Lynch: Directing Trek
2 min read
Director Paul Lynch worked on ten episodes of Star Trek, including five from Star Trek: The Next Generation and five from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
All of the episodes were in the early seasons of both series, and helped to establish both characters and relationships in the fledgling series.
Lynch shared his favorite and least favorite episodes on which he worked during his time with Star Trek. “I was very lucky that I got really good scripts,” he said. “I think A Matter of Time would be my least favorite and my first one, The Naked Now, would be my favorite.”
When it came to The Naked Now, Lynch explained why he thought that fans didn’t like the episode. “I think there’s a reason for that, for the negative reaction to The Naked Now, and that is that it presented the cast from the pilot in a completely different way, so it was hard for people to accept that,” he said. “But that is what I liked about it. You saw the pilot. You saw the actors being straight dramatic actors. That first episode, they went off on this wonky trip. Then, in the next episode they’re back to being what they were.
“I liked that — and this was Gene and Bob – because it set up that you don’t know where the show was going to go. That’s what made the show so incredibly entertaining, that it wasn’t just a detective show or a comedy. It could be a detective show this week and a comedy the next week or a thriller or an action show. Then you had the science fiction and the special effects. That was one of the big pluses of the show, but I’d heard that people didn’t like The Naked Now as much because the characters changed way out of what they knew.”
Lynch didn’t go into why A Matter of Time was his least favorite episode, merely commenting on the episode in general when asked to share his memories of it. “That had a very good script by Rick Berman, and Matt Frewer was perfect for the episode,” said Lynch. “He was the guy who was stealing things, but they think he’s somebody else. It was really a nice little mystery and a very entertaining episode. Matt was another Canadian, and he’s studied in London, which was where he started doing Max Headroom. That’s what brought him to America. He was another pro.”
After his Star Trek work, Lynch went on to direct TV series such as RoboCop, The Outer Limits, F/X: The Series and Sliders.
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“All of the episodes were in the early seasons of both series…”
Uh…how is a 5th season episode of TNG an “early” season?
I’m sure people’s dislike of The Naked Now has NOTHING to do with it being a blatant rehash of a so-so TOS episode…
TOS’s The Naked Time is a more enjoyable episode. Lt Reily’s rendition of “Kathleen” and Shatners acting is a hoot. BTW they red suits Spock and Reily wear were made from shower curtain material, cant remember where I read that.
Be sure to read the full interview. There’s some more interesting stuff in it, such as the fact that Lynch is apparently responsible for the Trek career of Robert Duncan McNeill.