What's some of the worst acting you've seen in the first 10 Trek movies?

[Green]

Shatner was so good in the first season and a half of TOS and after.... it was hit or miss.
Also, the supporting cast was ok for the series, but having to use them in movies really dragged down the quality of overall acting.
That aside, why they got so many weak performances for guest roles is mind boggling.
instead of who was bad---who was good?
Luckinbill, Plummer, Warner (in VI), Winfield, Lenard, Dame Anderson,
Allley, Besch and Butrick were decent in TWOK----Montalban was a little overplayed but not bad.
Not a fan of Lloyd or Curtis, but I think they were written/cast poorly.
But Gouw, Eisenman, Khambatta, Schriff, the crew from TMP, the Regula staff were mostly awful.
Were they that bad at casting or were they paying minimum wages or both?

 

[Elder Knight]

I think that Luckinbill's performance was overrated.
Sure, everything else about Trek 5 was so bad, the critics had to find something to praise. Actors playing crazy (or fanatic) usually get good reviews, probably because there's no logic to their behavior, so it's impossible to get it wrong. Just about every amateur actress who plays Ophelia gets her plaudits for scenes once the character has gone mad.
And a crazy holy man? (Or a crazy unholy man.) Wow! Dream role. He could have played that in his sleep.
That late scene wherein he puts on a fake smile (to fool God) and offers the lame excuse "Er ... he has his doubts" always makes me cringe.

 

[Iamnotspock]

The worst for me is Patrick Stewart's performance during the conference room scene in Nemesis.



The acting in that scene is so bad, it's borderline ridiculous. My two-year old son could call for battle stations with more energy. This is a critical moment, and Picard is basically telling his people that either the Scimitar survives or they do, and Stewart delivers it with all the gusto of a bored old man telling his wife of 50 years "yes, Dear" for the ten thousandth time.

"Yeah, okay, ::yawn::, let's go to battle stations."

There is a very languid feel to all of the performances in that scene - LeVar, in particular, comes across as if he's just about had it with Stuart Baird calling him "Laverne" for the umpteenth time that day and just wants to go home - but Stewart's performance is not what I would objectively call "so bad, it's borderline ridiculous" (seriously?), by any stretch. If it's an acting choice that didn't work for you, OK, but Picard seems more weary and resigned to the battle (which is not an immediate "Enemy ship off the starboard bow! Battle stations right now!!" threat - they're at least an hour away from the Federation fleet; it's a "prepare for battle," and we then see Picard 'wait[ing] for the dawn'), which is a perfectly justifiable character motivation to apply.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Cynthia Gouw as Caithlin Dar in The Final Frontier.

Just ugh.

...and that hairdo of hers. What was that supposed to represent?

 

[tomalak301]

George and Gracie. Of course they could also be the best actors in a trek movie.

 

[47of74]

Yeah Data in Generations was pretty God-awful. It was embarrassing to watch. I think it was the same sort of Berman logic on display that said Quark in drag was a good idea.

 

[Oso Blanco]

Kim Cattrall in TUC ... every scene she appears in makes me cringe.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Any scene that has Koenig/Chekov in it is bad.

 

[RColtrane]

William Shatner overacting in TWOK:
"KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!"

 

[tharpdevenport]

The one that immediately leaps out for me is from The Final Frontier, where Chekov is in the captains' chair talking to Sybok and Chekov says, "Wait, no"

It's like he was so bored. Not engaged a single bit, no rehersal, nobody stopped and yells "Cut!" to coach him, nothing. It's like Shatner knew it was going to be painful and got it over in one take.


Anything with Sulu. I've yet to se anything with George Takei in it, Trek or otherwise, that indicates to me he knows how to act. His sole idea of "acting" appears to simply be changing his facial expressions and widening his eyes. That guy in a BREIF THREE SECONDS of TMP going into the Engineering Room doors as they shut, seems like genius when compared to George Takei.


There were a number of lazy moments from the Shat, too. Looking back now in my mind, I think Nimoy may have been the only one who gave it an honest go every single film, even in his two-parter ST: TNG appearances.


And just about anybody in Nemesis, AKA: "Star Trek LXIX: I Give Up".

 

[STEPhon IT]

What you mentioned were some the reasons I thought bringing along the featured players from Star Trek onto the Motion Pictures were a huge mistake. The actors were too old be in the positions they were in; they should've had higher assignments by then. And some of the screen time they did manage to have was uninspired, but it was rectified in TUC... well except for Sulu; who was really a bystander.

 

[tharpdevenport]

What you mentioned were some the reasons I thought bringing along the featured players from Star Trek onto the Motion Pictures were a huge mistake.

Maybe, but there is a lot to be said about respecting the fans who made it popular in the first palce, by casting not one, but all the original actors. Like "Serenity" did.

The actors were too old be in the positions they were in; they should've had higher assignments by then.

I agree for some of them, but not so much all of them. Technically speaking, Kirk did get promoted, to admiral, but he prefered captaining the Enterprise

Sulu, too, who obviously climbed the ranks and became a captain of his own ship, getting the assignment in a deleted TWoK scene.

Scotty on the other hand, was like Kirk, he loved what he did and stayed with it. And he obviously enjoyed working under Kikr's command.

I don't recall the exact details, but didn't McCoy drop out or retire or something? He said Starfleet drafted him, in TMP. If he wasn't joking and they really did bring him back forcefully, he did move on in life.

And for Spock, I once again don't recall if there wre particulars, but he wasn't even in Starfleet and had to come back to it, for the first film. I don't think Spock even met for Starfleet to be a career and move up the ranks.

That really just leaves two confusing ones: Uhura and Chekov. Was Chekov's goal in life to sit at the helm until he retired? Or Uhura sticking something in an ear until she retired? I know something people in life are comfortable where they are, but I just didn't see it in these two. And now that I am really thinking about it for the first time: what they did with her character for six films, is embarrassing; she did nothing, went nowhere, never grew except that terrible implication of romantic feelings for Scotty, and danced naked with fans. My God, it's a miracle she kept signing on to each new film.

And some of the screen time they did manage to have was uninspired, but it was rectified in TUC... well except for Sulu; who was really a bystander.

Well, not really, he had his own ship and partook in the climactic battle at the end.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Maybe, but there is a lot to be said about respecting the fans who made it popular in the first palce, by casting not one, but all the original actors. Like "Serenity" did.

That's entirely different because the cast of Firefly were an ensemble cast, while Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, Rand, Chapel, and Scotty, and many more were featured players.

 

[tharpdevenport]

It's not a matter of how the cast was, it's a matter of we got them back without recasting any of the main characters as fans saw them since the second cancellation. They didn't even re-cast Khan.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Montelban was not part of the main cast and neither were the featured players, but I see your point.

 

[Terok Nor]

If you think the featured players from TOS were treated badly in the movies then spare a thought for poor Beverly Crusher from TNG. She was nothing but a glorified extra in all 4 TNG movies.

 

[Longinus]

-Robin Curtis as Saavik. She was pretty wooden, especially following Kirstie Alley.

To this day, Curtis is my preferred Saavik. She actually seemed like a Vulcan. Her performance makes perfect sense once you forget Saavik's non-canon half-Romulan backstory.

 

[DonIago]

Of course, if you like the half-Romulan backstory then her performance makes a lot less sense...

That said, I have trouble blaming Curtis's performance entirely on her, as I believe she was encouraged to be more Vulcan than she'd been portrayed in TWoK.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

To this day, Curtis is my preferred Saavik. She actually seemed like a Vulcan. Her performance makes perfect sense once you forget Saavik's non-canon half-Romulan backstory.

I don't see the point in having a full-blooded, non-emotional Vulcan aboard the Enterprise if Spock is also there. That's a surefire formula for having a character who's only half as interesting as Spock.

I have trouble blaming Curtis's performance entirely on her, as I believe she was encouraged to be more Vulcan than she'd been portrayed in TWoK.

That's true. Since Nimoy was directing her, that's obviously the type of performance he wanted. Of course, if I wanted to be really cynical, I'd say that he was just ensuring some job security for himself.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Nimoy should've cast Joan Severance for the role; she had a Kirstey Alley look to her which could've soften the blow of her loss. Probably didn't matter anyway III sucked ass.