for once some actors who watched star trek

[fireball1]

After watching the special features dvd and the actors comments and interviews I was pleased that none of them said the standard line that the other non-Original Series Star Trek actors always said.
namely

" I had never watched Star Trek before but...."

It's always like that they are trying to convey that they were too sophisticated to watch Star Trek.

The two actors who come to mind are Kate Mulgrew (Janeway) and Jonathan Frakes (Riker).

And of course the line by Nicholas Meyers (director / writer of the second movie)

"Star Trek? Oh yeah thats the one that has the guy with the ears?"

or words to that effect. meaning of course he had barely ever seen the show or first movie.

 

[Joby]

Well to be fair for someone like Jonathan Frakes all there was was TOS, it was a single TV show that spawned a few movies. For Frakes and other TNG cast members in the late 80s perhaps TOS wasn't that much different from The Brady Bunch or Hawaii Five-O in terms of long dead TV series and their place in pop culture. "He's dead Jim" and "Book'em danno" likely meant the same thing to Frakes in the 80s, simply quotable TV from long ago. Maybey he didn't watch, people don't watch everything out there. By the time of the 2009 cast, Trek is a HUGE franchise, it's far more then just an old TV show. It's part of the modern mythology and lore of American culture.

Though I get where you are coming from. I would hear this from many of the ENT cast, that they never watched Trek, and for them in the 2000s to be saying that seemed really annoying.

 

[Brikar99]

Well, it's not unheard of for people to not have seen 'Star Trek', huge a franchise though it may be. I certainly know people who've never seen an entire episode, let alone one of the movies, though they're certainly aware of it as part of our pop culture. Being aware of it and having watched it are two entirely different things.

It's the same way, for example, I've only ever seen one episode of, say, 'The West Wing', though that was hugely popular through much of its run.

Beyond that, why is it necessary for these people to have watched 'Star Trek' in order to work on it? I work at a newspaper; I've never been to a city council meeting where I work, but I'm perfectly capable of editing a story about one. The actors working in this franchise have ample support from every angle in order to do their jobs without having sat through hundreds of hours of TV shows or slogged through thousands of pages of novels and comics.

That said, for the 2009 reboot, since these are, for the first time, new actors taking on old characters it was probably more necessary and even desirable to be a bit more familiar with what's come before.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

I know what your saying, I was pretty pleased to find out that, contrary to what the production staff involved seem to believe, Karl Urban (I hope I got his name right) felt it necessary to research his character, and therefor watched the TOS episodes. For him, it definitely paid off, we got an AU Bones, while at the same time, some of his mannerisms and speech patterns were there. One moment in particular is when he says "Good god man!" I could have sworn I heard Deforest Kelly. As for the actors from ENT, I have actually heard a few of the saying the have seen Star Trek episodes before, Jolene Blalock and Scott Bakula come to mind, I can't remember what Dominic Keating said, but he had at one point tried out for a role on Voyager (and in Star Trek, interesting...).

I can somewhat see the point though, Star Trek is on everywhere, so it's almost weird theres so many saying "I've never watched it" by now it's almost like MASH. I don't activly watch the series, but I'd be willing to bet I could find an episode airing.

 

[Data Holmes]

I always got the feeling that this was pushed upon them by Berman. GR wanted to distance TNG from TOS so it's likely that he was looking at actors who may not have been gushing uber fans for a specific reason.

I've wondered if Berman or some other suit had the actors downplay any existing fan experience with trek in "non fan base" interviews in some inane way of marketing the "new show" as open for new people, not already familiar with the franchise.

 

[Clancy_s]

, Karl Urban (I hope I got his name right) felt it necessary to research his character, and therefor watched the TOS episodes.

More than that: Karl Urban is a long time fan of TOS and actively pursued a role in the film because he wanted to be part of it. Probably he did rewatch some to refresh his memory wrt Bones but he was a fan long before he heard they were making a new Star Trek movie.

 

[Jeri]

It's nice to hear when the actors are interested in Star Trek on a personal level; but when they're not, it's time to fall back on my mainstay mantra: I won't ever know the actors; I only know the characters they play. And it's enough.

 

[donners22]

Mulgrew at least had a very good knowledge of her own show. She made some really insightful and interesting comments on the Captain's Log set and Voyager DVDs.

It's always like that they are trying to convey that they were too sophisticated to watch Star Trek.

There's many thousands of shows that I have never watched. That's not a judgment on their level of sophistication or quality, but simply that they did not appeal to me from the limited information I had about them, or that I simply never got around to watching them. I think you're reading a bit much into that.

 

[Voyagerian]

I think, generally speaking, many fans would like to hear that their espective favorites watched TOS or the others, and yes, sometimes, one might feel a little disaapointed if they didn't, but, that's just a fan thing. Kate Mulgrew as a case in point, it certainly made no difference, as she not only took on the role of Kathryn Janeway, she WAS Janeway, and very much embraced her alter-ego, with a great commitment to the part, and loves Kathryn still. It is always pleasing though to hear that actors like Scott B, or Jolene or Karl, or Tim Russ were Trekkies prior....

 

[Therin of Andor]

You need to remember that some working actors don't watch a lot of prime time television because they're often locked away on some soundstage filming, or in some chilly rehearsal hall, or attending voice classes, or performing on stage, or they are waiting tables to earn them the cab fare to get to tomorrow's auditions.

 

[Data Holmes]

, Karl Urban (I hope I got his name right) felt it necessary to research his character, and therefor watched the TOS episodes.

More than that: Karl Urban is a long time fan of TOS and actively pursued a role in the film because he wanted to be part of it. Probably he did rewatch some to refresh his memory wrt Bones but he was a fan long before he heard they were making a new Star Trek movie.

Urban had just finished, or was just about to finish, running through the entire original series on DVD with his kid when he heard about the movie and started to push for the part. He said as much in one of the many interviews from the press tour prior to the film.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Many people have already made similar comments, but: There are people I know who haven't seen Star Wars...so it's not out of the ordinary to have not seen Star Trek.

One, her husband just showed her the originals. We always tell her not to worry about the prequels...

Another friend thought there was a film called 'Attack of the Jedi' in a film conversation...(Too cute). Anyway, I quickly explained the idea to her of that title, since Jedi don't necessarily 'attack'....or are the aggressors.

 

[startrekrcks]

Well that's good that Karl Urban was fully interested in Star Trek isn't it it was awesome and the way he portrayed Bones.

 

[I am not Spock]

Urban was one of the few casting choices I had no worries about, when it was announced. He seemed to know his stuff when it came to TOS. I immediately could picture him as McCoy.

I can understand why someone may not have seen DS9, or VOY, or ENT. But TOS and TNG are on everywhere, and are a big part of pop culture. Surely everyone must have seen an episode at some stage.

 

[Tara]

One of the things I always, always loved about Jolene Blalock, actually, was that she was open about being a huge fan pf TOS and Spock and wanted to do Nimoy justice in portraying a Vulcan. She was just as annoyed as the fans at the liberties early ENT took with Vulcans in particular.

But I'm totally fine with someone getting a Trek role without being a Trek fan, so long as they take the job seriously and do the best job they can. Look at Bruce Greenwood, for example. he'd never seen "The Cage" before going to read for Pike, but he watched it and all of TOS "from soup to nuts" before working on the film.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Kirstie Alley used to play act she was Spock's daughter when she was young, and used to practise eyebrow lifts and Vulcan salutes in the mirror.

 

[Jeri]

That is sweet! I never heard that one before.

 

[Data Holmes]

Urban was one of the few casting choices I had no worries about, when it was announced. He seemed to know his stuff when it came to TOS. I immediately could picture him as McCoy.

I can understand why someone may not have seen DS9, or VOY, or ENT. But TOS and TNG are on everywhere, and are a big part of pop culture. Surely everyone must have seen an episode at some stage.

hell, I thought Urban could play McCoy ever sense I saw him in Doom.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Urban was one of the few casting choices I had no worries about, when it was announced. He seemed to know his stuff when it came to TOS. I immediately could picture him as McCoy.

I can understand why someone may not have seen DS9, or VOY, or ENT. But TOS and TNG are on everywhere, and are a big part of pop culture. Surely everyone must have seen an episode at some stage.

Even TNG is not so much known today, unless one was really familiar with Trek. (I wouldn't say it's 'everywhere').

Those casually familiar would only only know 'Dr. Spock'....or Kirk....

Of course, with the new film...more of the franchise is known...and 'Dr.Spock' is rather known as 'Mr.Spock'....

 

[barnaclelapse]

After watching the special features dvd and the actors comments and interviews I was pleased that none of them said the standard line that the other non-Original Series Star Trek actors always said.
namely

" I had never watched Star Trek before but...."

It's always like that they are trying to convey that they were too sophisticated to watch Star Trek.

The two actors who come to mind are Kate Mulgrew (Janeway) and Jonathan Frakes (Riker).

And of course the line by Nicholas Meyers (director / writer of the second movie)

"Star Trek? Oh yeah thats the one that has the guy with the ears?"

or words to that effect. meaning of course he had barely ever seen the show or first movie.

I think you might be reading into it a little too much.

Very few actors associated with Trek have been a bigger champion of all things related to the franchise than Frakes, for example.