Though he has helmed multiple other star-studded projects throughout his decades-long career, actor cum filmmaker Jonathan Frakes is, perhaps, best known for the works he has done on the Star Trek franchise. Besides starring in it, he has also perfectly directed a lot of the series that fans have come to love. And in doing so, he has also changed some things.
One of the changes he made was from the fan-favorite series of the lore from 1987 to 1995, The Next Generation. As he himself admitted, back in the old golden days, there was just no room to improvise in the ST projects and you had to strictly go by the book. That said, Frakes decided to change that and broke the role while directing the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks series.
Jonathan Frakes Broke One Major TNG Rule While Working On Lower Decks!
Back in the day, when Jonathan Frakes originally joined the Star Trek franchise, it was as an actor before a director. He starred as Commander William T. Riker in the original star-studded ST series from the ’80s and ’90s, The Next Generation. That said, he had first-hand experience of how the actors had to act around while in character.
This first-hand experience was no gift, though. This was because the actors weren’t allowed to bring in their creativity and improvise in any way while working on the series. And this, needless to say, didn’t sit well with Frakes in any way, so he decided to take a different approach and invest more creativity while working on his own series for the saga.
During an interview with Variety, the 71-year-old shared the same while talking about actors’ on-set improvisation, saying:
I mean, especially in our f—ing show [TNG], they were so strict. It was like we were doing Shakespeare or Chekhov.
Frakes finally got the chance to break this rule while working on the critically acclaimed animated Star Trek series from 2020, Lower Decks. This happened after executive producers Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman as well as writers Kathryn Lyn and Bill Wolkoff granted permission to actors Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome to improvise.
That’s not all; these excellently creative improvisational chops also brilliantly influenced 2022’s live-action series Strange New Worlds!
Lower Decks‘ Improvisation Influenced Strange New Worlds Cast As Well
As it turns out, while Frakes’ animated series was one thing, this trait and energy further added up having “an infectious effect” on the fan-favorite live-action ST series, Strange New Worlds.
And Frakes? Well, he is beyond fired up because of this improvisational fever taking over everyone. As he admitted during the same interview:
It was just fantastic. Maybe this will open some eyes.
Well, we most certainly hope it will open some eyes because of the tremendous response both of these respective television series have managed to garner from audiences and critics alike.
Judging merely from the score on Rotten Tomatoes, Lower Decks has been rated true perfection at its peak with a stunning 92% rating from critics and a 73% approval rating from the average audience score.
Then there’s the approval score that Strange New Worlds (which has not been helmed by Frakes but seemingly took inspiration from Lower Decks to allow improvisation as well) holds on Rotten Tomatoes, which stands at an admirable 98% approval rating from critics coupled with a 79% audience score.
All of this being said, for what it’s worth, these two series’ tremendous success is only further proof that sometimes improvising adds more charm and creativity to the saga, rather than going by the book!
You can stream The New Generation on Netflix and Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds on Prime Video.
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