Would hiring the original actors have made the film better?
Kor, Kang. Koloth and Mara in Star Trek VI?
- Thread starter newtontomato539
- Start date
Klingons who have history with Kirk? I don't think that would have helped the story - we don't want to see complex Klingon vs. Klingon intrigue when we already have multiple factions that are divided in "good" and "evil". We need the strong contrast between Gorkon and the Klingon villain, just as we need contrast between good and bad Starfleet officers.
Perhaps one of the TOS Klingons might have reappeared, possibly in the villain role (as it would have been a bit too much to turn any of them into the likeable, victimized Klingon leader - even Kor would have been too unsympathetic a character as a starting point). But a cavalcade of cameos would only have hurt the scenes where Kirk is in the middle of hostile Klingons, a fish out of water; the familiar adversaries would have given him "anchor points" and reduced the effect of "alienation".
Timo Saloniemi
Perhaps one of the TOS Klingons might have reappeared, possibly in the villain role (as it would have been a bit too much to turn any of them into the likeable, victimized Klingon leader - even Kor would have been too unsympathetic a character as a starting point). But a cavalcade of cameos would only have hurt the scenes where Kirk is in the middle of hostile Klingons, a fish out of water; the familiar adversaries would have given him "anchor points" and reduced the effect of "alienation".
Timo Saloniemi
Yes and no. I say yes because these characters had an established history with Kirk and the fans would've liked it quite a bit. No because one of these characters would've had to play the heavy and wouldn't have been given the honorable send off they got on DS9. I liked how they changed from antagonists to honorable opponents from TOS to DS9.
So I'm glad they went with new characters, it gave the writer (s) and actors more flexibility.
They gave one of them, Kang, I think, a sub-plot to TUC in the otherwise disappointing Voyager Trek 30th anniversary special 'Flashback.' It wouldn't have been that hard to have worked something like that into the movie. Or even to have had one of the old boys as a prisoner, having fallen from favour with the Empire, on Rura Penthe.
I know that people often complain about references that are for the fans-only and I can understand that point. But it's interesting that probably the two most successful Trek movies, TWOK and FC, built on tv episodes from some years earlier (Space Seed and Best of Both Worlds). That didn't seem to put people off them. Some way could have been found of integrating the KKK(!) into TUC without alienating casual viewers.
I know that people often complain about references that are for the fans-only and I can understand that point. But it's interesting that probably the two most successful Trek movies, TWOK and FC, built on tv episodes from some years earlier (Space Seed and Best of Both Worlds). That didn't seem to put people off them. Some way could have been found of integrating the KKK(!) into TUC without alienating casual viewers.
Cutting out the Shakespeare quoting twit and replacing him with a TOS Klingon desperate to see Kirk fall flat on his face sounds good to me.
Cutting out the Shakespeare quoting twit and replacing him with a muskrat with an axe to grind would have been an improvement.
A TOS would have been down right awesome. Koloth would have been the most likely candidate I think. I'm sure Campbell would have been up to the task.
That would be fine, except it would mean losing Christopher Plummer. He's one of the movie's greatest assets, and to lose him would lessen the whole affair.
Korrd could/should have been there. Was a great character in the novelization and an advocate for the peace side (which could have been pretty well represented by Kang, etc). IIRC injured during the attack.
The biggest Real Life™ problem with the idea is they hadn't come up with a retcon for the Klingons yet. They could have just ignored it... or perhaps tackled it earlier, maybe.
Ideally, from my perception of the TOS characters, Kor could have been on the war side with Chang and Kang on the peace side with Korrd? Most likely one would have replaced Kerla entirely (I'd like to think Kor). Good idea! I'd like to go back a bit farther and replace Korrd entirely with Kang in TFF, as well. Kirk would have already been familiar and thus less outright hostile. Kang then is at Gorkon's side and gets injured?
The biggest Real Life™ problem with the idea is they hadn't come up with a retcon for the Klingons yet. They could have just ignored it... or perhaps tackled it earlier, maybe.
Ideally, from my perception of the TOS characters, Kor could have been on the war side with Chang and Kang on the peace side with Korrd? Most likely one would have replaced Kerla entirely (I'd like to think Kor). Good idea! I'd like to go back a bit farther and replace Korrd entirely with Kang in TFF, as well. Kirk would have already been familiar and thus less outright hostile. Kang then is at Gorkon's side and gets injured?
Not necessarily for VI. It's the same reasoning Smilie gives for sending Enterprise on the mission. It could be explained with a line or two saying "Federation says they're sending KIRK to pick us up. Who do we have who dealt with him directly?"
Using Kang for V... maybe... maybe not, though. That's a separate thread, though.
Using Kang for V... maybe... maybe not, though. That's a separate thread, though.
The universe was small enough for the trio to turn up on Deep Space Nine.
Also, TOS episode "Metamorphosis" which featured the Zefram Cochrane character, played by actor Glenn Corbett, which was later played by actor James Cromwell in "Star Trek: First Contact".
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