Frakes Speaks On 'Nemesis' Failure

Jonathan Frakes (Riker), who directed Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection as well as a number of episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, expressed his opinion about the reasons Star Trek Nemesis did so dismally at the box office.

"I think because the core audience is such a Trekkie audience they missed having the usual Next Gen family," Frakes told Dreamwatch magazine (via TrekWeb), stating that he did not expect the film to fail so badly. "At least half of the movie was Patrick [Stewart] with the guest star, Tom Hardy. I'm not sure that helped matters." He also said that he found the three "big face-off scenes" between Picard and Shinzon to be too similar to each other and thought that the long dramatic scenes might not have helped.

Frakes, whose movie adaptation of Thunderbirds opens in August, said that he feared "the writing might be on the wall" for the end of the Next Gen film franchise. He said that while he hoped to play Riker again, he did not think it was likely "until the environment improves or there's some anniversary to celebrate", and added that he didn't think anyone was "chomping at the bit" for another film anyway.

Since the end of his Star Trek days, Frakes has directed Clockstoppers and a number of television episodes and has hosted Beyond Belief. He has also made a number of guest appearances on television shows.

The newest issue of DreamWatch is available on newsstands in the U.K. Thanks to TrekWeb for the excerpts.

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