Jonathan Frakes wants fans to check out the latest entry in his directorial catalog: "The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines," a two-hour action-adventure-comedy starring Noah Wyle, debuts this Sunday, December 3 on TNT.

"Librarian" is about an adventuresome academic named Flynn Carsen (Wyle, who also produced) charged with retrieving history's greatest artifacts for a secret, mystical repository underneath the monolithic Metropolitan Library in New York. His latest adventure takes him on a quest for the fabled mines of King Solomon, and along the way he also unearths deep secrets about his own family.

This is a sequel to the successful 2004 TNT movie "The Librarian: Quest for the Spear," which also starred Wyle (note that it is not related to the "King Solomon's Mines" stories featuring the character Allan Quatermain). Frakes stepped in for the second movie because of his friendship with executive producer Dean Devlin, known for blockbusters like "Independence Day," "Godzilla" and "Stargate."

"I had been looking for something to do with Dean Devlin for years," Frakes told us in a telephone conversation. "He called to offer me this job, and I had just finished a job with another ER actor, Tony Edwards ('Thunderbirds'), so I checked in on Noah, whose franchise it really is, and we were off and running."

The movie also features a prominent supporting performance by Trek veteran Robert Foxworth, who played "Admiral Leyton" in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "V'Las" in Enterprise, and the android "Questor" in Gene Roddenberry's 1974 TV movie "The Questor Tapes." In "Librarian," Foxworth plays "Jerry," the best friend of Flynn Carsen's late father, and a bit of an adventurer himself.

Foxworth was one of the casting choices personally made by Frakes, who otherwise inherited most of the cast — including Bob Newhart, Jane Curtin and Olympia Dukakis — from the previous film. "He's solid as a rock, he always is," Frakes said about Foxworth, whom he got to know while playing a recurring role on Falcon Crest in 1985. "I think he was fabulous in this film. You can tell he enjoys what he does."

Frakes also cast Gabrielle Anwar as Wyle's leading lady in the sequel. She plays "Emily Davenport," an archaeologist whose 23 academic degrees puts to shame Carsen's meager 22.

The mixture of comedy and even some slapstick with "Indiana Jones"-style action-adventure is a large part of what drew the director of "Star Trek: First Contact" and "Star Trek: Insurrection" to this project. "I think that the genre is the next wave. The action-adventure-comedy genre has a real future, especially in this (made-for-cable) budget range," he said. And he was frankly surprised that Wyle could handle it. "I had no idea he was the comedian he is! You wouldn't suspect it from seeing Dr. Carter (his character in ER)."

The prospect of shooting in various exotic locales, including Africa and Mexico, also attracted him. "I had never shot in Africa before so it was interesting to say the least." While location scouting he worked with writer Marco Schnabel to adapt the script to take maximum advantage of the locations, and he even made some spontaneous directorial choices on the set. For instance, there is a scene with Wyle and Anwar against an African landscape in which a large elephant moves through the background. It looks like it was staged, but it wasn't. "That was just good fortune," Frakes said. "That was one of those moments where we saw it coming. I asked Noah and Gabrielle to keep going and then when the elephant got in frame we started the scene again, and it happened to be a take that was quite wonderful."

Frakes hopes the movie will appeal to a "cradle-to-grave" audience. "They'll love Noah, they'll love Gabrielle, and I think they'll like the intersection of James Bond, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Mummy and Casablanca," he said. "It's got a lot of classic references that I think will appeal to a broad audience. You're in for a good time!" (See if you can spot Frakes in a quick cameo appearance! Here's a clue: he's not with Genie.)

In fact, Frakes is already attached as director of a third "Librarian" film, being developed "as we speak" by himself, Devlin, Wyle and Schnabel.

"The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines" debuts this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT (7:00 Central), and then TNT will encore the movie immediately afterwards at 10:00 and again at midnight, and several more times over the following two weeks. Check your local listings.

On other topics, Frakes also recently directed an episode of Masters of Science Fiction for ABC, which he said may air as early as January. "I wouldn't be surprised if it's the first episode. They're juggling their start date based on the cancellation of some of the fall season shows." Frakes' episode is "The Discarded," written by Harlan Ellison, the award-winning scripter of "The City on the Edge of Forever."

In the midst of all his professional gigs, Frakes is also busy booking personal appearances around the world to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He just spent Thanksgiving weekend in Indianapolis at the Starbase Indy convention there (emceed by David Reddick), and he will soon be in Australia, Germany and Italy, and many other places over the coming year to greet the fans.