Best guest performances on TOS......

Pick your 5 FIVE favorite performances by guest actors.

Sorry to the person who voted second-- I wasn't clear enough on the fact you can vote for Five!


I know-------

"How could you leave off________________" AND

"___________ has no business on that list."

Maybe there will another list and later a combined best of poll--I don't know.

Apologies if this has been done recently. Never did a poll before.

Also was unsure about a poll with more than 1 choice. maybe i'll learn something about polls at least.

 

Missed Logan Ramsey as the pro counsel from Bread and Circuses and Morgan Woodward as Simon Van Gelder from Dagger of the Mind.

I chose Oliver, Woodward and Windom plus the two I mentioned above.

 

Cool--I'll add Van Gelder and the Pro Counsel in Phase II poll.

I'd love to hear any reasonable ideas for next poll. Don't say Lt. Farrell!

I know the poll is short on 2nd and 3rd season guests but on my computer 15 names were the maximun visible at the same time, so I stopped there so people woundn't have to scroll up and down to see all the names. And of course i was generally going in production order and that's why so many 1st season guests.

Also if future voters want they can vote for the top 5 from this list and suggest names for next poll. I was going crazy about how we had 24 votes and 6 voters! lol

 

Okay--now you're just messing with me!

Five choices!

Although what good is saying that now after the people are likey to vote before they read this!

Oh Well.

Note to self: next time write out FIVE (5) in poll title.

Seriously though people how could you even make it down to one performance--i had trouble narrowing it down to 5 !

 

I choose three from the poll and the two I mentioned.

 

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

 

This is a subject where it's tough to limit the choices to a few. TOS thrived so much on the guest stars from week to week.

Mariette Hartley from All Our Yesterdays and Robert Lansing/Teri Garr from Assignment: Earth are also missing. For the latter, your liable to receive a beat-down from resident Trek author Greg Cox.

 

Roger Carmel who played Harry Mudd in two episodes is also missing.

As is Marc Lenard as Sarek from Journey to Babel. That is probably the biggest omission.

 

I originally had Cook Jr, Lenard from Journey, Hartley and a couple others i forgot! I knew 15 or even 20 may not have been enough, so i just figured I'd allow for a second poll with maybe 10-15 more names.

Could there have been 30 great guest performances on TOS?


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

Also I kind of dislike the comedy performances of TOS Carmel, Stanley Adams, Brill, etc., but I guess I'll put those in fopr the next one.

And WOW, nobody brought up Jeffrey Hunter who i left off because he was playing the series lead and wasn't really a guest--at least when he gave the performance.

 

As far as Carmel goes, I definitely like his performance in Mudd's Women much better than the one in I, Mudd.

 

For sure, I'd only put him down for his first turn as ?Walsh/Mudd.

I just won't include any performance from an ep like I, Mudd.

Melvin Belli ain't getting a shot either.

I was thinking maybe Sandra Smith as Lester/Kirk in Turnabout---bad ep but nice performance.

 

Smith knocked it out of the park as Lester/Kirk. But then I liked how Shatner portrayed Lester. So what do I know?

 

I third this, regarding Smith's performance!

 

It's no contest for me, really.

All the choices listed (and more) are great guest performances, excellent stuff.

But the best of all?? For me, it's gotta be Windom's Decker.
The only one that could challenge for the top spot would be Daystrom.

After those two, all the rest fall behind (even though they remain great)

 

Wait, hold on...

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

 

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.

 

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.)

 

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

 

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.

 

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.