Jonathan Frakes' Two Favorite Star Trek Episodes Are Undeniable Classics
Jonathan Frakes didn't just beat out several other actors for the role of Commander Riker on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," he also became one of its stalwart directors — helming more than 30 episodes in the franchise — so the man knows what he's talking about when it comes to quality "Trek" stories. He's declared two of his own "Next Generation" episodes as undeniable classics: The Season 3 episode "The Offspring" and Season 5's "Cause and Effect," stories that indeed made our list of best "TNG" episodes.
"I still hold the first episode of 'TNG' that I ever did, which is called 'The Offspring,' so dear to my heart," Frakes told StarTrek.com in a fan-centric interview. "I completely overprepared for it." In a separate 2022 interview with StarTrek.com, Frakes talked about that preparation, and how studio executives were all big supporters of his move behind the camera. They even helped train him for the assignment, putting him through a director's behind the scenes crash course as far back as Season 1.
"[Producer Rick Berman] was very generous, we kidded about it and called it 'Paramount University,' because it was all there," Frakes acknowledged. "I got to go to the pre-production meetings, the casting sessions, visual effects sessions, concept meetings, and meetings with Herman Zimmerman and the art department. That whole family, which is still a huge part of my life, was frankly very supportive."
The Offspring was a perfect storm of excellence
Since 1990, Jonathan Frakes has helmed more than just "Star Trek" episodes, directing for shows like "The Librarian," "Burn Notice," and "Leverage," among dozens of others. But he got his start on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" with "The Offspring," an episode that centers on the android Lt. Commander Data. That episode has long been considered among the very best in the series, particularly by Patrick Stewart, who believes that star Brent Spiner should have won an Emmy for his performances as Data over the decades.
"The Offspring" sees Data (Spiner) attempt to create an android child in the form of Lal (Hallie Todd), a young woman with a new sentient, positronic brain of Data's own design. This alarms both Captain Picard and Starfleet, who see Lal's creation as a dangerous experiment in creating artificial life. Starfleet sends Admiral Haftel (Nicolas Coster) to the Enterprise to take custody of Lal, to which Data and Picard object, creating a classic "Star Trek" moral dilemma about individual rights.
According to Frakes, "The Offspring" was a special story for a variety of reasons. "In addition to being a Data episode, it was [writer] René Echevarria's first episode," Frakes told StarTrek.com, noting Echevarria's role as a longtime writer on "TNG" and "Deep Space Nine," where he also served as producer. "[Hallie Todd] turned out to be genius. ... I had the support of the shooting company, and my friends in the cast just took the p*ss out of me all day, but delivered in a way that only friends can. It was a real lightning in a bottle situation for me."
Cause and Effect was a joke episode that became genius
In Season 5 of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Jonathan Frakes directed what might be the biggest fan favorite episode of the series, "Cause and Effect," one of the best time loop stories ever written. Crafted by writer Brannon Braga, the episode opens with the destruction of the Enterprise in a shocking fashion, and the rest of the story follows the crew repeatedly living out their last moments while trying to figure out a way to end the cycle.
"At first, I didn't really get that what Brannon was trying to do was a different kind of 'Rashomon' story," Frakes told the Hollywood Reporter in a look back at the episode. "It was an evolution almost of the way [the characters] understand what was going on." Frakes saw the episode as one of his biggest challenges, forced to come up with creative ways of shooting the same scenes in new ways to avoid repetition.
"There are only so many shots you can do," Frakes said. "So, stylistically, we tried different things for different scenes." Though he initially thought the script was a joke, it turned out to be a blast to work on and has gone down as one of the most beloved stories in the franchise. "Once I realized that [Brannon] wasn't f***ing with me, it was fun."