Rate your best and worst re-castings!
- Thread starter apepa
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Best recastings:
Urban McCoy (the crown jewel of Star Trek recasting as far as I'm concerned)
Mudd (excellent update to the character imho)
James Frain as Sarek (Frain is awesome and I like his performance. He's got an appropriately weighty presence.)
Worst recastings:
Whoever that guy was that played Sarek in the Kelvin Timeline. He had one good scene when he tells Spock he married his mom because he loved her but other than that it was like, what's the point?
Alice Eve as Carol Marcus in STID. This is not entirely Eve's fault really. It's mostly Abrams' fault. She's literally just eye candy. Pretty insulting to everyone involved.
Urban McCoy (the crown jewel of Star Trek recasting as far as I'm concerned)
Mudd (excellent update to the character imho)
James Frain as Sarek (Frain is awesome and I like his performance. He's got an appropriately weighty presence.)
Worst recastings:
Whoever that guy was that played Sarek in the Kelvin Timeline. He had one good scene when he tells Spock he married his mom because he loved her but other than that it was like, what's the point?
Alice Eve as Carol Marcus in STID. This is not entirely Eve's fault really. It's mostly Abrams' fault. She's literally just eye candy. Pretty insulting to everyone involved.
Mark Lenard as Sarek is one of my very first childhood memories. I clearly recall watching Journey to Babel in the house we left when I was two. Anyway, Sarek is one of my all-time favorite characters, and Lenard played it with such skill that none of the others compare. Dude from JJ-Trek is just completely forgettable, and I don't know what i up with Frain.
James Frain seemed to be playing the same character that he always does. Where he uses his unique looks to convey menace and amusement with the same facial expression. When I heard that he was going to be Sarek bin Skon in STD I really was surprised. Gave it a go and found that he just wasn't right for the role.
Oh, and if you want to know more about Lenard, I've read the first to pages of this thread. It might not have come up, but he played a horribly racist caricature of a Japanese person in Hawaii 5-0.
James Frain seemed to be playing the same character that he always does. Where he uses his unique looks to convey menace and amusement with the same facial expression. When I heard that he was going to be Sarek bin Skon in STD I really was surprised. Gave it a go and found that he just wasn't right for the role.
Oh, and if you want to know more about Lenard, I've read the first to pages of this thread. It might not have come up, but he played a horribly racist caricature of a Japanese person in Hawaii 5-0.
I don't remember much about the 1st Senator Cretak. Once you seen one Cretak, you've seen em all.
I was surprised to learn that the actress who played the 2nd Senator Cretak was none other than Adrienne Barbeau. She was good in The Fog. Talking about re-casting, Barbeau's Stevie Wayne in The Fog was much better than the re-cast actress who played the character in the remake.
I love love love Karl Urban's McCoy. He does a wonderful job of giving the character all of the warmth, charm, and irascibility we remember from De Kelley's presentation.
I have to say that, though I normally like his work, I did not care for Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan. Partly it's because I did have a problem with the role going to a white actor, but mostly it's because his portrayal seemed colder to me than did Ricardo Montalban's.
You got that right!
I have to say that, though I normally like his work, I did not care for Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan. Partly it's because I did have a problem with the role going to a white actor, but mostly it's because his portrayal seemed colder to me than did Ricardo Montalban's.
There we go. I could never quite put my finger on what bothered me about it. Because he was fantastic otherwise, one of the few actors in this generation that can really pull off these larger than life characters.
I don't remember much about the 1st Senator Cretak. Once you seen one Cretak, you've seen em all.
I was surprised to learn that the actress who played the 2nd Senator Cretak was none other than Adrienne Barbeau.
The first Cretak was had a really deep voice for a woman and talked like a robot. I like Adrienne Barbeau better because there are some...interesting...portraits of her in the 70s if you do an image search.
I thought about listing that one, but I wasn't sure it qualified as a recast. I mean, I guess it was, but it's not as if we ever got the chance to see Bujold's Janeway on screen or develop a liking for her. Certainly Mulgrew did a hell of a job with what she was given.
Yeah. The portrayal was strong and vivid, and yes, larger than life. Totally a worthy villain. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the idea that that he was supposed to be the same guy that Montalban had played so passionately. (Yes, even given the changes in his 23rd-century experience.)
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Montalban was outstanding as Khan. He was the man. He projected so much charisma into the character. Montalban's Khan was colorful, charming and sinister all at once. I liked the accent as well.
Cumberbatch's Khan was a bore, bland and uninteresting.
It wasn't that he was excessively angry. It was more that his anger was of a different type, if that makes sense. Khanberbatch's fury was colder and more contained. Montalkhan's was explosive, effusive, and dramatic -- in a word, passionate. Different types.
Worst
Simon Pegg as Scotty. Unbearable on every level. An insult to an iconic character.
James Frain as Sarek. No.
Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan. In name only.
Alice Eve as Carol Marcus. If you say so, JJ.
Robin Curtis as Saavik. Sadly does not appear to be the same character Kirstie Alley played.
Best
James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane. Blows the forgettable original version out of the water.
Karl Urban as Bones. Fully embodies a younger, less cranky McCoy.
Middling
Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock. Not bad but just can't compare to the originals.
Susanna Thompson as the Borg Queen. A great actress but no one could have lived up to Alice Krige. Still did a decent job though.
Simon Pegg as Scotty. Unbearable on every level. An insult to an iconic character.
James Frain as Sarek. No.
Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan. In name only.
Alice Eve as Carol Marcus. If you say so, JJ.
Robin Curtis as Saavik. Sadly does not appear to be the same character Kirstie Alley played.
Best
James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane. Blows the forgettable original version out of the water.
Karl Urban as Bones. Fully embodies a younger, less cranky McCoy.
Middling
Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock. Not bad but just can't compare to the originals.
Susanna Thompson as the Borg Queen. A great actress but no one could have lived up to Alice Krige. Still did a decent job though.
I'm interested in what scene you're referring to?
In the movie when he said to Kirk that Carol Marcus was superfluous. She really was.
Cumberbatch as Khan was obviously terrible. He was only cast because they were trying to appeal to the UK market, not because he fit the role.
No one ever talks about Zoe Saldana as Uhura. I like Zoe, but she acts nothing like Uhura.
IMO Nimoy, Lenard and Tim Russ are the only actors that have ever played convincing Vulcans. Everyone else, including Quinto, always come off as too try-hard, pretentious and preachy.
No one ever talks about Zoe Saldana as Uhura. I like Zoe, but she acts nothing like Uhura.
I just think that Mark Lenard was so good as Sarek that nobody they were going to cast could compare. My expectations for the recasting are so low that it doesn't bother me I guess. Ben Cross is certainly better than Frain though.
IMO Nimoy, Lenard and Tim Russ are the only actors that have ever played convincing Vulcans. Everyone else, including Quinto, always come off as too try-hard, pretentious and preachy.
I would say, outside of her relationship plot, she's the most professional and down to earth character in the bunch. Which is exactly what Uhura should be. Unfortunately, they wrote her personal life into her work life way too often and too stupidly, but that's just another aspect of the reboot's attempt to make all the characters more 'relatable' to the modern audience. The only one who really escaped that fate was McCoy, partly because his part was small and partly because he was already less anachronistic than the others.
