Jonathan Frakes calls Star Trek: Discovery "classic Roddenberry"

Jonathan Frakes is open about his love for Star Trek: Discovery. As the director, he helmed eight episodes of the series throughout its five season run. So the cancellation of the show wasn't easy for him any more than it was for the cast. In an interview with The Mary Sue, he called Discovery his new "home base," comparing the cast to his The Next Generation family.

After praising series lead, Sonequa Martin-Green, he went on to point out the diversity of Discovery's cast and how the series has the most diverse cast of any Star Trek show, which he believes is "classic Trek."

" I think it’s been … it’s classic Star Trek. It’s classic Roddenberry, about a world where there’s no racism and there’s no sexism and there’s equality. And I think that Michelle Paradise and Alex Kurtzman and all the writers and Tunde, everyone has leaned into that in a way that has really been good for the world to see."

- Jonathan Frakes

There's no doubt there are plenty who will disagree with Frakes. Not about the diversity but about Discovery being "classic Roddenberry" because the differences between The Original Series and Discovery are quite vast. But it is fair to say that both shows tried to achieve Roddenberry's vision of a Utopian universe.

Most of the time Trek strives for harmony, but none of the series would be successful without conflict, something Roddenberry didn't care for at all, especially among the crew members. Not all life on other planets sought unity, and Captain Kirk (William Shatner) of the Enterprise had to intercede on many occasions to stop crisis situations. It was the same with Discovery. For that, the two series were on the same page, but they each went in different directions toward what could possibly be considered the same path.

Discovery was darker from the start which turned a lot of fans off. The Original Series was much lighter in tone, but we have to take into consideration the time period of that series. Filmed during the 1960s it was limited in what it could portray on television. Whereas Discovery (and the other Star Trek series) have more options as they're airing on streaming channels that don't have many limitations. The women of The Original Series were also limited in their roles on the show due to the decade in which the show aired. Yes, there was Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) as the Communications Officer, giving her a command position, but we didn't get to see her take on the bad aliens as much as we did Captain Burnham.

Many fans will never see Discovery as "classic Roddenberry" because it didn't compare to The Original Series or Star Trek: The Next Generation. But it isn't really fair to compare all the series, either. They each found their fanbase and made their mark in Star Trek. So while it's understandable that Frakes feels this way about Discovery, it's safe to say that not every Trekkie will.