Favorite Star Trek film director?
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Robert Wise, not only a extremely talented director as a whole, but the extremely talented director who brought the truly magnificent Star Trek: The Motion Picture to the silver screen.
Technically, I think Shatner's style of direction was rather good, with lots of movement and energy. His talents as a director were quite accomplished bearing in mind his limited experience at the time.Difficult choice between Meyer and Frakes.
I'm going to have to give that some thought.
How many votes will Shatner and Baird get??
I think it's easy to confuse a weaker script with directorial ability sometimes.
It says "Favorite Star Trek film director?", so I think you're suppose to rate them on their contributions to the franchise, not their overall careers.
I went with Nick Meyer.
Difficult choice between Meyer and Frakes.
I'm going to have to give that some thought.
How many votes will Shatner and Baird get??
Same here. I went with Meyer since WOK and UC are my favorite movies, but Frakes was a close second.
I also really liked Final Frontier so Shatner would be in my 3rd place.
Technically, I think Shatner's style of direction was rather good, with lots of movement and energy. His talents as a director were quite accomplished bearing in mind his limited experience at the time.Difficult choice between Meyer and Frakes.
I'm going to have to give that some thought.
How many votes will Shatner and Baird get??
I think it's easy to confuse a weaker script with directorial ability sometimes.
With TFF, I've always thought there's a great movie in there somewhere trying to get out. I think budget and script compromises hurt the film. But I also don't know how accurate a reporter of fact Shatner is...
It says "Favorite Star Trek film director?", so I think you're suppose to rate them on their contributions to the franchise, not their overall careers.
That's right. I edited the original post to make that more clear.
For me, it was very close between Meyer and Nimoy. But since The Voyage Home is my favorite Trek movie, I ended up voting for Nimoy.
Wise has the most sterling career, stretching all the way back to CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE and THE BODY SNATCHER (the latter featuring possibly Boris Karloff's best performance, btw). But Meyer has the best track record where Trek is concerned, and that's not even counting his vital contributions to fourth movie's script.
Robert Wise is the best director of the bunch but we're supposed to disregard everything but their Trek contribution... I love TMP but I'm not sure it was the best directed of the bunch.
Nicholas Meyer is the best writer of the bunch and a solid-if workmanlike director-and he did direct my favorite movie of the bunch. But does that make him the best director? Who is to say if Stuart Baird or Jonathan Frakes or Shatner or whomever had the script to TWOK that it wouldn't have been just as good? This will require more thinking...
Leonard Nimoy did a fine job on TSFS and TVH but... I am going to disqualify him right now. His work with the actors is terrific and it should be because he's an actor himself but... directing actors isn't the only thing directors are responsible for. Visuals matter too. Nimoy's visual presentation is television quality at best so I'm disqualifying him right here.
William Shatner takes a lot of shit for TFF and a lot of it is unfair. He had a lot riding against him from the start. Paramount not only cut the budget to his film requiring him to pull back on his FX heavy sequences but they also forced him to tack on a lot of humor to what is at heart a serious adventure story. Besides that ILM was unavailable to do the FX sequences they had budgeted so he had to settle for a third rate FX house. Considering how many obstacles he had in his way the performances in TFF are solider. The visual style was brisk and exciting. And the movie did attempt to bring Trek a little closer to the style of the series it was based on while still being a movie. It was Lawrence of Arabia on a Larry the Cable Guy budget. Shatner has not been disqualified just because TFF is a flawed flick.
David Carson falls in the Leonard Nimoy camp. He coaxed some fine performances from his actors but his vision is strictly television. I don't know why more television directors can't bust free of the restrictions of the medium. Steven Spielberg and Richard Donner both started as television directors and they transitioned from the small to big screen with nary a sign of effort.
Jonathan Frakes was-as expected for an actor-good at coaxing performances from his costars. His visual style? Actually pretty decent. I mean he's no Spielberg or Donner but he's also better than David Carson. The man can certainly direct action well. The deflector dish scene in First Contact was just plain epic. I want to mark him down a little for the tackiness of Insurrection but much like Shatner he was working from a weak script. Sadly his script was far, faaar weaker than Shatner's. He's still in the running for me though.
Stuart Baird is a mixed bad. I don't consider him an actors director. Aside from Tom Hardy I thought most of the performances were kinda... paint by numbers. The actors seemed bored in that movie. Visually he wasn't half bad but then he was the bet editor and worked with the best directors. He knows what makes a good shot. Also the movie was fairly well edited but again... He's a great editor. Not a great director though. I'm disqualifying him.
JJ Abrams is good with actors. Visually pretty daring. He certainly knows his way around an action scene. A damn good director. One of the best on this list.
Who am I going with? Believe it or not.. Shatner. He had far more roadblocks and budgetary restrictions to deal with than any of the other directors. It can't be easy to make a movie when you're handcuffed and blindfolded but he not only made a movie but he made a movie with heart that was totally watchable.
The Final Frontier is far from my favorite Trek movie and it is flawed but the fact that it isn't completely unwatchable is a testament to what a fine director William Shatner really is.
I'm just sorry he didn't get a second chance later on with a better script.
EDIT:
Overall I consider Robert Wise and JJ Abrams the best directors on the list. I consider TWOK the best movie on the list. I do feel that Shatner does deserve an A for effort and that's what my vote is for.
Nicholas Meyer is the best writer of the bunch and a solid-if workmanlike director-and he did direct my favorite movie of the bunch. But does that make him the best director? Who is to say if Stuart Baird or Jonathan Frakes or Shatner or whomever had the script to TWOK that it wouldn't have been just as good? This will require more thinking...
Leonard Nimoy did a fine job on TSFS and TVH but... I am going to disqualify him right now. His work with the actors is terrific and it should be because he's an actor himself but... directing actors isn't the only thing directors are responsible for. Visuals matter too. Nimoy's visual presentation is television quality at best so I'm disqualifying him right here.
William Shatner takes a lot of shit for TFF and a lot of it is unfair. He had a lot riding against him from the start. Paramount not only cut the budget to his film requiring him to pull back on his FX heavy sequences but they also forced him to tack on a lot of humor to what is at heart a serious adventure story. Besides that ILM was unavailable to do the FX sequences they had budgeted so he had to settle for a third rate FX house. Considering how many obstacles he had in his way the performances in TFF are solider. The visual style was brisk and exciting. And the movie did attempt to bring Trek a little closer to the style of the series it was based on while still being a movie. It was Lawrence of Arabia on a Larry the Cable Guy budget. Shatner has not been disqualified just because TFF is a flawed flick.
David Carson falls in the Leonard Nimoy camp. He coaxed some fine performances from his actors but his vision is strictly television. I don't know why more television directors can't bust free of the restrictions of the medium. Steven Spielberg and Richard Donner both started as television directors and they transitioned from the small to big screen with nary a sign of effort.
Jonathan Frakes was-as expected for an actor-good at coaxing performances from his costars. His visual style? Actually pretty decent. I mean he's no Spielberg or Donner but he's also better than David Carson. The man can certainly direct action well. The deflector dish scene in First Contact was just plain epic. I want to mark him down a little for the tackiness of Insurrection but much like Shatner he was working from a weak script. Sadly his script was far, faaar weaker than Shatner's. He's still in the running for me though.
Stuart Baird is a mixed bad. I don't consider him an actors director. Aside from Tom Hardy I thought most of the performances were kinda... paint by numbers. The actors seemed bored in that movie. Visually he wasn't half bad but then he was the bet editor and worked with the best directors. He knows what makes a good shot. Also the movie was fairly well edited but again... He's a great editor. Not a great director though. I'm disqualifying him.
JJ Abrams is good with actors. Visually pretty daring. He certainly knows his way around an action scene. A damn good director. One of the best on this list.
Who am I going with? Believe it or not.. Shatner. He had far more roadblocks and budgetary restrictions to deal with than any of the other directors. It can't be easy to make a movie when you're handcuffed and blindfolded but he not only made a movie but he made a movie with heart that was totally watchable.
The Final Frontier is far from my favorite Trek movie and it is flawed but the fact that it isn't completely unwatchable is a testament to what a fine director William Shatner really is.
I'm just sorry he didn't get a second chance later on with a better script.
EDIT:
Overall I consider Robert Wise and JJ Abrams the best directors on the list. I consider TWOK the best movie on the list. I do feel that Shatner does deserve an A for effort and that's what my vote is for.
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I'm going with Nicholas Meyer.
Meyer, for Spock's death scene in "Wrath of Khan" more than anything else.
Difficult.
Robert Wise gave us TMP, which I really love! But Meyer did both TWOK and TUC, which I can rewatch almost all the time.
Frakes really understood TNG and the characters, so both of his TNG outings worked great for me, even though I prefer INS over FC.
And I love what JJ did with nuTrek.
But I'll think I'll go for Meyer. His work on both TWOK and TUC was fantastic, both character-wise and the feel of both of his films in general.
Robert Wise gave us TMP, which I really love! But Meyer did both TWOK and TUC, which I can rewatch almost all the time.
Frakes really understood TNG and the characters, so both of his TNG outings worked great for me, even though I prefer INS over FC.
And I love what JJ did with nuTrek.
But I'll think I'll go for Meyer. His work on both TWOK and TUC was fantastic, both character-wise and the feel of both of his films in general.
Abrams. Because, love or hate the scripts or lens flares he works with, he's got a great sense of pacing and how to use the camera to dramatic effect. For all his talent and experience Wise was out of his element on TMP. The rest aren't career directors and all suffer from deficiencies in their overall direction even if they excel in one aspect or another.
Meyer by far, albeit somewhat by default. Wise did pretty well for the most part but the length of the special effects felt excessive (in part due to the actors' non-reaction), Abrams is too bombastic and the rest are too non-ambitious (First Contact was great but given Insurrection I have to give most of the credit to the writers, Stewart and production design).
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