Jonathan Frakes to guest on inaugural episode of new Star Trek podcast "To Boldly Ask..."

Jonathan Frakes as William Riker in STAR TREK: PICARD

JULY 12, 2022 - According to a report from Heavy.com, a brand-new video podcast series is on the way from The Companion, to be hosted by notable Star Trek journalist Ian Spelling. To Boldly Ask… promises to take a unique look into the lives of your favorite Star Trek celebrities. The podcast will premier July 23rd, and is set to feature legendary franchise actor and director Jonathan Frakes as the inaugural guest.

To Boldly Ask… will go where no podcast has gone before, asking the off-the-wall, outside-of-the-box questions that stars don't often hear, if ever. As Heavy noted, different media outlets tend to pummel stars consistently with the same questions over and over. To Boldly Ask… will break the mold, shedding “new light on the characters, production, actors, writers, and behind-the-scenes secrets often overlooked.”

“The goal is to ask questions that the guest is never, or at least rarely, asked,” Ian Spelling said of the project. “It’s an exciting challenge. And then there’s a show and tell section, where I’ll ask our guests to show Trek-related items from their personal effects. It can be a photo or a script or a prop or an action figure, and that will trigger interesting fresh anecdotes.” The interviews will be conducted over Zoom, with Spelling acknowledging that video conference platforms are “the new phone interview”, and called it a “great hybrid” of the two.

Ian Spelling is well known in the world of Star Trek news. A lifelong fan of the franchise, Spelling served as the editor of StarTrek.com from 2010-2019. Today, he works as a contributing writer on all things Trek for Heavy.com, as well as a publicist for Hero Collector - makers of some of your favorite Star Trek collectibles. Outside of the Star Trek universe, Spelling was a contributing writer for The New York Times for nearly 30 years and is currently attached to The Bergen Record in the same position.

To Boldly Ask… with introductory guest Jonathan Frakes premiers July 23rd at 5 pm EST. For more information, and to listen, visit thecompanion.app.