Jonathan Frakes Admits Why Star Trek: Nemesis Didn't Work
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" has impacted audiences since it debuted in the late 1980s. On top of the show's seven-season run from 1987 to 1994, the cast members appear in four feature films, and several of them reprise their roles on Patrick Stewart's spinoff series, "Star Trek: Picard."
Still, Lt. William T. Riker actor Jonathan Frakes mentioned that he wasn't entirely happy with how 2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis," the last of his and Stewart's big screen adventures, turned out. "With 'Nemesis,' it was as if the Fates stepped in. We had John Logan, who's an A-list writer. We had what was a great company back together again. Tom Hardy was a brilliant guest star," he said in the 2016 book "The Fifty-Year Mission: From The Next Generation to J.J. Abrams." "My take on it, though, was that there was not enough of the family. It was a little too much of [Hardy's] Shinzon and not enough of Picard and Data [Brent Spiner]."
Frakes is certainly qualified to speak on the creative decisions made with the film. Not only did he direct eight episodes of "The Next Generation," he also helmed the cast in the movies "Star Trek: First Contact" and "Star Trek: Insurrection."
Frakes believes Star Trek: Nemesis focuses too much on Shinzon
For "Star Trek: Nemesis," Jonathan Frakes handed the reins over to Stuart Baird, who previously directed Kurt Russell in 1996's "Executive Decision" and Tommy Lee Jones in 1998's "U.S. Marshals."
While Frakes didn't point his finger at the filmmaker specifically, he indicated in "The Fifty-Year Mission" that the film's lack of attention to the core cast hurt it. The actor argued fans come out the first weekend of a Star Trek movie to see stars like William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, and Brent Spiner. Frakes feels that "Nemesis" is more concerned with the villain than Data or William T. Riker and Counselor Deanna Troi's (Marina Sirtis) relationship. "The story of 'Nemesis' was very much a story about the obsession of Shinzon, Tom Hardy's character," he said. "The front end of the movie with the wedding of Riker and Troi ... just got cut to bits."
Frakes added that if the scene had remained, there would have been cameos by cast members from "The Next Generation" series and a lighter atmosphere. "We originally had Whoopi [Goldberg] and Wil Wheaton and all of these Easter eggs in there, and Brent sang. It was a big deal that got cut up to nothing."