Jonathan Frakes built his career on Star Trek: The Next Generation, where he played Commander William Riker across all 178 episodes of the series’ seven-season run from 1987 to 1994. Eager to hone his skills and expand his influence in Hollywood, Frakes began directing episodes of The Next Generation during its third season, a track record that eventually opened the door to feature films. He then directed two theatrical Star Trek releases, Star Trek: First Contact in 1996 and Star Trek: Insurrection in 1998, and both films turned a profit at the box office, establishing him as a director to be trusted with franchise blockbusters. That reputation carried him into a project far outside the Star Trek universe, one that would end up defining the next two decades of his career in ways he never anticipated.
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In July 2004, Frakes helmed the release of Thunderbirds, a live-action adaptation of the 1964 British television puppet-based show filmed using a technique known as Supermarionation. Universal Pictures released the film in the United Kingdom and the United States within the same month, carrying a production budget of $57 million. Despite the built-in IP and Frakes’ Star Trek fame, Thunderbirds grossed a measly $28.3 million worldwide. That flop single-handedly killed Frakes’ directing career, according to the filmmaker himself.
Is Thunderbirds Really That Bad?
Frakes had entered Thunderbirds with three consecutive commercial successes behind him, First Contact, Insurrection, and 2002’s Clockstoppers, and the TV show adaptation became his fourth theatrical directing credit and, to date, his last. In the aftermath of the box office bomb, Frakes said that the film’s reception put him in what he calls “movie jail,” a stretch of his career during which industry calls stopped coming altogether. While he repeated the same speech in multiple interviews, the most recent nod came in June 2026 during an appearance on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. The fact that nothing has changed for Frakes over two decades after directing Thunderbirds should be a clear sign of how the movie completely missed its mark.
The most significant problem with Thunderbirds is how thoroughly it reworked the source material’s premise. The original series centered on International Rescue, a team of adult operatives running dangerous rescue missions with a fleet of custom-built vehicles. Frakes’ film shifted the action onto teenagers instead, turning Alan Tracy (Brady Corbet) and his friends into the story’s central heroes while his father, Jeff Tracy (Bill Paxton), and older brothers spent most of the runtime trapped aboard a damaged space station. The structure echoed Clockstoppers, Frakes’ previous film, which also followed kids saving the day while the adults around them were sidelined. That criticism was topped by the shallow character work and the thin plot of Thunderbirds.
Gerry Anderson, the franchise’s original creator, also publicly talked about how he was disappointed that such a large amount of money had been spent by a team that did not understand the property, revealing “they offered me ยฃ750,000 to attend the premiere, but I refused.” The production also drew criticism for visible product placement, with Ford vehicles appearing throughout multiple scenes, something Frakes admitted to on the film’s DVD audio commentary. Frakes has pointed to timing as a factor for Thunderbirds flopping as well, noting that his movie opened the same summer as Shrek 2 and Spider-Man 2, two franchises with far larger audiences. Sophia Myles as Lady Penelope and Ron Cook as Parker drew some of the only praise the film received, but that isolated goodwill did nothing to change the reviews or the final box office total.
Frakes has not directed another theatrical film since 2004, instead building a prolific television career that includes directing credits on Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and The Orville. Still, given his continued presence in Hollywood, it’s weird that no one else has allowed him to leave “movie jail” and try his hand at another cinematic venture.
Thunderbirds remains available to rent or purchase digitally through services including Apple TV and Amazon in the United States.
Do you think Thunderbirds deserves a second look twenty-two years after its release, or does its reputation as the film that ended Frakes’ run as a theatrical director hold up under scrutiny? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
