I was actually more surprised that there were people who DIDN'T like Chekov.
The Appeal Of Chekov
- Thread starter Spock's Barber
- Start date
Yeah, the first time I saw TOS in a mid-80s rerun I was 12. He looked just as old to me as the other actors did.
My biggest gripe with both The Children Shall Lead and Miri is that the actors who played the "kids" were far too old for the roles. I suspect that one reason was that kids can't work 16-hour days.
I can sort of buy it that shows featuring teenagers doing adult stuff like having sex, getting pregnant, etc. cast actors who are older than the character's they're playing, but Beverly Hills 90201 was pretty extreme, all the main actors except Brian Austin Green and Shannen Doherty (both born in 1971) were pushing 30 when the show started in 1990, and Gabrielle Carteris was born in 1961 and Ian Ziering in 1964, Luke Perry in 1966. Which meant that they were pushing 40 by the time the show ended in 2000.
That said, people in the 60s generally looked older than people of the same age do today. The main difference is that smoking was a lot more prevalent than it is today, even in a looks-focused industry like acting. William Shatner was about 35 when they started shooting TOS. Vic Mignogna was about 50 when they started shooting STC, and to me the Kirks look the same age, and it's not as if Shatner looked old for his age way back when.
Well . . . as far as the kids, maybe, although Miri and Jahn were supposed to be "older" (speaking in the relative science fiction sense) than the other "kids," so I can buy it. In "And the Children Shall Lead," Tommy was supposed to be older, and frankly he scans as a kid to me regardless, and the other ones certainly do.
Your post about 90210 is spot on - even when it was first on, pretty much pre-Internet, I remember friends not being sure whether we were really supposed to believe that Steve and Andrea were high-school age. And now I'm sad about Luke and Shannen. RIP.
And now I'm sad about Luke and Shannen. RIP.
Yes, they were both too young to pass away.
Chee-koov?
And earlier in the series, Doherty's character had a cancer scare which came up negative. Who could bear re-watching that episode now?
Uhura is canonically slightly younger than Sulu, I think, but I am not sure their ages have been definitely stuck down. From memory, I think it would be as at season 2, Chekov 22, Uhura 28 (born 2239) , Sulu 30, Kirk 34. SNW might shed a bit more on Chapel's canonical age.
Thanks for information i wasn't know their ages detail.
Nice recall. For some reason the 22xx dates on Memory Alpha never stick with me. But IIRC, Chekov says he's 22 in "Who Mourns for Adonais," and Kirk says he's 34 in "The Deadly Years." The only other on-screen discussion of a principal character's exact age that I remember in TOS is Kirk telling Scotty to lie to him about his age in "Wolf in the Fold" to prove that the computer's built-in polygraph functions. Scotty says he's 22 and the computer calls him on the fib immediately, but Scotty's real age isn’t mentioned. I may have forgotten an instance or two, and I am no TAS expert, so there could be more pertinent material there.
The other exact age information we're given is McCoy's age in "Encounter at Farpoint." He's 137 in that episode, so it should be easy enough to count backward and figure out how old he was in TOS. Hopefully the TNG scriptwriter didn't just pull a number out of a hat.
I think McCoy was 40 in TOS and Scotty 45.
One of the things I liked in TOS is that the characters are exceptional by being competent rather than being the best of the best (except Spock, and to a lesser extent, Kirk but even Spock's struggle with socialisation was a serios shortcoming that hampered his career).
Later shows try to make almost all the main characters super-humanly good at their jobs. In the reboot, Uhura is graduating at age 18 with a Lieutenant rank, Chekov is promoted to chief engineer while an 18 year old Ensign with 6 months of practical experience as a navigator, and Spock is a full commander and first officer at age 25, 3 years after graduation.
Trying while failing for perfection's an admirable trait. At times Spock is surprised by his personal errors in GALILEO SEVEN and other stories. Kirk may have loosened his ''100 percent efficiency'' requirement over time. Otherwise, how could Chekov possibly stand a chance? Cheap shot, but on-topic.
Yeah the point of a young character is to learn and grow. Young genius characters hitting every mark and teaching lessons to grown ups would be teen wish fulfilment, rather than peak Star Trek.Trying while failing for perfection's an admirable trait. At times Spock is surprised by his personal errors in GALILEO SEVEN and other stories. Kirk may have loosened his ''100 percent efficiency'' requirement over time. Otherwise, how could Chekov possibly stand a chance? Cheap shot, but on-topic.
I will admit, I found Spock being a know-it-all got very wearing. I know there was rivalry between the lead actors, and they wanted to keep the budget down by using fewer characters but it would have been better if Sulu, Uhura, Chapel, and Rand had been given more agency more often.
I think Chekov been green was a good device to let the older characters be smart, while giving a support character something to do.
Shut up, Wesley!
Exactly. I felt bad for Lt-commander McDougal. Decades of experience and she was portrayed as someone without any lateral thinking skills whatsoever.
Guest stars on popular shows can be treated as interlopers, even when they have different strengths. After her TOS spots, Diana Muldaur was considered harshly by the likes of Susan Dey on L.A. LAW, though soon after she appeared enough on NEXT GEN to achieve the crew's trust. Ronny Cox, on the other hand......
Captain, I sense TNG regulars are more territorial in respect who orders them about in comparison to TOS regulars. Spock and Sulu took Matt Decker's orders with few countermands until Kirk ordered Spock to eject Decker by any means necessary.
What's the source for this? Dey had very few scenes with Muldaur apart from several memorable courtroom sequences. Virtually any other member of the main cast had more scenes with Muldaur.
When Muldaur sued the McKenzie Brackman firm, several of the regulars were on the stand. If my memory is correct, Dey had joined the MB team before Muldaur was booted off it. One reason I worded it ''the likes of Susan Dey'' is because I like Muldaur better on TNG and L.A. while I've never liked Susan Dey in anything. I do remember one female cast member (either Jill Eikenberry, or possibly Dey) being forced to answer a negative nickname they had for Muldaur during her lawsuit trial. While Eikenberry was a very positive character, I feel Muldaur was painted or tarred as a troublemaker on the sole basis of being a prickly guest star who was doomed to get the shaft anyway. I found Dey much more annoying than I ever found Muldaur there, so if Diana wanted to play keyboard for me, I'd never object. Dey, however....
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