I also think not being 'Captain' is a negative for being a natural lead. Yes I know Spock carried it off matching Kirk for presence but the character of Michael has been a bit of a drag. Mind you if Isaacs was playing the part of a crew maintenance man he would own his scenes. There's something almost boring about how Martin-Greene contributes.
Danai Gurira as Burnham, instead of Sonequa...
- Thread starter Kane_Steel
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It is somewhat ironic that the show where the authority figures aren't supposed to be the leads actually makes the authority figures the more interesting characters.
Added to sig! Thank you sir!
SM-G doesn't hold a candle to the terribleness of Scott BaKula anytime he's yelling or ranting on Enterprise. I laugh every time because it's in no way believable that he's angry. And I like Enterprise.
That's not true at all. Bobbi is one of the main POV characters in the second and fourth books and even Amos gets a few (incredibly scary and weird) chapters in "Nemesis Games" and "Persepolis Rising." And Clarissa Mao's POV is so pivotal to "Abbadon's Gate" that she could easily dominate whole episodes without Holden ever showing up.
Hell, Holden is the only one who DOESN'T have anything much to do in "Nemesis Games." Everyone else is getting nuked, spaced, blown up or shot at while Holden spends most of the story sitting there watching CNN hoping everyone's okay.
And while he's the center of the action in "Cibola Burn" and the center of attention for Elvi's frothing loins, he's actually the LEAST important person on the entire planet right up until the last third of the book (coincidentally, right around the time Elvi stops frothing).
They've already done that. The interlude between "Leviathan Wakes" and "Caliban's War" was supposed to be about a year. In the TV series, it's closer to two hours.
In the latest book there is a throwaway line about anti-aging medication.
Yeah, no shit. Holden and Naomi are in their mid 70s in "Persepolis Rising" but the book implies they're biologically still basically middle-aged.
I think SMG's main issue is that she is inexperienced. Isaacs, Yeoh, Rapp, Jones all have at least 30 years acting experience and have had multiple lead roles. SMG has only been acting since 2008 and most of her work has been in supporting or guest roles. So it'd understandable that she is overshadowed by more experienced actors.
Personally, I've liked SMG as Burnham from the start but I was really sold by her performances in 'Lethe', 'Magic to make the sanest man go mad' and her scenes with Tyler at the end of 'Into the forest I go' and I agree that SMG came into her own during the MU arc.
SMG has some ways to go, as many Trek actors have had to before her in their respective first seasons, but her performance is nowhere near as awful as some of the fanboys with a vendetta are making out.
I continue to think that beat for beat Martin-Green gives the best performance on this show, hands down.
Sure, Isaacs steals every scene he's in, but he's also playing the role big. Martin-Green is given the toughest gig of any of the cast. She's put through psychological hell. And she turns in some moments of exquisite subtlety. She can cycle through emotions with such rapidity that you'd have to slow playback to get a full sense of the work she does. The elevator scene comes to mind, as does her encounter with Ash when he reveals himself. Martin-Green does multilayered like no one else I can think of in Trek maybe since Stewart, or Mulgrew in her farewell to Kes.
I'm waiting to hear I'm a senseless fanboy, mmmkay?
Sure, Isaacs steals every scene he's in, but he's also playing the role big. Martin-Green is given the toughest gig of any of the cast. She's put through psychological hell. And she turns in some moments of exquisite subtlety. She can cycle through emotions with such rapidity that you'd have to slow playback to get a full sense of the work she does. The elevator scene comes to mind, as does her encounter with Ash when he reveals himself. Martin-Green does multilayered like no one else I can think of in Trek maybe since Stewart, or Mulgrew in her farewell to Kes.
I'm waiting to hear I'm a senseless fanboy, mmmkay?
Indeed. I think SMG is blessed with a rather expressive face even though, because of her character's Vucan upbringing storyline, she's had to keep it somewhat in check.
One of my favorite scenes from the first half of the season was the one that took place on the shuttle which was transporting her and the other prisoners to wherever they were going. After the engine malfunction and the prisoners became aware that unless something was done immediately, they would all die, the camera cuts to Burnham's face. The expression on her face said without words, not that she wanted to die, but that she didn't care if she died.
That look of weary resignation told us all we needed to know about her mental state which set up nearly all of her scenes with the DISC crew, especially those with Lorca. SMG is only going to get better the longer she is in the roe.
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Lot of passionate arguments here both for and against SMG's acting. I feel almost silly weighing in with something so wishy washy, but my honest take is that she's quite good at any scene that's just about people interacting with other people. She's believable as a character. But I think the moment she needs to indulge in even the slightest degree of technobabble, it all falls apart for her. And that's a problem on a Star Trek show.
To be clear, I'm not a hater, of either her or the show (the show is flawed and uneven, I think, but I'm genuinely encouraged by the trend). But SMG is good at playing a character so long as the dialogue is "normal." When she has to handle Treknology terms, or even just things linked closely with Trek lore, she struggles. I mean, I don't remember what specific episode it was (it was early in the season) but every time she said "United Federation of Planets" I wanted to laugh. You could hear the acting coach or director in her mind saying, "AWE AND REVERENCE! WE NEED MORE AWE AND REVERENCE!"
To be clear, I'm not a hater, of either her or the show (the show is flawed and uneven, I think, but I'm genuinely encouraged by the trend). But SMG is good at playing a character so long as the dialogue is "normal." When she has to handle Treknology terms, or even just things linked closely with Trek lore, she struggles. I mean, I don't remember what specific episode it was (it was early in the season) but every time she said "United Federation of Planets" I wanted to laugh. You could hear the acting coach or director in her mind saying, "AWE AND REVERENCE! WE NEED MORE AWE AND REVERENCE!"
I can't think of a single actor in history who has ever convincingly delivered a mouthful of technobabble on Star Trek. Mainly this is because treknobabble is notoriously far from believable, since people in the real world don't actually talk like that.
Well, the singular exception is probably Jonathan Frakes in "Rascals" and that came off as believable only because he was playing it for laughs.
I think this is well-stated. I've been thinking along similar lines though I didn't pick up on the technobabble aspect. I was thinking more along the lines that she's very good in dealing with emotional scenes or everyday life scenes but when she's doing narrative or voice-over, it's pretty bad. I'm not sure that many of those narrations are even necessary to such an extent, and they do drag me out of the story. They're not believable. I agree the technobabble scenes aren't very good either, but have to say that I have the same reaction to most of the other characters speaking the technobabble. Quite often they sound as though the words are for the audience's benefit and not really something the characters would be saying to each other. They're stating the obvious that the other character would already know. Also agree that the "awe and reverence" are overdone and should be more subtle.
I'd be okay with Gurira as Kelvin Micheal.
"Jim, this is my sister."
"Bullshit."
"Jim, this is my sister."
"Bullshit."
Why would she be dead? According to Disco, she began serving on the Shenzhou in 2249, and Kelvin Vulcan was destroyed in 2258. Since there has been no war with the Klingons as of 2259 in the Kelvin timeline, Michael Burnham is probably still serving on the Shenzhou, or possibly even commanding it or another ship.
I like to think she returned to Vulcan just in time for its destruction.