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Detmer & Ariam

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I lost track of the context this thread was taking but I did manage to put The Rachel on Lorca using https://www.instyle.com/makeover
 
I would say that contract status is not a reason to write material for characters that are dull and uninteresting, played by terrible actors with no emotional range.
I doubt Wang and Montgomery's contract status determined the amount of attention their characters received in Voy and Ent. No doubt it was determined by their abilities as actors, the two shows' direction, and in the case of Ent, the show's format. And just for the record, I have always thought Montgomery was chosen to play Mayweather based mostly on looks.
I think you missed my point, which is that Kim and Mayweather never should have been regulars in the first place, because neither character/actor offered anything* of worth to the series, and it was a mistake for VOY and ENT to get in the mindset of "our regular cast must be all our bridge characters, no matter how flat and lifeless they are", a mindset which Disco has been wise to avoid.
Mayweather wasn't given that much in Ent. That show went with a "big 3" format which meant that Archer, T'Pol, and Trip, got most of the screen time. The rest of the regular cast were used as support players most of the time. Considering the amount of screen time Garret Wang got on Voy, and that show's more familiar 'captain + ensemble' format, the Voy production team disagreed with you about Wang's acting.
And obviously the diversity they represented was important, and it has always particularly bothered me that it's almost all the non-white males from this era of Trek -- these two plus Beltran -- that were the franchises worst casting failures. As a now-former casting director myself, who started in the field while ENT was still running, I can say with confidence that there is no way in hell they didn't have better auditions from other black & Asian actors. I suspect someone's conscious/unconscious racism is responsible for rejecting those, because it seems like too much of a threat -- they respond to the clearly weaker non-white actor because he reads as bland and neutered, and is thus never going to out-macho the white guys.
This is an interesting take. I used to watch Anthony Montgomery on Ent and wonder how he got the part. In terms of acting, ANYONE could have done what he did. That's when I decided it had to be his looks. But, giving the production staff the benefit of the doubt, it could have been that they knew "Mayweather" wouldn't get that much to do, given Ent's format, so decided that rather than hire a strong actor, they'd simply get a good looking face that might hold some viewers.

As to whether or not the production staff may have thought hiring an actor of color who might overshadow Scott Bakula (something that would not have been that hard), or Connor Trinnieer, is open to debate, but I do think that Ent's format took precedent. However, whenever race is involved in an issue in America, racism might always be a factor.
 
This is an interesting take. I used to watch Anthony Montgomery on Ent and wonder how he got the part. In terms of acting, ANYONE could have done what he did. That's when I decided it had to be his looks.

Montgomery was in Starfleet Academy so he already had more Trek experience than most of the rest of the cast, but i felt the directors simply did not know what to do with him, more because I don't think they had a grasp on his character. It almost felt like they wanted him to be some Gomer Pyle, fresh off the ECS farm type character, only they never gave him enough time to be THAT. It ALMOST seemed like they were content with him filling in a missing section of the color pallet and keeping quiet. Which is a shame, guy could act.

He did well in Demons and Terra Prime. And unlike a many of the cast he's had regular acting gigs since then.
When he's not doing that he's writing graphic novels. Things seemed to have turned out well enough.
 
Considering the amount of screen time Garret Wang got on Voy, and that show's more familiar 'captain + ensemble' format, the Voy production team disagreed with you about Wang's acting.
Quite the contrary, Wang claims Berman had a thing against him, and Braga has been quoted admitting he never cared for Wang. Indeed, it was originally going to be Garrett Wang who was going to be removed in the fourth season to make room for Jeri Ryan to be added, which is why Harry Kim got infected by Species 8472 in Scorpion. But then People magazine included him in their list of Most Beautiful People on TV, at which point UPN stepped in and told Berman "you're keeping him." Jennifer Lien got the axe instead.
 
I often wonder what the show would've been like with 7 and Kes together, and no more Harry "Ensign For Seven Years" Kim...
 
Quite the contrary, Wang claims Berman had a thing against him, and Braga has been quoted admitting he never cared for Wang. Indeed, it was originally going to be Garrett Wang who was going to be removed in the fourth season to make room for Jeri Ryan to be added, which is why Harry Kim got infected by Species 8472 in Scorpion. But then People magazine included him in their list of Most Beautiful People on TV, at which point UPN stepped in and told Berman "you're keeping him." Jennifer Lien got the axe instead.

What a terrible choice they made. Kes was a boring character, but Lein proved in the end-run of Season 3 once she got out from Neelix's shadow she had the acting chops for something serious.

It's a shame how her life went though in general after leaving Voyager. She should have been able to finagle that wonderful voice into doing audiobooks or something.
 
I have always wondered if that beauty list that Wang was on was the true reason or if that was just a reason they went with because it sounded better than they didn't want to many women on the show at one time. It was the late 90's so a show with 4 women, one who is the star and lead and the new one who you also expect to be a lead and I can see how they would feel that would be to female top heavy in those days. Especially when Trek up until then only had 3 women as series leads once, during a brief stint in season 1 of TNG.

Jason
 
I have always wondered if that beauty list that Wang was on was the true reason or if that was just a reason they went with because it sounded better than they didn't want to many women on the show at one time. It was the late 90's so a show with 4 women, one who is the star and lead and the new one who you also expect to be a lead and I can see how they would feel that would be to female top heavy in those days. Especially when Trek up until then only had 3 women as series leads once, during a brief stint in season 1 of TNG.

Unfortunately, this sounds very plausible.
 
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