Replaceable/Irreplaceable Actors and the Characters they played

[Marsden]

I think Chris Doohan is great as Scotty, but he's not official, so I guess that may not count for a lot of people. But, maybe in away that proves how unreplaceable James Doohan is, because Chris seems to be copying his father rather than some lame brain "new interpretation"

 

[dub]

Irreplaceable:
Kirstie Alley as Saavik
Cyia Batten as the Tora Ziyal
Brian Bonsall as Alexander Rozhenko
David Tristan Birkin as Rene Picard
Warren Munson as Owen Paris
Andrea Martin as Moogie

 

[Disco]

I understand the Enterprise hate but I thought John Billingsley as Phlox was excellent and a real star of the show. The rest of the cast were meh but Billingsley brought real warmth to Phlox so I'd say he was irreplaceable.

 

[Richard Baker]

I would have liked to see Andreas Katsulas as Dukat.

 

[BillJ]

They're all replaceable.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Like Mel said, they're all replaceable.

James Bond is replaceable. Superman is replaceable. Sherlock Holmes is replaceable. Rick Blaine is replaceable. (Dare I give Hollywood any ideas.) And, yes, I know it's cliché but even Hamlet was replaced.

Suggesting any Star Trek character is somehow above any of those is kind of silly.

It's just for fun

Yep. Just a fun thought exercise.

For example: I could not imagine any other actor playing Jean-Luc Picard.

However, I think just about any actress could have played Beverly Crusher.

 

[plynch]

They're all replaceable.

From an employment status, yes.

But was there not one portrayal where, if you swap in a different actor, our understanding of that character would be different?

"Irreplaceable" without really altering the character. I think a few, though not most, actors were irreplaceable in that sense. I lean towards the actors who were quirky or idiosyncratic.

I nominated Koenig above, but on further review, if you got another cute male, threw him in a Beatles wig, told him to do a cheesey accent, and told him to play for lite comedic effect, yeah, you get about the same results; my understanding of Pav is the same. I remove my nomination.

 

[Anwar]

I have to wonder how the Kirk/Spock/McCoy triad would've worked out if they cast actors who didn't have as much chemistry between them. Would they have had to do more with the Secondaries if the Primaries weren't up to it?

 

[plynch]

McCoy grew into the triad. Might have just had the star, second, and many lesser crew and many guest stars.

I think Soock was such a unique character, another actor appropriately cast, could have done well. McCoy, by virtue of being human, turned out so unique due to Kelley.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It would've been great to have seen Ben Sisco played by James Earle Jones, whom I believe was seriously considered, actually. I also believe the writing would've improved from the very beginning, having an actor of his callibur onboard.

Who played by who????

I think Chris Doohan is great as Scotty, but he's not official, so I guess that may not count for a lot of people. But, maybe in away that proves how unreplaceable James Doohan is, because Chris seems to be copying his father rather than some lame brain "new interpretation"

Imitating his father's performance is poor acting on almost every level. It's a problem I have with many fan production. They try so hard to imitate the actor they lose the character. You can see the "seams"

 

[Anwar]

McCoy grew into the triad. Might have just had the star, second, and many lesser crew and many guest stars.

I think Soock was such a unique character, another actor appropriately cast, could have done well. McCoy, by virtue of being human, turned out so unique due to Kelley.

Spock was basically the "Magical Native American" character type from Westerns. If Trek had been an actual "Wagon Trail to the Stars" thing they'd all be Union Soldiers and he'd be the one Native American (or half Native).

It was Leonard Nimoy who made him so memorable.

 

[plynch]

McCoy grew into the triad. Might have just had the star, second, and many lesser crew and many guest stars.

I think Soock was such a unique character, another actor appropriately cast, could have done well. McCoy, by virtue of being human, turned out so unique due to Kelley.

Spock was basically the "Magical Native American" character type from Westerns. If Trek had been an actual "Wagon Trail to the Stars" thing they'd all be Union Soldiers and he'd be the one Native American (or half Native).

It was Leonard Nimoy who made him so memorable.

Mark Lenard in that role would be danged good and the Spock we know would be about the same. I think. Of course Nimoy's mini-revolt got him input into the character. Maybe Lenard doesn't do that mini-revolt and Spock gets written differently as the series progresses? You might be right. This is a good topic.

 

[T'Girl]

Billingsley brought real warmth to Phlox so I'd say he was irreplaceable.

The only other person in ENT I would describe as "irreplaceable" would be Linda Park, specially in the first season.

While not exactly irreplaceable, Gary Graham as Ambassador Soval came close. Everyone else on ENT could easily have been exchanged with other actor with no impact on the show, and in some cases likely would have made the show better.