Star Trek Almost Cast These Actors As William T. Riker Instead Of Jonathan Frakes

In the years since he was first cast as Starfleet officer William T. Riker on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Jonathan Frakes has become an integral part of the “Star Trek” franchise not only as an actor but also as a director, shaping things behind-the-scenes. Back when the role was being cast in the late 1980s, however, Frakes wasn’t the first pick for the roguishly handsome first officer. In fact, he was actually up against some other very talented performers.

In the end, though, it all worked out and Frakes ended up playing the guy who simply cannot sit in a chair the way it was designed (as “Star Trek: Lower Decks” once poked fun at). Still, things could have been very different on “The Next Generation” if one of the other actors in the running had secured the part. In fact, the person who almost took the role and flew away with it was none other than Billy Campbell, who would go on to star in the underrated superhero masterpiece “The Rocketeer” in 1991.

In the “Star Trek” oral history “The 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, the president of Paramount Studios at the time, John Pike, didn’t think he would cut the mustard:

“For the role of Riker, we cast an actor named Billy Campbell, who later did a bunch of other good things, and [John] Pike didn’t like him. He didn’t feel he had a sense of command. He wouldn’t follow this guy into battle. I think it was really more that he didn’t audition that well for the part, and that’s when we went to our second choice, who was Jonathan Frakes, who turned out to be a terrific choice.”

While it’s probably for the best that Campbell didn’t end up playing Riker (otherwise, he likely wouldn’t have been able to play the Rocketeer alongside acting great Alan Arkin), it is interesting to think of him in the role. Pike may have been onto something with his believability as well; it is, admittedly, hard to picture a “Next Generation” character like Worf taking orders from Campbell, especially clean-shaven and looking as pretty as he did in “The Rocketeer.” He wasn’t the only contender aside from Frakes, though, as there were some other famous faces in the mix during the audition process. 

Casting for “Star Trek: The Next Generation” began in March of 1987. Then, on April 13 of that same year, an audition memo went out with a “wish list” for the actors desired for each character on the show. For the role of Riker, then spelled “Ryker,” John Ferraro (who was the Senior Vice President for Paramount Pictures at the time) noted that “Ironweed” star Michael O’Gorman was the “favorite” for the role because he had a unique charm. O’Gorman was still relatively unknown and quit acting only a few years after his “Next Generation” audition, although he definitely had a bit more of the rough-around-the-edges look that would have fit the Number One the show was going for at the time. 

Also named in the memo were Gregg Marx, a soap opera star who played David Bannings on “Days of Our Lives” and Tom Hughes on “As The World Turns,” along with Ben Murphy, who played Kid Curry on the 1970s Western “Alias Smith and Jones.” While Frakes ultimately out-auditioned them all, there was one other actor in the mix who could have maybe beaten him out for the role — one who would go on to become a “Star Trek” legend himself, no less.

Actor Jeffrey Combs is a genre titan, with major love from both the world of horror and science fiction. He starred as the twisted doctor Herbert West in the “Re-Animator” movies, once played bizarre Doctor Strange rip-off Doctor Mordrid, and perhaps most importantly, has portrayed nine different characters in the “Star Trek” franchise (if you don’t count the multiple clones of Weyoun as separate characters). That’s an awful lot of screentime in the “Star Trek” universe, and it all happened because of Combs auditioning for Riker.

Though Combs lost out to Frakes for the role, the latter remembered Combs when he got a chance to direct an episode of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and brought him on to play the role of Tiron. As much as Combs struggled with the character’s makeup, this allowed him to work with René Auberjonois, who played the shapeshifter Odo and would later direct the “Deep Space Nine” episode “Family Business.” While casting that episode, he suggested Combs for the Ferengi villain Liquidator Brunt, and since the makeup would hide his appearance enough to hopefully trick audiences, the show’s producers gave him the go-ahead. This, in turn, led to Combs playing characters across four different “Star Trek” shows, making him one of the most prolific “Star Trek” actors. 

Basically, Frakes getting the role of Riker was probably the best possible outcome. Otherwise, we never would have gotten to see Combs as a Weyoun defecting and discovering the textures of all of the foods in the replicator (and that’s a universe I just don’t want to live in). Solana Token Creator