'Star Trek: Discovery': Jonathan Frakes to Direct

By Amee Florence Payno, Christian Post Contributor Friday, June 30, 2017

Jonathan Frakes is making a comeback to the "Star Trek" TV universe.

In the past, Frakes portrayed Commander William T. Riker on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and several films. Now, Entertainment Weekly reports that he will be returning to the fold of the "Star Trek" franchise to direct an episode of the upcoming CBS All Access series "Star Trek: Discovery."

"Jonathan Frakes will rejoin the Trek world with Discovery," writer-producer Gretchen J. Berg told Entertainment Weekly. "He's a fantastic guy and great director," Berg added.

Showrunner Aaron Harberts added, "Our cast is dying to work with him."

Although fans may know him largely for his role as "Number 1" in "The Next Generation," Frakes also has extensive experience working behind the camera, having directed many episodes for the "Star Trek" film and TV franchise. He worked on episodes for "The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager," and on movies such as "First Contact" and "Insurrection."

Frakes has also directed episodes of TV shows outside of the "Star Trek" universe such as "Burn Notice," "Leverage" and "NCIS: Los Angeles." Harberts and Berg have personally worked with Frakes in the past when he served as the director of a handful of episodes of "Roswell."

"Star Trek: Discovery" stars Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham, Jason Isaacs as Captain Lorca, Anthony Rapp as science officer Stamets, Doug Jones as science officer Saru, Maulik Pancholy as chief medical officer Nambue, Terry Serpico as Starfleet admiral Anderson, Sam Vartholomeos as junior officer Connor and Mary Wiseman as Cadet Tilly.

The series is a production of CBS Television Studios in cooperation with Secret Hideout, Living Dead Guy Production and Roddenberry Entertainment. Executive producers of the show include Berg, Harberts, Bryan Fuller, Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Trevor Roth and Rod Roddenberry.

"Star Trek: Discovery" is scheduled to debut on CBS All Access on Sept. 24. The sci-fi series will also be released in Canada on Space channel and internationally in 188 countries on Netflix.