Cast the Characters of Trek Literature

[WarsTrek1993]

Rush Limborg wrote:

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(Takes a bow)


Okay...I actually don't deserve credit for this next one--it's by my buddy Admiral_Ranor.

Anyway...how do you all feel about Denzel Washington (with a moustache, of course) as Ben Zoma, Picard's XO on the Stargazer?

Yeah, that's good, too!
While we're casting rarely-discussed books/characters, how about some Shatnerverse casts:

Denzel Washington as Vulcan Captain Simm.
William Fichtner as Captain John Lewinski.

Mark Wahlberg as Srell. (Vulcan Assassin).
Ed Harris as Androvar Drake.

[JD]

Has anybody ever come up with someone for Jasminder Choudhury? She's one of the few characters I don't have anyone picked for in my cast lists I put together.

[Christopher]

JD wrote:

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Has anybody ever come up with someone for Jasminder Choudhury? She's one of the few characters I don't have anyone picked for in my cast lists I put together.

Dave Mack favors Rekha Sharma for the role, but I envision her as more statuesque. My mental image of her is based on a woman from real life who helped me through a rough patch some years back. There's an actress named Janina Gavankar who looks somewhat like my image of the character, though she's a bit younger and shorter than I'd prefer.

Actually, come to think of it, there is one actress who fits my image of Choudhury very closely, and that's Marjean Holden (who played an enlisted crewperson in DS9: "Empok Nor" as well as having starring roles in Crusade and BeastMaster: The Series). She's not quite right for it because she's African-American rather than South Asian, but now that I think about it, I think she looks ethnically vague enough that she could maybe pass for Indian, or at least part-Indian -- who knows, it's quite possible that Choudhury could be of multiracial ancestry. Also she's a stuntwoman and martial artist, so she'd be physically suited for the role. The downside is that I've always found her kind of a mediocre actress.

[Sho]

My mental picture of Anna Sandesjo two books into Vanguard is Monica Raymund:

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3741682176/nm2834669
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3559622912/nm2834669

I probably have some detail like the eye color wrong, but something about her physique, her skin color, and that tough vibe her role as an assistant states attourney on The Good Wife had makes me go "good Klingon spy". Plus she had some lesbian flirtations going on with Archie Panjabi's character.

[Christopher]

^Wow, that's quite different from Dave Mack's model for the character, Katherine Heigl.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

From one of my favorite Trek stories of all, "The Slow Knife" from Seven Deadly Sins:

- Andreas Katsulas as Jagul Hanno
- Mira Furlan as Gul Tunol

Still working on Kein and Enkoa.

(and I totally love these Cardassian names, BTW )

[Kertrats47]

Speaking of Andreas Katsulas, I always hear his voice whenever Ambassador Jetanian is speaking.

[Sho]

Christopher wrote:

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^Wow, that's quite different from Dave Mack's model for the character, Katherine Heigl.

I feared something like that. To be honest, I'm a horrible fit for a casting thread, but I figured maybe I'd get lucky. Beyond gender, age and maybe pose/stature physical descriptions mostly don't register with me while reading, and then I sort of automatically make up my own mental image by matching up on attitude and preconceived patterns. Even knowing the above, my mental Sandesjo will continue to look like Raymund.

[Sci]

Rush Limborg wrote:

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(Takes a bow)


Okay...I actually don't deserve credit for this next one--it's by my buddy Admiral_Ranor.

Anyway...how do you all feel about Denzel Washington (with a moustache, of course) as Ben Zoma, Picard's XO on the Stargazer?

You know, I've never read a Stargazer novel, and the only stories featuring Gilaad Ben Zoma I've ever read were "What Dreams May Come" (from Tales of the Dominion War) and Part I of The Buried Age. I don't recall seeing a description of him in either one, but I honestly just assumed that he was an Israeli and probably looked Middle Eastern.

Of course, it occurs to me that between cultures mixing, increased immigration, and the presence of groups like Beta Israel, it's entirely plausible to have an African American playing an Israeli.

Sho wrote:

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I feared something like that. To be honest, I'm a horrible fit for a casting thread, but I figured maybe I'd get lucky. Beyond gender, age and maybe pose/stature physical descriptions mostly don't register with me while reading, and then I sort of automatically make up my own mental image by matching up on attitude and preconceived patterns. Even knowing the above, my mental Sandesjo will continue to look like Raymund.

Having a different interpretation of the character than her author isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[Sho]

Sci wrote:

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Having a different interpretation of the character than her author isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Sure, but if the author actually describes the character physically and I just go ahead and gloss over that, that might be seen as lazy by some.

That said, I went back to Harbinger real quick, and found this:

She swept her straight, long auburn hair from her eyes.
[...]
T’Prynn’s hand shot forward and grasped a fistful of Sandesjo’s auburn hair.

This might help carry my Raymund association a bit, since she sometimes had (fairly dark, admittedly) auburn-ish hair on Good Wife. For example: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm747015680/nm2834669

Unlike Heigl, who is usually seen with blonde hair.

Edit: You gotta admit, she fits the Klingon mold: http://assets.hdfreewallpaper.info/2...-1600x1200.jpg - of course that might be cause to call it a bad disguise .

[Christopher]

Well, she may have been a Klingon, but she was undercover as a human with a Swedish surname, which suggest she was given a Nordic appearance.

[Rush Limborg]

Sci wrote:

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You know, I've never read a Stargazer novel, and the only stories featuring Gilaad Ben Zoma I've ever read were "What Dreams May Come" (from Tales of the Dominion War) and Part I of The Buried Age. I don't recall seeing a description of him in either one, but I honestly just assumed that he was an Israeli and probably looked Middle Eastern.

Reunion--the book that first introduced Picard's old crew--I think was where he got the idea from.

[Christopher]

"Gilaad Ben Zoma" is an Israeli name, although "Gilaad" can be Arabic as well. I think the reason some people think he's black is because when he appeared in a flashback in DC's TNG comic, the colorist gave him very dark skin for some reason. But I chalk that up to a coloring error.

I tend to imagine Oded Fehr as Ben Zoma.

[Joel_Kirk]

Christopher wrote:

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"Gilaad Ben Zoma" is an Israeli name, although "Gilaad" can be Arabic as well. I think the reason some people think he's black is because when he appeared in a flashback in DC's TNG comic, the colorist gave him very dark skin for some reason. But I chalk that up to a coloring error.

I tend to imagine Oded Fehr as Ben Zoma.

Black, dark-skinned, people in Israel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people#Israel
http://www.greatlinx.com/jericho.htm

[Captaindemotion]

Christopher wrote:

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"Gilaad Ben Zoma" is an Israeli name, although "Gilaad" can be Arabic as well. I think the reason some people think he's black is because when he appeared in a flashback in DC's TNG comic, the colorist gave him very dark skin for some reason. But I chalk that up to a coloring error.

Not unlike how the cover of that Mission Gamma book confused a lot of people about the ethnicity of Prynn Tenmei.

I tend to imagine Oded Fehr as Ben Zoma.

Oded Fehr in anything can only be for the good.