haven't heard our First Contact episode over on Green Shirt and it'll be struck through TNG, do so now. It's dropped on the same day. It's a First Contact day special. We're covering all the TNG movies right now before heading into Picard and getting to that emotional scene on the bridge of the Enterprise D.

[00:42:26] Fantastic. Well, it has been well, not the longest of nights but man, it has been a long time coming for our interview with Jonathan Frakes so the OpenPike crew has to go raise the backs of all the chairs to honor the man so be sure to clean up after yourselves be sure to tip your servers you can go anywhere you want but you can't stay here.