Whenever you consider an important individuals in Star Trek historical past, by way of actors not 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 for the reason that ‘70s—and when Discovery ends in just a few months, it’ll break the development of his affect, not less than in entrance of the digital camera.
Since starring as William T. Riker in The Subsequent Era, Frakes has made a visitor look in virtually each Star Trek collection since, either as Riker or a facsimile of him, or his villainous transporter clone brother Thomas (accountable for the greatest fake beard reveal in tv historical past, due to Deep Area 9). Simply three collection have gone with out an on-screen Frakes look to this point—Discovery, Prodigy, and Unusual New Worlds—and now we all know not less than certainly one of them by no means will.
When requested by Den of Geek at a current look throughout SXSW whether or not or not Frakes would make an on-screen look in Discovery’s closing season, co-creator and producer Alex Kurtzman supplied a really resoundingly flat “No.” It’s not stunning contemplating that, as Discovery is now to this point into Star Trek’s future, Riker is extraordinarily useless at this level. At the very least it’s going to at all times have a particular connection to Frakes by 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. However it does certainly imply the top to a decades-long development of creating Frakes some of the 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 ready in 2385, whereas Riker was nonetheless in energetic service even after the delivery of his son Thaddeus, for whom he would step again from energetic obligation to attempt to assist deal with when he was identified 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 improbable crossover with Decrease Decks, “Those Old Scientists”) being pre-original Trek would make a Riker look very troublesome, however Frakes might nonetheless play some position, whether or not it’s an ancestor or a completely new character.
We’ll have to attend and see—and behold what Frakes cooks up as his parting present for Discovery—when season 5 begins streaming on April 4.
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