“New Eden” marked director Jonathan Frakes’ return to Star Trek: Discovery after his time at the helm in last year’s “Despite Yourself,” and the former Trek actor took to the press for a round of interviews following his latest episode.

Speaking first with Deadline, Frakes talked about the level of production quality he gets to work with on the Discovery sets, echoing producer Alex Kurtzman’s feelings that the show is nearly cinematic.

“You’re given the time you need, the money you need, the equipment you need; and the quality of the department heads and the way Alex Kurtzman and the people running the show, all of it encourages you to ‘shoot to thrill.’ And to not be afraid to try things and to do anything you can to make it special. You’re limited only by your imagination.

And I think that’s an extension of the way that J.J. Abrams’ movies were. The freedom of camera movement and the exciting and dramatic use of light and color is something that audiences have come to get used to. Now, with ‘Discovery’ also embracing the Roddenberry canon in a more valid way, it’s got the best of both worlds.

I’m proud to be part of it.”

He also reflected on how the camaraderie shared between the Discovery cast reminds him of his friends from The Next Generation.

“What I’ve learned from being on the set of this show is that they remind me of [TNG]. They hang out together, they support each other, they stay on the set to watch each other shoot scenes and, as you know, that isn’t always the case in television.

On weekends they get together and eat together and go dancing together and have fun together. It is like a family and it’s a thrill to be part of it. And I think it comes across.”

Frakes also spoke a little bit about his interaction with showrunner Alex Kurtzman, who came to the franchise in 2009 through the first Kelvin Timeline films as a relatively casual Star Trek viewer – much like Frakes himself back in the day.

“I came in unaware of the cultural phenomena of ‘Star Trek’ and I believe the same applies to Alex. And just maybe that served both of us very well by making us not feel too precious about the words ‘Star Trek’ and the canon that came before us.

When he took over the show, essentially, we had a really productive sit-down where he explained the arc of the season, essentially, and we talked about ‘Trek’ in general and my guys and about Roddenberry. He was interested in all of it, and it was a pleasure really talking to him and listening to him. He’s got a great curiosity but he also has great vision.

Gene Roddenberry was an atheist so he didn’t believe in heaven, of course, but you know if he was looking down on all of this I think he would be very, very pleased with the hands that ‘Star Trek’ is in these days.”

The director also sat down to chat with The Hollywood Reporter, diving deep into the faith-and-science story points of “New Eden” in an interview published just after the episode concluded.

“I’m not sure they’re embracing the idea of faith as much as they’re embracing the conversation about science versus faith. It’s like the Scopes trial. The idea we’re all naive to believe there’s not a higher power out there applies to the 24th century as much as it does to the 21st century.

We’ve evolved as a culture a lot since Gene Roddenberry was with us. We have to stay current on so many levels, in the filmmaking and storytelling. The moral compass of the country seems to have a bit more of a liberal bend than it did back in the day. Gene comes from the 1960s; he was an old hippie! [Laughs.]

Every belief system always has differing opinions, no matter what umbrella they may be under. It opens up the opportunity to show the two sides of the conversation. Part of what I found interesting about this episode was that [Discovery] was really violating the Prime Directive.

That’s your dogma; those are your marching orders. You don’t fuck around with other people’s cultures.”

He also talked a bit about Tilly’s new storyline, where the young ensign now seems to have a hallucinatory friend aboard ship — a mystery Frakes hints may be tied back to last year’s end-of-season spore drive escapades.

“At the end of season one, an entity actually entered Tilly. It looked like a green spark, like Tinkerbell, that landed on her. I thought there was some aspect of that “magic” that allowed Tilly to have what we perceive as hallucinations about her childhood and this character who she can only see.

She has the difficulty of realizing that nobody else sees it, but she doesn’t want to admit it. And she’s already very socially complicated as a person.

The cast of Discovery also got to share their Frakes love in a new video package released by CBS yesterday afternoon, where everybody takes a moment to talk about their enjoyment of working with the former Enterprise first officer — and a former Starfleet ship’s counselor gets to beam in for a visit, too.

Some of Frakes’ cargo bay-based interaction with the Discovery cast in the behind-the-scenes footage doesn’t quite line up with what we saw in “New Eden,” and may have been material that ended up part of the asteroid-capture sequence in “Brother,” the season premiere.

Finally, Frakes couldn’t help but be asked about the upcoming Patrick Stewart-led Jean-Luc Picard Trek series in all of these interview; he spoke about it most with Deadline, when asked if he or his fellow Next Generation castmates would be involved.

“The feeling is we would love to be part of it. But the feeling is also that it’s Patrick’s show. Having said that, I can’t imagine a world where there’s no reference to what happened to the rest of the ‘Next Generation’ cast.

Patrick isn’t playing Capt. Jean-Luc Picard this time, he’s done with [that phase of his career in] Starfleet in this show. That’s about the only thing I do know about the show. Patrick and I had a steak dinner a couple of weeks ago and this man, who I’ve known for 31 years now, is so excited about this show he’s like a little kid.

It’s fabulous! He’s thrilled and excited to be invited into the writer’s room and he’s a producer on the show and he’s part of the development of the story arc. It’s terrific. I mean he is a guy who is fully engaged.”

Frakes returns later this season to direct the ninth episode of Discovery Season 2.

Star Trek: Discovery returns next week with “Point of Light,” debuting on CBS All Access and Space on Thursday (and Friday for Netflix viewers outside of North America).