Actors cast more than once as different characters--good or bad?

[Christopher]

And if an actor doesn't have very much range it weakens the drama to have basically the same character as multiple different characters with a major recurring role in your show.

But we're not talking about recurring roles here, are we? We're talking about a practice in TOS and other series from that era, in which recurring guest characters were uncommon. Actors who played multiple roles generally played them one time each. And since episodic TV was pretty formulaic back then, often a lot of those one-shot characters would be pretty much the same -- the love interest, the villain, the cop, the opposing lawyer, that sort of thing. So if you got a script that had another character of a certain type, you might naturally gravitate toward a certain actor that you knew was suited to that type and that you'd used before.

Aside from Combs playing Brunt and Weyoun, I can't really think of an instance in live action where one actor has played more than one recurring character on an overlapping basis on a single series. Well, except on Hercules/Xena -- Karl Urban played both Caesar and Cupid, Kevin Smith played both Ares and Iphicles, Lucy Lawless returned as Lyla after having played Xena, probably a few others. But those shows were kind of weird.

 

[M'Sharak]

There were a number of actors—most notably Mark Leonard, but also Lawrence Montaigne, Diana Muldaur, Morgan Woodward—who played different important guest characters on more than one episode. Do you think that was wise of Joe D’Agosta and the production team to do this, or did it tend to lessen the impact from their original performances?

Actors play different roles; it's what they do. To have an actor playing different roles in different episodes of a particular series was not uncommon then and it's not especially uncommon now. I think it's probably re-watching those episodes dozens and dozens of times which makes it stand out at all that the same actor has been used again in a second or third story.

"And one man in his time plays many parts"​

I think of William Windom, for example. His performance as Matt Decker is one of the most memorable and striking of the series. Or take Joan Collins; same notation. Question: If they had been cast again as different characters after their initial go-round, would it change the way their first performance was perceived/received… especially if they didn’t perform as well the second time around?

I don't think it would have mattered.

Your thoughts?

Lenard. Mark's name is Lenard, not Leonard

 

[scotpens]

Well, technically, Shatner also played an Exo III android, Sargon, Garth of Izar, and Janice Lester (and Martia) . . .

Who is Martia?

 

[Christopher]

^Shapeshifter from The Undiscovered Country. Parenthetical since she's from the movies rather than TOS.

Come to think of it, Shatner and Kelley also briefly played the Vendorian in TAS: "The Survivor." And Nimoy played a giant Spock clone in "The Infinite Vulcan."

 

[scotpens]

Who is Martia?

Shapeshifter from The Undiscovered Country. Parenthetical since she's from the movies rather than TOS.

Oh . . . That Martia!