Over in the "Hey, I Never Noticed That Before" thread I joked that we should start a "Subtle Shatner" thread so we could better appreciate some of William Shatner's great acting moments on TOS. My comment got a fair amount of likes, so I decided it was a good idea for a thread.
The pop culture cliche is that Shatner is a ham who'd chew the scenery and pass it through his lower intestine, but truthfully, Shatner had a lot of fine acting moments on the show. Take a look at the ending of "The City on the Edge of Forever" if you don't believe me. In less than a minute and a half of screentime, Shatner goes from relaxed and casual on his date with Edith Keeler, to surprise at her mention of McCoy, to determination and calling for Spock, to excitement and relief at being reunited with McCoy, to the sudden realization that THIS is the moment of Edith's death, to freezing in indecision, to a split second move to block McCoy from reaching Edith, to being absolutely shattered that the love of his life is gone, and she's gone because of his actions.
And that thousand yard stare Kirk has when they return to the present... brrrrrrr.
The ending of COTEOF is great, and it's great largely because of Shatner, who takes us through Kirk's entire emotional journey with a minimum of dialogue.
So, ground rules for the thread: Let's celebrate Shatner's subtle, understated moments from TOS. No over the top "I'm Captain Kirk!!!!" from "The Enemy Within" or anything like that. We can start another thread for those if we want. Let's see the moments where Shatner did a lot with very little, and conveyed something more than what was on the page with just his line delivery, a look, or a gesture. And please provide clips of the moments in question so we can all appreciate Shatner's great acting chops.
The pop culture cliche is that Shatner is a ham who'd chew the scenery and pass it through his lower intestine, but truthfully, Shatner had a lot of fine acting moments on the show. Take a look at the ending of "The City on the Edge of Forever" if you don't believe me. In less than a minute and a half of screentime, Shatner goes from relaxed and casual on his date with Edith Keeler, to surprise at her mention of McCoy, to determination and calling for Spock, to excitement and relief at being reunited with McCoy, to the sudden realization that THIS is the moment of Edith's death, to freezing in indecision, to a split second move to block McCoy from reaching Edith, to being absolutely shattered that the love of his life is gone, and she's gone because of his actions.
And that thousand yard stare Kirk has when they return to the present... brrrrrrr.
The ending of COTEOF is great, and it's great largely because of Shatner, who takes us through Kirk's entire emotional journey with a minimum of dialogue.
So, ground rules for the thread: Let's celebrate Shatner's subtle, understated moments from TOS. No over the top "I'm Captain Kirk!!!!" from "The Enemy Within" or anything like that. We can start another thread for those if we want. Let's see the moments where Shatner did a lot with very little, and conveyed something more than what was on the page with just his line delivery, a look, or a gesture. And please provide clips of the moments in question so we can all appreciate Shatner's great acting chops.
