Casting Confusion

[PJNKX]

New to Star Trek. Started the original series this month and am almost finished with the second season. To the best of my knowledge, i am not for sure if this question is answered in the series or it has to do with the actors personally or perfessionally. Ive noticed that certain episodes cast different people for Sulu and Chekhov but have not found a definate pattern in their replacements, meaning their not the same replacements every time. Uhura and Scotty are the only co-stars ive seen to be in every episode. Long question short, why is this?

[Nerys Myk]

The character of Chekov wasn't around for the first season so various actors sat in the navigator's seat in that season, a few for more than one episode. Other actors/characters also filled the helm station when George Takei wasn't available or needed. Uhura/Nichelle Nichols was absent a few times as well. All were day players and so they didn't really long term contracts and worked on a day to day basis.

[PJNKX]

I guess im just a stickler for consistency. I would have perferred, at least considering season 2, to see the familiar faces in all the episodes. A crew is a crew after all. You dont see Spock or Bones taking any breaks.

[Nerys Myk]

But there are other doctors on the ship, like M'benga and Chekov fills in for Spock at the science station. Of course Nimoy and Kelley were regulars and therefore written into every episode.

Even in the real military the soldiers and sailors aren't at their stations 24/7. They get off times and might work various shifts.

[Maurice]

First, they're not casting different people, they're having other characters fill their posts. Second, Doohan, Takei, et al were not "co-stars", despite what they might have said later. Finally, sometimes minor characters are replaced here and there because of illness, scheduling problems, etc. It's well-documented, for example, that a shooting overrun on The Green Berets film prevented Takei from returning to Trek as planned, and thus Sulu was replaced by Chekov during that time.

[GSchnitzer]

PJNKX wrote:

---

New to Star Trek. Started the original series this month and am almost finished with the second season. To the best of my knowledge, i am not for sure if this question is answered in the series or it has to do with the actors personally or perfessionally. Ive noticed that certain episodes cast different people for Sulu and Chekhov but have not found a definate pattern in their replacements, meaning their not the same replacements every time. Uhura and Scotty are the only co-stars ive seen to be in every episode. Long question short, why is this?

You can find the list of episodes that each of the major characters *doesn't* appear in at this web pabe:

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Main...on-appearances

I think having different people at these stations from time to time makes sense. When I go to the grocery store, it's not always the same cashier every single day, day or night, working at the same cash register 24 hours a day 365 days a year.

[Sindatur]

GSchnitzer wrote:

---

You can find the list of episodes that each of the major characters *doesn't* appear in at this web pabe:

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Main...on-appearances

I think having different people at these stations from time to time makes sense. When I go to the grocery store, it's not always the same cashier every single day, day or night, working at the same cash register 24 hours a day 365 days a year.

Yea, it's good to see the familiar faces most of the time, but, it's nice to see proof that the crew is bigger than just the familiar faces, and it would be totally unrealistic to always see them, never having time off for sleep, eating, recreation, etc.

[Harvey]

Nerys Myk wrote:

---

The character of Chekov wasn't around for the first season so various actors sat in the navigator's seat in that season, a few for more than one episode. Other actors/characters also filled the helm station when George Takei wasn't available or needed. Uhura/Nichelle Nichols was absent a few times as well. All were day players and so they didn't really long term contracts and worked on a day to day basis.

Nichelle Nichols was a day player. Doohan, Takei, Koenig, and (for the first 13) Grace Lee Whitney all had long-term contracts -- just not for as much money, episodes, and days (and for residuals at scale, for the most part) as Shatner and Nimoy had.

[PvtKtara]

The only one under contract was Grace Lee Whitney, as a regular (a contract which was promptly nullified when she had her...problems). The rest were day players. Walter Koenig has said in interviews that he was never under contract.

[bbailey861]

Strange, I was under the impression that GLW was the victim and removed from the series following some 'unpleasantness' caused by 'suits'. Considering it was the '60s, I have no reason to believe what she says isn't true.
That being said, I also found it gratifying to see various actors move in and out of some of the duty chairs. While it is accurate that there would only be one Captain, First Officer, Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Engineer, the remaining positions would have several candidates filling the chairs since the ship runs 24/7. Besides, it also made financial sense for the network to work things out that way.

[Harvey]

PvtKtara wrote:

---

The only one under contract was Grace Lee Whitney, as a regular (a contract which was promptly nullified when she had her...problems). The rest were day players. Walter Koenig has said in interviews that he was never under contract.

Nope.

Koenig was hired as a day player, but according to his autobiography, he was upgraded to a contract player at the beginning of the third season for 7 out of every 13 episodes (Warped Factors, pg. 194).

I've seen the documentation from the first season in the Roddenberry archives at UCLA which shows that the others were contracted as well (except for Nichols), at least for the first 13 episodes of the series. Here's, in part, what it says ("First Production Year 1966-1967," dated May 31, 1966):

William Shatner -- Guarantee: 13 out of 13 including Pilot
Leonard Nimoy -- Guarantee: 13 out of 13 including Pilot
DeForest Kelley -- Guarantee: 7 out of 13 including Pilot
Grace Lee Whitney -- Guarantee: 7 out of 13 including Pilot
George Takei -- Guarantee: 7 out of 13 including Pilot
James Doohan -- Guarantee: 5 out of 13

That information and more is reprinted in David Alexander's biography of Roddenberry. The book is mostly awful, but it provides useful tidbits like this.