Jonathan Frakes Reveals The “Secret Weapon” Of His New Star Trek Episode

In 1996, the biggest story for Star Trek fans wasn’t that the franchise was turning 30, but that Star Trek: First Contact was proving that The Next Generation gang could very much carry their own feature film. Beyond the talent in front of the camera, this record-breaking, instant classic Trek film was directed by one of its stars, Jonathan Frakes. Frakes had already directed several episodes of The Next Generation, and with First Contact, his role behind the camera became just as legendary as his role as Will Riker.

Thirty years later, Jonathan Frakes is still directing Star Trek. His most recent — and his last, at least for a while — Trek directing gig is the penultimate episode of Starfleet Academy Season 1, “300th Night.”

Like Leonard Nimoy before him, who directed The Search for Spock, Frakes’s ability to switch from Trek actor to director has, over the decades, become the stuff of legends. From the legacy cast, to the newer actors in Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Picard, and now, Starfleet Academy, Frakes has been there for all of them, a contemporary behind-the-scenes force but also a man who was cast by Gene Roddenberry back in 1987 (and who even shares the Trek creator’s August 19 birthday). In short, Frakes’ Trek connections run deep.

“I do feel that [Alex] Kurtzman and Noga [Landau] have both maintained the vision, if you will, of Roddenberry, and enhanced it,” Frakes tells Inverse. “And I was blessed with this group, the Starfleet Academy cast, because they had done months and months and thousands of hours together by the time I directed them. They had found each other’s rhythm. They really, clearly enjoy being together.”

That said, this episode had something unique to Frakes beyond the existing Starfleet Academy regulars. Because “300th Night” is all about Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) finally tracking down his long-lost mother, Anisha Mir, Frakes points out that the performance was special. “I also had the secret weapon of Tatiana Maslany,” Frakes says, praising the actress who plays Anisha. “And that storyline really led to something special.”

When Caleb locates his mother on a backwater planet about to be invaded by the Venari Ral, the entire SFA steals a shuttle and mounts a daring rescue mission that’s much in the grand Star Trek tradition; Kirk (William Shatner) and company stole the Enterprise in The Search for Spock, and more recently, in Picard Season 3, the entire adventure kicks off when Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Riker (Frakes) trick Captain Shaw (Todd Stashwick) into taking the USS Titan to find Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden). “It had all the elements,” Frakes says of the new episode. “Complete with the ending where we fly over the town and save our heroes by beaming them up to the ship.”

This moment, where the USS Athena flies in close to beam up the wayward cadets, certainly feels evocative of the ending of Picard Season 3, where the Enterprise-D did very much the same thing in order to save Riker, Picard, Worf (Michael Dorn), and Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers). Doesn’t it feel like it was only yesterday, not three years ago, that we witnessed that incredible Star Trek reunion?

“I just had lunch with Terry Matalas,” Frakes says when asked about Picard Season 3, and his feelings about the TNG legacy. “He basically turned Picard into Next Generation Season 8. It was amazing. We're all very much a family. It sounds a little corny, but a lot of us really are like family.”

Fans of the TNG era are still curious: will Frakes ever work with those folks again? And what about Matalas? With Matalas now showrunning the next big MCU series, VisionQuest (complete with Trek alums including Todd Stashwick and Orla Brady), could Frakes see a moment where he and Matalas work again, perhaps even outside of the final frontier?

“I hope so,” Frakes says with that beloved Riker warmth and optimism. “I'm very hopeful to work with Terry again. He’s a very clever man.”

Starfleet Academy streams on Paramount+. The Season 1 finale hits on Thursday, March 12, 2026. Jonathan Frakes hosts a new podcast with Brent Spiner called Dropping Names.