Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: star trek, strange new worlds

Strange New Worlds: Frakes on Paul Wesley Vibing TOS Era Shatner/Kirk

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds director Jonathan Frakes on going TOS with "A Space Adventure Hour" with Paul Wesley's old-school Kirk vibes.

Jonathan Frakes is fast becoming the MVP of Star Trek, given not only his run as William Riker, the commander-turned-captain of The Next Generation, but also his invaluable experience behind the camera, delivering some of the franchise's most memorable episodes. Not only has Frakes begun his directing career in the Gene Roddenberry-created franchise, but he's also never shy in returning home, especially in the Paramount+ streaming era, directing episodes of all the live-action series of Discovery, Picard, and Strange New Worlds, while even managing to reprise his iconic role for the animated Lower Decks and live-action Picard. His love for Star Trek is so great, he even directed two episodes of the Seth MacFarlane-created Fox-Hulu sci-fi series The Orville. Frakes' current run on SNW saw him direct the LD season two crossover episode "Those Old Scientists" and the latest, "A Space Adventure Hour," that brings back the TNG favorite, the Holodeck.

"A Space Adventure Hour" follows Lt. La'an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong) as a willing test subject of the experimental simulator, finding herself in a murder-mystery focusing on a troupe of actors and studio executives trying to deal with the fate of The Original Series-inspired "The Last Frontier" with the assistance of Spock (Ethan Peck) and Scotty (Martin Quinn). The Holodeck evoked the 1966 NBC series with its cheesy sets, lighting, and sometimes over-the-top performances. As per the nature of the series, we see the SNW cast in alternate roles with Anson Mount playing the Roddenberry-inspired T.K. Bellows and Rebecca Romijn playing the Lucille Ball-inspired Sunny Lupino, the executive who believed in the show. Frakes spoke to Variety about how Paul Wesley leaned on TOS star William Shatner's performance in the series, right down to his cadence.

Strange New Worlds: Jonathan Frakes on How Paul Wesley's Performance Changed "A Space Adventure Hour"

"Paul just killed me," Frakes said. "He and I talked about it at length, and I said 'I'll let you know if I think it's too far,' because he comes from the same ham school that I come from. He's unafraid. The performance inspired Maya [Bankovic] and the camera operators, we did light changes that were so obvious, some of them mistimed on purpose." While not playing up the caricature, Wesley plays Kirk more straight and in his natural voice on SNW. Coincidentally, Chris Pine, who plays the younger Kirk in Paramount's Kelvin Universe films, also plays it straight, but did a Shatner impression on Saturday Night Live when he hosted for their Star Trek parody sketch.

You can check out the entire interview for more, including how production designer Jonathan Lee, costume designer Bernadette Croft, Bankovic, and Frakes did everything they could to create a proper evocation of TOS and pay homage without coming off as a direct copy. Strange New Worlds streams on Thursdays on Paramount+.

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