Star Trek: Jonathan Frakes Teases What to Expect From Discovery Season 3

Classic Star Trek lore has been given new life, thanks to new series like Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. The latter series gave longtime Trek fans a major treat, when Star Trek: The Next Generation alumni Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker) cameoed in a very special episode alongside Marina Sirtis’ Deanna Troi – and extra special when Riker later suited up in a Starfleet Uniform again, to save Picard (Patrick Stewart) from being annihilated in a space battle with the Romulans. So now that Jonathan Frakes is back in the Star Trek saga, he’s teasing fans with what the franchise is about to bring, in Star Trek: Discovery season 3!

Comicbook.com had a chance to sit down and speak with Jonathan Frakes, and according to the actor, Star Trek fans will see a big shift in Discovery season 3 – one that longtime fans of the franchise will probably appreciate:

“Discovery has primarily to do with Sonequa’s character, as you’ll see. At the end of season two, we flash-forwarded I think 930 years. Michael Burnham has found a new core, not to mention a new partner in crime. So again, there’s a big tonal shift on that show, less driven by the pain and guilt of her past and more about the magical reunification of the Discovery crew and wherever she went off to,” Frankes said. “God knows where she went as the Red Angel. So those two things coming back together is very much the theme, and how grateful everyone is and what’s next. It’s got a lot of action-adventure and not so much pain.”

The major overarching criticsm of both Star Trek: Discovery and Picard is that longtime Star Trek fans feel like the shows are too bleak and dark (and explicit) for the vision that series creator Gene Roddenberry intended. Some of that can be explained by the fact that Star Trek now streams on CBS All Access, which has far fewer restrictions than network TV; another piece of that is arguably that Discovery and Picard are dealing with themes of these times, which are darker than what Roddenberry and later Star Trek showrunners had to deal with.

In any event, Star Trek: Discovery has steadily moved away from the dark and bleak war storyline it began with in season 1. Season 2 introduced a sci-fi time travel mystery with the Red Angel, and now in season 3, it will finally be living up to its title, as the cew actually has to “discover” where their massive jump forward in time has left them.

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 arrives sometime this year.