Jonathan Frakes' Directing Experience Came In Handy For Riker In Picard Season 3

The third season of "Star Trek: Picard" may well go down in Trek history as "the one that got the band back together." That is, it's a reunion season first and foremost, a conclusion of Captain Picard's story that features plenty of familiar faces and warm and fuzzy nostalgia. Among the familiar faces is Jonathan Frakes' William Riker, Picard's right-hand-man who's still helpful in a pinch — or in a Borg takeover.

Riker gets some major moments in "Star Trek: Picard," especially in "Seventeen Seconds" and "No Win Scenario," the episodes that see him take control of the U.S.S. Titan, face off against a dangerous villain, and find the time to have a tough chat about fatherhood and the fragility of life with Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Frakes actually directed these interconnected episodes, which play out a bit like a classic Trek two-parter. Though it might seem like getting behind the camera would be old hat for the actor-turned-filmmaker by now, he actually told Variety that these episodes featured something he's always tried to steer clear of in the past — a whole lot of Riker.

"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.

Frakes explained that his wife, "General Hospital" star Genie Francis, was a "wonderful coach" who gave him some sage advice for tackling the big episodes. He told Variety:

"I remember distinctly she said to me, 'You don't have to worry about playing Riker worrying about being a leader. What you do every day when you go to work [as a director] is lead a couple hundred people through the thing. So stop stressing about that.'"

With a million things to do behind the camera, Frakes wasn't able to dwell too much on the decisions he made in front of it, but by virtue of being responsible for something huge, he had already done all the research he needed for the character. All that was left was to act like a guy who had the well-being of a big crew depending on him — which, as the person in charge of the production, he did. Frakes made it through and so did Riker; "No Win Scenario" currently stands as one of the highest-rated episodes of the series on IMDb, tied only with a handful of episodes that came after it.

All three seasons of "Star Trek: Picard" are now streaming on Paramount+.