Should all further castings in any Star Trek be restricted to people native to stage acting?

penemue

Case:

Patrick Stewart & David Warner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_eSwq1ewsU

Avery Brooks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGcAbI-4_io

Christopher Plummer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf4YINfjQaQ

Rene Auberjonois:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wdHO7Ts_lI

Marc Lenard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsLxO7-7e0o

And, my personal favorite far underrated Ensamble Darkhorse, Jeffrey Combs (he always gives it everything he's got - even if it's the fourth season of the show and he's a side character and the show's in the death slot he doesn't settle for "just good enough" he does great):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzsW-gtWZY0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uh_z_LpV1Y

I'm just messing around - but the diction of stage actors always seems altogether different from other actors. Good ones always seem to bring a life to dialogue - treating the enunciation of sentences as an art form in and of itself which makes them altogether unforgettable.

mirrorchaos

Tell you something, if the next star trek series doesnt contain the likes of Jeffery Combs in as another recurring character at the very least, i would be surprised as he always put every effort into the episodes he is involved in. but he isnt the only actor who should have been given a good role, there are a number of other actors who have been underrated in their times and should return, like Vaughn Armstrong, Randy Oglesby, Thomas Kopache and Steve Rankin. even background standins like Tarik Ergin should be able to have a greater role for their efforts.

penemue

mirrorchaos wrote: »

Tell you something, if the next star trek series doesnt contain the likes of Jeffery Combs in as another recurring character at the very least, i would be surprised as he always put every effort into the episodes he is involved in. but he isnt the only actor who should have been given a good role, there are a number of other actors who have been underrated in their times and should return, like Vaughn Armstrong, Randy Oglesby, Thomas Kopache and Steve Rankin. even background standins like Tarik Ergin should be able to have a greater role for their efforts.

I'm not familiar with all these actors. I'm sure many of them were very good. Combs had a way of landing very prominent side roles and played them with immense intensity and capacity. There's simply no way I can believe that the authors knew "this is the character I'm writing" until they saw Combs act what they wrote.

My point wasn't specifically about the actors, main and side, we've come to love, but more to the difference in diction stage actors tend to exhibit (due to much more "bombastic" voice and movement training) from many of the TV/Film actors. Granted, it's also sort of an effect to make the humans seem more human and the aliens seem more alien (I know I heard Garrett Wang complain that the "humans" on Voyager were required to play down their performances to contrast them with the aliens (and I think it was a mistake in general making the characters a bit too bland (I think Chakotay and Kim were underutilized, unfortunately, in Voyager))).

Obviously not all characters can exhibit the same diction - Jadzia Dax obviously will speak - as a character - very differently from a character like Shran or Chang. But I just love how some stage actors end up speaking lines very differently than others.

Listen to Christopher Plummer in this scene - how he says the words and where he takes small pauses and alters his pitch. He's singing a damn song - not simply speaking dialogue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfLZI9LIt_8

The same is true of Jeffrey Combs diction... He's very sing-songy. Personally I love the style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acF2f3XLfCo

jonsills

On the other hand, Bill Shatner was a stage actor too...

markhawkman

Honestly, it's a matter of experience. Stage actors have more practice at diction than people who don't practice as much.

horridperson

jonsills wrote wrote:

On the other hand, Bill Shatner was a stage actor too...

You beat me to it .

penemue

jonsills wrote: »

On the other hand, Bill Shatner was a stage actor too...

He was... But he fell very well into the TV role. I feel like Jeffrey Combs and some of the others I listed feel more comfortable on a stage and therefore end up imbibing their characters with the sort of "bombastic life" of stage characterization. Maybe it's just because many get to play the villains and captains and the villains and captains are less restricted in being "overacted" (in a good way).

Shatner has some really great moments - but he is very monotone in relation to the cadences of Stewart or Brooks. I feel like he really fell into the "American 60's TV" model of acting. In other words: he was doing his job very well but his job was less demanding compared to what later series' Trek roles came to embody.

Shatner's Kirk is gentle, cool, and confident - like a 60's cowboy sheriff. Picard is stern, commanding, and authoritative, like a military general - he doesn't lose his stage presence. In this sense, Shatner might actually be a more versatile actor as he's completely different on stage than screen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZnvIwA4fJU

But stylistically, as I've stated, I'm partial to a stage presence in Star Trek and possibly in general.