Ethan Peck has a nickname for Jonathan Frakes, and it isn't Riker.

At Tampa Bay Comic Con last weekend, Peck sat alongside Strange New Worlds co-star Christina Chong for a panel moderated by Collider's Maggie Lovitt. Talk turned to who actually runs this franchise from the inside, and Peck didn't hesitate. Frakes, he said, is "the mayor of Star Trek."

It's not a small claim. Frakes played William Riker across all seven seasons of The Next Generation and its four spin-off films, guested on Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, then came back for Picard and the animated Lower Decks. Somewhere in between all that acting, he became one of the most prolific directors the franchise has ever had, with credits stretching from The Next Generation through Starfleet Academy, plus the features First Contact and Insurrection.

So when Peck showed up in 2019 to play a young Spock on Discovery's second season, decades after Leonard Nimoy had made the character an icon, he had reason to be nervous. Frakes was the one who talked him down.

"He actually directed me for the first time on Discovery," Peck told the Tampa Bay crowd. "For someone who's brand new to the universe and to the character of Spock, it was really wonderful and comforting to have him there and kind of guide me into all of it." He called Frakes "a lovely guy" who's "really positive, and warm and friendly" both on set and off it.

More than just the acting

The mentorship, Peck said, went beyond scenes and blocking. Frakes also walked him through the convention circuit, the part of Star Trek life that doesn't show up on screen but eats just as many weekends.

"He's like, 'you know what you've gotten yourself into,'" Peck said, describing how Frakes prepared him for what the fandom expects. He framed it as guidance from "a really wonderful older brother."

Chong, for her part, wasn't going to let Frakes off with just the warm-and-fuzzy version. She added that he's "a lunatic on set," though clearly meant as a compliment, the kind of chaos energy a decades-long Trek veteran is allowed to bring.

Peck's Spock has now carried through Discovery into Strange New Worlds, where the Enterprise crew got its own show. Season 4 is streaming on Paramount+ right now, and if Peck's account is anything to go by, Frakes is probably still around the lot somewhere, handing out advice to whoever's newest to the bridge.