Star Trek: TNG

Nice to see there is a TNG community on Dreamwidth! Though, it appears to be dead.

Anyway, I came across an interesting Podcast interview with Jonathan Frakes where he was asked about the famous "Riker sits down video" [YouTube] that I'd like to share! First, I'd like to delve into some background: due to a Reddit comment that Wil Wheaton himself confirmed [here] a few years ago, a lot of fans now believe that the reason why Frakes sat down like that was thanks to back injuries.

When Frakes was asked about this on the How To Do Everything podcast, he had a different explanation.

Listen: How To Do Everything - Batholiths, Milk, and The Full Riker

- Transcript -
(JF = Jonathan Frakes | IN = interviewers)
JF: At one point, in one room, there was a chair that had virtually no back.
IN: Like a stool?
JF: Sort of like a stool, but with a mini back on it. And because I'm 6'4", I was able to, you know, mount it like a horse. And then it became a thing. And then I - until I saw that Youtube [video], I had no concept that I had done it that many times. And now I'm so grateful that it has become a thing [laughs].
IN: Were you the only one? Did anyone else in the cast sit like that?
JF: Usually, if you've got a bit like that, then really, nobody could steal it from you.
IN: Oh, so you knew it was a funny thing when you were doing it.
JF: Oh, yeah.
IN: Were there bits that belonged to other people on the [show]?
JF: We usually had to fight for our arm position on the bridge, and Worf generally got the folded arms in front, which left us... with very few choices. One was the, uh, hands together behind...
IN: Oh, yeah...
JF: And then the bad choice always, with Patrick - I've had to talk Patrick out tens of hundreds of times - was arms akimbo where you put both hands on your hips. I said, "Patrick, nobody - even you - can pull off arms akimbo". So if you come on the stage and if Dorn had his arms across his chest, you knew you couldn't double that one up.
IN: Cause the director would be like, "hey, we can't have two people to look like that"?
JF: Exactly. Which is where I discovered the Full Riker, which is I put my leg up on anything.

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@Mod tag requests!: cast: jonathan frakes, misc: trivia, misc: behind the scenes