With the official Star Trek Las Vegas Convention happening next week, it’s safe to say that an untold number of Trekkies, Trekkers and Treksters will be beaming in to attend panels featuring all Trek stars past and present, dress up as their favorite characters in hyper-specific cosplay… and of course buy lots and lots of swag.

Jonathan Frakes on the set of Star Trek: Discovery.

Jonathan Frakes is certainly no stranger to the convention scene. Having played Commander William T. Riker on seven seasons of The Next Generation and in four movies, he’s also directed a ton of Trek -- including two of the aforementioned films -- which is something he began on Next Gen and continues to do now on Star Trek: Discovery and the upcoming Star Trek: Picard In anticipation of the Trek con to end all cons (until next year’s Vegas show, of course), Frakes chatted with IGN about the magic of the event, what he’s up to on Picard both in front of the camera as a director and behind the camera as Riker, going to director jail, and more.Be sure to also check out the official Star Trek Vegas 2019 Creation Entertainment site for all the details on the show, which runs from July 31-August 4!

Star Trek Conventions: The Final Frontier

Buy one, get a Riker figure free!

Jean-Luc Picard: The First Duty Gallery - Comic Con 2019 111 IMAGES

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Riker and Troi were married in 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis.

Director Jail and Beyond

Frakes directed 2004's Thunderbirds movie.

Frakes on the set of Star Trek: Discovery.

Frakes’ very first convention took place in Syracuse, New York, when Next Generation had just started airing. He did not exactly receive a Starfleet welcome, as he recalls.“It was the dead of winter and the audience, as you may or may not know, was quite skeptical of all of us,” the actor-director laughed. “It was a, dare I say, hostile group who were not ready for a bald English captain with a French name and a whole new cast. They wanted their Kirk, Spock, and Bones, and I had no idea what this whole world was, this whole phenomenon, that I've finally learned is part of the popular culture.”Things went from hostile to hilarious when Frakes entered the dealer’s room, which is where fans can buy swag from the various shows.“I was standing by a table where they had the younger, thinner versions of us, our first action figures,” he said. “On the table there was a sign. It had Geordi La Forge, $35. Limited edition Data, $45. Captain Picard, $70. And a sign at the end of the table that said, ‘Buy any action figure, get Riker free!’”Still, the trauma of that experience notwithstanding, Frakes kept on hitting the cons, and has been doing so for over 30 years now. Claiming to be a “bit of a ham, an extrovert,” he said the scene is right up his alley.“You find out what material works, like that story I just told you,” he laughed. “I often open my convention appearance [with that], whatever that is -- that sort of combination of stand-up and public speaking and Q&A and interpretive dance.”As for the Vegas con, it’s long been the one that feels special. Pretty much everyone who’s anyone in the world of Star Trek seems to show up for it. William Shatner and the surviving cast of The Original Series will often be there, Kate Mulgrew from Voyager is typically on hand, Patrick Stewart used the event to formally announce the new Picard show last year, and many, many other names from the Star Trek military industrial complex are also in town each year to mingle with fans.“It's exclusively Star Trek, first of all, and Creation has held onto it through all of its iterations, and it's where every Star Trek [series] is represented,” said Frakes. “Actors, guest stars, people, collectors. It's also great for us because a lot of us go. So we often have a big dinner together, and maybe there's some blackjack playing. I'm not going to be able to say for sure. I've heard!”It had been widely reported that Frakes would be directing two episodes of Star Trek: Picard’s first season, which would reunite him with his friend and long-time costar Stewart. What wasn’t clear was whether or not Frakes’ alter ego Riker would also return. Now, however, we know Number One will be back as well, thanks to last weekend’s Comic-Con announcement (although Frakes unfortunately wasn’t able to attend San Diego after getting waylaid in Charlotte when his flight was cancelled).Frakes revealed that he just worked with Stewart on the show the Monday after Comic-Con.“I was nervous!” he said of returning to the role of Riker in front of the camera. “I hadn't done it for... Nemesis was what? 17 years, 18 years [ago]. Luckily it was with my old pal, and I had just directed two episodes of the show. So I did [it] with Patrick who is just... He's crushing it on this series. He's just on fire. The trailer's awesome.”As for where Riker is now in the time period of Picard, Frakes said he’s very happy with what the writers have cooked up for him and costar Marina Sirtis, who of course plays Deanna Troi. Troi and Riker married in the last Next Gen movie, Nemesis, and were leaving the Enterprise so Riker could captain his own ship, the USS Titan. It sounds like those captaining days may be over for Riker now, however.“Yeah, the stuff is great,” he said. “I can't obviously tell you, but Marina and I... Well, you'll see where we are. We're together, and it's quite... it's non-military. I'll say that.”Not only is he putting his acting hat (comm badge?) back on for Picard, but in addition to directing two episodes of Season 1 for that show, Frakes is also returning to Discovery Season 3 to helm two more episodes there. In fact, when we spoke, he was on his way to Toronto to do prep for an episode. The helmer explained that it’s important to take a different approach to shooting those two shows.“Well, it's not the same deal because Disco has a very cinematic, conscious sort of J.J. [Abrams] lens flare style,” explained Frakes. “And that works for Disco, and the sets are built for that, and there's a lot going on. Picard is a little more contemplative, and so you can't be unmotivated camera moves and all kinds of lens flares. And all that J.J. stuff doesn't fly so much on Picard unless you're in the middle of some sort of action. So the shooting style is a little bit different. You've got to keep it cool, though. That's the other thing. It's not like Next Gen where it was closeup, two shot, closeup, closeup. You know I mean. That s#!t is... That doesn't fly on television anymore!”Jonathan Frakes made his feature film directing debut with the very successful Star Trek: First Contact and followed that with Star Trek: Insurrection. From there he helmed the time-travel shenanigans family-film Clockstoppers, starring Jesse Bradford, and then Thunderbirds, a live-action interpretation of the classic Gerry Anderson “Supermarionation” TV series. Unfortunately, a variety of factors combined to doom the latter film at the box office. Frakes recalled it being a very difficult time for him.“[It was] horrible,” he said. “I went to movie jail because Thunderbirds was such a bomb. We thought we were going to stay in London and do a sequel. And Universal had the same idea because they moved it to the summer. It was a little, tiny kids movie that was meant to be opened in March or April, and they decided to put it up against Spider-Man and Shrek. And it got buried. The critics hated it. Nobody went to see it. It was a story that nobody cared about. They didn't ... Even Gerry Anderson was anti-this movie, the guy who created Thunderbirds.”After that, Frakes moved with his family to Maine. But thanks to a phone call from Dean Devlin, the writer-producer behind the likes of Independence Day, Stargate, and The Patriot, things began to turn around.“I started to lick my wounds, and then Dean Devlin, God bless him, called me, ‘Could you go to Africa and shoot this Librarians TV movie?’” Frakes recalled. “And that was with Noah Wyle and [Bob] Newhart and Jane Curtin, and that franchise, and Dean, got me out of movie jail and got me back on TV. And I've got to say, it's been great. Because you give your, you know this, you give your f#@king blood, sweat, and tears and heart and soul to a movie for a year, or two years, or in the case of Thunderbirds almost three years. When it takes a s#!t, it takes a s#!t big, and the director's the one who's... In TV, it's the writers and the producers. And on a movie, it's still the director for better or for worse. If your movie bombs, you're f#@ked.”And now, Jonathan Frakes is working hard and kicking butt all over TV, with directing credits not just on the modern Trek shows but also on The Orville and The Gifted in 2019 alone, and an array of other shows in the years since Thunderbirds.“It's a great time to be on TV. I got to tell you, I'm thrilled,” he said.And then, of course, there are always the conventions. And the buy one, get a Riker free sales…For more details on the official Star Trek Vegas 2019 convention, check out the official site

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