My Week With Frakes

When I was a little kid, just learning to read, I used to sound out the names of the actors in Star Trek: The Next Generation as the opening credits rolled. This was before the internet and my parents weren't about to spend money on things like TV Guide so I put in a lot of time trying to suss out who played who. Eventually I got it all together and I went on with my life with the actors' names as familiar to me as the characters'.

But here's the thing, even though I've spent a lifetime enjoying the rather one-sided company of my TV friends, I never had much interest in meeting the actors behind them. I didn't really want to go to conventions and have them sign things or stand in a line only to tell them the same thing a million other fans had inevitably said. I've always understood that the actor isn't the character and no one should expect them to be. I knew that if I was ever going to meet any of the Trek actors, (the people who'd worked on something that was so astoundingly important in my life) I'd want it to be a more authentic introduction. Not with me as an anonymous fan and them as a star. I'd want to meet and actually talk to the actors as humans. As I do with my closest friends, I'd want to just hang out, get to know them better, have a drink and be appreciative of the fact that they exist.

I never thought this would actually happen and I was 100% ok with that. But then, in spite of the odds, it did happen.

My husband is a TV writer and, through some kind of ridiculous first, best destiny bit of fortune, Jonathan Frakes is directing Scott's latest episode. Last Friday I was on planes/in airports for twelve hours, going from North Carolina to Vancouver, and when I got to my husband's hotel room, I wanted nothing more than to settle in, watch some DS9 and fall asleep while I waited for Scott to get back from shooting. And that's exactly what I did--for about twenty minutes. That's when Scott came in and said, "Hey you wanna get a drink with Jonathan?" I rubbed my eyes, yawned, and replied, "Uh...wait, what? Yeah. Ok."

Frakes’ first words to me: “Hey, nice NASA shirt!”

What do you say to that? “Hey, way to be a guy whose name I learned to read off the TV screen!” I was pretty loopy on Dramamine but I’m pretty sure I just said, “Thanks, man!” And we settled into our chairs and talked for a while.

As it turns out, Frakes is a great guy. Aside from being an efficient, smart director, who really seems to care about making a great show, he's also hilarious, sharp as hell, and sweet. I spent a week in Vancouver and a lot of that time around the set. I ended up seeing him quite a lot. We traded stories about life, growing up in different parts of the country, sports, movies--you know, basic human stuff. It was pretty cool.

I spent February through May hanging out with Riker but I spent the last week hanging out with Frakes. Occasionally it was a little surreal but mostly I was just glad to have gotten to know such an awesome human being. Sitting next to Jonathan yesterday, as he told Scott and me a story between takes, I thought, "Man, I sure am glad you exist."