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Star Trek’s Jonathan Frakes Explained How The Shows Use Fire And Sparks On The Bridge Sets Without Burning Everything Down
By Mick Joest,
24 days ago
Back in the classic days of Star Trek , a shaking camera and the crew acting like they were being tossed around would emulate a Starfleet vessel being attacked. We have sparks and fireballs in modern shows, which I've always thought were awesome, but I was also very confused about them. How exactly are these effects done while ensuring the crew's safety and preservation of the set? Fortunately, frequent Trek director and actor Jonathan Frakes had an answer for me.
I spoke to Frakes toward the end of Star Trek: Discovery 's run and realized he was the perfect person to ask this question. As the director of several episodes of modern Trek , all of which are available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription , I asked how the crews manage to make sparks rain down to the floor without worrying about a fire breaking out. He answered:
So there's a mixture of both real and CGI sparks flying when the Enterprise , Discovery or a ship on the upcoming Star Trek shows gets hit. I agree that the sparks make the scenes pop and reflect damage to the ship in a way previous shows did not, so I can see why they've become a favorite of Jonathan Frakes and Disco EP Olutande Osunsanmi. The latter directed the upcoming Star Trek: Section 31 movie starring Michelle Yeoh , so now I will look for sparks in the film.
And while Strange New Worlds and other new shows don't have some of the effects that made for some of the more WTF moments of The Next Generation , they do feature a lot of fire. Fortunately, it seems that the crew takes plenty of precautions to ensure that actors and actresses are protected from the flames, which are produced both practically and digitally like the sparks:
Jonathan Frakes added a bit of inside baseball that back in the day, a visual effects studio would use its ability to replicate fire and water as a calling card to the level of quality they could provide. It's not exactly something Star Trek fans need to know, but I appreciated hearing this aside from a Hollywood legend who I could listen to for hours talk about the process of making a show.
Star Trek's Jonathan Frakes Nailed It In Explaining Why Strange New Worlds Is Arguably Fans' Favorite Show Since The Next Generation
Now I'm wondering if the Starfleet Academy of the future can shoot sparks and flames in the same way a Starfleet vessel can. I'm sure there are enough electronics in that place to make it happen, though I'd hope the academy itself wouldn't come under attack. I guess we shall see before too long, and hopefully get more of Jonathan Frakes in the future of Star Trek ASAP.
We're currently living in a world without new Star Trek , though Prodigy Season 2 premieres on Netflix July 1st. All 20 episodes dropping at once should keep fans occupied for at least a day or so, and hopefully by then we'll have more teases and projects to look forward to!
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