Frakes will likely win this one, but still I'm going to ask.
Two choices only, please.
Two choices only, please.
Poll Best Acting Director
- Thread starter Bad Thoughts
- Start date
Perhaps to get the juices flowing, here is a list of each actor-directors selected credits:
Nimoy, Search for Spock, Voyage Home
Shatner, Final Frontier
Frakes, First Contact, TNG: Cause and Effect, Drumhead, Offspring, DS9: The Search II, Past Tense II, VOY: Prototype
Burton, TNG: Pegasus, Second Chances, DS9: Indiscretion, Bar Association, Rules of Engagement, To the Death, Things Past, Soldiers of the Empire, VOY: Ex Post Facto, The Raven, Timeless, Live Fast and Prosper, ENT: First Flight, Similitude, Augments, Demons
Stewart, TNG: In Theory, Preemptive Strike
McFadden, TNG: Genesis
Auberjonois, DS9: Family Business, Hippocratic Oath, Quickening, Waltz, Strange Bedfellows
Brooks: DS9: Abandoned, Improbable Cause, Rejoined, Far Beyond the Stars, Dogs of War
Alexander Siddig: DS9: Business as Usual
Dorn: DS9: In the Cards, Inquisition, When It Rains, ENT: Two Days and Two Nights
Robinson: DS9: Looking for Par'mach, Blood Fever
McNeill: VOY: Unity, Body and Soul, ENT: Cold Front, Twilight, Countdown
Russ: Living Witness
Dawson: VOY: Riddles, Workforce II, ENT: Andorian Incident, Dead Stop, Chosen Realm, E2, Awakening
Nimoy, Search for Spock, Voyage Home
Shatner, Final Frontier
Frakes, First Contact, TNG: Cause and Effect, Drumhead, Offspring, DS9: The Search II, Past Tense II, VOY: Prototype
Burton, TNG: Pegasus, Second Chances, DS9: Indiscretion, Bar Association, Rules of Engagement, To the Death, Things Past, Soldiers of the Empire, VOY: Ex Post Facto, The Raven, Timeless, Live Fast and Prosper, ENT: First Flight, Similitude, Augments, Demons
Stewart, TNG: In Theory, Preemptive Strike
McFadden, TNG: Genesis
Auberjonois, DS9: Family Business, Hippocratic Oath, Quickening, Waltz, Strange Bedfellows
Brooks: DS9: Abandoned, Improbable Cause, Rejoined, Far Beyond the Stars, Dogs of War
Alexander Siddig: DS9: Business as Usual
Dorn: DS9: In the Cards, Inquisition, When It Rains, ENT: Two Days and Two Nights
Robinson: DS9: Looking for Par'mach, Blood Fever
McNeill: VOY: Unity, Body and Soul, ENT: Cold Front, Twilight, Countdown
Russ: Living Witness
Dawson: VOY: Riddles, Workforce II, ENT: Andorian Incident, Dead Stop, Chosen Realm, E2, Awakening
I wonder how Andrew Robinson scored his directing gigs, as DS9 was the start of his TV directing career. This is no slight at all at his talents and abilities, and I'm quite fond of him. But he's the only recurring actor on that list; to me it's just a sign at how impressive he really is. According to Memory Alpha, he did stage direction prior to Trek which helped him get the gig, so he probably was starting off with more experience than other Trek-actor-directors at that point, but I would've liked to be the fly on that wall when he convinced the higher ups to give him a shot.
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I don't know who to vote for. I've been impressed by Leonard Nimoy, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Rene Auberjonois, Michael Dorn, Robert Duncan McNeill and Roxann Dawson over the years.
But the question is "Who did the best work directing Star Trek?"
My bad, I was reading the thread title.
I can't stop you from considering their other work, or discussing it, but it would be a monumental task for one person to take some of these directors entire oeuvre into consideration.
I voted for Frakes (big body of work, most of it strong) and Brooks (mostly just for "Far Beyond the Stars"), but Rene Auberjonois does good work too: I really like some of the imagery in "The Quickening," for example. Dawson's Enterprise outings are surprisingly strong, too.
I believe McNeill also directed the one where Janeway has to take a spiritual quest to save the life of Kes on the Nechani homeworld. Sacred Ground was the title of that wasn't it? I think he also directed Someone to Watch Over Me.
As I wrote, it is a selected list.
Some additions:
* J.J. Abrams (Iowa Cop, director of Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness)
* Stuart Baird (Scimitar computer voice, director of Star Trek Nemesis)
* Rob Bowman (Voice of the Borg, director of 13 TNG episodes)
* Richard Compton (Washburn, a Romulan, director of Haven)
* Marc Daniels (Jackson Roykirk, director of 15 TOS episodes)
* Larry Dobkin (Ambassador Kell, director of Charlie X)
* Peter Lauritson (Thomas Raymond, director of The Inner Light, Gambit, and Lineage)
While three of the seven (Abrams, Baird, Daniels) could be ignored as Hitchcockian cameos in their own work, and two more (Bowman, Lauritson) as friendly cameos in the works of fellow directors, both Richard Compton and Larry Dobkin served as actors and directors seperately, decades apart from their previous work.
Compton was an actor on The Original Series before directing an episode of TNG (Haven). And Dobkin was the opposite, directing an episode of The Original Series (Charlie X), before his appearance in "The Mind's Eye", 25 years later.
Dobkin and Compton, at least, deserve to be in the poll. Admittedly, "Haven" and "Charlie X" aren't the most oustanding directed work in the history of Star Trek.
* J.J. Abrams (Iowa Cop, director of Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness)
* Stuart Baird (Scimitar computer voice, director of Star Trek Nemesis)
* Rob Bowman (Voice of the Borg, director of 13 TNG episodes)
* Richard Compton (Washburn, a Romulan, director of Haven)
* Marc Daniels (Jackson Roykirk, director of 15 TOS episodes)
* Larry Dobkin (Ambassador Kell, director of Charlie X)
* Peter Lauritson (Thomas Raymond, director of The Inner Light, Gambit, and Lineage)
While three of the seven (Abrams, Baird, Daniels) could be ignored as Hitchcockian cameos in their own work, and two more (Bowman, Lauritson) as friendly cameos in the works of fellow directors, both Richard Compton and Larry Dobkin served as actors and directors seperately, decades apart from their previous work.
Compton was an actor on The Original Series before directing an episode of TNG (Haven). And Dobkin was the opposite, directing an episode of The Original Series (Charlie X), before his appearance in "The Mind's Eye", 25 years later.
Dobkin and Compton, at least, deserve to be in the poll. Admittedly, "Haven" and "Charlie X" aren't the most oustanding directed work in the history of Star Trek.
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