Which guest star casting choice did you think was the most interesting? A role where you thought that the actor didn't seem to fit the character.
Most interesting casting choice
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I'm going for when you saw "Actor A" appear as "Character B" you thought "that's very interesting, I'd never have cast it that way."
In Miri, Michael J. Pollard was not convincing to me as a boy who hadn't hit puberty (he was 27 at the time). But Pollard was becoming well known back then, having had a brief recurring role on Dobie Gillis, and had been in the Broadway cast of Bye Bye Birdie. In 1967, he was C.W. Moss in the film Bonnie and Clyde.
I thought Charles Macauley was a strange choice for Jaris in "The Wolf in the Fold." He was excellent at being a stern, commanding leader of Argelius, but the Argelians were said to be so gentle and harmless that they contracted out most of their administration, because their own people were so meek and mild. Macauley wasn't meek and mild and sheeplike, making him a strange choice for a people who were described that way.
And because I want to say something positive, even though I know the question asks for something negative, I'll note that I thought Joanne Linville was really excellent as the Romulan Commander in "The Enterprise Incident."
And because I want to say something positive, even though I know the question asks for something negative, I'll note that I thought Joanne Linville was really excellent as the Romulan Commander in "The Enterprise Incident."
But then again, that "gentle and harmless" Argelian people still abides by the ancient law of "death by slow torture"! You have to have someone among those sheep to carry out that sentence.
Mario
Gary Lockwood, a big part of playing the character was being able to wear the silver contact lenses. Once it was discovered that he had trouble with them (Sally Kellerman didn't) it's kind of strange they didn't recast the role.
With the lenses in, he had to tilt his head back to see at all, it made him look like someone with bifocals.
Goofy.
^(oo)^
With the lenses in, he had to tilt his head back to see at all, it made him look like someone with bifocals.
Goofy.
^(oo)^
The problem for me is, I've been a Trek fan since I was five years old, so Trek was the first place I ever saw most of its actors. So my image of those actors is defined by their Trek characters, and thus it's hard for me to be surprised by any of their casting.
But in retrospect, looking back on the characters after having seen them in other works: I've often found it amusing to see Charles Napier as the quintessential space hippie Adam in "The Way to Eden," since he went on to make a career playing stern, tough authority figures, basically becoming the quintessential "Herbert."
And maybe Michael Strong as Roger Korby was an odd choice, since he usually seemed to play heavies in '60s shows, and maybe that gave away the game too soon.
The most bizarre casting choice has got to be celebrity lawyer Melvin Belli as Gorgon, but I'm not sure I'd call that an interesting choice, just a painfully bad one.
But in retrospect, looking back on the characters after having seen them in other works: I've often found it amusing to see Charles Napier as the quintessential space hippie Adam in "The Way to Eden," since he went on to make a career playing stern, tough authority figures, basically becoming the quintessential "Herbert."
And maybe Michael Strong as Roger Korby was an odd choice, since he usually seemed to play heavies in '60s shows, and maybe that gave away the game too soon.
The most bizarre casting choice has got to be celebrity lawyer Melvin Belli as Gorgon, but I'm not sure I'd call that an interesting choice, just a painfully bad one.
I'm sort of in the same predicament with the question. I was 15 when TOS first aired, and Trek was one of the shows airing when I had only just started to pay attention to actors' names. I'd seen Shatner several times before in Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, and even Man from UNCLE, but he didn't register with me as anyone notable until Star Trek. Skip Homeier however, I first noticed on the Outer Limits because I liked the scary makeup.
I just looked at Napier's IMDB page. Star Trek is only his fifth film/tv role, his first appearance anywhere was a year earlier in 1968 as an uncredited Police Officer on Mannix.
I thought it gave him an appropriately arrogant air.
According to These Are the Voyages (p. 89),this often-repeated story isn't true. It IS true that the lenses hurt Lockwood, but it isn't true that he had to tilt his head back to see though them.
Lockwood is quoted in the book as saying that he tilted his head back because he thought that gave him an appropriately arrogant air, since he was supposed to be playing a would-be god. The head-tilt was an intentional acting decision, not a side effect of the lenses.
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I admit that as a kid I was a bit taken aback to see the Riddler playing an alien racist!
But Bele and the Riddler did have a similar fashion sense.
It was quite effective, too, I always thought.
Yes, I agree!
I thought the very strangest casting choices for guest stars were the ones where a recognizable guest star repeated in a very different role. Mark Lenard's role in "Balance of Terror" was not small or easily-overlooked, so seeing him again as Spock's father in "Journey to Babel" was rather a shock. And subsequent watchings of "Balance of Terror" -- after seeing him as Spock's father -- were pretty surreal. Surely Spock's father wouldn't attack the Enterprise? I know they're estranged and all, but isn't that taking things a little too far? 
Almost as surreal was seeing Trelane show up as a Klingon captain in "The Trouble With Tribbles." WTF? How did Trelane become a Klingon? Again, Trelane was not a small role, so we couldn't fail to recognize his face when he appeared again in "The Trouble With Tribbles."
I guess things were different in the 60's.
Almost as surreal was seeing Trelane show up as a Klingon captain in "The Trouble With Tribbles." WTF? How did Trelane become a Klingon? Again, Trelane was not a small role, so we couldn't fail to recognize his face when he appeared again in "The Trouble With Tribbles."
I guess things were different in the 60's.
I thought the very strangest casting choices for guest stars were the ones where a recognizable guest star repeated in a very different role....
I guess things were different in the 60's.
Not only was that par for the course in the '60s and '70s, it still happens from time to time today. On Law and Order, Jeremy Sisto played (IIRC) a defense attorney in the 17th-season finale and then got cast as one of the regular cops in the 18th-season premiere. And heck, the next star of Doctor Who is Peter Capaldi, who's played two previous roles in the franchise -- and former companions Freema Agyeman and Karen Gillan had also played other guest characters not long before. (As did several other regular or recurring players in the original series, but I'm focusing on modern instances.)
But yeah, it did happen all the time in '60s and '70s TV, when nobody expected old episodes to be remembered for long and continuity wasn't an issue. Generally they tried to avoid having an actor play two different characters in the same season, unless it was a minor background player, but there were a lot of shows where you'd see the same actors come back roughly once a season in different roles each time.
You can't watch ten episodes of The Rifleman without seeing Richard Anderson. I think they used to alternate him as good guy and bad guy.
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