The third season of “Star Trek: Picard” finally brings us the revival of the cult series “Starship Enterprise: The Next Century” (aka “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) that many fans have been hoping for. In addition to Patrick Stewart as the Starfleet legend of the same name, the new episodes also bring Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker), Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), Michael Dorn (Worf), LeVar Burton (Geordi LaForge), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) and Brent Spiner (Data) back for bigger gigs.
And in order to perfectly connect the concentrated nostalgia package in this country as well, attempts have been made to bind the German voice actors from that time again – which in most cases succeeded. Ironically, this isn’t the case with Picard’s best friend, who features very prominently in Episode 1 and then throughout the rest of the season:
Jonathan Franks will no longer be referred to as his next generation voice actor in his role as Will Riker in Star Trek: Picard Detlef Bierstedt set to music However, an obvious replacement has been found that should satisfy most local fans…
This is Riker’s “new” speaker
In “Picard” instead of Bierstedt is now Tom Vogt heard as Riker. And the regular voice actor of the likes of Colin Firth, Laurence Fishburne, and Clive Owen is actually no stranger to voicing the former First Officer of the Enterprise (so can’t really be called an entirely new voice actor).
Because while Bierstedt Riker spoke in all 178 episodes of “The Next Century”, the first movie sequel “Star Trek VII: Generations” and the first season of “Star Trek: Picard”, Vogt has already localized the iconic Commander in the remaining three ‘Next Generation’ films.
So the case is quite similar to that of Patrick Stewart/Picard, who was/are set to music by Rolf Schult in the films, but now by Ernst Meincke in “Picard”, while both shared the role in “Next Generation”.
That’s why Jonathan Frakes has a different dubbing voice
But why was there actually a change of speakers, after Detlef Bierstedt Riker at least lent his voice to his small comeback in the first “Picard” season? The simple reason: Among other things also as the German voice of George Clooney The well-known Bierstedt announced in the fall of 2022 that he would now retire at the age of 70 and would no longer accept any new dubbing duties, focusing only on audiobook work.
Frakes already sounded different in two new episodes of the cult show “X-Factor: The Ungraspable”, which aired on television at the end of October 2022, when “One Piece” speaker Patrick Zwingmann lent him his voice here. However, this was not used for “Picard”, not least because a much more suitable Bierstedt replacement simply offered itself in Tom Vogt.
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Incidentally, Klingon fan favorite Worf will also have a different German voice on his “Picard” debut in Season 3’s second episode than on his previous “Star Trek” appearances, which you can read more about here. learning in the following German Trailer can already give you a first impression.
New episodes of “Star Trek: Picard” release every Friday on Amazon Prime Video and Paramount+, so we’ll continue with Episode 2 on February 24, 2023.