Best guest performances on TOS......

[Grant]

I just thought....
A poll on the worst performances of TOS---there were some you must admit!

Belli--you got a shot!
Inhat--great in some things just awful in TOS (writers fault)


I would have to exclude bit parts by actors who had just a line or two and stick to sizeable roles.

[Greg Cox]

SchwEnt wrote:

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Wait, hold on...

I don't see Colicos as Kor on the list. Come on, he's gotta be in the running, easily!

And I'd include Michael Ansara as Kang as well.

Plus, where is Jane Wyatt as Amanda? Or the Romulan Commander from "The Enterprise Incident"? And, as mentioned, Mariette Hartley.

(And, yes, there's always Gary Seven and Roberta.)

[Delta Vega]

France Nuyen was stunningly beautiful and endearing her role, as was the little girl who played Droxene in The Cloudminders

[DrCorby]

SchwEnt wrote:

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Wait, hold on...

I don't see Colicos as Kor on the list. Come on, he's gotta be in the running, easily!

I'll second this! His was one of the main names I was looking for. That voice was great! He was the primary reason I watched as many episodes of the original Battlestar Galactica as I did, not the heroes. And I thought he was better in Errand of Mercy than in his appearances in DS9. FWIW.

[UnknownSample]

I wasn't really enthusiastic about these choices, not because they weren't good, or even great, but... I don't know, the only choice that leapt out at me that made me want to vote was Daystrom.

Lenard's great, but he's great in the same way whatever role he's playing, and I'm not as big on his first ep as others are. Montalban's a predictable crowd-pleaser too, but that's more about magnetism than great acting probably.

Daystrom just has this great, intense, unique "thing", though... I hate that I've forgotten the actor's name. He's boiling inside, being pulled in different directions at once, benevolent, malevolent, a genius, clueless... Far more interesting to me than the quiet dignity of Lenard or the broad romanticism of Montalban. You think about Daystrom afterward, far more than those other two.

Van Gelder and Zarabeth I'll second, and apparently I'm the first to nominate Michael Dunn, a favorite actor of mine, and Diana Muldaur.

[Greg Cox]

UnknownSample wrote:

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Daystrom just has this great, intense, unique "thing", though... I hate that I've foregotten the actor's name..

That would be the late William Marshall, better known as "Blacula."

[EnsignHarper]

Arnold Moss in TCOTK is a very underrated performance that gets overlooked a LOT - his 'reading' of Kodos' Final Orders is a wonder, and the interplay between him and Shatner is also very noteworthy. Then the genuine remorse he shows at the end when he realizes that he can no longer hide, and then the switch to horror as he realizes what Lenore has been doing is also pretty amazing.

But yes, between Windom and William Marshall as Daystrom, it is hard to pick which actor portrayed the particular brand of crazy needed for the show better:

Decker's horror at the mistake of sending his crew to the soon to be destroyed planet, and then grabbing the opportunity to commandeer the Enterprise and to get back at the planet killer is done so well - and its the little things: the Queeg-like juggling of the tapes; the disgust at having to order the Enterprise to veer off, after Spock pointing out he has to or be relieved; and the blank stare when talking to Kirk and Spock while awaiting his doom in the shuttle, and then waiting for the contact with the planet killer - girding himself, almost not being able to wait ANY longer for the release.

Then there is Marshall's Daystrom, a performance I just happened to see again YESTERDAY.. At first, Daystrom seems to be your basic nerd genius - a little awkward talking to real people, but also very proud and very, VERY protective of his invention. But when things start unraveling, he starts unraveling as well. almost like shedding layers of skin, revealing the madness within - which of course, happens to his computer as well!

One final thing - one has to be impressed with the work all through the series of Joe D'Agosta, who was Desilu's casting director at the time. Both on Trek, and on M:I, outside of the occasional Stanley Adams. he did a pretty amazing job casting both show's guest stars.

[UnknownSample]

EnsignHarper wrote:

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Decker's horror at the mistake of sending his crew to the soon to be destroyed planet, and then grabbing the opportunity to commandeer the Enterprise and to get back at the planet killer is done so well - and its the little things: the Queeg-like juggling of the tapes; the disgust at having to order the Enterprise to veer off, after Spock pointing out he has to or be relieved; and the blank stare when talking to Kirk and Spock while awaiting his doom in the shuttle, and then waiting for the contact with the planet killer - girding himself, almost not being able to wait ANY longer for the release.

Yes, I've always really liked Windom, but it threw me when I heard a few years ago that Windom had no respect for Trek, and intended his performance to be hammy and over-the-top. Then I look at Decker in the shuttle being swallowed by the Cornicopia of Doom, and I start to see it. His expressions of fear start to look ridiculous to me, involuntarily, because Windom said that. I wish I'd never seen that quote. Maybe I'm too impressionable.

[smalltalk66]

Khan.and Kor

[scotpens]

Grant wrote:

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Oh yeah, I originally had Barbara Anderson as Lenore--she was 19, I believe when she did TOS--not a bad performance for a kid!

The character Lenore Karidian was supposed to be 19. Barbara Anderson was two months shy of her 21st birthday when the episode was filmed. Still pretty young.

[Grant]

My Son the Vampire wrote:

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The character Lenore Karidian was supposed to be 19. Barbara Anderson was two months shy of her 21st birthday when the episode was filmed. Still pretty young.

So I said 19 and she was actually 20--thanks for clearing that up.

[TOSalltheway]

Although I picked five it was difficult as most were great. One stands out howeber and that is the late William Windom.

[Esteban]

UnknownSample wrote:

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Yes, I've always really liked Windom, but it threw me when I heard a few years ago that Windom had no respect for Trek, and intended his performance to be hammy and over-the-top. Then I look at Decker in the shuttle being swallowed by the Cornicopia of Doom, and I start to see it. His expressions of fear start to look ridiculous to me, involuntarily, because Windom said that. I wish I'd never seen that quote. Maybe I'm too impressionable.

It's a fair cop; in the 80s Windom was somewhat dismissive of the show, the episode, and his performance.

That said, he came around, so much so that he gave that fan show (New Voyages, at the time) a performance that was--though over the top--a nice gesture and perhaps a bit of a mea culpa.

I was lucky enough to know the guy, and he had glowing words for the Marc Daniels and "Doomsday" at least in my presence, and acknowledged his gaffe of earlier years. Shit, it was five days in a career that spanned thousands, and many of those long past.

[UnknownSample]

Esteban wrote:

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I was lucky enough to know the guy, and he had glowing words for the Marc Daniels and "Doomsday" at least in my presence, and acknowledged his gaffe of earlier years. Shit, it was five days in a career that spanned thousands, and many of those long past.

Thanks very much, Esteban. I'm sure he's wanted in later life to return people's appreciation, and not offend. I know the New Voyages video, and the fact of its being for charity might have overcome what he thought of TDM. You're fortunate enough to have known him, you know better than the rest of us, and he may even have changed his mind completely, in favor of the episode.
What bothers me, far too much probably, is how he felt during the performance. I suppose it comes down to my self-image. I don't like to think that I'm someone who can mistakenly take seriously an intentionally hammy piece of acting.
It's possible that what seemed like exaggerated acting to him at the time fit perfectly, for the frantic, unbalanced, guilt-ridden Decker. Windom was the king of guest roles on TV at the time, but offhand I can't remember his being that intense in other shows. Maybe he was stepping into new territory he was unsure of.

[AtoZ]

Harvey wrote:

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What about Elisha Cook, Jr. as Samuel T. Cogley in "Court Martial?"

Indeed. What a colorful character and a fine performance.