Jonathan Frakes Admits Star Trek: The Original Series Is Better Than TNG In One Way
Actor Jonathan Frakes loves a good quip, and while hosting "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction" offered him a chance to say some wild things, he wishes that "Star Trek: The Next Generation" had given him a little more to work with, too. It's not just a nebulous want, either, because the man behind William T. Riker knows exactly which "Star Trek" series should have been the model "Star Trek: The Next Generation's" script.
According to an interview in Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross' "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek," Frakes found the dialogue in his show lacking when compared to the writing in "Star Trek: The Original Series." In Frakes' opinion, the main trio in the franchise-launching show simply had better banter.
"I only wish we'd found a way to have the irony and tongue-in-cheek banter of the triumvirate of the original," said Frakes. "Picard (Patrick Stewart), Data (Brent Spiner), and Riker should have that. We had our own relationship, but there are moments between Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and McCoy (DeForest Kelley) that I've always envied. That's a small complaint in a show that I was very proud to be a part of."
Frakes isn't couching his complaints in false compliments, either. The actor isn't shy when it comes to sharing what he adores about "The Next Generation." After all, he's the face of its improvement — literally.
Growing the beard: how Jonathan Frakes accidentally created a TV trope
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season 1 is broadly considered to be the worst season of the series. As if that weren't enough baggage to carry, some Trekkies even label it the worst season of "Star Trek" ... period. Fortunately, subsequent seasons of "The Next Generation" were received more favorably, and the joke is that the show's quality is directly correlated to the length of Jonathan Frakes' beard. In Season 1, the actor was clean shaven but, in Season 2 and beyond, he maintained a well-trimmed (but sometimes scruffy) beard.
Once again, Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross' book documents the story. "The [1988] writers' strike happened [before Season 2], and I hate to shave, so I let the beard grow. During the strike we had a meeting with ["Star Trek" creator and executive producer Gene] Roddenberry ... [and he] kept looking at me and said, 'I really like this, it looks nautical.'" explained Frakes (via ScreenRant). "What ensued was this bizarre executive beard-trimming contest ... [Roddenberry] wanted the beard to be decorative and it stuck and I'm very glad to have it. Fortunately, my wife liked it, or else I'd have had real problems."
And so fans labeled "The Next Generation's" narrative improvement "growing the beard" in Frakes' honor. The trope, which is basically the opposite of "jumping the shark," is still used to mark the exact moment when a project gets markedly better. It's no wonder that Frakes rarely shaves.