Jonathan Frakes Teases Indiana Jones & Deadpool Vibes In Star Trek: Discovery Season 5
On the surface it seems to be odd for a "Star Trek" legend like Jonathan Frakes to excitedly report that the fifth and final season of "Star Trek: Discovery" will feel like "Indiana Jones" and "Deadpool," two flavors that absolutely do not go together at all, but there's a good reason for him to be making those comparisons.
It breaks down to the tone of "Star Trek." Fans have been mixed on the more serious tone of "Discovery," especially compared to all the OG "Trek" shows and even the "Discovery" spin-off "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," which follows Captain Pike's adventures in the years before a certain James T. Kirk shows up to claim the captain's chair on the Enterprise. "Strange New Worlds" isn't all rainbows and sunshine, but there's a thrill to the adventure and the desire to explore that underlines that series which keeps it from getting bogged down in more serious sci-fi.
That is precisely what Frakes is trying to get across when he makes wild comparisons to stuff like "Indiana Jones" and "Deadpool." Basically, he's saying to expect this final season of "Discovery" to be way more fun than previous seasons.
Frakes revealed this to the magazine Star Trek Explorer and his quotes were aggregated online by TrekMovie.com. Most Trek fans know that Frakes wasn't just Will Riker in "The Next Generation" but is now a decades-long veteran director of all sorts of Trek, so if anyone can be trusted to shoot straight with us it's Frakes.
Why so serious?
From the sound of things, there was a mandate from on high to reign "Discovery" in a bit and bring it back to its "Star Trek" roots:
"'Discovery,' by the way, is 'Indiana Jones' this year instead of the heavy emo of season four. 'Discovery' is back on track as an action-adventure show, and I guess they got their marching orders to maintain that. Everybody has embraced it, from [co-showrunners] Michelle Paradise and Alex [Kurtzman], down through the cast. There's a new energy and a new mandate."
Frakes made another comparison for this new season as well, his own "Star Trek: First Contact," which brings a lot of goodwill by its name alone as it's widely considered to be the best of the "Next Generation" movies.
"It was a thrill for me to try to find some levity in some of those ['Discovery'] scenes. That's why 'First Contact' was successful, because you build and then add just a little levity to let the steam out, so you can restart. That's why 'Deadpool' is such a fabulous franchise, because it doesn't hurt. Audiences can handle levity. The 'Indiana Jones' reference is a perfect example. Nobody does that better than Spielberg."
In short, Frakes is doing the work to let "Trek" fans know that this new season of "Discovery" isn't going to bum you out every episode, which should be music to most fans's pointy ears.
"Star Trek: Discovery" season five will premiere on Paramount+ some time in early 2024.