Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 9 – “Lagrange Point”!

Star Trek legend Jonathan Frakes directs his final episode of Star Trek: Discovery. Frakes helmed Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 9, “Lagrange Point”, which was written by Sean Cochran and Ari Friedman and sets up next week’s series finale.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 9 is a heist adventure where Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) leads an away team into the Breen dreadnought to heist the ancient treasure of the Progenitors. Filled with action, suspense, riveting character beats, and a light, humorous touch, “Lagrange Point” is a high point for Jonathan Frakes to go out on as one of Star Trek: Discovery’s top directors.

Screen Rant had the pleasure of chatting with Jonathan Frakes and delving into how he directed his final episode of Star Trek: Discovery as well as what his future holds directing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and, possibly, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

Jonathan Frakes On Directing His Final Episode Of Star Trek: Discovery & Strange New Worlds Season 3

Screen Rant: Last time I saw you, I forgot to congratulate you on your Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor. So deserved. You weren’t at the Saturns because you were directing Strange New Worlds season 3, correct?

Jonathan Frakes: Thank you. It was a thrill. Yes, I was.

Is there anything you can say about your new Strange New Worlds season 3 episode that won’t get us both into trouble?

Jonathan Frakes: As far as I can go is a part of it is a Hollywood murder mystery. And I’m also incredibly proud of the episode. I went back and shot a little more of it last week. I think it’s going to be a winner.

Well, we can definitely talk about Discovery 509. In all honesty, this is one of my favorite episodes of the series. It was so much fun. I don’t want to sound like Stefan on Saturday Night Live, but this episode had everything. Action, humor, suspense.

Jonathan Frakes: Yeah, it’s one of the best. And I think it sets up the finale. It was shocking at the end, wasn’t it?

Yes. I love a crazy Michael Burnham gambit.

Jonathan Frakes: Oh yeah. Well, also, she did it a couple of times in the show. I love the decision she made in the ready room where she looks around and says, ‘Okay, here’s the deal. You’re going, I’m going, you’re going, and you’re going, and here’s what we’re going to do.’ And then at the end of the show, she sends a little cloaked message to our new favorite First Officer, Callum, and he says ‘I know what she wants to do. Okay, here we go. F— it, we’re going in. I gotta take care of this’. And it’s the moment…

The decision-making by these officers that are made with confidence and are made with clarity, It really helped the pace of the show, I think. No deliberation. Here’s what we’re doing. And you’re with me, you’re with me, you’re with me. Let’s get out of here.

Jonathan Frakes On Commander Rayner Being Like Riker

I’m glad you brought up Callum Keith Rennie as Rayner because what a fantastic First Officer he has become. I feel like since he commanded Discovery for pretty much the whole episode with you directing him, there was a lot of Riker in him.

Jonathan Frakes. Yes! And we talked about that because he was still trying to wrap his head around his part. Because he came to the family late, obviously. And he’s a wonderful, experienced journeyman actor who’s been around for years and owned the part. But he was wrapping his head around, ‘Look at these prosthetics’ and ‘What about being on the bridge?’ I convinced him to take this pace all the way around the set that would just set up the great moment with Mary where says, ‘You know, we trust you, and you can sit down if you wanted.’ And that wonderful enigmatic smile that we get out of Tilly in that scene.

Tilly’s helped all these characters along. She really helped Blu decide to go on the mission [to the Breen ship] and she helped Callum believe that he can handle the job. It was very well-written episode which is always the key anyway. You have if you have a winner script, it’s hard to screw it up.

This episode had one of my favorite Star Trek plotlines: when Starfleet dresses up as aliens and tries to do an infiltration mission. I thought everyone dressing up as the Breen was so well done. And Book flirting with the Breen was hilarious. Who’s came up with that?

Jonathan Frakes: I think that’s the writer. I think that might be Sean [Cochran]. It’s so clever. And [David] was so delightful. And the other side of it with Burnham saying, ‘Shall I take a little more time?’ It’s fun. That’s my favorite part of what’s going on in season five of Discovery, it’s the levity has been injected into these scenes where the stakes are really high, and the action is packed, but a little levity. And that’s where the great Star Treks are. They never lose sight of the fact that we could take a shot at each other. Even the tiniest smile helps the audience stay involved, I think.

Jonathan Frakes On Topping Himself With Each Star Trek: Discovery Episode He Directs

You’ve directed eight episodes of Discovery. And this one had so much cool stuff in it. It started off with this inverted camera move, and it reminded me of First Contact, the shots of Picard at the beginning.

Jonathan Frakes: The pullback shot, yeah! That’s funny you bring that up. I worked with a new DP there, Maya Bankovic, who I’ve worked on Strange New Worlds with as well. We wanted to design something to set up the show. And because Olatunde [Osunsanmi], who is the producing director of the show, and Michelle [Paradise], and all the writers, they encourage you to, as the wonderful Robbie Duncan McNeill says, you’re encouraged to shoot to thrill. So there are no mistakes. And I said, ‘Why don’t we just start, since the set is a circle, we’re going to circle them in the room where they’re making the decisions.’ And that’s sort of a visual metaphor for the 360s. So why don’t we start upside down?

I thought it blended together even better than we dared hope because we planned all that stuff out in prep. And then when we executed it late one Friday night, as I recall, we were so excited that the pieces came together because we had worked on it. As I’m sure other people have told you, most of your work as a director is done in prep. And then, if you are lucky enough to be able to execute it in the hours that you’re given, then you get asked back to do another one.

It was so cool. When you’re directing a new episode of Discovery, given your track record with First Contact and all the other stuff you’ve done, how do you set out to top your previous episodes? Because I feel like there’s one upsmanship going on.

Jonathan Frakes: Well, at Discovery there is. Because Olatunde and I have a running competition. And I’ll tell you a little story. Obviously, on the bridge, they call it ‘following the puck.’ That’s where you take the camera around from character to character. So you try to catch the character saying their line, then you move to the next character, then you move down front, and you sort of move around the bridge, either on a Steadicam or on a handheld camera. And you follow.

And I remember doing this, and extending this shot, and I got back to Sonequa, to Michael Burnham. And I said okay, and then I looked at her and I said, ‘What would Tunde do?’ And she said, ‘Tunde would keep going.’ (laughs) Which was so inspiring, because she knows that we’re very competitive. So it creates an atmosphere where you can really have a ball, especially with the camera, because he’s an incredible shotmaker and he inspires all of us to join him at that level if we can.

I also love the shots you guys did with the Breen helmets, the heads-up display shots. That was your Iron Man.

Jonathan Frakes: Exactly. That’s where it was stolen from. But we didn’t have the money for those shots, the Iron Man shots. So we found a lens, and then, we found a lighting setup that we could use so that not all of those would be visual effects shots. So then, the side of the frame, the anamorphic, Maya created a digital lighting gag that would suggest that we were, in fact, inside the helmet. Because as cool it is to go in there incognito, as you said, it’s very confusing to keep track of where where our characters are in the show, unless we go in [the helmets].

Especially when Burnham finally finds the moment to talk to Book about the information she got from the library in 508, which I think the audience is waiting for, when she gets to tell him all this s— that she found out. I mean, this is a big plot point here that he doesn’t know anything about. So the idea is that in the chaos of the Breen, she finds a moment. So we needed all those close-ups so that it would be easier for the audience to relate to and understand who’s who.

Jonathan Frakes On The Differences Between Discovery And TNG

Discovery season 5 is a sequel to The Next Generation‘s “The Chase”, which you directed. What was your reaction to that when you found out the big story for this season?

Jonathan Frakes: I was really surprised because I don’t remember “The Chase” being that significant in the oeuvre of Next Gen. And then when Michelle explained how that was going to be the kickoff and the premise of the show… You know, I got “The Chase” only by the luck of the draw. That’s how the cards played. On Next Gen, you got your episodes dealt to you by some random polling of straws, But on Discovery, and also, even more significantly on Strange New Worlds, they assign you an episode that they believe you would be suited to direct. So it was just happenstance that “The Chase” happened to be one that I had directed.

It’s so different now, the way Star Trek is structured, right? Because as you said, you get assigned your episode based on your skill set or what your interest might be. And then, you don’t have to be word-perfect with the dialogue anymore. You can play around with it.

Jonathan Frakes: That’s an interesting point. That happened on “Those Old Scientists” where we had Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid come in. Tawny a Second City improv specialist, and they messed around a little bit with the lines. I had Kat Lyn and Bill Wolkoff on the set with me as my writers, and we all sort of locked eyes, and I just whispered to them and said, ‘What do you think? Should we just let them go?’ And they said, ‘Sure.’

And that freed up Anson, and that freed up Rebecca, and all of a sudden, we did the scenes as written, but then we played with the scenes, and that was such a thrill to have. Because it was so strict [on Next Gen], as I’m sure you’ve heard. It was so strict on our show. It was strict on all the shows about the dialogue. So it was a very freeing moment.

This is your last Discovery. You didn’t know it was gonna be the final season when you did it. But you still have Strange New Worlds coming up for season 3. Are you on tap for Starfleet Academy or season 4 of Strange New Worlds? Are you going to keep going?

Jonathan Frakes: I’m gonna keep going on Strange [New Worlds]. I was asked to come and do Starfleet Academy, but the [episode directing] slot conflicted with my son’s wedding. So I’ll come back, hopefully, for the second season [of] Academy.

About Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery finds Captain Burnham and the crew of the USS Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well … dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it.

Check out our other Star Trek: Discovery season 5 interviews here:

• Sonequa Martin-Green
• David Ajala and Doug Jones
• Wilson Cruz, Mary Wiseman & Blu del Barrio
• Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise
• Callum Keith Rennie
• Eve Harlow and Elias Toufexis
• David Ajala
• Mary Wiseman
• Elias Toufexis
• Tig Notaro

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is streaming on Paramount+