WNMHGB image

[TREK_GOD_1]

I'm sure they looked at the finished pilot and decided that certain actors made an impression and some didn't. Andrea Dromm was really just there. She was sweet and pretty, but Grace Lee Whitney was stunning, almost burlesque like and her personality resonated the moment she stepped on screen.

Dromm would need more episodes to build on her character. In WNMHGB, she's clearly meant to be sort of green and not exactly prepared for all of the mysterious things headed their way.

Paul Fix was a good actor, but not outstanding. I like him as a performer, but there's no spark. He's too old for what became a breakout role.

Yes, Fix is good in other roles, but he was far too old to be the kind of contemporary Kirk needed on the human side.

Lloyd Haynes was also a good actor, but Nichelle had a glow about her

But Haynes was a superior performer. It would have been fascinating to see him make the series cut with what he could deliver.

Honestly, the one actor who really sold the episode? Shatner. His magnetic performance blows everyone off the screen. You could have recast everyone else and I would have watched it every week. Even if they dropped Nimoy - whom I loved but Shatner was the guy I gravitated towards.

Well, aside from all of the numerous great elements of the second pilot, Shatner--as you say--sold it all. He made that role his own from his first shot, and explored a number of emotional states making him a compelling figure. Almost inarguably Roddenberry's greatest decision for the Star Trek project/concept.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Well, aside from all of the numerous great elements of the second pilot, Shatner--as you say--sold it all. He made that role his own from his first shot, and explored a number of emotional states making him a compelling figure. Almost inarguably Roddenberry's greatest decision for the Star Trek project/concept.

I know it’s been discussed before, but I can’t picture Jeffrey Hunter, Jack Lord, Lloyd Bridges, et. al, in the role of James T. Kirk. Shatner is vastly underrated as a serious actor.

 

[FormerLurker]

Shatner had experience doing Shakespeare in repertory up in Canada. How many of the others you just named had that kind of experience, I wonder?

After all, as we all know, that's one of the things that Patrick Stewart had going for him as Picard.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I know it’s been discussed before, but I can’t picture Jeffrey Hunter, Jack Lord, Lloyd Bridges, et. al, in the role of James T. Kirk. Shatner is vastly underrated as a serious actor.

Well, he is now, but not back then.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Gene and Leonard Nimoy still weren’t quite sure about what the Spock character should be at this point, and it shows.

"WHAT IF I SHOUT A LOT!?!"
"That might work...."

 

[BK613]

hmm, blue warp nacelles....
i guessing a sombrero would be inappropriate in this modern era.

 

[Maurice]

"WHAT IF I SHOUT A LOT!?!"
"That might work...."

The shouting is not unusual for the officer of the deck, who repeats things loud enough for the crew to hear. Maybe that was the idea.

 

[marlboro]

Yes I've heard that one before and I'm guessing that Dromm refused his advances and that's why she was not in the rest of season one or much else...
JB

Some quotes from Dromm are posted on IMDB:

Since Star Trek (1966) was only a pilot they could keep you under option for six months and change your character or, even worse, drop you from the series. You had no guarantees that they would sign you for the series. I thought that doing the movie (The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966)) would be more exciting and a great thing to do. That was a choice I had to make and you can't look back.
I was offered a role in The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966). They told me you either had to do the film or the (Star Trek (1966)) series. I chose the film, but had I known that "Star Trek" would become such a phenomenon, I probably would have opted for the series.

 

[marlboro]

I know it’s been discussed before, but I can’t picture Jeffrey Hunter, Jack Lord, Lloyd Bridges, et. al, in the role of James T. Kirk. Shatner is vastly underrated as a serious actor.

I think Lloyd Bridges could have pulled it off. Never underestimate the Dad of the Dude.

Edit for a random thought: I always thought that Robert Kulp would have made a good Trek captain.

 

[Phaser Two]

Shatner--as you say--sold it all. He made that role his own from his first shot, and explored a number of emotional states making him a compelling figure. Almost inarguably Roddenberry's greatest decision for the Star Trek project/concept.

I totally agree.

I know it’s been discussed before, but I can’t picture Jeffrey Hunter, Jack Lord, Lloyd Bridges, et. al, in the role of James T. Kirk. Shatner is vastly underrated as a serious actor.

Yep. Nimoy was important as well, of course. But honestly it all started with Shatner. The combination of loads of charisma, convincing physicality, and the ability to do both comedy and drama was just incredible to find in one actor.

Shatner had experience doing Shakespeare in repertory up in Canada. How many of the others you just named had that kind of experience, I wonder?

After all, as we all know, that's one of the things that Patrick Stewart had going for him as Picard.

In the Trek BBS news links on the right side of the page I just watched the video where Stewart, Spiner, Jeri Ryan and Jonathan Del Arco discuss their "first contacts" with Star Trek - they're all quite charming about it so it's worth a watch - and Brent says that he was drawn to Star Trek because of Shatner's performance, particularly since he had seen him and greatly appreciated him in other roles.

Well, he is now, but not back then.

Not sure he is now either given the two Emmys and a Golden Globe. I'm so happy for him that he got those.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Not sure he is now either given the two Emmys and a Golden Globe. I'm so happy for him that he got those.

You'd be surprised how few people paid attention to the awards. I'm not talking about his peers or the industry, but the average person, who knows the Priceline guy, the singing and Kevin Pollak (that guy had more to do with the public perception of him than Shatner himself did). I've had discussions with people who just see the spoofable parts of his personality: "isn't he the worst actor ever?" Calling him "The Shat." All that crap.

He's less known for his actual acting talent these days. That's probably his own fault, but there ya go.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

An important point that I don't think as been made yet is that the chemistry between Shatner and Nimoy is pretty evident from their very first scene together in WNMHGB. Nimoy observed in Mind Meld, the one-on-one interview that he did with Shatner, that Shatner's energy and more bombastic style of acting gave him something more definite to play against. Jeffrey Hunter was a more restrained actor than Shatner, and he played Christopher Pike in the thoughtful way that the character was written in "The Cage." That made Nimoy play Spock a bit bigger to stand out in contrast ("THE WOMEN!!!") But once Shatner came on board, that freed Nimoy to develop the quieter, more restrained and thoughtful Spock that we got in the series proper. If Jeffrey Hunter had stayed with the series and continued to play Pike in the manner that he did in the first pilot, the Mr. Spock we would've seen on TOS would likely have been a very different character.

So like the characters they were playing, Shatner and Nimoy brought out the best in each other.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Calling him "The Shat."

I've always thought that was usually done with affection.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I know it’s been discussed before, but I can’t picture Jeffrey Hunter, Jack Lord, Lloyd Bridges, et. al, in the role of James T. Kirk.

Not at all. Bridges--in every role I've ever seen him take on--is just not that kind of personality. Hunter--well, we saw what he did with Pike, and yes, that was capturing a character in a very specific point of his life (crew loss, being captured, etc.), but it is next to impossible to imagine Hunter in any of the TOS episodes, carrying so much of the dramatic duties on his shoulder in the way Shatner did.

As for Jack Lord....a Pez dispenser had more personality than that man.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Would a Pez dispenser of Jack Lord have more or less personality than Jack Lord?

I've long thought that Robert Conrad would have made a good Kirk.

 

[Silvercrest]

Would a Pez dispenser of Jack Lord have more or less personality than Jack Lord?

hmmm ... thinking ....

 

[GNDN18]

Would a Pez dispenser of Jack Lord have more or less personality than Jack Lord?

I've long thought that Robert Conrad would have made a good Kirk.

And Ross Martin would have done well as “Bones” McCoy … with a newly discovered talent for disguises.

*When I was very young (not quite egg plant young), I thought Artemus Gordon was played by DeForest Kelley.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I've always thought that was usually done with affection.

Not always. Of course it can be, but most often than not I’ve heard it used ranging from dismissive to the past tense of “shit.”

 

[johnnybear]

The Shat was a more than competent actor for most of the series and other things he appeared in. It was during the third season we started to get his peculiar quirks and as for his rug in the movies, forget it!!!
JB

 

[marlboro]

Would a Pez dispenser of Jack Lord have more or less personality than Jack Lord?

I've long thought that Robert Conrad would have made a good Kirk.

I'm not sure if Conrad would have made a good Kirk, but the action scenes would have been amazing.