Something that someone brought up in another thread got me thinking about the cast of Enterprise versus the cast of the new Star Trek movie (2009). While, personally, I really like the guys from Star Trek — especially Anton Yelchin, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg and Karl Urban —, overall I would have to say that I like the cast of Enterprise more. I mean, acting-wise. I would take Connor Trinneer over anyone from Star Trek any day of the week. Same thing with Scott Bakula. I know, to compare the cast of a television series to that of a major movie release might be a slightly unfair premise. Especially when you consider the long period of time the viewer gets to know actors in a series that ran for four years versus the two hours of a movie. But this is just a Star Trek message board on the internet; so why not compare the two?
I watched all the Enterprise episodes on SyFy (I had not watched it regularly prior). I still vote for Star Trek (2009). I immediately became interested in the characters I had known since childhood. My standouts in ST09 vs. TOS: Spock - much prefer TOS Scotty - mixed feelings, mostly because I knew Jimmy Doohan and preferred Paul McG. for the part as far as looks. Perhaps Pegg will grow on me. Chekov - prefer ST09 Uhura - while I do not like the Spock/Uhura thing, I think ST09 gave Saldana a meatier role than Nichelle ever got to play (my first TV crush was Uhura on TOS!) Pike - I much prefer Pike as the role model for Kirk in ST09 The rest of them are about the same for me. ENT crew just never clicked for me in the same way as TOS or ST09 did.
To be fair, the cast of Star Trek XI had the harder task. They had to reinterpret iconic roles. The Enterprise cast had a freer hand in how they depicted the characters. I did pick the Enterprise cast though. Just couldn't stand Pegg and Saldana.
ST09 definitely. Had fewer deadwood cast members - miscast Bakula, mishandled Blalock, useless Montgomery. Compare the movie's best (Zachary Quinto) to the series' (Connor Trinneer) and the movie still has the edge. Pegg was the only misfire in the movie. If they wanted to turn Scotty into nothing but comic relief, they should have hired a comedian capable of creating a unique comic character, not just lazily importing his usual comic schitck into the movie.
XI for me--except for Connor Trinneer. Trip was one of my favorite characters ever in ST, so he stands apart from the rest of the ENT cast. As much as I love Scott Bakula, I just could never get into the character of Archer. Not a bit of Bakula's natural charm ever came through, which was such a waste.
While Archer may not hold much against the previous Star Trek Captains, I would certainly watch all of his episodes, good or bad, than watch anything with Chris Pine's jerk of a Kirk. He was such an a**hole. I do love the casting of Karl Urban, Zoé Saldana and Zachary Quinto as Spock (Just needs a better Spock), but I also liked Enterprise's cast. They have more women who actually do their assigned duties in a professional manner! Take Hoshi for instance. They brag about her being able to translate languages and such, and they put that to good use when she actually TRANSLATES Romulan! Uhura couldn't do that because everyone involved with Trek09 thought it would be absolutely brilliant if the Romluans just spoke perfect English......Absolutely brilliant.
If you boil down the question to the basics, just as it was phrased, "Which had the better cast?" then the nod from me goes to Enterprise. The cast choices, prior to the production of even the first episode, were very much in line with the potential that each of those characters possessed. Not so much with what the scripts eventually presented, but certainly there were times when the actors were so much better than the script that the show became painful to watch. The fact that ENT was painful to watch should not be blamed on the cast, especially not Scott Bakula (whose potential was never realized) or Connor Trinneer. If it was not written in stone that T'Pol should be a sexpot wrapped in a potato sack with a Beatles mop-top, then I actually wouldn't have cast Jolene Blalock in that role. I would have preferred a more introspective, brooding, complex woman for that role, in which case I would have hired the fabulous Gina McKee: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/10_october/19/street_mckee.shtml But Jolene did an impossible job: She made a character that ended up being written terribly, into someone at least sympathetic. And for that she deserves commendation. On the one hand, the Trek 2009 actors each had impossible tasks: to succeed television's most iconic ensemble. But my feeling is that the casting agents rolled the dice with every one of these roles. With some, the dice came up box-cars. The one role I thought nobody could ever recreate, that of Dr. McCoy, was embraced and extended by Karl Urban brilliantly. And Zachary Quinto brought some new aspects to Spock that were quite enjoyable. Chris Pine...I'll give him another chance. I think I can accept him. I'm not expecting a Shatner impression, but I'm expecting a smoother James Kirk. Bruce Greenwood, superb. I liked him from the first moment. (I liked his Pike better than Pine's Kirk.) The rest, I'm afraid, ended up for the most part being caricatures or hollow shells. I don't get a sense of Scotty on the screen, just someone (a very nice fellow, Simon Pegg) standing in his shoes. And with John Cho, as I feared, I think the casting agents were looking through pictures of Asian guys, Asian guys, more Asian guys, we need an Asian guy...hey, wait, wasn't this guy in that White Castle movie? Sulu was an intense, focused, ambitious, and sometimes debonair character; John Cho portrayed a fumbling idiot. I did not appreciate the decision to have Uhura and Spock do a little romance thing simply because Uhura was the only female lead and she needed a love interest and only Spock seemed available. Time may have changed everything, but the two of them kissing in the transporter room was the most out-of-character moment of the entire film. Besides, the problem with only having one female lead could have been solved: Cast a strong actress as a completely re-thought Janice Rand, or as Christine Chapel (there's someone who might have tried smooching Spock for what it was worth). Then have Uhura's love interest be "Olsen," who gets fried by the Romulan oil rig. Not that I want to torture Uhura, but that would have brought depth to her character, and maybe made Kirk wise up and not be such a jack-ass (in this film). And if you haven't seen the Rifftrax send-up of Star Trek '09: http://www.rifftrax.com/rifftrax/star-trek ...then I won't spoil it for you by blurting out Mike Nelson's comment on Ben Cross as Surak. But I can't see it without ejecting whatever I'm drinking at the moment out my nose; it is the most accurate interpretation of that casting decision that could ever be uttered. Anyway, there's my two cents, which became more like 14 after it was all said and done. DF "Hey, You Know What They Say About Redshirts...It's Nyota, Isn't It?" Scott
Trek 09, definitely. Connor Trinneer beats anyone from nuTrek, though... If you compare ensembles, it's roughly 70:30 in SI XI's favor.
It's Sarek. Surak is a different character: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Surak ( However, Kelley does mispronounce "Sarek" as "Surak" in Journey to Babel. ) The Uhura-Spock thing was already set up in TOS.
Okay, I stand corrected on "Sarek," apologies there. But if you're saying that little stint where Uhura teases Spock in "Charlie X" is a setup for a romance...that's a stretch. I've been a Trek fan for 40 years now, and there's no time in the period leading up to last year where I would ever have _considered_ any kind of romance between these characters, let alone set aside the notion that an un-altered Spock was even capable of romance. DF "Some Guys Got It...He Don't" 3
Spock had an affair with Leila Kalomi when he was younger, even though he was bonded to T'Pring. Basically, he was cheating on her. Well, Uhura assumes the Leila role in this altered reality. And it wasn't just about the Charlie X thing. There's also the Man Trap scene.
Trek09. Though, reducing Scotty to a dumb comic relief was really bad. Urban really brought out what I hated about McCoy's character, but Quinto and Saldana were perfect. Their romance made it even better.