A Conversation With The 'Star Trek: Next Generation' Cast At Dragon Con
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The “Star Trek: Next Gen to Picard” panel was one of the many we sampled at Dragon Con this year. Garrett Wang moderated the panel with Jonathan Frakes (William Riker), John de Lancie (Q), Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), and Brent Spiner (Data), who all premiered their respective roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Wang, who played Harry Kim in Star Trek: Voyager, has been the director of the Trek Track at Dragon Con since 2010, in addition to moderating at other cons around the world.
Spiner decided to open up the floor, pretending to moderate the panel while Wang ran a bit late after the Dragon Con parade kept him stuck in people traffic in another hotel. His opening line to Frakes was, “If you could live your life again, would you choose to come back as Brent Spiner?” Frakes answered with an emphatic “Yes! Yes, how did you know?” He continued to explain that Data has always been his favorite character, but he thinks that Spiner resembles Lore more than Data. Spiner replied, “Well, who doesn’t love Lore?” Picking fun at Wang, who arrived moments later, Frakes and McFadden then started ad-libbing with “What’s the most important thing about being an actor? Two things: know your lines and show up on time.”
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One of the new ways that Dragon Con goes above and beyond with accommodating all fans is being able to ask panel questions on Discord, in addition to live, in-person, during the panel. This allows for participation from fans who are in the audience but can’t, or prefer not to, get up in front of almost 2,500 people in a large ballroom like this, as well as fans watching live on Dragon Con TV from their hotel room.
An audience member had a question about the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Outcast,” from season five, in which Riker (Frakes) falls in love with a female-presenting androgynous character. The audience member said, “I thought that was just a meaningful and important episode and I just appreciate the queer representation in Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks… I was wondering, is that something that you think about, is that important to you? Do you deliberately bring that to your work, Star Trek and otherwise?” Frakes explained that, when that episode was filmed [in 1992], he didn’t believe that “Paramount allowed the casting to hire a man to play the part, which probably should have been played by a man. Closed-minded, I would say. Hopefully, our minds are open wider by now.”
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Another question from the crowd was, “A lot of time has gone by between TNG and Picard. How has acting gotten more difficult as you’ve gotten-- less younger?” A round of answers started with De Lancie: “Barry Bostwick and I were having dinner… We were talking about learning lines as we get ‘less younger,’ and [Bostwick] said, ‘Oh, I can learn the lines. I just can’t remember them.’” Spiner also answered, “My dream role right now is a mute.” De Lancie added that his dream role is to just play himself, “just cranky, just giving looks, very few lines.”
Jonathan Frakes was asked about who invented the Riker maneuver and, more importantly, why. He exclaimed, “Why? Let’s be frank. It’s really an a**hole maneuver, is it not? Think of the type of person who would step over a chair to sit down and then step back over to just get back up. Is that someone you want to know, or have as a friend? Or is that an a**hole maneuver?” Spiner then commented on his take: “That was the only thing I liked about Riker.” Frakes then explained that the chairs in the lounge Ten Forward had virtually no backs, like “stools with a little comma on top.” So, it didn’t matter how you got into them, but then he wanted to try it again during other scenes on other chairs. He did voice that he’s, secretly, “very excited and proud” of the YouTube viral compilations of the Riker maneuver.
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The audience also wanted to know what the wackiest episode of Star Trek was for each actor. Spiner replied, “Code of Honor” (season 1, episode 4). McFadden’s answer was “Angel One” (season 1, episode 14), but then she amended her answer by expressing that the wackiest script she ever saw was for “Sub Rosa” (season 7, episode 14), saying, “‘Sex with a lamp?’ But then I tried it and I understood.” John de Lancie laughed and said that the wackiest episode would have to be “Spock’s Brain” (from Star Trek: The Original Series), adding, “Yeah, I’ve been in everything. I’m Q.”
This Star Trek panel was a delight and the actors seemed to enjoy themselves at Dragon Con. We would absolutely attend another audience Q&A session like this one, especially with Garrett Wang moderating.
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