What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[Vale]

Personally I find that an actor being much older than they should be or a role being recast is like seeing part of the set wobble or something fall off a prop.

Star Trek's already got form when it comes to "actor's ages not matching character's ages" though.

Patrick Stewart was 47 when he started playing a 59-year-old Jean-Luc Picard, and this age gap has carried consistently right through to Picard. Now, this is one I'm happy to handwave this as just "humans live a lot longer in the 24th century so they seem to age more slowly from a 20th/21st century perspective".

However, that doesn't work well as an explanation for actors who are obviously much older than their characters. 39-year-old Jonathan Archer was played by 47-year-old Scott Bakula; 26-year-old Kira Nerys was played by 36-year-old Nana Visitor; 25-year-old B'Elanna Torres was played by 36-year-old Roxann Dawson.

 

[Orphalesion]

Or every century has a sexist or prejudiced character, no matter how culturally enlightened their society is.
e.g Pike, Archer, McCoy, Stiles, T'Pau, the parents of Spock's school bullies

But the Pike shown in Discovery, and who presumably (hopefully!) will be the model for the Pike seen in SNW, clearly was not sexist or prejudiced and was good friends with a female Captain (Prime Georgiou)
Really what has more authority on the characterization of a character? A show that spends a whole season with him or one line from an unaired pilot?

 

[Farscape One]

Star Trek's already got form when it comes to "actor's ages not matching character's ages" though.

Patrick Stewart was 47 when he started playing a 59-year-old Jean-Luc Picard, and this age gap has carried consistently right through to Picard. Now, this is one I'm happy to handwave this as just "humans live a lot longer in the 24th century so they seem to age more slowly from a 20th/21st century perspective".

However, that doesn't work well as an explanation for actors who are obviously much older than their characters. 39-year-old Jonathan Archer was played by 47-year-old Scott Bakula; 26-year-old Kira Nerys was played by 36-year-old Nana Visitor; 25-year-old B'Elanna Torres was played by 36-year-old Roxann Dawson.

In the cases of Bakula, Visitor, and Dawson, they look a lot younger than their actual age.

 

[Xhiandra]

It’s a Very nice Belgian

Hi.

 

[shapeshifter]

They included a line in TNG: "Inheritance" that Data aged, but everyone (including Brent Spiner, it seems) missed it:

LAFORGE: It's part of her aging program. Not only does she age in appearance like Data, her vital signs change too.

I don't believe it was simply missed, Spiner ignored it because he was sick of playing Data, or he thought there was nothing more to do with him except make him a hero.

He had a chance to resurrect Data in PIC but nope, just another reminder he ain't coming back.

But hey, he's got yet another Soong to play so yay that?

 

[fireproof78]

But hey, he's got yet another Soong to play so yay that?

I don't know. Do you like Spiner?

 

[Phil123]

I thought he was great in PIC as Data and Atlan (sp?) Soong. Much better that he was as Noonian or Lore. Also liked him in Enterprise. It is ridiculous that all the men throughout the generations look exactly the same but I’ll put up with it for more Spiner.

 

[F. King Daniel]

But they were shorting out the temporal differential! It was all explained in Time Crash

Another great example in Doctor Who is that William Hartnell, Richard Hurndall, and David Bradley all played the 1st Doctor – not alternate Doctors, not alternate versions of the same Doctor, just the same Doctor – and we just ignore the discrepancies in their appearance. If you can believe Zachary Quinto and Ethan Peck are the same person as Leonard Nimoy, or Tom Hardy is a clone of Patrick Stewart, or Zefram Cochrane looks like both Glenn Corbett and James Cromwell, or that Cyia Batten, Tracy Middendorf, and Melanie Smith are all Tora Ziyal, then you can believe Brent Spiner in his 30s is the same person as Brent Spiner in his 70s.

But we CAN'T pretend the Enterprise in Discovery and Strange New Worlds is the Enterprise from TOS.

Because... uhhh... reasons.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Because the actor that played the original Enterprise is still available.

 

[fireproof78]

But we CAN'T pretend the Enterprise in Discovery and Strange New Worlds is the Enterprise from TOS.

Because... uhhh... reasons.

Because fans won't accept the change.

Except when they do.

Except with ships. Ships don't change.

Except when they do.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Because the actor that played the original Enterprise is still available.

So is Brian Brophy

 

[cooleddie74]

Brophy could pull it off. The man's that good!

 

[GNDN18]

 

[PCz911]

Ok, somebody, anybody, bring me up to speed on the whole Brian thing. I don’t get it. What’s the gag ?

 

[fireproof78]

Ok, somebody, anybody, bring me up to speed on the whole Brian thing. I don’t get it. What’s the gag ?

Brian Brophy was the original actor who played Bruce Maddox in "Measure of a Man." The character returned but Brophy did not for Picard Season 1. So, there was a thread in the Picard subforum honoring the greatest of Brian Brophy.

 

[Vale]

The only issue I had with recasting Brian Brophy (it would have been nice to have him back, but I'm not sure he's still acting – he's a professor at Caltech now and has no IMDb credits after 2014) was that he was already problematically young to play someone who was able to oppose Data's entry into Starfleet, and John Ales is ten years younger!

What's also quite spooky about Brian Brophy is that now he's in his sixties and has adopted an air of rakish academe, he looks and sounds like Brent Spiner's wacky younger brother. I could totally buy him as a Soong!

 

[Kor]

I thought he was great in PIC as Data and Atlan (sp?) Soong. Much better that he was as Noonian or Lore. Also liked him in Enterprise. It is ridiculous that all the men throughout the generations look exactly the same but I’ll put up with it for more Spiner.

A recent thread was speculating that they were all clones.

Kor

 

[dupersuper]

B4 could have become something special had the TNG Movie Era continued.

Theoretically, but given the quality of the ladst two movies I wouldn't trust them to make Willy Loman or MacBeth interesting...

he was already problematically young to play someone who was able to oppose Data's entry into Starfleet, and John Ales is ten years younger!

Yeah, but it's the 24th century. 90 is the new 70, 60 is the new 40, etc.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I'd like to see a Soong not played by Spiner but until the inevitable happens, I have a feeling I won't.

Actually once Spiner shuffles off this mortal coil, they'll stop creating Soongs I guess. They only make them for him it seems.

I do like Brent Spiner BTW, I just don't understand why in making S2 of Picard it was necessary to create yet another role for him.

 

[dupersuper]

I do like Brent Spiner BTW, I just don't understand why in making S2 of Picard it was necessary to create yet another role for him.

I'd imagine because he and Patrick Stewart are friends and wanted to keep playing together. He shows up in Blunt Talk as well.