The complex relationship between Starfleet and ex-Federation colonists known as the Maquis was one such element and a persistent central theme.
Berman, Piller, and Taylor devised the series to chronologically overlap with Deep Space Nine and to maintain thematic continuity with elements that had been introduced in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. They wanted it to help launch UPN, their newly established network. Paramount Pictures commissioned the series following the termination of Star Trek: The Next Generation to accompany the ongoing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Set in the 24th century, when Earth is part of a United Federation of Planets, it follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager as it attempts to return home to the Alpha Quadrant after being stranded in the Delta Quadrant on the far side of the Milky Way galaxy. It is the fourth series in the Star Trek franchise. It originally aired from January 16, 1995, to May 23, 2001, on UPN, lasting for 172 episodes over seven seasons. Who happened to direct an early episode of that show? You guessed it - Jonathan Frakes.Star Trek: Voyager is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor. Nearly four decades later, O'Keefe could be seen in a regular role on a TNT series called King & Maxwell. Michael O'Keefe ( Caddyshack) played one of Erin's earlier loves, forestry student Chad Marshall. "The first character asked to sit in his chair was Ashley Longworth."įrakes has another interesting tie to Erin Walton. "One of the great Waltons moments was how, after the great Will Geer died, they kept his chair empty at the dinner table on Walton’s Mountain," Frakes explained. He was the first man allowed to fill Grandpa Walton's seat at the table. "Ashley was a great, well-written, complex, troubled World War II Naval officer who lived in the imagination of the crazy aunts, but then he turned out to be real and fell in love with Erin."Īshley Longworth holds another special distinction on The Waltons, however. "I was engaged to the wonderful Mary McDonough, who played Erin Walton,' Frakes said in a 2013 interview with The AV Club. The engagement is rather rocky, to say the least.
The more age-appropriate Erin Walton ends up becoming the romantic interest of Ashley Longworth.įrakes played Longworth in two episodes, returning the following season for "The Lost Sheep," in which he proposes to Erin. Junior just so happens to be the spitting image of his father, which sends Emily Baldwin on a fainting spell. In season seven, in the episode "The Legacy," Longworth at last shows up.
On The Waltons, the elder siblings continually pine for their lost love, a near-mythical man named Ashley Longworth. The story began with the quirky Baldwin Sisters. He played a Lieutenant (junior grade) of the United States Navy on Walton's Mountain. Years before he stepped aboard the Enterprise, the Pennsylvania native wore a uniform of a different stripe. Frakes went on to helm episodes of Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Discovery, as well as the feature films Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection. He also got his start directing on that seminal series. He played Commander William Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, of course. Jonathan Frakes has deeper ties to the Star Trek franchise than just about anyone outside of the Roddenberry family.