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TNG Actors Were Cast Incorrectly

ThePlumsofWrath

ThePlumsofWrath

Commander
I have slowly come to the conclusion over many years that Stewart was horribly miscast in TNG. The more I watch TNG, the less convincing the man becomes to my eyes. Leader of men? I think not. Engaging personality? I think not? Dominant and persuasive? No.

He is horribly over-qualified within TNG cast, this has the effect of making him stick out like a sore thumb to the point where it just looks 'hammy', the other casting choices for the main players, with the exception of Spiner were also poor. Frakes was just dreadful, wooden and stilted in his delivery. McFadden was horrible. Burton?> Anyone notice him really? Dorn, a variation on a theme.

I think TNG could have been so much better than it was if it had been cast correctly, I can't deny it was a success but I believe that this was despite the casting.

The more I see these days, the stronger the conviction grows.
 
Couldn't agree with you less about Stewart. For me, his presence and charisma often carried the show.

Burton, I think, is a good actor, but he didn't get enough to do.
 
Pemmer Harge said:
Couldn't agree with you less about Stewart. For me, his presence and charisma often carried the show.
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Pretty much. I must admit to feeling sort of baffled when Stewart is cast as a guy who isn't that believable as a leader of men and a bit of ham - as opposed to whom? Shatner? Because Stewart's something of less than a ham than he and also pretty believable as an inspiring leader. That goes back to his Shakespearean training an his ability to roll off memorable speeches quickly and authoritatively from the tongue.

Stewart was only miscast in the sense Picard was meant to be French, and so it was hilariously odd for him to be put in the role, complete with his British accent and all. The writers soon compensated, though - you may notice most of the references to Picard's Frenchness, and Picard speaking in French, can be found in the first season. Later on he's drinking Earl Grey, reciting Shakespeare, and generally being a trifle more English in his attitudes.

Burton, I think, is a good actor, but he didn't get enough to do.
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Yeah. He was very good as Kunta Kinte in Roots, way back when. Geordi is simply an underwritten role; he started as a gimmick and later just became Data's nerdy friend.

Dorn on the other hand was TNG's Spock even more than Data was, with his torn identity between his alien culture and his status as a Starfleet officer and so on. He was given some fairly meaty material and he was always able to treat it fairly seriously.

The rest of the non-Spiner cast varies, I'll agree.
 
ThePlumsofWrath said:
Dorn, a variation on a theme.
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Eh?

I don't agree with you about Stewart - he's the Captain I would want in charge of the starship I was on - or Frakes for that matter, who, while not the greatest thesp in the world, is certainly more charismatic than you make out. The weakest actor was probably McFadden who isn't so good sometimes, while the rest were variable.

The ability of the cast en masse though is still significantly greater than their equivalents on Voyager, sadly.
 
Man, are you off base here. The fact that an actor of Patrick Stewart's calibre needed a steady paycheck, and thus was available to star for 7 years in a syndicated sci fi series is the biggest stroke of luck the Trek franchise ever had. As for his "unconvincing portrayal" of a leader of men - a best selling management guide was written concerning the success of Jean-Luc Picard's management style. That's right - he was convicing enough so that management experts wrote a guide about how a fictional character did his job. So I have to respectfully disagree with your assessment, at least as far as Stewart goes.
 
ThePlumsofWrath said:
I have slowly come to the conclusion over many years that Stewart was horribly miscast in TNG. The more I watch TNG, the less convincing the man becomes to my eyes. Leader of men? I think not. Engaging personality? I think not? Dominant and persuasive? No.
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Personally, I feel that Picard has charisma is spades and he is a very capable and inspiring leader. Stewart is very convincing in portraying that. I still look at him as the best captain Star Trek ever had. YMMV.
 
USS Intrepid said:
Couldn't disagree more. I think the TNG cast were just perfect.
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I agree with you. I think the TNG cast works very well. They have maybe the best overall chemistry of all of the Star Trek crews.
I can agree that McFadden is the weakest of the group, but I never found her to be horrible.
And Patrick Stewart? He is the most talented of actors, who have played Trek captains, Avery Brooks being the worst maybe (not that he is a bad actor, its just he was often somewhat wooden and had tendency to overact, at times).
 
Without Stewart, TNG would not have been nearly as successful or as good. The other available performers who auditioned - and you know, people were not beating down the door to get auditions for this series - would have floundered given the uneven (to be kind) quality of the early scripts (Stephen Macht? Please). Most of the other TNG actors, after all, did so.
 
ThePlumsofWrath said:
I have slowly come to the conclusion over many years that Stewart was horribly miscast in TNG. The more I watch TNG, the less convincing the man becomes to my eyes. Leader of men? I think not. Engaging personality? I think not? Dominant and persuasive? No.

He is horribly over-qualified within TNG cast, this has the effect of making him stick out like a sore thumb to the point where it just looks 'hammy', the other casting choices for the main players, with the exception of Spiner were also poor. Frakes was just dreadful, wooden and stilted in his delivery. McFadden was horrible. Burton?> Anyone notice him really? Dorn, a variation on a theme.

I think TNG could have been so much better than it was if it had been cast correctly, I can't deny it was a success but I believe that this was despite the casting.

The more I see these days, the stronger the conviction grows.
Click to expand...


Couldn't disagree with you more. When TNG first aired from '87-94 Stewart became a TV star. He MADE TNG. His acting brought TNG mainstream success and contributed greatly to Star Trek's rejuvenation during that period.

Spiner was also very good.

Frakes and Burton did fine in underwritten roles. (Burton's character was just boring to watch.)

Sirtis and McFadden were okay.

In my opinion, the only horrible actors were Crosby (especially in Hide & Q) and Wheaton (however, this was likely more the character than the actor.)
 
Can't really agree, while someone like Sirtis was a little out of place, Stewart was absolutely essential in giving the series some much needed gravitas.

One thing I remember reading about the casting of TNG from way back in the day was how Roddenberry went out of his way to change the senior staff make up to prevent people from making comparisons between the TOS crew and the new folks. That's why the bridge is so different, there's no permanent chief engineer, Riker was made a "first officer only" instead of also having a bridge position. This was a far greater mistake in casting IMHO, instead of just creating normal bridge positions and filling them. The new senior staff positions didn't keep people from making comparisons, and it just caused confusion when nobody really knew what the hell the Ops officer was supposed to be doing, and just ended up being a science officer position.
 
Emmmm, I wonder if the perception that they were right for the role is tied up in the undeniable success of the show, I think the success happened in spite of the actors rather than as a consequence.

As a cast, they were unbalanced.
 
ThePlumsofWrath said:
Emmmm, I wonder if the perception that they were right for the role is tied up in the undeniable success of the show, I think the success happened in spite of the actors rather than as a consequence.

As a cast, they were unbalanced.
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Did you watch TNG during its first run from 1987-1994? I did --- and non-Trekkers repeatedly told me that they liked the show in part due to Stewart and his acting. Yes, the show was a success --- and the level of success (TNG achieved ratings which most network shows would love to enjoy today) was fueled in part by the acting --- otherwise people would have stopped watching.

Face it --- you are in the very small minority on this one.
 
I agree with one of the posters above that Stewart basically carried TNG for most of the series.

He is 5 times better than any of the other actors.

Spiner did ok when he was playing Data as an emotionless being. Anytime he had to do a character with emotion, he turned into "comedy man".

Frakes had that annoying trickster smirk all throughout the series. Was he trying to imitate Shatner?

Levar was just boring. Not to mention Geordi's constant search of hot model women, when the guy is for all intents and purposes, blind.

Michaer Dorn did a good job with what he had, but I don't think it's that hard to play a tough hard ass character, it's what every actor wants to play.

Sirtis just seemed to be a princess thru the entire series with that smugness. A perfect match for Frakes' smirking.

Gates McFadden never had anything to do, so I can't really say if she was a good actress. I did like the episodes where she was the primary character of the story. Doesn't hurt that she was probably the hottest actress in Star Trek second to the absolute stunning beauties Kirk kept encountering.
 
Are you sure that you think Stewart was miscast? Or is it that the Picard character isn't what you wanted it to be? He's no Kirk - and that's because he was never supposed to be.

I can tell you, IMO, Patrick Stewart was absolutely brilliant as Picard. He carried that first season on his back with his acting chops. He's very sure of his character and plays it perfectly.

I'm now finishing up the Season 2 of my personal rewatching of TNG and I have a new found respect for Stewart and Picard. This thread has certainly come as a shock.
 
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