Last week, the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard debuted at a blue-carpet premiere event in Los Angeles, and the TrekCore team was there to chat up the cast and crew behind Season 3 — including returning Star Trek: The Next Generation star Jonathan Frakes, who brings Captain Will Riker back for one more adventure with his former captain.
TREKCORE: You obviously were in Picard in the first season; you’ve done directing and so forth for all the modern Star Trek shows, plus your other extended career. This year, you really take on a lot more Riker than you have in a very long time.
JONATHAN FRAKES: That’s Terry’s fault. Terry Matalas said to me while we were shooting Season 2, ‘Are you ready to bring Riker back?’ I said, ‘Well, Riker was back in Season 1. Picard had a nice visit with Riker and Troi.’
He said, ‘But I’m talking about REALLY bringing him back.’ So he pitched this kind of Butch and Sundance story to Patrick and me at lunch. Not that I was ever going to resist coming back to Star Trek, it’s only changed my life for the better 35 years ago
So it has been a dream. And Terry’s a great showrunner and a great friend, and he really loves and knows Star Trek.
TREKCORE: You also directed this year. When’s the last time you directed yourself — is that something you still do often?
FRAKES: I direct myself occasionally. I’ll give myself a small part in the show, but I hadn’t done it at this level for a long time. [Laughs]
But I did have a lot of help. The guy who directed the first two episodes of the season, Doug Aarniokoski, is a friend, and we worked together a lot on the other Star Trek shows. So he was really co-directing with me. He stayed on the Video Village and he let me know what he thought and I trust him and we have similar tastes.
And Terry was in, so I didn’t go too far off the rails — but I like doing both jobs.
TREKCORE: Riker’s certainly got a different tone to him this season. He’s fighting through a lot of emotional issues — or, trying to avoid emotional issues. How is that, knowing the character as well as you do, bringing that sort of different vibe to him this year?
FRAKES: I appreciated it. Again, to mention Terry Matalas, he was not afraid to bring the conflict. There’s conflict between Picard and Riker, and conflict between Geordi and Picard, and Riker and Troi are at loggerheads.
So it was something that Gene Roddenberry didn’t believe — that there would be any conflict in the family — but Terry does, and it makes for better drama.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
We’ll have more from the Star Trek: Picard premiere as the days ahead — and of course watch for our review of the season premiere, titled “The Next Generation,” tomorrow morning.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 will debut February 16 on Paramount+ the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. It will debut internally on Paramount+ on February 17 in the UK, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The series is also available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most other international locations.