On Sunday, November 23, “Star Trek” legend Jonathan Frakes joins his wife, Genie Francis (Laura Collins, “General Hospital”), in part two of her sitdown conversation with Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos, “General Hospital”) for his “State of Mind” podcast series.

In an exclusive sneak peek, Frakes, who portrayed the iconic William Riker on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” for all seven seasons of the series, reflects on why the iconic “Star Trek” franchise continues to inspire such a devoted fan base, with the actor saying, “I think [Gene] Roddenberry created ‘Star Trek,’ built a future in which there was hope.” He added, “It’s a bit of a cliche, there was hope. There was no racism, no sexism. It was the prime directive, where you didn’t f**k with people on other planets. You let them do what they wanted to do. I think that’s how the prime directive goes… And more and more and more, we need that.”

“‘Star Wars’ and ‘Star Trek’ are both exciting franchises, but ‘Star Trek’ provided, I think, more heart and promise and hope, and continues to… I mean, Gene left us in the third season of our show [‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’] back in 1990,” continued Frakes. “So talk about a legacy. Then they just announced something on Instagram yesterday, they sent his ashes up into space.”

“I used to watch ‘Star Trek’ on TV, man,” said Benard, noting his connection to the original series. “Shatner and Nimoy, Spock and Bones, and Kirk, that’s who we aspired to. They had that chemistry, that ironic chemistry the three of them had,” said Frakes in response.

“He’s still kicking it, 94,” commented Frakes of William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk in the original “Star Trek” series. “I see him about once a month at a Con. Sometimes he’ll do two Cons in a weekend…He’s astounding.”

“Sharp as a tack,” remarked Genie.

“Sharp as a tack, curious, interesting, thoughtful, funny,” concluded in a sneak peek of Part Two of Genie Francis with Jonathan Frakes on “State of Mind with Maurice Benard,” premiering Sunday, November 23 on YouTube and all major podcast platforms.

Frakes and Francis have been married since 1988 and have two children together.

Watch the preview clip of their appearance on “State of Mind” below.

Note: The post Jonathan Frakes Joins ‘State Of Mind,’ Reveals Why ‘Star Trek’ Still Matters & His Sweet Praise For 94-Year-Old William Shatner: “He’s Sharp As A Tack” (EXCLUSIVE) first appeared on Soap Opera Network.

Read More

I love that man! So happy to see Genie and Jonathan together like this.

For someone who's had the success Jonathan's had outside the soap genre, and in the juggernaut of the Star Trek universe no less with all of the attention, fandom and opportunities that brings, it's so cool that he still will do things like this podcast and the "The Doctors" cast interviews.

33 minutes ago, applcin said:

For someone who's had the success Jonathan's had outside the soap genre, and in the juggernaut of the Star Trek universe no less with all of the attention, fandom and opportunities that brings, it's so cool that he still will do things like this podcast and the "The Doctors" cast interviews.

Didn't he praise soaps recently? I remember him saying something about how many lines they have to learn and things like that

Jonathan has always respected the genre so good to see that has not at all changed.

They have such an interesting overlap in fandoms. Not just the soap fans that like Trek. It’s also the type of fans- generational, very loyal and lasting decades really for two roles, Laura and Riker. And they have both played those roles off and on for decades. It’s kind of a unique situation for a Hollywood couple.

Frakes has done a few podcasts over the years and in most of them he talks about Genie’s work and the workload soaps are under. He has always come across as a fun, decent guy to me in Trek retrospectives and interviews.

1 hour ago, dragonflies said:

Didn't he praise soaps recently? I remember him saying something about how many lines they have to learn and things like that

I saw him once talking about helping her with her lines, and at the point he was talking about he said the story was good, and watching her memorize was kind of astonishing because it takes him longer to get his stuff down, and she’s word perfect with a stack of scripts.

Yes Frakes did a recent interview in which he mentioned Genie working on her lines for a memorial service. He didn't give details, but from the timing it was obvious he was talking about the memorial for Monica Quartermaine, which would have taped but not yet aired at the time of his interview.

Edit to add: Found it.

Jonathan Frakes did a podcast on September 1st.  The part about Genie, soaps memorization and doing things on a single take starts around 7 minutes in.

At about 8 minutes in, Frakes says says about Genie: "I've seen yesterday's work for her was 88 pages she was in because it was a memorial service and she spoke on about 32 of them."

Edited November 24, 2025Nov 24 by janea4old