Almost on TOS......

[Christopher]

I don't know if Collins was a stunt-cast - was she as well known in the 1960s as she later was?

Pretty well-known, according to Wikipedia. She was a popular pinup model in the UK. 20th Century Fox signed her in 1955 with an eye to making her a rival to Elizabeth Taylor, and she had the starring role that year in Howard Hawks's cast-of-thousands historical epic Land of the Pharaohs. She won several "most promising new star" awards in the late '50s, and was the first or second female lead in nearly a dozen films between 1955 and the time she did "City on the Edge." So yeah, I'd say she was a fairly major name at the time.

Robert Walker, Jr. (Charlie Evans) was also a pretty big name in the day, though largely due to his famous actor parents and his studio-mogul stepfather. He'd made a strong impression in his first two feature roles in 1963, but his film career slowed down after his lead role in Ensign Pulver, which is probably why he was doing TV.

It's worth keeping in mind that TV was a less respected medium than it is today, so there was less crossover of movie actors to TV roles. So if you're talking "big name" guest stars in '60s TV, you're probably talking about either successful TV stars (e.g. Jane Wyatt or Elinor Donahue) or film actors who were past the peak of their big-screen careers. Or people like Ricardo Montalban and John Fiedler who were well-known stalwarts but not (yet) big stars.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^Wow, I'd always assumed that Collins only became a bigger name with the likes of The Stud and The Bitch in the 1970s and obviously Dynasty in the 1980s.

I suppose Jill Ireland also counts as a fairly big name by the standards of the day.

 

[Forbin]

"The Mother Muffin Affair" was an episode of The Girl from UNCLE, actually.

Hm. Could swear the character was also on Man from UNCLE, but I can't find any reference to it.

Robert Vaughn made a crossover appearance on that Girl From UNCLE episode, which is probably why you remembered it as the other UNCLE show.

That would explain it, all right!

 

[Sir Rhosis]

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Performers_considered_for_Star_Trek_roles#The_Original_Series

 

[JimZipCode]

There is also the unproduced Spinrad script, that was said to be a potential Milton Berle vehicle.... the less said about that the better

I've read the Spinrad script (it's bland), and Berle—who was a fine actor in both comedy and drama—would have been fine in it. I understand Coon changed it, so I can't speak to how good that would have been.

I've read it too and characterizing it as bland is generous.

Not up to Doomsday Machine? What was it about?

 

[Maurice]

The story: a man named Theodore Bayne is discovered to have set himself up as a god on a planet, sharing technology (the steam engine, for instance) with the technologically primitive natives. The twist is that the Enterprise crew can't easily remove him without further exacerbating the cultural damage he's started. The plot is a slightly more clever take on the John Gill type character, with a relatively smart conclusion, but the story isn't really that interesting as written.

 

[emergencyfruit]

Hugh Laurie had a test run as Captain before Shatner, but obviously it didn't work out. Rumor has it his biting sarcastic line delivery was just too over the top.

They also gave Russell Johnson (The Professor from "Gilligan's Island") a shot in a preliminary run through of "The Corbomite Maneuver", but they felt he looked too much like Mr. Bailey.

Burt Lancaster gave it a shot, but he couldn't stand the material of the uniforms so he bailed...

I have to say, this is hilarious! Awesome work with photoshop - it looks freakishly plausible! Thanks!

 

[USS Triumphant]

And then, of course, there's that alternate universe where JFK played Kirk.

(As in David Gerrold's story, "The Kennedy Enterprise.")

So who was President during that time? Couldn't have been Shatner because he's a Canadian citizen.

Alternate universe, remember? Their United States included Canada.

 

[AtoZ]

Honestly, they should have found a way to get Lee Marvin on TOS.

A fourth season opener where the Enterprise comes across an old lifeboat, on board in a state of suspended animation, one of the most celebrated Generals of WW3....a heroic is somewhat misunderstood leader that went missing during a climactic battle. From there they could add the unwritten slant....the man had looked into the abyss far too long....and had himself become an all consuming monster bent on victory at any cost....even centuries after the fact.

Something like that.

 

[Christopher]

^What would you call it? "Space Sprout?"

 

[Grant]

^What would you call it? "Space Sprout?"

Hmm, "Space Re-read"

I bet it never occurred to him.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Honestly, they should have found a way to get Lee Marvin on TOS.

A fourth season opener where the Enterprise comes across an old lifeboat, on board in a state of suspended animation, one of the most celebrated Generals of WW3....a heroic is somewhat misunderstood leader that went missing during a climactic battle. From there they could add the unwritten slant....the man had looked into the abyss far too long....and had himself become an all consuming monster bent on victory at any cost....even centuries after the fact.

Something like that.

^What would you call it? "Space Sprout?"

Paint Your Starship?

 

[AtoZ]

Honestly, they should have found a way to get Lee Marvin on TOS.

A fourth season opener where the Enterprise comes across an old lifeboat, on board in a state of suspended animation, one of the most celebrated Generals of WW3....a heroic is somewhat misunderstood leader that went missing during a climactic battle. From there they could add the unwritten slant....the man had looked into the abyss far too long....and had himself become an all consuming monster bent on victory at any cost....even centuries after the fact.

Something like that.

^What would you call it? "Space Sprout?"

Paint Your Starship?

Have I missed something? None of what has been posted registers with me. I'm assuming there's a joke in there somewhere that goes well above my head?

 

[Christopher]

^World war survivor discovered in suspended animation? That doesn't remind you of anything?

And Lee Marvin starred in Paint Your Wagon.

 

[AtoZ]

^World war survivor discovered in suspended animation? That doesn't remind you of anything?

And Lee Marvin starred in Paint Your Wagon.

Ok.....now its all kicking-in. I must point out however that I am sitting here sipping coffee whereas when I responded yesterday I was not caffeine enhanced.

LOL!

"Space Sprout"....very good.

Yes...a similar theme to Space Seed....but I just threw it out there so as to provided an example of how I think it would look good on Lee Marvin, a command tunic and a slant for closure. Chasing ghosts can be very entertaining...especially opposite the big 3.

 

[T'Girl]

^World war survivor discovered in suspended animation? That doesn't remind you of anything?

Buck Rogers in the twenty-fifth century?

Possibly some of the early cinema of Dylan Hunt?

 

[Captaindemotion]

^World war survivor discovered in suspended animation? That doesn't remind you of anything?

And Lee Marvin starred in Paint Your Wagon.

I really should have cracked a 'I was born under a wandering starship/ Star Trek/ Starfleet' joke, shouldn't I?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJNqaWlsnXE

 

[Grant]

To the original point, Lee Marvin would have been a great formidable adversary.

Instead of in stasis, he could have more like the guy from the TNG--The Wounded--a captain that had gone rogue and was attacking the Klingons or Romulans on his own.

No doubt that is similar to other TOS episodes as well, but the actor Lee Marvin, would have been great against Kirk/Spock as an adversary.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Lee Marvin in anything was a good thing but it's unlikely that a movie star of his magnitude would have appeared in a t v show like Star Trek. His last tv appearance was in 1965, on Theatre of Stars (he'd one quite a bit of tv before then). But the same year, he won an Oscar for Cat Ballou, moving into major movie star status and it's highly unlikely that he'd have gone back to tv (remember what Christopher said earlier about tv being looked down on by movie stars).

His movie Hell in the Pacific is the sort of story one can imagine forming the basis for a Trek story (the sci-fi movie Enemy Mine is heavily influenced by it).

It's easy to imagine Marvin turning up in a Star Trek movie in the 1980s. An alternative Captain Krug, perhaps?

 

[T'Girl]

Or a alternate Captain Esteban, would have changed the whole demeanor of the character. Converted him from a incompetent fool, into a seasoned officer who was powerless in the face of a materially superior enemy.

Maybe it was the direction the actor received, but I never like the way Esteban was played. it was hard to see him as a professional Starfleet officer, even one assigned to a small science ship.