Star Trek actor and director Jonathan Frakes fresh from directing and guest starring in the first season of Star Trek: Picard opened up about what viewers of Star Trek: Discovery can expect from the next season of the show.
Frakes appeared in a number of episodes in Picard. Not only did he make a couple cameos in front of the camera, but he also was working behind the camera as well.
Not only did he work on Picard, but he’s also working on the upcoming third season of Star Trek: Discovery.
The actor spoke to CBS owned ComicBook.com about the third season of Discovery’s focus making it clear the show will be very centered on Michael Burnham after she travels over nine hundred years into the future.
Frakes makes clear that the show’s tone will see a shift, though what that means is up in the air since Discovery has already had a massive shift in Trek tone since it’s inception.
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Frakes explains how the show will focus on Burnham, “Discovery has primarily to do with Sonequa’s character, as you’ll see. At the end of season two, we flash-forwarded I think 930 years. Michael Burnham has found a new core, not to mention a new partner in crime.”
He then details the tonal shift the season will have, “So again, there’s a big tonal shift on that show, less driven by the pain and guilt of her past and more about the magical reunification of the Discovery crew and wherever she went off to. God knows where she went as the Red Angel. So those two things coming back together is very much the theme, and how grateful everyone is and what’s next. ”
Frakes does indicate the third season will focus more on action-adventure, “It’s got a lot of action-adventure and not so much pain.”
ComicBook.com’s Historical Deafness
While the majority of ComicBook.com’s article focused on Frakes’ comments about the upcoming show, writer Kofi Outlaw couldn’t resist the opportunity to defend the Star Trek franchise from its critics.
Outlaw wrote, “The major overarching criticsm of both Star Trek: Discovery and Picard is that longtime Star Trek fans feel like the shows are too bleak and dark (and explicit) for the vision that series creator Gene Roddenberry intended.”
He then attempts to explain why a number of fans have criticized the shows for the dark outlooks, “Some of that can be explained by the fact that Star Trek now streams on CBS All Access, which has far fewer restrictions than network TV; another piece of that is arguably that Discovery and Picard are dealing with themes of these times, which are darker than what Roddenberry and later Star Trek showrunners had to deal with.”
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That final comment is especially laughable since Gene Roddenberry started Star Trek back in 1966, a time of high racial tensions, civil rights marches, assassinations, the every day threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, and more.
It’s quite deafening that Outlaw attempts to claim that Roddenberry, a World War II vet who earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal while flying bombers in the Pacific, wasn’t dealing with issues and themes darker than today.
And it wasn’t just Roddenberry who was a World War II veteran. James Doohan, who played Montgomery Scott, also saw action on Juno Beach during D-Day.
But I guess the meme wars are really the worst war yet!
What do you think of Frakes’ comments about Season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery? What about Outlaw’s comments about the show’s critics and why the Star Trek franchise has embraced darker themes?