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Steve McGarrett Commands The Enterprise???

KirksStuntMan

KirksStuntMan

Lieutenant Commander
Red Shirt
I remember reading that during TOS pre-production era GR offered the part of Captain Kirk to Jack Lord, aka Steve McGarrett of his later "Hawaii Five-O" fame. Lord wanted 50% ownership of the show so he was quickly dismissed from the competition. 40+ years after the show aired it's difficult to imagine anyone but William Shatner as Kirk. What's your opinion? Could Lord have filled the starfleet boots as well as Shatner?

th_captain-kirk.jpg
 
Jack Lord as James Kirk, in terms of his play on the character and his delivery, would have been something like Bruce Greenwood's depiction of Christopher Pike in the last movie.

Based on what I remember of how he played Steve McGarrett. He seemed very, I guess the word I want to use is "measured." And when he did get mad, he became "frosty."

So, very un-Shatner-like. It would have been interesting.
 
I think Lord would have made an excellent Kirk.. so his choice to sit in the Captain's chair was rock solid. On the other hand, I'm trying to picture Lord and Nimoy working together in character and its just not working. I'm glad he didn't get the role, obviously, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten Shatner (who was perfectly cast) or the quintessential McGarrett of Five-0.
 
I think Lord would have been like Jeffrey Hunter's Pike in "The Cage," a bit more reserved as Kirk. I don't think it would have worked. The Shat owned the part from "Where No Man Has Gone Before" forward.

Interestingly enough, Jack Lord was the preferred choice for James Bond for the first film, Dr. No, but he wanted a percentage of the box office and all future films, so the producers balked. He did play Bond's CIA sidekick Felix Leiter in the film IIRC. Surely an odd choice, as he was an American, but then, Sean Connery is a Scottsman with Irish ancestry, whose Scottish brogue became very pronounced in Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again.
 
Is there a reason a Scot couldn't be a member of the British Secret Service? A bit like saying a Californian can't be in the FBI. Fleming himself was of Scots ancestry and made Bond a Scot in the novels. Though I believe that was in response to Connery's portrayal.

Now Connery as Kirk ( a Scots name) would be something.
 
Lord was a perfectly fine actor and I think he'd have made the part his own. It just wouldn't be what we've grown accustomed to.
 
There was originally no difference between how Kirk and Pike were written. In those early episodes, Kirk was a serious, no-nonsense, by-the-book type. The character didn't really start to "lighten up" until later, IMO. I tend to agree that Lord's Kirk probably would have been a lot like Bruce Greenwood's Pike in Star Trek XI...
 
C.E. Evans said:
There was originally no difference between how Kirk and Pike were written. In those early episodes, Kirk was a serious, no-nonsense, by-the-book type. The character didn't really start to "lighten up" until later, IMO. I tend to agree that Lord's Kirk probably would have been a lot like Bruce Greenwood's Pike in Star Trek XI...
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Kirk seemed "lightened up" in the series premier episode "The Man Trap". In the opening scene he is teasing Dr. McCoy about Nancy Crater. True this was not the first episode filmed in the series, that was "The Corbomite Manuever", and in that episode's opening scenes he playfully tells McCoy that he is killing him, by making him work up a sweat for his physical check up. So I think Kirk was "lightened up" from the beginning.


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
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I think if he was cast from the start we would love him, but he wasn't so it is what it is. William was great.
 
Lord was a limited actor, but a commanding one. Still, if he had been Kirk, there would have been few movies: by the mid 80s, he was Azlheimered-out. In fact, even toward the end of 5-0, he was reading his lines from cards, his memory being shot.

Plus, during TOS, I have a hard time imagining that he could have lent to the Kirk character the lighter, humorous side. Can you imagine him in "Tomorrow was Yesterday" or "Tribbles". I can't.
 
Zombie Cheerleader said:
Is there a reason a Scot couldn't be a member of the British Secret Service? A bit like saying a Californian can't be in the FBI. Fleming himself was of Scots ancestry and made Bond a Scot in the novels. Though I believe that was in response to Connery's portrayal.

Now Connery as Kirk ( a Scots name) would be something.
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No, no reason. I've read on various blogs (including this one) where Connery (although many, including yours truly, feels he was one of the best, if not THE best Bond) comes under a huge amount of criticism for not being "British enough." He was so good in the role, it never registered with me that he didn't have an uppercrust British accent. :techman:

Some people see Roger Moore at the quintessential Bond because he is a Brit though and through. Personally, I can't stand his smart-ass/silly take on the role. :rolleyes: But that's me.
 
Connery's Bond worked because he was clearly a man who was willing to kill you with his bare hands if he needed to. Moore, although a fine actor in his own right, really never conveyed that level of menace; the closest he got was in "For Your Eyes Only", and his Bond had to be pushed to that point, whereas Connery's Bond never needed that kind of motive.
 
Saxman1 said:
Zombie Cheerleader said:
Is there a reason a Scot couldn't be a member of the British Secret Service? A bit like saying a Californian can't be in the FBI. Fleming himself was of Scots ancestry and made Bond a Scot in the novels. Though I believe that was in response to Connery's portrayal.

Now Connery as Kirk ( a Scots name) would be something.
Click to expand...

No, no reason. I've read on various blogs (including this one) where Connery (although many, including yours truly, feels he was one of the best, if not THE best Bond) comes under a huge amount of criticism for not being "British enough." He was so good in the role, it never registered with me that he didn't have an uppercrust British accent. :techman:

Some people see Roger Moore at the quintessential Bond because he is a Brit though and through. Personally, I can't stand his smart-ass/silly take on the role. :rolleyes: But that's me.
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I can't say I've run across that sentiment. Though to those who equate British with English ( and a very narrow "slice" of English culture at that) I guess that might be a sticking point. They must really hate actual non-British Bonds Lazenby and Brosnan! :lol:
 
I'm sure there were other actors that could have made Kirk's character. Lord wasn't one of them for me...

As for Bond- Read the Flemming novels (not the Bond ones after he died). That's the real 007. And he was one cool cat. Though for the movies, Connery did indeed rule. Dr No being his finest role. Showing a Bond that got beaten and tatered- not common to do with a hero during that time period.
 
Captain Robert April said:
Connery's Bond worked because he was clearly a man who was willing to kill you with his bare hands if he needed to.
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There is a scene -- and I don't know which movie it was -- that impressed me about Connery's Bond. That one scene forever makes him James Bond in my eyes:

He walks up to a woman sunbathing on a beach or pool, and she's wearing a bikini. Bond very nonchalantly says, "Let me get something off your chest," and simply tears off her bikini top.

Now that's a man that I can see having a license to kill. :D

Dakota Smith
 
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