Avery Brooks's really weird acting

[exodus]

First, let me say that Sisko as played by Brooks is an infinitely more interesting character than Archer as played by the miscast Scott Bakula (a good actor stymied by his miscasting).

But Brooks is so odd as Sisko. I am rewatching the series (as a non-fan who wants to give the series another chance), and am at early season 3. Brooks is usually either fulminatingly angry or weirdly, almost hysterically enthusiastic. In the Dax episode "Equilibrium," however, Brooks looks and sounds, frankly, bored.

I have heard Brooks speak scoffingly about Star Trek, and dont know if these attitudes affected his performance. I dont know if people feel that his performance improved over time. But while he is undeniably a strong presence, Brooks is also a maddeningly erratic and uneven one.

Sisko was written to be a "man on the verge" due to overwhelming stress. Everything Sisko endures is stressful piled on top of more stress.

Dealing with racists assholes like Cardassians
Raising a son on a booby trapped space station
His son is best friends w/ the local thief's nephew and is dating a Dabo girl.(A.k.A. Space Ho's)
He's got a First Officer that isn't Starfleet and doesn't know shit about diplomacy and resents Starfleet for being there.
A Doctor who very aloof and chasing skirts instead on healing the sick.
A possable Cardassian spy/sabatour who might be pretending to be a taylor.
A Chief of security that doesn't follow Starfleet regulations always.
Quark
Crazy Bajorians thinking you Jesus and can make all their wishes come true.
Wormhole aliens with a direct link to your brain and tapping in any time they please, yet not doing much in the way of helping you.
Kai Winn doing every thing in her power to usurp your standing with the Bajorian people and blew up a school, yet you must be nice too her to also sway the Bajorian people


......and this is all is before the coming of the Dominion.

I'd like to see anyone not run the gambit of emotions dealing with what Sisko had to. I'd be on the verge too in his shoes.

^^ well put.

Sisko couldn't move from planet to planet like Kirk/Picard and the others..he had to stay, and deal with problems that might arise from his decisons. This would stress anyone out.

Kirk could screw up a planet, then go on to the next planet and score with a babe.

Picard could mess something up, then go blow on his "Inner Light flute", or some other person's flute, and not worry about what he did.

Not Sisko..he had to stay and deal with what would come...that would stress anyone.

Rob

Thanks and you're exactly right.

IMO folks that find Brookes over acting just aren't putting themselves in the characters shoes.

....also not to mention nobody is taking into consideration that actors take direction from directors and script instruction from the writers. If Avery Brookes was over the top, it's due to how the actor is written and directed to be. They choose him out of all the actors that tried out for the role because they wanted an actor that could give the character the intensity they desired.

So Brookes plays Sisko as he was instructed too.

 

[RobertScorpio]

...and, like Shatner, his acting style is panned. Well, last I checked, Shatner to this very day is the only cast regular to win not one, but two Emmys. I have always liked Shatner's over-the-top acting, and I like Brook's for the same reason. Though, it is a matter of taste I admit. So if people don't like the Shat, or Avery, then its cool too.


Rob

 

[david g]

I happen to love Shatner's Kirk--say waht you will about his performance, it's never anything but thrilling, however over the top it may be. I never stop believing that he IS Kirk.

I also love Kate Mulgrew's performance as Janeway, another very theatrical performance in its own way.

But Brooks...he is theatrical, but he's also just such an eccentric performer that it's hard to get a lock on him, as it were. I find his line deliveries to be so stylized as to distort the meaning--rather than to emphasize the meaning--of his dialog.

Still, I would take Sisko over Archer any day. Stewart is always fun to watch (he is indeed superb in "Sarek" and in "Family") but he never compels me the way Shatner and Mulgrew do.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I happen to love Shatner's Kirk--say waht you will about his performance, it's never anything but thrilling, however over the top it may be. I never stop believing that he IS Kirk.

I also love Kate Mulgrew's performance as Janeway, another very theatrical performance in its own way.

But Brooks...he is theatrical, but he's also just such an eccentric performer that it's hard to get a lock on him, as it were. I find his line deliveries to be so stylized as to distort the meaning--rather than to emphasize the meaning--of his dialog.

Still, I would take Sisko over Archer any day. Stewart is always fun to watch (he is indeed superb in "Sarek" and in "Family") but he never compels me the way Shatner and Mulgrew do.

^^ agreed. Picard's acting seems, I don't know, measured at times. Like he has read the script (he has) and he's ahead of us the whole way...

Shatner is all over the place, which to me, is more realistic when creating a TV character. All the best characters in TV, IMO, are hammy..House--Archie Bunker--Fonzie--McGarrett.

Rob

 

[exodus]

But Brooks...he is theatrical, but he's also just such an eccentric performer that it's hard to get a lock on him, as it were. I find his line deliveries to be so stylized as to distort the meaning--rather than to emphasize the meaning--of his dialog.

Brookes doesn't have that type of delivery when in other things like "American History X", "A Man Called Hawk" or in his voice over work. He speaks naturally in those.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

I've said before and I will say again that Benny Russell's breakdown in FBTS was one of the best piece of acting I've seen on any Trek because it looked like a real psychotic break rather than a vain actor trying to look good while feigning a psychotic break. Note the high-pitched whimpering--the whimper of a whipped dog--at the end.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Ah yes, I got my Jadzia-centered episodes mixed up. "Facets" was the one with my favourite Avery Brooks performance. I don't remember much about his performance in "Equilibrium". What was wrong with it?

 

[Sykonee]

I don't remember much about his performance in "Equilibrium". What was wrong with it?

I think you answered your own question.

 

[Magnum]

Sisko was written to be a "man on the verge" due to overwhelming stress. Everything Sisko endures is stressful piled on top of more stress.

Dealing with racists assholes like Cardassians
Raising a son on a booby trapped space station
His son is best friends w/ the local thief's nephew and is dating a Dabo girl.(A.k.A. Space Ho's)
He's got a First Officer that isn't Starfleet and doesn't know shit about diplomacy and resents Starfleet for being there.
A Doctor who very aloof and chasing skirts instead on healing the sick.
A possable Cardassian spy/sabatour who might be pretending to be a taylor.
A Chief of security that doesn't follow Starfleet regulations always.
Quark
Crazy Bajorians thinking you Jesus and can make all their wishes come true.
Wormhole aliens with a direct link to your brain and tapping in any time they please, yet not doing much in the way of helping you.
Kai Winn doing every thing in her power to usurp your standing with the Bajorian people and blew up a school, yet you must be nice too her to also sway the Bajorian people


......and this is all is before the coming of the Dominion.

I like this list. It made me laugh.

 

[exodus]

I've said before and I will say again that Benny Russell's breakdown in FBTS was one of the best piece of acting I've seen on any Trek because it looked like a real psychotic break rather than a vain actor trying to look good while feigning a psychotic break. Note the high-pitched whimpering--the whimper of a whipped dog--at the end.

Agreed.

It kinda made me wonder what experance or research Brookes did to get the experance so close to reality.

 

[Withers]

The other places Benny Russell comes across as very "real" is in the season seven opener (the second part of it.) The incredulous laugh that he does when Dr. Wycoff is telling him that everything he's written on the walls is pointless and that nobody cares about any of it is... spot on. Something about that entire scene just sends chills down my spine when I see it.

-Withers-​

 

[Too Much Fun]

Well, I still think the "Far Beyond the Stars" breakdown is Brooks's worst performance, but it just goes to show how differently people can see the same thing. I can't watch that episode because I hate that scene and Brooks's equally stilted and corny monologue at the end so much, even though I like the rest of the episode.

 

[Baconnaise]

I must be fairly simple in my tastes but I base any judgment on an actor's performance on if I can believe they are who they are portraying. Can I picture Patrick Stewart in Dune? There are plenty of examples where some actors just get stuck in a role they become slightly or more famous from.

Brooks to me came off favorable to me and the rest of the cast did fairly well enough to make me get more immersed into Star Trek than TNG or the others. Patrick Stewart is awesome but the stiff british captain felt more like he belonged behind a desk as an admiral not a captain which kind of jolted at me from time to time.

Anyways that's what I look for in a show or movie.

 

[C.E. Evans]

To me, Sisko was a study of frequently sharp contrasts, and I think Avery Brooks pulled it off well. He could be casual, he could be formal, he could be cold, he could be fiery. His demeanor--IMO--depended on whether he was having a good day or if he could get a decent cup of raktajino from the replicator...

 

[Danny99]

I must be fairly simple in my tastes but I base any judgment on an actor's performance on if I can believe they are who they are portraying.

Hear hear!

 

[exodus]

Well, I still think the "Far Beyond the Stars" breakdown is Brooks's worst performance, but it just goes to show how differently people can see the same thing. I can't watch that episode because I hate that scene and Brooks's equally stilted and corny monologue at the end so much, even though I like the rest of the episode.

I disagree.

I've had the unfortunate "pleasure" of witnessing someone in my family have a nervous breakdown and it's almost dead on to how Brookes played it.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Well, I still think the "Far Beyond the Stars" breakdown is Brooks's worst performance, but it just goes to show how differently people can see the same thing. I can't watch that episode because I hate that scene and Brooks's equally stilted and corny monologue at the end so much, even though I like the rest of the episode.

I disagree.

I've had the unfortunate "pleasure" of witnessing someone in my family have a nervous breakdown and it's almost dead on to how Brookes played it.

^^ yep..me too. He nailed it, IMO. I watched my uncle go through a nervous breakdown, and wow, it was hard to watch. It happened during a christmas gathering even!

Rob

 

[exodus]

Well, I still think the "Far Beyond the Stars" breakdown is Brooks's worst performance, but it just goes to show how differently people can see the same thing. I can't watch that episode because I hate that scene and Brooks's equally stilted and corny monologue at the end so much, even though I like the rest of the episode.

I disagree.

I've had the unfortunate "pleasure" of witnessing someone in my family have a nervous breakdown and it's almost dead on to how Brookes played it.

^^ yep..me too. He nailed it, IMO. I watched my uncle go through a nervous breakdown, and wow, it was hard to watch. It happened during a christmas gathering even!

Rob

I'm very sorry to hear that.

For me, it was one of my Aunts.

 

[dabynars]

I've noticed people who grew up with DS9 tend to praise Sisko as a unique character (as I did) but when you they go back and rewatch it (as I did) he seems beyond normal. This has been repeated to me several times, and I now agree 100%. He's relentlessly out of synch with the rest of the cast, almost lording over them like he's aware he's on TV any they aren't. I don't know how to explain it properly, but it's an incredibly off putting vibe he creates which takes over his scenes and makes them unwatchable. I guess it's bad acting (or horrendous acting, to be frank) but Avery Brooks is in fact a very GOOD actor, so it seems like an unfair criticism of him. Maybe this role was one he just never took to heart.

 

[Tosk]

Woah, hello eleven years ago.