Star Trek: Thread Space 9

[BlobVanDam]

Nah, he's definitely on something in that Captains doco.

[PowerSlave]

I don't have a problem with any of the captains. They each had very different personalities(the characters), and I think that the actors did a fine job in each case. AB was a little over the top at times, but he made that character work very well as the series went along. In fact, Kate Mulgrew was probably the most consistent of the later series with how she portrayed her character, but they all did well with what they were dealt. SB had arguably the toughest job outside of PS in the early seasons of TNG.

Also, I'm not sure if any of you guys seen the early out-takes of VOY with the original actress that was supposed to play the captain, but the show runners definitely made a great decision in replacing her. That should be a good indication as to the quality of work that all of the captains/leaders that we know, and how they did.

[El Barto]

Nah, he's definitely on something in that Captains doco.

I'll make a point to watch the whole thing, but I did watch some youtube snippets before my post, and as a doper myself I didn't think he was coming across as stoned. He did seem fairly loopy, but not stoned. Interestingly, I did see a clip where I thought "wow, maybe the Queen's subjects were right!" but it wasn't anything y'all would have picked up on. I know y'all were referring to him noodling around on the piano with Shatner, and if he's on something it's not grass.

[Kotowboy]

Nah, he's definitely on something in that Captains doco.

Yeah this. He answered any of Shatner's question with a jazz piano riff.

When he did speak - he made little to no sense at all.

[BlobVanDam]

Also, I'm not sure if any of you guys seen the early out-takes of VOY with the original actress that was supposed to play the captain, but the show runners definitely made a great decision in replacing her. That should be a good indication as to the quality of work that all of the captains/leaders that we know, and how they did.

I remember seeing clips a while back, and she had no personality at all, very stiff. I'm glad they made the tough decision to replace her that late into the process, because I think Mulgrew plays the character very well.

[El Barto]

She was actually a pretty respected actress, and they thought themselves lucky to get her. She just had no concept of acting on TV. As I understand it the problem wasn't just that she was bad at it but that she knew she was bad at it and kind of fell apart. It's just not a job she was cut out for. Whereas Mulgrew was predominantly a TV actress from the start.

[rumborak]

I must be the only person on the planet who, judging from the few snippets online with Geneviève Bujold, would have liked to have seen her more than Mulgrew in the role. I never found Mulgrew's "space mom" very convincing.

[El Barto]

Perhaps if she could have done it. Personally, I thought Mulgrew was a perfect fit, but that's not to say that Bujold couldn't have been if she had worked. But the fact is her acting was on par with a 3rd grade Christmas pageant. TV just wasn't her bag.

[King Postwhore]

I'm glad they changed Mulgrew's hair style after a few seasons.  Why did they go with the Katherine Hepburn look? Because she sounded like her?

[Orbert]

I must be the only person on the planet who, judging from the few snippets online with Geneviève Bujold, would have liked to have seen her more than Mulgrew in the role. I never found Mulgrew's "space mom" very convincing.

I liked Geneviève Bujold a lot.  Okay, mostly I just thought she was hot, but I remember seeing her in a few movies and thought she was fine.  But people are right in that somehow her chops as a movie actress didn't translate well to the small screen.  I have no idea why.  But there are other examples of successful TV actors who couldn't make it in films, and vice versa.

[BlobVanDam]

I must be the only person on the planet who, judging from the few snippets online with Geneviève Bujold, would have liked to have seen her more than Mulgrew in the role. I never found Mulgrew's "space mom" very convincing.

I liked Geneviève Bujold a lot.  Okay, mostly I just thought she was hot, but I remember seeing her in a few movies and thought she was fine.  But people are right in that somehow her chops as a movie actress didn't translate well to the small screen.  I have no idea why.  But there are other examples of successful TV actors who couldn't make it in films, and vice versa.

Maybe it was also a matter of genre. Perhaps being a space captain on a space ship talking to rubber space aliens wasn't a situation she could adapt to.

[MetalJunkie]

After watching the trailer for the new Star Trek (and as a huge fan), I'm not sold. The captain looks like she has all the personality of a brick wall.

[BlobVanDam]

The Asian one? She's incredibly wooden in the trailer. Makes Chakotay look downright charismatic by comparison. The whole thing looks so uninspired and bland so far.

[soupytwist]

Nah, he's definitely on something in that Captains doco.

Yeah this. He answered any of Shatner's question with a jazz piano riff.

When he did speak - he made little to no sense at all.

There is one bit where he starts his noodling and starting singing some random shit then Shatner joins in singing something too - that is some messed up shite.

Rewatching DS9 Avery's acting is just lazy, he only shows any enthusiasm in episodes or scenes he's enjoying (which normally results in manic over acting) the rest of the time, he's barely trying.    Never seen him act in anything else to my knowledge.

[Orbert]

Avery Brooks had a TV series back in the 80's, "A Man Called Hawk", which was a spinoff of the show "Spenser: For Hire".  His recurring character, Hawk, got his own show after "Spenser" was cancelled.

Hawk was pretty cool, but he was the "quiet badass" kind of guy, which if you think about it, doesn't actually require a lot of acting range.  Just have to look tough, kick some ass, and say cool things once in a while.  Sisko was something like that, except you really expect a bit more character in a commanding role, which is why I had trouble buying into him.  Oh, and he didn't really kick much ass or saying anything cool, either.

[Kotowboy]

His acting in that episode of DS9 where everyone is a human character working at a comic or a newspapers - is awful.

When he has an emotional breakdown at the end. It's way worse than Shatner's worst acting.

Genuinely terrible acting.

[Orbert]

Yeah, Hawk got cancelled after one season.  As a recurring character, he was fine; just show up and help your friend once in a while by being a quiet badass.  But he couldn't carry a show by himself.

[El Barto]

His acting in that episode of DS9 where everyone is a human character working at a comic or a newspapers - is awful.

When he has an emotional breakdown at the end. It's way worse than Shatner's worst acting.

Genuinely terrible acting.

That's the one I first referred to. It had the potential to be a stellar episode. Great story and some interesting decisions. Having Weyoun and Dukat be the two cops was inspired. Instead it sucked because of some pretty poor acting. And it wasn't just Brooks.

[Kotowboy]

It's funny that any turbolift ride lasts exactly as long as the conversation within it

It's like in TV when a new character enters the scene when two other character's conversation is over.

[jammindude]

But you can't just put that on Star Trek.  That's been a TV trick since the beginning.   It's like prop radios that just magically have the exact news story that being discussed by the characters a moment ago. 

Seriously...the same device is used in any crime drama being made today.   People talking on an elevator in any court room drama.   People talking in a restaurant in any crime drama...the conversation is magically the exact right length for another person to walk in the moment it is finished. 

[ReaperKK]

Yea it happens it so many shows.

[Kotowboy]

Yes I know but it's still funny.

[Kotowboy]

The First Duty.

I love any episode where there's a mystery and people lie about it the whole way along - but little clues keep cropping up and eventually the truth spills out.

I also like Conundrum.

I wish there were more episodes similar to this.

I love the moment where Picard is like  Ignite the plasma - that's exactly what they were trying to do!

[El Barto]

Conundrum was a lot better. TFD wasn't bad, but a little too oriented to Wesley and the young'uns. Clues was also very good, aside from the creepy-ass Troi.

[Kotowboy]

I dislike any possessed Troi episode. She just does that deep monotone voice like Ilya from TMP.


Wasn't Persis Khambatta supposed to be a Troi like character in the scrapped Star trek Phase II series ?

And some of the TNG scripts were leftovers ?


.... Just had the Picard realisation scene in TFD. I love that the whole thing unravels because Geordi happens to mention something just by the by.

[El Barto]

After recently watching Mirror Mirror, and the not so recent discussion of terrible acting in DS9, I went and watched the four mirror universe episodes. They're actually a lot better than I remember. My recollection was mostly of Avery Brooks hamming it up as a space pirate. He actually had very little time in the first episode and was dead from the second on. The actual problem was with Nana Visitor. The part didn't suit her, and between the writing and her acting it was too far over the top. It struck me that she was supposed to be part Nero and part Caligula, but since she's not even from the same planet as Ustinov or McDowell it just seemed bad. This comes up a lot when ST actors have to play somebody completely over the top. Kes as the warlord immediately comes to mind. While she did an excellent caricature, I thought Jeri Ryan's episode as The Doctor was pretty bad. Avery Brooks as the Blofeldian super-villain is certainly awful. Interestingly, Dorn as his alternate Worf was great. He's usually the worst of the lot. And then the king of hamming it up is of course any non-Data Sung.

Some of the over the top acting actually works just fine. Shatner in The Turnabout Intruder was just fine because you expect Shatner to be over the top anyway. Garak in the mirror universe was fine in the same vein, as Garak was already pretty far out there. Picard being tortured by the Kardassian worked because of Patrick Stewart is good enough to make it believable.

[BlobVanDam]

I didn't mind Nana Visitor in the mirror universe episodes, but I didn't really like the episodes themselves, and found them fairly forgettable. I can't even remember the alternate versions of the crew aside from Kira tbh. The campness of the original episode is something that the later shows couldn't capture. The 1960s could pull it off, but the 1990s not so much.

I actually thought Jeri Ryan did a bang-on job as The Doctor (I'm assuming we're talking about Body and Soul), and that's always been one of my more liked Voyager episodes. Not an absolute top one, but upper range. That goes for the majority of the Doctor-centric episodes though. Picardo was one of the saving graces of that cast.

[The King in Crimson]

I have absolutely 0 problems with Visitor in her leather Intendant get-up, but yes upon rewatching those episodes, they're all largely forgettable. Though I do think the first one is the best of the lot and is not a bad episode in it's own right.

[El Barto]

I have absolutely 0 problems with Visitor in her leather Intendant get-up, but yes upon rewatching those episodes, they're all largely forgettable. Though I do think the first one is the best of the lot and is not a bad episode in it's own right.

Yeah, part of my problem is that I never found NV even remotely attractive. That was a necessary component to the part she was trying to play. Now if Dax had been the Intedant you've got a whole new series and we probably all remember them more fondly.

[BlobVanDam]

Star Trek Discovery officially has a September 24 start date, 15 episodes in two chapters. First 8 episodes from Sep 24 - Nov 5. Second half starts in Jan 2018.

https://www.startrek.com/article/star-trek-discovery-sets-premiere-date

[ReaperKK]

Watched the episode "the children will lead" or something like that. Really bottom tier TOS episode, I'm not a fan of kid centric episodes so this one did nothing for me.

[BlobVanDam]

Ick, I hate that one. Any episode with kids is the worst, and that doesn't just go for TOS.

[El Barto]

Universally loathed. Fun fact that most here aren't old enough to know about. Legend had it that Melvin Belli was so embarrassed by the whole thing he threatened to sue if they included it in the syndication package. Of course it was eventually released, but long after the rest of the series. I watched TOS growing up all the time, and the first time I saw AtCSL I'd seen all of the other episodes countless times. I had eventually decided that the whole episode was some myth, and was amazed when it actually showed up on TV one night.

Roddenberry thought it was a turd, as well. Belli's acting was so bad he had his voice distorted and covered his character with a green glow to further distort him.

[BlobVanDam]

I did not know that. I'd rather the myth of the episode than the reality.

[abydos]

Kids ruin everything but Stranger Things.