Paul Wesley's incarnation of James T. Kirk

[Caeruleus]

I have to be honest. This guy, this Paul Wesley has it's own acting qualities. And he resembels Kirk really good. But there is one thing that can be a problem. And that is a problem. Name of the problem is: total lack of physical resemblance of Paul Wesley compared with William Shatner..

Maybe some one can turn a blind eye on that, but it is really difficult.

I don't have that problem with captain Pike, because Anson Mount DOES HAVE physical resemblance of Jeffrey Hunter. When I look at Mount I can really feal that he is a Pike. But with total established charachter as Jim Kirk is, when I see Paul I don't have that feeling.

I think here that they should use deep fake or find some other actor that looks more like William Shatner. His facial features, his eyes, eyebrows, voice. Everything is so so so different from Shatner. And I don't like it to be honest once again.

Like I said I don't have that problem with Mount or with Peck. He also is doing a great job as Spock. He looks like Leonard Nimoy and acts like that.

 

[tenmei]

If we can stomach multiple versions of Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Miss Marple (look at Helen Hayes versus Margaret Rutherford in the case of Miss Marple, for example) etc that look nothing alike, then we can certainly accept that Wesley doesn't physically resemble Shatner

 

[F. King Daniel]

Anson Mount's Pike looks and acts like a younger version of Bruce Greenwood's, to me. I won't see the new Kirk for weeks... horrors of being in England, I guess. On general though I don't mind different casting, just look at April and Kyle. But I'm not obsessed with continuity.

Well I am, but not in the "everything must line up perfectly" way.

 

[HotRod]

I've watched the episodes, or atleast scenes from the episodes, a few times now and I find he starts to grow on you a little. It's definitely far from perfect, but the more I see it, the more I understand what they were going for.

This isn't James T. Kirk, Captain of the Starship Enterprise. Flagship of the Federation. Large and in charge of the situation. This is Captain Jim Kirk, captain of the Farragut, junior captain on the scene. In the presence of Captain Christopher Pike, Captain of the Flagship.

Kirk was clearly not the man in charge of the situation and had to play the role as somewhat of a subordinate. He wasn't "swinging dick", somewhat ego driven Captain, leading the mission to whatever outcome. He had to be dead serious and straightforward in the presence of a superior officer, if only in seniority.

Once I came to this conclusion, and realized that was probably the direction given to Paul Wesley as an actor, I was far more accepting of the performance. I actually hope at some point we will actually get to see him acting as Kirk "off the chain".

 

[C.E. Evans]

I don't really have a problem with Paul Wesley as Kirk, but I do think he's kind of thin and scrawny. There's nothing wrong with that, but Kirk is kind of a larger-than-life character, so there's some pretty big boots to fill almost literally, IMO.

That being said, Anson Mount is the star of this show, not Wesley. I think it would actually be bad for Pike to really be eclipsed by Kirk in his own series. So a Kirk that won't really outshine Pike is fine right now.

 

[mattman8907]

Plus we still got six years until Kirk takes over the reigns so plenty of time for Paul to turn into the Kirk we know and love.

 

[Serveaux]

Pine doesn't look like Shatner either, nor does Peck resemble Nimoy.

It's not a problem.

Honestly, a slimmer Kirk doesn't bother me either. Trek uniforms don't flatter all physiques.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Eye of the beholder I guess. He looks a lot like Shatner to me. Just thinner and younger. Big difference is the lack of blonde highlights in his hair. Which was probably more due to 60s style lighting on the set. Every where else before and after Shatner’s hair was dark brown.

He plays Kirk closer to the more serious nature Shatner did in early episodes.

 

[Caeruleus]

Pine doesn't look like Shatner either, nor does Peck resemble Nimoy.

It's not a problem.

Honestly, a slimmer Kirk doesn't bother me either. Trek uniforms don't flatter all physiques.

This is not story about JJ Universe. It is different thing. Pine has blue eyes, and Shatner has brown eyes.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I thought he was great, closer to the more serious version of Kirk in early episodes.

 

[Jax]

He grew on me over the course of the episode and I would like to see more. I didn't feel he had the Kirk swag that Pine nailed in the movies.

 

[DarKush]

Wesley did what the role demanded of him well enough, but he didn't come across as Kirk-like to me. Chris Pine doesn't look like Shatner, but he channeled just enough of Shatner's performance to feel like Prime Kirk. It's a good point upthread about the changed circumstances of a Farragut, junior captain Kirk compared to Pike, but still, I wish there had been some familiar semblance to say this was the Kirk we knew from TOS. And I didn't get that.

As I said in another thread, I think revisiting "Balance of Terror" but having Pike fail where Kirk succeeded, and even admitting it as much within the SNW finale, did undercut Pike. I don't think they needed to do that, and instead could've come up with a story where Kirk learns from Pike. I'm not sure Kirk was needed at all for this episode. They could've had La'an or Number One as the alternate captain, really play with the altered future.

Spoiler: Discovery novel Desperate Hours spoiler

It reminds me a bit of the Discovery prequel novel Desperate Hours which guest starred Pike and the Enterprise, but Pike felt out of character to me, and it was like Pike in name only. It was the portrayal they needed to fit the novel story, but didn't feel right for the TOS or Kelvin portrayals, and definitely not the SNW Pike.

 

[Tosk]

My only gripe (if you can even call it that) is that he seems a little old somehow. Even though the actor is only about four years older than Shatner was, he comes across a fair bit older to me.

 

[The Wormhole]

I found at certain points he was trying too hard to mimic Shatner's speech patterns. Maybe if he just delivered his lines normally without trying to mimic someone who has admitted he only talked like that because he had trouble remembering his lines he'd be okay.

Spoiler: Discovery novel Desperate Hours spoiler

It reminds me a bit of the Discovery prequel novel Desperate Hours which guest starred Pike and the Enterprise, but Pike felt out of character to me, and it was like Pike in name only. It was the portrayal they needed to fit the novel story, but didn't feel right for the TOS or Kelvin portrayals, and definitely not the SNW Pike.

The portrayal of Pike in Desperate Hours is consistent with how Pike had been written in other Trek novels. Which seems to be a reasonable enough decision since no one at the time was expecting Pike to show up onscreen within the next two years.

 

[Neopeius]

This is not story about JJ Universe. It is different thing. Pine has blue eyes, and Shatner has brown eyes.

Hazel.

 

[DaveyNY]

Seems to me that folks have already forgotten that THE Captain Kirk has already given his tacit approval ...

https://movieweb.com/william-shatner-wishes-new-kirk-paul-wesley-luck/
https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/1503902196932366339?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1503902196932366339|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https://movieweb.com/william-shatner-wishes-new-kirk-paul-wesley-luck/

Who are we to disagree.

 

[ThreeEdgedSword]

That's funny, people thinking Pine doesn't look anything like Shatner. I know him only from stills, but do believe he bears a superficial resemblance to Shatner's Kirk, eye color notwithstanding: body type, face form, eyebrows... I can't comment about voice, mannerisms etc of course.

Wesley, otoh, looks to me as if they'd tried to find the white dude who looked least like Shatner. YMMV of course. It still wouldn't be much of an issue if I recognized any Kirk in his mannerisms, but I didn't.

 

[Pubert]

Pine doesn't look like Shatner either, nor does Peck resemble Nimoy.

It's not a problem.

Honestly, a slimmer Kirk doesn't bother me either. Trek uniforms don't flatter all physiques.

Yeah Peck doesn't look like nimoy at all. His acting is great as Spock. With the hair cut and ears it's a good enough likeness for me. But physically nimoy was not muscular at all. He was thin as a rake and didn't work out. Peck obviously hits the gym all the time. LOL.

 

[Okmyx]

My only problem with Wesley is he looks too much like Jim Carrey. And I'm not a Jim Carrey fan, so I have to work on getting past it.

You know, the guy playing Jesus Christ Superstar recently doesn't look anything like the guy who first played him...

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

He just didn't quite hit the mark with me. A few times he sounded like he was trying to mimic Shatner's stereotypical speech patterns, which reminded me of some of the fan production "Kirks" in a negative way. His physique is just scrawny compared to Shatner or Pine. I'd rather he packed on a freshman fifteen to get that out-of-shape-in-shape 60s guy body. But critically, he just lacked the charm. They went out of their way to SAY he was charming, but they failed to SHOW he was.

I honestly preferred Pine (in ST: Beyond) as Kirk, and I wish he was back. But he's probably too old for this version of Kirk.