The Twilight Zone Episode You Forgot Star Trek’s Jonathan Frakes Directed

During his stint playing Commander William Riker on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Jonathan Frakes (seen above left) underwent a rudimentary director’s boot camp. Frakes was interested in directing episodes of the show, and the producers said he would only be allowed to do so after shadowing other directors for 300 hours. Frakes put in his due diligence, and he ended up directing eight episodes of the series. The producers were so impressed that they also hired Frakes to direct two of the “Star Trek” feature films. 

His directorial experience on “Next Generation,” he found, could be parlayed into other directing gigs. For one, he remained with the “Star Trek” franchise for decades, coming back to helm episodes of “Deep Space Nine,” “Voyager,” “Discovery,” “Strange New Worlds,” and “Picard.” He directed the family friend sci-fi adventure film “Clockstoppers” in 2002 and “Thunderbirds” in 2004, eventually moving exclusively into television, overseeing episodes of “Leverage,” “Roswell,” “The Librarians,” “The Orville,” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.” Frakes has actually been more prolific behind the camera than he ever was in front of it. 

One of Frakes’ many directing gigs was an episode of the second revival of “The Twilight Zone.” The second revival, to clarify, was the short-lived version that aired on the UPN from 2002 to 2003. It only lasted the one season, hosted by Forest Whitaker in the Rod Serling role, and /Film hasn’t ranked it very high. Frakes’ episode was called “The Lineman,” and it starred Jeremy Piven, two years before he would find overwhelming mainstream fame on “Entourage.” It was written by Pen Densham, who also wrote four episodes of the revived “The Outer Limits,” as well as 22 episodes of the ’90s TV version of “The Magnificent Seven.” Pensham is also credited as the story writer on hits like “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and oddities like “A Gnome Named Gnorm.” 

“The Lineman,” as it happens, was the only two-part episode of the 2002 “Twilight Zone,” taking up the show’s full one-hour timeslot. Most episodes aired in 30-minute pairs.

In the episode, Jeremy Piven plays Tyler Ward, a telephone repairman who dreams of becoming rich and leaving his humdrum life behind. He also assumes that wealth might attract the attention of his attractive boss, Shannon (Olivia D’Abo), and impress his best friend Buddy (Vincent Laresca). While repairing a downed telephone line, Tyler gets struck by lightning. The lightning strike kills him for three full minutes, but he is miraculously revived in the hospital. Tyler finds, however, that the lightning strike imbued him with eerie psychic powers. He can now read the minds of the people around him. 

Tyler immediately uses his powers to win games of poker, earning a great deal of money. He parlays that success into stock trading, which makes him wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Shannon, however, becomes grossed out by Tyler’s open greed, and she eventually falls into Buddy’s arms. Buddy, too, is disgusted with his best friend’s avarice. Tyler realizes that he achieved his dreams of wealth, but feels hollow after losing the people that mattered most to him. It’s a classic “Twilight Zone” ironic twist. 

“The Lineman” was the 11th episode aired, but it was syndicated to be the pilot episode for the new “Twilight Zone.” Although the 2002 revival had quality writing and directing, it wasn’t as openly celebrated as the 1985 version of “The Twilight Zone,” nor was it as widely watched as the recent revival of “The Outer Limits.” Ratings stayed low, the studio was constantly interfering, and the show was axed after only 22 weeks and 43 episodes. 

Frakes wasn’t hurt by this outcome though. He was already working on “Clockstoppers,” and he would soon be helming the 2006 TV movie “The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines.” He continues to do well for himself behind the camera in between reprisals of his “Star Trek” work.