CURIOSITYJonathan Frakes Has Become the One Star Trek Can’t Live Without5 min read

The Director’s Chair Was His Own Idea

Between setups, waiting for Nicholas Meyer to line up shots, Nimoy kept thinking the same thought: I could do this. He asked to direct. Paramount arranged meetings with studio chief Michael Eisner. Tense meetings. Nimoy got the gig anyway.

Star Trek III worked. Then Nimoy proposed the story for The Voyage Home and directed that too. It became the franchise’s biggest commercial hit to that point. William Shatner took careful note and negotiated a favored nations clause into his next contract — if Nimoy directed one, Shatner directed the next. Star Trek V had real problems, but most of them weren’t Shatner’s fault. What matters is that Nimoy had cracked a door wide open.

Frakes Spent 300 Hours Learning to Cut Film

Jonathan Frakes did it differently. He didn’t wait for a slow shooting day to get restless. He showed up to The Next Generation’s editing rooms on days he had no scenes, sat there for 300 hours, and watched editors work. He said later, on his podcast with Brent Spiner, that the most important skill he picked up was knowing what the editor needs — meaning how to shoot coverage that serves the cut, not just coverage that flatters the director on the day.

His first credit was Season 3, Episode 16, “The Offspring.” He went on to direct seven more TNG episodes, then multiple installments of every Star Trek series that followed — except Enterprise, because he was busy making Insurrection and First Contact. First Contact is, by any honest measure, one of the best films the franchise has ever produced.