Paul Wesley's incarnation of James T. Kirk

TOS isn't literal history. Dramatic interpretation is dramatic.

 

Most of it's an improvement.

 

All. Aesthetically at least.

 

At first I thought you meant the Quebec franchise La Belle Province (which, of course, specializes in poutine) and was going to tell you the menus in the photo are not from there but it then occurred to me you meant the provincial nickname.

Now I want to go to my local La Belle and scarf down a poutine, extra fromage. (Damn you. )

 

Never really cared for the stuff, myself. It's not so much that I don't like it, it just doesn't seem to like me.

 

To be fair, poutine doesn’t really like anyone. It’s just that it expresses its disdain for humanity in a wide variety of ways—some quickly, others in more lingering fashion. The danger is especially high for those in the latter group (such as myself).

 

Spock looks and sounds quite a lot like Leonard Nimoy. I was surprised. I didn't care for Paul Wesley's Kirk in the last episode of season 1 - he does not look like young Shatner, which is fine, but he also doesn't act like how the character is described in the episode. It was weird, especially when Sam said he wasn't above using 'charm' to get his way...at no point did I see any charm. Glad to see in the pictures posted in this thread that he does, in fact, have the ability to smile. Kirk smiled a lot and had a whole vibe. Wesley just seems pissed off. Cannot wait for next season regardless, though! Hopefully he grows into the role.

 

After watching new new trailer the few seconds we saw of Kirk did feel very much like Kirk but I think that’s thanks to the writers, not necessarily acting skill.

 

That was largely true of Shatner as well. Kirk became a caricature when they started writing him that way because the actor never invented a word of what he said or any of what he did. And when he had real input into how Kirk was written, as in ST 5, the result was poor.

 

Yeah, this has been my unpopular opinion for a long time. I don’t think shatner made the character of Kirk. Anyone could have played him. (Probably better) He was a product of excellent writing.

 

Actors are far more often the product of the direction they’re given than the writing. Strong direction can elicit excellent performances, even from mediocre writing, while weak direction can often lead to actors “playing themselves” or making poor choices. Actors are like musical instruments, after a fashion. Directors are the musicians. Scripts are the sheet music. You can get excellent results all around when all three are well “made” but you can still get pretty good results if at least two are above average. (Theatre prof made that analogy at a faculty party where I taught many years ago)

 

So Kirk's is more a product of writers and directors?

 

I don't quite agree that there isn't a lot of Shatner in Kirk. From a lot of things I've read and heard about TOS' production, it was up to the actors to put a majority of their own interpretation into the characters. I mean Nimoy was essentially creating a lot of the Vulcan culture as he went (along with D.C. Fontana on some of the broader strokes of the Vulcan ways and culture).

The one Outer Limits episode ("Cold Hands, Warm Heart") that Shatner did has him delivering a monologue that you could easily see Kirk doing in TOS. And that was several years before TOS started production, even before he was cast.

 

Not what I said. It’s a confluence of all three. What can vary from one production (episode or film) to another is the quality of an individual part of the three.

 

Let's not forget that in "Quality" we first see Kirk when he's having an initial meeting with his superior officer, then in a battle, after which he's lost the Farragut - all of those are times Kirk would have been deadly serious.

 

Yes. YouTube "William Shatner Paul Wesley".

 

I'm reminded of this clip when People say that they don't see so and so as Kirk or Spock.

 

It was my understanding that William Shatner had script approval and stole a lot lines that were meant for other cast members. This behavior was part of the reason the rest of the cast despised him.

 

I believe he has confirmed this, but always maintained that it wasn't personal. The show was on the chopping block for cancellation and Shatner genuinely believed he could perform those lines better, etc. (apparently years later they realized NBC had a flawed ratings system and Trek was actually performing on par or above expectations with the viewers they were targeting but at the time NBC genuinely believed the show was struggling)

A lot was at stake, and when Trek ultimately was canceled, Shatner himself ended up living from his truck for a while! I always felt that the cast didn't take this into account when voicing their TOS complaints but maybe they feel otherwise.

 

And to be fair, it was a one-hour network action and drama series produced in the late 1960s. Shows of that era had the lead cast members and supporting cast members and it wasn't uncommon for the series leads to get most of the attention and script material while the other actors had to settle for a handful of lines per episode (if that many) and a scattering of brief glimpses during said episode.