Off the top of my head, maybe Reshma Shetty? I haven't actually watched that Royal Pains show she's in, but I've seen her in promos for it and she's striking.
Cast the Characters of Trek Literature
- Thread starter Haval_Runa
- Start date
Off the top of my head, maybe Reshma Shetty? I haven't actually watched that Royal Pains show she's in, but I've seen her in promos for it and she's striking.
This is from a somewhat old novel, but I had some ideas for Federation:
For Dr. Monica Burke, John Burke's granddaughter and Zefram Cochrane's wife, what about Carey Mulligan?
Besides being an excellent actor, she's a physical match for the character as described in the book, including in deportment and in surprising youthfulness for her age (her hair is sometimes longer). Appropriately, she apparently would like to play a human on Star Trek, and enjoys witty action characters.
Also, John Hurt could be a very good John Burke. I picture him in something of his Olivander/Indiana Jones mode, but with Burke's "flyaway hair."
For Dr. Monica Burke, John Burke's granddaughter and Zefram Cochrane's wife, what about Carey Mulligan?
Besides being an excellent actor, she's a physical match for the character as described in the book, including in deportment and in surprising youthfulness for her age (her hair is sometimes longer). Appropriately, she apparently would like to play a human on Star Trek, and enjoys witty action characters.
Also, John Hurt could be a very good John Burke. I picture him in something of his Olivander/Indiana Jones mode, but with Burke's "flyaway hair."
I always pictured Peter O'Toole as Burke.
Justin Bruening as Bowers? Why do so many people think Bowers is white?
And come on, Kurtwood Smith as Ra-Havreii just because he played another Efrosian in the movies? Lame. He's totally wrong for the part.
I have no idea which "Mark Smith" they're referencing for Keru. IMDb lists quite a few.
Grace Park for T'Ryssa? Well, not as bad as some suggestions I've heard. But Emmanuelle Vaugier as Choudhury? Hardly. Too young, wrong ethnicity, arguably too short.
The other suggestions are okay but not perfect.
'Sam Bowers' isn't a name that provides hints as to ethnicity. It seems normal in an Anglo-American culture, and since said culture is predominately 'white', that may be the reason. I tended to think of Bowers as Sam Lavelle until a novel referenced Bowers as black, at which point I think I pictured him as the Operative from Serenity. That's only because I'd probably recently seen the movie. I tend to use generic impressions of characters if they're not described in detail, largely because I'm more concerned with the character's personality and such rather than their physical appearance. That's why I initially pictured Chen as Michelle Forbes, even though Forbes isn't Asian...Chen's personality reminded me of Ro's, so I made a quick association. Same with the Sams.
Come to think of it, I use Sam Lavelle for Sam Damon in Once an Eagle and Sam Yeager in Turtledove's Worldwar and Colonization series.
Uh, other than the obvious ones, I didn't like any of the picks for the Destiny video. I agreed with Katee Sackoff as Vale, but ever since I realized that Vale was older than I originally thought, I've started going with Amanda Tapping. And I do like Jacobi as the voice of Ree, and Jacobson( or is it Jacobsen?) as Kadohata. But the others I don't see at all.
ROSS KEMP?!?!
WTF?!
NO WAY!
WTF?!
NO WAY!
I know the description doesn't match but every time I think of Blue-White in Titan I keep picturing and hearing Robot X-1 from Futurama. Maybe a few more arms could be added to him:
http://theinfosphere.org/File:1-X.jpg
http://theinfosphere.org/File:1-X.jpg
I'm not sure what part he was suggested for but that doesn't stop me agreeing with you. Keep him out of all and any Trek. Unless they need someone to play one of the papier-mache boulders from the original series.
Ross who?
Ross Kemp is a second rate actor from Britain who played one of the Mitchell Brothers in Eastenders, a long-running East-end-of-London soap. he subsequently graduated to playing an SAS team leader in a laughable 'drama' called Ultimate Force.
these days he presents documentary series for Sky One, like 'Ross Kemp in Afghanistan' (which was actually an award winner, where he was embedded with the troops in the war zone getting shot at) and 'Ross Kemp on Gangs' where he goes around the world meeting notorious gangs in different countries like Brazil and places. He also did one about pirates in Somalia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Kemp
these days he presents documentary series for Sky One, like 'Ross Kemp in Afghanistan' (which was actually an award winner, where he was embedded with the troops in the war zone getting shot at) and 'Ross Kemp on Gangs' where he goes around the world meeting notorious gangs in different countries like Brazil and places. He also did one about pirates in Somalia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Kemp
Ross Kemp was Grant Mitchell from eastenders. Was married to Martine Mccutcheons character Tiffany when she was in it, brother of Phil and daughter of Peggy (Barbara Windsor from carry on films). And NO I don't watch eastenders, I'm just english and we can't help but know these things. Must be a genetic marker we have for knowing whats going on in the soaps without watching them 
More recently he's been travelling round the world with a cameraman being filmed meeting scary people or going into dangerous situations. E.g. "Ross Kemp on Gangs", "Ross Kemp in Afghanistan" etc. etc. He's tall, bald and bug eyed. Like a giant Gollum
More recently he's been travelling round the world with a cameraman being filmed meeting scary people or going into dangerous situations. E.g. "Ross Kemp on Gangs", "Ross Kemp in Afghanistan" etc. etc. He's tall, bald and bug eyed. Like a giant Gollum 
I think you've hit on the problem with the whole idea of casting literary characters.
If an author hasn't done their job to give a reader a wholly rounded image of the character, the reader is going to take what's given and form their own image, and even later information given may not necessarily shake that image.
For instance, I've told you that I picture Trys as a Caucasian actress. In your mind, she's not, and you seem to take offense whenever someone suggests a non-Asian actress, like (as I did) Amelia Warner, for the part. I read your book, that's how I saw the character. *shrug*
For what it's worth, until five minutes ago, I didn't realize that Bowers is meant to be black. In all honesty, I didn't really care because it's not like it mattered; Bowers has always come across (at least to me) as a "second Ensign on the right" kind of character, and even his promotion in Destiny hasn't altered that perception for me.
To go the other way, when I read The Time Traveler's Wife several years ago, I pictured Henry's doctor as Andre Braugher. The character, though, like everyone in TTW is a WASP.
As writers, yes, we have certain ideas in mind, a certain vision, for the characters we write about when we're writing them. But if those ideas aren't being communicated effectively, the reader may away from a book with a view of the character that isn't what the author intended. Is that necessarily the reader's fault? I'd take it the other way; mistaken casting should be taken as a sign of what I, as a writer, can do better?
And is it at all worthwhile to point out to the reader the cognitive dissonance between what the writer intended and what the reader saw? I don't see any upside to a writer telling his audience that they're wrong.
Food for thought.
I don't know why you'd think I was offended. It's simply a matter of factual accuracy. T'Ryssa is explicitly described in the text as having "tomboyish Asian features" (see p. 68 of Greater Than the Sum). I'm a stickler for precision, that's all. I react the same way when people suggest white actors for Bowers or Choudhury or mistakenly assume that Dr. Ree is an upright biped like a Gorn. I'm not "offended" on a personal level, I'm simply pointing out that they're overlooking significant facts.
Ever since watching Caprica, I can't help but picture Sasha Roiz as Makk Vinx from the SCE books. Sam Adama has the same kind of "gangster with a heart of gold" goofball charm.
Hell, Caprica itself could probably double as 24th-Century Sigma Iotia II, what with the whole "pinstripe suits and tyrolean hats" 30s/40s style.
Hell, Caprica itself could probably double as 24th-Century Sigma Iotia II, what with the whole "pinstripe suits and tyrolean hats" 30s/40s style.
^Not a bad choice, I think.
I've started watching The L Word on Netflix (and no it's just because I'm a perv who wants to see lesbian sex scenes, I started because a lot of actors and actresses I really like were in it) and I got thinking that Katherine Moennig would make a great Bergoine in New Frontier.
Or anyone with that hairstyle (Daniela Sea was suggested earlier in this thread). Of course Moenning was also in Young Americans as a girl pretending to be a boy and having a crush on her boarding school roommate.
As for who would play Christine Vale, I would say a definite to Katee Sackhoff after seeing her on 24. One would have to ignore the narrative descriptions of Vale as petite, but I'm sold on Amanda Tapping in the role after having seen just a few episodes of Stargate SG-1.
Ross Kemp was Grant Mitchell from eastenders. Was married to Martine Mccutcheons character Tiffany when she was in it, brother of Phil and daughter of Peggy (Barbara Windsor from carry on films). And NO I don't watch eastenders, I'm just english and we can't help but know these things. Must be a genetic marker we have for knowing whats going on in the soaps without watching them
Or an unconvincing Michael Chiklis.
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