Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 4x06 - "Off-Hour"
RDA? With the way he checked out on SG-1, no thanks. Avery Brooks was an absolute win as far as casting goes. Dare I say the last truly good casting for a Trek show lead.
I had no problem with him showing up as a lowly Commander. The extra context on him being meant to be younger is interesting, but I think it works fine as shown. Dude was understandably bitter about Locutus blowing up his wife and his career stalled out for a few years. Didn't even really want to be in Starfleet anymore, got a shitty backwater post, things take a turn, and he gets his mojo back.
I had no problem with him showing up as a lowly Commander. The extra context on him being meant to be younger is interesting, but I think it works fine as shown. Dude was understandably bitter about Locutus blowing up his wife and his career stalled out for a few years. Didn't even really want to be in Starfleet anymore, got a shitty backwater post, things take a turn, and he gets his mojo back.
Turned out to have been the best thing for the show. What Behr thought they were deviating from was really just "everyone needs to be Captain Kirk" syndrome. Because, if it wasn't that, then what exactly would otherwise be "wrong" with being a Commander at forty or the focus of a show at that rank? Brooks provided a different model and an actually distinct character with his own path to follow.
I've been tempted. The hair on my head only notably started graying in the last five years or so (I'm 47), but my beard was like half white by the time I was 35, and is now pretty much all white other than the mustache.
Sucks that I got like five years that my beard actually grew in full before I got the full Santa going on.
47 and a full head of hair. Thats not bad. It might be gray but thats an easy fix. Doc Brown was happy his future self had hair. Lol
They have meds you can take. Thats what ill do if I ever notice the follicle reaper knocking at my door. Lol
Stewart certainly wasn't casted on the Kirk mold.
Mulgrew also wasn't.
Bacula might have been, but I think he was chosen because of Quantum Leap
Martin Green and the rest of the lead characters from Kurtzman Trek are not Shatner like, except for Pike. And Pike was already created before Kirk was created. I would also argue that Pike is a successor to Picard, not Kirk.
I don't think Trek has ever gone with a single mold for the commander of the ship / station
How evolved.
I didnt see that!Pelia’s calendar was from 1966
I wonder if that year has any significance
Thanks for pointing it out
Also sorry if it's been mentioned but wasn't there some theory/explanation that commanders command stations and captains captain ships or something? Perhaps one of our military experts can help on that one.
I'm a year older than you but got my nan's early grey gene, so was getting some grey in my teens and then I think in my 20s was a bit grey and 30s was completely so.
I think as my dad's side is bald I've always been okay with it, as I at least have the hair!
I remember the starbase commander in TNG's 11001001 being a commander and he looked to be about Picard's age. And we've seen lieutenant commanders captaining ships (even a lieutenant in Second Sight because they apparently got the rank pips wrong).
Series like Deep Space Nine set my understanding of how the ranks in Star Trek work, so I never had a problem with Sisko being a commander. Characters like Picard, Kirk and Janeway are exceptional and career focused, while Sisko was depressed and uncertain. He shouldn't have earned the same rank just by having natural leadership skill and getting older, he needed to get back into the game and earn it. Which he did.
I just went up thread to find that, and had missed that Ira quote. That's interesting. DS9 is his baby and he did great things with it, so I trust his judgement.
I think I can see why he felt it was a failed decision. That they didn't go for the young commander, wet behind the ears who was learning his way - and missed that story opportunity. So then the lower rank felt a bit of an insult, that he was less to both Picard and Janeway his counterparts at the time, and Kirk historically.
I can sort of see that... perception is reality. Just like we were discussing to name Star Trek or not, and the ramifications of how it was received. In jobs, your title matters.
Also maybe that's why they skipped Sisko in the Enterprise trailer.
Oh and FWIW I don't care. Sisko is The Sisko.
I've always been of the opinion Sisko starting out on DS9 as a Commander was the result of a misunderstanding/miscommunication. Much like the naval tradition of an officer in command of a ship is to be addressed as "Captain" regardless of their actual rank, there is a tradition today that the person in charge of a space station be addressed as "Commander" regardless of what rank or title they possess prior. For example, when Chris Hadfield was in charge of the ISS, he was addressed as "Commander Hadfield" despite his actual rank in the Canadian military at the time being Colonel. With that in mind, I've always assumed in the early stages of DS9's development Sisko was just referred to as Commander with the possible intent being his actual rank could have been Captain and Commander was just his title as officer in charge of a space station. But as the show was further developed and got closer to production and casting, someone interpreted things literally and Commander ended up becoming Sisko's actual rank. Just my thoughts on the matter anyway.
I think Mulgrew more than held her own, especially considering Voyager probably had the weakest writing of the Berman-era.
The Janeway character wasn't supposed to be Kirk-like, which is why they cast Bujold. They were hoping to catch the Picard magic again. Mulgrew became the most Kirk-like captain.
completely agree
Strictly-speaking, Picard is really just a renamed latter-life Kirk on the model of Star Trek: Phase Two. The character really is Kirk. Just older and wiser*. With, of course, his Number One standing in to do the things the younger version of the character formerly did. As I recall, this was a very calculated part of the whole formula.
(I have a pet theory that this is why Picard's brash youth is such an important part of his backstory. By the time TNG was happening, that's what fans mostly expected of Kirk's youth; most of them, or a great many of them, had forgotten that his backstory was being the Nerdy Kid.)
Kirk does loom less over the casting process since Brooks, though.
(* Well, started out that way. Sir Patrick of course made something very different of him in the long term.)
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