Whenever you consider crucial folks in Star Trek historical past, by way of actors no less than you may look to the legacies of individuals like William Shatner or Patrick Stewart. However the true reply to that query is probably Jonathan Frakes, who has been part of just about all televised Trek because the ‘70s—and when Discovery ends in a couple of months, it’ll break the pattern of his affect, no less than in entrance of the digicam.
Since starring as William T. Riker in The Subsequent Technology, Frakes has made a visitor look in nearly each Star Trek collection since, either as Riker or a facsimile of him, or his villainous transporter clone brother Thomas (chargeable for the greatest fake beard reveal in tv historical past, because of Deep Area 9). Simply three collection have gone with out an on-screen Frakes look to date—Discovery, Prodigy, and Unusual New Worlds—and now we all know no less than certainly one of them by no means will.
When requested by Den of Geek at a latest look throughout SXSW whether or not or not Frakes would make an on-screen look in Discovery’s last season, co-creator and producer Alex Kurtzman supplied a really resoundingly flat “No.” It’s not stunning contemplating that, as Discovery is now to date into Star Trek’s future, Riker is extraordinarily lifeless at this level. A minimum of it should all the time have a particular connection to Frakes via his position as a equally constant Trek director—Frakes has been regularly directing episodes of Discovery since its first season, and can direct the penultimate episode of the present in season 5. Nevertheless it does certainly imply the top to a decades-long pattern of creating Frakes one of the vital constant Trek actors within the franchise historical past, and there’s one thing oddly unhappy about that.
Prodigy and Unusual New Worlds each nonetheless have time to have their very own Frakes appearances—Prodigy is about in 2385, whereas Riker was nonetheless in lively service even after the start of his son Thaddeus, for whom he would step again from lively responsibility to attempt to assist deal with when he was recognized with mendaxic neurosclerosis within the run-up to the occasions of Star Trek: Picard. Unusual New Worlds (which like Discovery has a Frakes connection through directing; he shot the present’s unbelievable crossover with Decrease Decks, “Those Old Scientists”) being pre-original Trek would make a Riker look very tough, however Frakes may nonetheless play some position, whether or not it’s an ancestor or a wholly new character.
We’ll have to attend and see—and behold what Frakes cooks up as his parting reward for Discovery—when season 5 begins streaming on April 4.
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