Jonathan Frakes’ Directing Experience Came In Handy For Riker In Picard Season 3 – /Film

“On ‘Next Gen,’ I was assigned episodes that were Riker-light, consciously,” he told the outlet. His filmmaking credits on that series, which marked his directorial debut, include the Data-centric episode “The Offspring,” Worf-heavy outing “Reunion,” and time loop favorite “Cause and Effect,” among others. When it came to “Star Trek: Picard,” though, Frakes wasn’t even slated to direct at all. “On the third season of ‘Picard,’ when it was clear that I was going to be in all 10 episodes, the powers that be didn’t want me to direct and get distracted from playing Riker,” he explained. “But the director of Episodes 3 and 4 was not able to come down from Canada to do it, so I was able to step in.”

Lucky for the “Star Trek: Picard” crew, they had a prolific director already on set, even if he wasn’t exactly used to directing himself through some major scenes. “I’m sure they did not plan on me having to do a big fat Riker episode,” Frakes told the outlet, but he says that doing double duty “in a way, I think helped me as Riker.” His reasoning goes back to a pretty basic idea of acting as a somewhat instinctual process, one that works best when you don’t overthink it. “As a director, you’ve got a lot going on, And the less you’re thinking about the acting, often, the better the acting is,” Frakes reasoned.