Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 9 reunites Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) with his mother, Anisha (Tatiana Maslany), but Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) has to rescue Caleb and his fellow cadets from the dangerous planet Ukeck. Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti) also unveils his supervillain master plan: enclosing the entire United Federation of Planets in Omega-47 to wipe out warp travel for millions of years.
ScreenRant had the pleasure of chatting with Jonathan Frakes about working with Star Trek: Starfleet Academy‘s talented cast, his reaction to fans’ divisive response to his Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 murder-mystery episode, and being an “eternal optimist” about Star Trek.
Starfleet Academy Episode 9 Is The Last Star Trek Episode Jonathan Frakes Is Directing (For Now)
ScreenRant: This is the penultimate Starfleet Academy season 1 episode. Am I wrong that this is also the last episode of Star Trek that you directed, at least for the time being?
Jonathan Frakes: At least for the time being. Yes. I wouldn’t have been able to make the schedule [for the other shows].
ScreenRant: Well, this episode is spectacular. It has everything.
Jonathan Frakes: It does have everything. It tees it up for Olatunde [Osunsanme, who directs the finale], for episode 10. Have you seen 10 as well?
ScreenRant: Yes, I have. This is the second time you’ve done that, right? Because you did it for Discovery.
Jonathan Frakes: We’re a good team, absolutely.
Directing Starfleet Academy’s Talented Cast To Perform Action & Comedy
ScreenRant: Your episode has amazing action, drama, puking glitter, comedy. My favorite sequence in the episode is when the kids are stealing the shuttle and all the banter and the physical comedy that’s going on, like Darem (George Hawkins) falling over and puking. This cast is so talented. Tell me about directing them, because that was your first time working with that crew.
Jonathan Frakes: Well, I tried to make them feel comfortable. When I have a new batch of people on my side, I say there are no mistakes. Don’t worry about anything. Feel free to make mistakes. Nobody’s going to f*cking yell at you. Some of these things may work. Some of them won’t. I’m going to ask you to do stuff.
For instance, the falling in the doorway. I said [to George], ‘What if you fell, instead of just leaning against the door?’ And he just jumped in, embraced it, and that ended up being the take. He’s great. The same thing when he’s yelling at Sandro [Rosta], when they’re in mom’s room, and he turns the volume up and the emotion up. They’re great. And by the time I got them, they had been on the show for months. So they had gotten used to working together as a team. They were comfortable with each other. They got each other’s rhythms. So I was the beneficiary of all that went ahead of me, in terms of eight episodes of them finding themselves.
Jonathan Frakes Especially Loved Working With Tatiana Maslany For The First Time
ScreenRant: For season 1, I feel like this cast found themselves very, very quickly, and the show found itself very, very quickly. I don’t get the sense of a show trying to figure itself out. I think the show is pretty much in its prime from the get-go.
Jonathan Frakes: Well, it doesn’t hurt that Alex [Kurtzman] and Noga [Landau] had a vision. And also, they had leaders like Holly Hunter, Paul Giamatti, Tig Notaro, and Bob Picardo. I mean, there were a lot of pieces in place to make this thing work. And also, they spent a fortune. It was the biggest set we’ve ever had. It was very ambitious. They didn’t scrimp on the visual effects. And my secret weapon was Tatiana Maslany, as you can see.
ScreenRant: She was a beast. Is this your first time working with her?
Jonathan Frakes: Yes, I adore her.
ScreenRant: Tell me about that. This is a very complicated character to pull off. Isolated from her son for 15 years. And the shot of Holly Hunter coming into the room and repeating what happened in the pilot, with all of the history and emotion behind it, it’s just beautifully done.
Jonathan Frakes: Well, that was a great deal. I mean, it’s like a cliffhanger. I watched it in preparation for these interviews, and it’s well-formed, the episode. And the season is very, very well-plotted and formed. And I think they gave a lot of people a lot of chances to shine individually.
And this was an important way to wrap it up, because I don’t think we’ve seen Tatiana since episode one. She’s been a mystery this whole season. And I love the idea that she puts a knife on [Caleb’s] neck because he’s following her. And then that reveal! I had the great Maya Bakovic, one of my favorite DPs. So it was a lot of pieces [that] fell into place for this episode.
How Star Trek’s Modern Visual Effects Allow For Cool Starship Rescues & Incredible Sights
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 9 includes an eye-popping shot of the USS Athena making a grand entrance into the planet Ukeck to rescue the cadets. It was a visual reminiscent of the famous “Tokyo Drift” by the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek: Picard’s finale.
However, Jonathan Frakes said the Athena’s cool stunt wasn’t a specific nod to him as the episode’s director: “No, that was in the script. We did the same thing at the end of Discovery, where we flew over the top and had to beam Sonequa [Martin-Green] out. That’s just the move now. That’s the new move. Get close and pull it in, and save the heroes.”
ScreenRant: It’s awesome because that’s stuff you could not do in the 90s. We just could not see a starship enter the atmosphere and pull off a rescue like that.
Jonathan Frakes: Exactly.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 9’s final shot is a continuous pullback to reveal the entire Federation blanketed by Nus Braka’s Omega-47 mines. Jonathan Frakes agrees that the sight of the whole Federation – trillions of light-years of space – in one shot is insane: “Yeah, it kind of is. It kind of is. And that’s a great combination of the graphics department and the art department and the visual effects department, and the patience, and the time, and money that they’ve thrown at this show. It’s a beautiful show.”
We’re going for it. I don’t think you can go bigger.
ScreenRant: The last shot has to be the widest frame in the history of Star Trek, because you got most of the galaxy in the frame.
Jonathan Frakes: We’re going for it. I don’t think you can go bigger.
Jonathan Frakes Introduced Two Generations Of Betazoids To Each Other
ScreenRant: When you directed Sandro and Zoë [Steiner] as Caleb and Tarima, do you ever wish that you and Marina [Sirtis] got to do the young Riker and Troi story? Is that something you would want to tell one day?
Jonathan Frakes: I told both of them that. And as a matter of fact, I was just on the Star Trek Cruise with Zoë, who I introduced to Marina, and it was a magical moment, because I had explained to them that I was in this same relationship as a character. Zoë had always wanted to meet Marina, and we were doing this musical skit show together, and I introduced them, and I got a picture of them. It was quite wonderful, I think for both of them, the next generation of Betazoids.
Jonathan Frakes Addresses The Tepid Fan Reaction To His Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Murder Mystery
ScreenRant: Last summer, we weren’t able to talk about your Strange New Worlds episode, “A Space Adventure Hour,” which I loved. I thought the cast was fantastic playing their holodeck characters. I mean, Paul Wesley doing William Shatner. I thought that was great. Anson playing Gene Roddenberry was great.
Jonathan Frakes: Yeah, and Rebecca [Romijn] as Lucille Ball.
ScreenRant: I think a lot of that stuff kind of went over the heads of some of the audience. Were you surprised it wasn’t as warmly received as the crossover? Because I read you were especially proud of that murder mystery episode.
Jonathan Frakes: I was, I was very proud of it. Yeah, I was surprised. But, you know, sh*t happens.
ScreenRant: I think it’s one of those things where the audience sometimes has to catch up to Star Trek. I think Star Trek sometimes goes for a direction that’s actually very visionary, and it takes the audience a while to kind of sync up to it. I think the best example is maybe Star Trek: Enterprise. 25 years ago, people didn’t like that show, and now it’s been reassessed. Now it’s crucial, vital Star Trek people love.
Jonathan Frakes: I think the same thing happened with Deep Space Nine. People came back and realized how, for lack of a better word, how deep it really was.
ScreenRant: I feel the same way. I think in 10 or 20 years, Discovery will be reassessed. And a lot of the shows right now, too. I think that’s just the weird cycle Star Trek has always found itself in.
Jonathan Frakes: I know. I remember when we first came on the air, nobody wanted to see a bald English captain with a French name and a Klingon on the bridge and a blind black guy flying the ship. There was no appetite for it. They wanted Bones, and Spock, and Kirk.
Jonathan Frakes Is The Eternal Optimist About Star Trek
ScreenRant: I just love that the Star Trek family keeps growing and growing with all these fantastic people coming in.
Jonathan Frakes: I’m glad to hear you’re so positive.
ScreenRant: I am positive. I love Star Trek. I’m like you. You said in Dropping Names [Jonathan’s podcast with Brent Spiner] that you are the eternal optimist. And so am I. I love Star Trek, and every new iteration, to me, brings something new and exciting.
Jonathan Frakes: So what do you make of the haters? The trolls.
ScreenRant: Oh, I don’t pay attention to them. I just don’t.
Jonathan Frakes: I am the same way.
From your vantage point, has the starship sailed on Star Trek: Legacy? Or is that something that you still hold out hope for?
Jonathan Frakes: I still hold out hope. But as we just mentioned, we’re both eternal optimists.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
Check out our other Star Trek: Starfleet Academy interviews:
- Release Date
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January 15, 2026
- Network
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Paramount+
- Showrunner
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Alex Kurtzman, Noga Landau
- Directors
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Douglas Aarniokoski, Alex Kurtzman, Andi Armaganian, Larry Teng
- Writers
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Gaia Violo, Alex Taub, Jane Maggs, Tawny Newsome, Kirsten Beyer, Kiley Rossetter, Eric Anthony Glover
