Most obvious Double scenes

[cooleddie74]

The worst Shatner stunt double ever had to be the guy during the Kirk-Finney fight at the end of "Court Martial." They get one or two fairly good shots of the guy's face during all the flipping and tossing about and you can CLEARLY see the dude's not Shatner. Not...even...close.

 

[Forbin]

So in TV production, what is the "line" that must be crossed before a stunt double is used? I can see where in obvious places, when an actor's safety is at risk, a stuntman needs to be brought in. But sometimes we see Shatner doing his own stunts (and doing them fairly well) and other times it's obviously a double and it seems uneccessary.

Is it a "union" thing?

I think it's a balance between what the actor wants to do him/herself, and what the insurance and production companies are willing to let them do. Some actors are happy to give it a try and help sell the shot, but the showrunner doesn't want his star in traction for the rest of the series.

And then there's Pat Tallman, who just did everyhting anyway.

 

[Daowulf]

Although not a stunt double, Shatner's stand in for the shots where Kirk confronts the Horta in "The Devil in the Dark" looks very different from Shatner. Nevertheless, they did a pretty good job considering that the guy barely moves, allowing close examination. The giveaway is the continuity error with the phaser: In the front (Shatner) shots, Kirk has his phaser up. In the back (stand in) shots, Kirk has his phaser at his side.

 

[cooleddie74]

The stunt double that seemed to look the most like Shatner in physical build and hair color was the guy playing Garth-as-Kirk in "Whom Gods Destroy" during the final fight scene. From behind, the stunt double looked almost exactly like Shatner...just a couple of inches shorter, that's all.

 

[Forbin]

Wasn't Eddie Passky (Ensign Leslie) Shatner's regular double?

 

[Cyrus]

The one I think is the worst is the stunt double for Norman in "I Mudd" when he is fighting in the engineering. Not only the double doesn't even remotely look like Norman, he is also about a foot shorter.

 

[M'Sharak]

Wasn't Eddie Passky (Ensign Leslie) Shatner's regular double?

He was one of them. Roger Holloway (who also played Lemli) was another. That was the source of the gag in "Trials and Tribble-ations" about Bashir mistaking Lemli for Kirk in the bar-brawl scene.

 

[Kryton]

Minor correction...O'Brien was dead-set certain it was Kirk. Bashir asked "then why is he wearing Lieutenant's stripes?"

 

[M'Sharak]

That was it.

 

[Myko]

And it was Paul Baxley as Freeman, not Roger Holloway. :P

Paul Paxley was Shatner's regular stunt double, Eddie Paskey was his regular stand-in. Holloway replaced Paskey when Paskey left the show in season 3. Holloway was DeForest Kelley's stand-in from season 2.

 

[cooleddie74]

Yeah, the Norman stunt double in "I, Mudd" was awful. I'm sorta glad most of the Norman fight sequence in main engineering is trimmed from the syndicated cuts of the episode. It means less time having to look at the stunt double.

 

[M'Sharak]

And it was Paul Baxley as Freeman, not Roger Holloway. :P

Paul Paxley was Shatner's regular stunt double, Eddie Paskey was his regular stand-in. Holloway replaced Paskey when Paskey left the show in season 3. Holloway was DeForest Kelley's stand-in from season 2.

Okay, so I suck. No big deal.

 

[cooleddie74]

From what I can recall, most of Kelley's and Doohan's doubles looked okay in passing. Not too radically different in appearance from a distance.

 

[Jack Bauer]

The Mirror Universe Spock stunt double was terrible.

 

[cooleddie74]

The Mirror Universe Spock stunt double was terrible.

He even had curly hair.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I do agree with the "WTF" notion of Shatner doing some really tough and complex stunts and then having a double for the BS falls. For example, in "Tomorrow is yesterday," Kirk's big fight with the Air Force guys was all Shatner. No doubling done at all. Yet, in "Operation:Annihilate" the bridge fight has a stunt double for Shatner and all he does is help push Spock down...and other actors are there without doubling. Unless Shatner was off shooting somewhere else, it makes little sense.

The Decker double in Doomsday Machine is actually quite good. A decent match for Windom. The real bad doubling is that for every scene prior to Decker being relieved, some smallish, wimpy looking guy was at the turbolift. When Spock calls him over, he becomes this big, tough, handsome dude.

Space Seed is funny as hell. The Kahn double is a total midget!

Kirk's double in This Side of paradise is pretty awful.

 

[Cyrus]

Someone who worked at CBS digital was posting here before TOS-R aired and people were posting their wish list for the CGI changes. I had 2 items on my list: change the chronometer and fix the stunt double stuff. I am happy that they did one item from my wish list, but they ignored the other one. I guess it's too costly to digitally fix the stunt double scenes.

 

[cooleddie74]

Probably true. Most of the changes in TOS-R are of static or quiet shots where there are little or no movements by any actors. I imagine shots where people are jumping all over the place would prove exceptionally difficult and costly to change.

 

[Terra Pryme]

I saw the RM version of "The Galileo Seven" the other night, and I noticed the obvious stunt double for Rees Vaughn (Lt. Latimer) in the scene he got speared by the giant Neanderthal alien. You see the actor's face in the closeup shot, but then the double, who makes the fall with the spear to his back, had darker, shorter hair.