Star Trek almost cast these actors as William T. Ryker instead of Jonathan Frakes

In the years since Jonathan Frakes became an integral part of the Star Trek franchise not only as an actor, but also as a director, he first landed the role of Starfleet officer William T. Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation. shaping things behind the scenes. However, in the late 1980s when the role was being cast, Frakes was not the first choice for the strikingly handsome first officer. In fact, he was up against some other very talented performers.

However, it all worked out in the end, and Frakes played a guy who just can’t sit in the chair as intended (as Star Trek: The Lower Decks once mocked.). However, The Next Generation could have been very different if one of the other actors in the running had landed the role. In fact, the man who almost took the role and flew with it was none other than Billy Campbell, who went on to star in the film the underrated superhero masterpiece Rocketeer in 1991.

In the Star Trek oral history Fifty Year Mission: The Next 25 Years by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, producer Rick Berman revealed that Campbell was originally cast as Riker. However, then-president of Paramount Studios, John Pike, did not think that he would give up the mustard:

“We cast an actor named Billy Campbell, who went on to do a bunch of other good things, to play Riker, and (John) Pike didn’t like him. He did not feel that he had a sense of command. I didn’t follow this guy into the fight, I think he didn’t audition very well for the part, and then we went to our second choice, which was Jonathan Frakes, who turned out to be. a wonderful choice.”

Although it’s probably for the best that Campbell didn’t play Riker (otherwise he probably wouldn’t have been able to play Rocket along with the great actor Alan Arkin), it’s interesting to think about him in the role. Pike may also have been on to something with his plausibility; admittedly, it’s hard to imagine a Next Generation character like Worf doing Campbell’s bidding, especially one clean-shaven and looking as handsome as he does in The Rocketeer. However, he wasn’t the only contender besides Frakes, as there were other notables in the mix during the audition.

In March 1987, casting for Star Trek: The Next Generation began. Then, on April 13 of the same year, audition memo with “wish list” out for the actors desired for each character in the show. John Ferraro (who was senior vice president of Paramount Pictures at the time) noted that Michael O’Gorman was “the favorite” to play Riker, then spelled “Riker,” because he had a unique charm. O’Gorman was still relatively unknown and quit acting only a few years after auditioning for The Next Generation, although he definitely had a rougher look that would have suited the show’s number one at the time.

The memo also mentions soap opera star Greg Marks, who played David Bennings on “Days of Our Lives” and Tom Hughes on “As the World Turns,” and Ben Murphy, who played Kid Curry on the 1970s western “Alias “. Smith and Jones.” Even though Frakes ended up auditioning everyone, there was one other actor who might have beaten him out for the role—one who would become a Star Trek legend himself, no less.

Actor Jeffrey Combs is a titan of the genre who loves the world of horror and science fiction. He starred as the deranged Dr. Herbert West in the Re-Animator films, who once played a strange Dr. Strange is a hoax of Dr. Mordredand perhaps most importantly, portrayed nine different characters in the Star Trek franchise (if you don’t count several Weyun clones as individual characters). That’s an awful lot screen time in the Star Trek universe.and it all came about because Combs passed Riker’s audition.

Although Combs lost out to Frakes for the role, the latter remembered Combs when he got the opportunity to direct an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and cast him as Tyrone. As much as Combs struggled with the makeup of the characterthis allowed him to work with René Auberjonois, who played the shifter Odo and later directed the “Family Business” episode of Deep Space Nine. During the casting for this episode, he suggested Combs for the Ferengi villain Brant the Liquidator, and since the makeup obscured his appearance enough to hopefully fool the audience, the show’s producers gave him the go-ahead. This in turn led to Combs playing characters on four different Star Trek shows, making him one of Star Trek’s most prolific actors.

Basically, Frakes landing the role of Riker was probably the best possible outcome. Otherwise, we’d never get to see Combs as Wayun run over and reveal the textures of all the products in the replicator (which is a universe I just don’t want to live in).