Acting Choices

[commodore64]

Angie in another thread brought up something I really agree with -- acting choices are hard and yet when they deliver, they deliver! For example, I thought John Billingsley did a marvelous job with a character who was written rather two dimensional. And yet John's acting choices made the character come to life.

Here's a perfect example, in my mind -- Trip comes to Phlox confused about the cogenitor role in producing offspring. Phlox could've said with a leer, "I have pictures." Instead, Phlox said with gusto, "I have pictures!" It took Phlox from being creepy to just funny and odd.

I also liked Reed and Trip's first meeting where the tactical officer is "fretting" about things and laid-back Trip tells the guy to "keep his shirt on." Reed could've fretted with less anal-ness and Trip could've just been angry. Instead the interplay helped create a relationship between two characters that lasted almost into season 3.

Did you ever notice amazing feats of acting and choices that seemed to help the character resonate and come to life?

 

[Dane_Whitman]

Many such occassions. For one:

Phlox in The Breach, when he goes off on that rant against the Antaran. "No Denobulan would want to be in the same room with you!" Up to that point we had seen him mostly jolly, explorative, ooooptimistic. This was like... woah. Billingsley is a great actor, he put a lot of gravitas in this episode.

 

[angie]

Agreed---excellent choice! Phlox's body language was also different which showed us a new side of him.

I think Jolene Blalock made a lot of good subtle choices early on showing her interpretation of a Vulcan--often just a widening of her eyes or hesitancy.

 

[miriel68]

Phlox was absolutely hilarious in "Singularity"

 

[bluedana]

I like the way that every time Archer is about to lose his composure, he turns his back to whoever's in the room to pull himself together. I don't know if that was an acting choice, exactly, but it's a constant through all four seasons.

 

[suebsg9]

Phlox was absolutely hilarious in "Singularity"

Phlox was great in that but all the actors actually pulled that eps off I mean they gave each one intresting quirks; have one thing to occupy them and poor Mayweather goes in for headache and becomes Phlox's guinea pig that was great.

 

[Pensive]

I like the way that every time Archer is about to lose his composure, he turns his back to whoever's in the room to pull himself together. I don't know if that was an acting choice, exactly, but it's a constant through all four seasons.

Never let em see you bleed-- nice one by Bakula. He was a good captain

 

[commodore64]

I like the way that every time Archer is about to lose his composure, he turns his back to whoever's in the room to pull himself together. I don't know if that was an acting choice, exactly, but it's a constant through all four seasons.

I thought Bakula did a lot of great stuff and great observation. I also liked:
* The way he whipped around when hearing news Archer didn't expect, like "I don't want you to die"
* His choice to embody Kirk in IAMD II
* His choice to pour champagne down his throat from great heights in self-satisfaction in IAMD II; that really summed up the character
* The way both Billingsley and Bakula played out Damage where he confesses he's about to do something he thinks is unethical
* The way he portrayed the change from just Archer to Archer with Surak's katra -- his transformation was pretty good I thought
* Silent anger; Bakula did a great job with silent anger -- much scarier than someone yelling
* Touchy feely -- although I wouldn't say Archer was a touchy feely guy (Bakula might be), I always appreciated when he managed to "snap" (not snap, but can't think of a better word -- as if re-grounding them) his folks to attention by touching them, especially T'Pol

 

[miriel68]

* Silent anger; Bakula did a great job with silent anger -- much scarier than someone yelling
* Touchy feely -- although I wouldn't say Archer was a touchy feely guy (Bakula might be), I always appreciated when he managed to "snap" (not snap, but can't think of a better word -- as if re-grounding them) his folks to attention by touching them, especially T'Pol

Agreed about silent anger, especially in Cogenitor: really scary, even if he was angry mostly with himself there.

I was particularly impressed by Bakula's acting in Shockwave I (never mind plot holes) and the vast game of reactions and feelings he displays there: grief, desperation, resolution, determination and in the end his accepting the defeat. Very domanding episode and he always managed to play it subtly.

 

[JiNX-01]

* Silent anger; Bakula did a great job with silent anger -- much scarier than someone yelling

That's because as you are fond of saying, less is more.
My favorite "silent anger" scene is Zero Hour when he grimly shows Dolim the detonator, waits for Dolim to "get it" and then turns -- turns! -- to take cover and ... BOOM!

 

[Pensive]

* The way he portrayed the change from just Archer to Archer with Surak's katra -- his transformation was pretty good I thought

That was very good-- I especially like the subtle things, like Archer staring into that candle and getting this glazed-over look like a meditative Vulcan.

 

[Krieg1981]

I never had an issue with the acting in Enterprise, I always thought it was pretty damn good. I just had an issue with the terrible canon issues encountered throughout the series. Did anyone involved in that show even watch an episode of Star Trek?

 

[angie]

I never had an issue with the acting in Enterprise, I always thought it was pretty damn good. I just had an issue with the terrible canon issues encountered throughout the series. Did anyone involved in that show even watch an episode of Star Trek?

Pretyy widely known Berman had only seen a couple of TOS eps and he had final say on scripts.

 

[Dane_Whitman]

I never had an issue with the acting in Enterprise, I always thought it was pretty damn good. I just had an issue with the terrible canon issues encountered throughout the series. Did anyone involved in that show even watch an episode of Star Trek?

Uh... Mike Sussman, Manny Coto and Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens knowledge of STAR TREK equals that of the most devoted on this board... and it shows.