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Years before he was a director for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Jonathan Frakes played the role of William Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Years before he was William Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Frakes was a Sweathog at James Buchanan High School. At least that’s what he wanted to be, but his career went in a different direction.

For the cast of Star Trek: Strange New World, Frakes is the closest thing they have to royalty.

“Getting an episode of Star Trek directed by someone who has acted in that universe is so helpful,” Celia Rose Gooding says during the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds panel at Emerald City Comic Con. “He just knows the vocabulary. He knows what we’re keeping an eye out for. I can’t think of any advice that he’s given, just because he is so full of quips, and he’s so funny and I adore him.”

“One thing that he does is he says ‘action’ at least 5 times before a take,” Gooding continues. She then demonstrated the rapid-fire way he begins a scene, to the amusement of her castmates.

“He’s also famous in our world for the way he says ‘cut.’ He always, ‘[shouts fast] Cut! Print.’ I’m like, ‘We don’t print anymore, you weird old man,’” Anson Mount jokes.

“Frakes is great. He directs an episode in season 3,” Gooding teases.

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Watch now the 'Charting New Frontiers: The cast of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' panel live from the Emerald City Comic Con 2025 Main Stage powered by Xfinity:

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“He likes to let the camera linger at the end of a scene,” Mount shares. “You’ll be in closeup, and you’ll have just done the entire scene, and he doesn’t call cut. And you hear him, he likes to be on the set, he has this little monitor, he sits on the set, as close to you as possible. And you hear him, ‘[Quietly] Yes….yes.’ And he’s always chewing gum.”

“Whenever Frakes is on set, he is just constantly having a good old time, making us feel really comfortable, and bringing a lightness to set,” Gooding says.

“I found an old screentest he did for Welcome Back, Kotter,” Mount reveals. “It was in black and white, and he had his hair feathered, and he was doing a weird southern accent for some reason. I had the guys who do our videos that are on the screens. We were having a ready room scene, and in the middle of it the screen came on, and it said special message from the Federation. And it then it just started playing this screentest.”

Apparently, Frakes didn’t realize it was a joke.

“We watched the whole thing and afterward he came up to me and said, ‘That was so sweet. Thank you.’ I was like, ‘That’s not the reaction I wanted, but okay,’” Mount says with amusement.

If you’re curious, the audition is available to watch on YouTube. You’re welcome. I don’t know if Frakes would’ve made a good Sweathog, but I’m glad he ended up on the Enterprise instead.

You can watch Charting New Frontiers: The cast of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds from ECCC 2025's Main Stage powered by Xfinity for yourself as part of Popverse's all-encompassing coverage of Emerald City Comic Con 2025. Be there from anywhere.

Here's how to watch Star Trek in order: the shows, the movies, the cartoons (in chronological or release order).