Trek Alumni in fan productions...

[lewisniven]

Just wondering if it's me, or if other people find it distracting when Trek actors are cast in fan productions?

I've just seen Star trek:Captain Pike and it looks like it'll be a really polished affair, but I doubt I'll be able to watch it simply because there's so many recognisable faces playing different roles to what they're known for. If I see Robert Picardo on the screen, then he's the doctor to me, and Dwight Shultz is Barclay, etc... They've got Linda park too,

I get that fan productions get these people involved to up the 'cred' factor and because these actors clearly love the franchise. Same goes with Axanar, I just couldn't get through it because all I could see was Martok, Kurn, etc.

Maybe it's just me but I just can't see these actors in different roles, yet what is meant to be in the same universe/

 

[GSchnitzer]

Just wondering if it's me, or if other people find it distracting when Trek actors are cast in fan productions?

I've just seen Star trek:Captain Pike and it looks like it'll be a really polished affair, but I doubt I'll be able to watch it simply because there's so many recognisable faces playing different roles to what they're known for. If I see Robert Picardo on the screen, then he's the doctor to me, and Dwight Shultz is Barclay, etc... They've got Linda park too,

I get that fan productions get these people involved to up the 'cred' factor and because these actors clearly love the franchise. Same goes with Axanar, I just couldn't get through it because all I could see was Martok, Kurn, etc.

Maybe it's just me but I just can't see these actors in different roles, yet what is meant to be in the same universe/

I guess you wouldn't accept these various actors in any future role they might play during their careers. If they are now just too firmly connected to their prior Trek roles, then they would be unbelievable in any production--not just Trek fan films, right?

Being typecast is a hazard all actors face in their careers, I suppose. It's just unfortunate that these fine actors can never work in acting ever again.

 

[Kelso]

Both J.G. Hertzler and Tony Todd played multiple characters in official Star Trek productions. Are you similarly unable to watch "The Visitor" or "Chimera"?

I hope Jeffrey Combs doesn't put you off. That would severely cut into your watchable Star Trek.

 

[lewisniven]

Both J.G. Hertzler and Tony Todd played multiple characters in official Star Trek productions. Are you similarly unable to watch "The Visitor" or "Chimera"?

I hope Jeffrey Combs doesn't put you off. That would severely cut into your watchable Star Trek.

Not at all, Jeffrey works really well in the different roles he's played. Maybe I didn't articulate what I was trying to say very well.

Clearly I'm alone on this one, lol.

 

[Tom]

Same thing applies to many movies and tv shows that feature a popular actor.

 

[Disco]

Both J.G. Hertzler and Tony Todd played multiple characters in official Star Trek productions. Are you similarly unable to watch "The Visitor" or "Chimera"?

I hope Jeffrey Combs doesn't put you off. That would severely cut into your watchable Star Trek.

 

[Karzak]

Just wondering if it's me, or if other people find it distracting when Trek actors are cast in fan productions?

I've just seen Star trek:Captain Pike and it looks like it'll be a really polished affair, but I doubt I'll be able to watch it simply because there's so many recognisable faces playing different roles to what they're known for. If I see Robert Picardo on the screen, then he's the doctor to me, and Dwight Shultz is Barclay, etc... They've got Linda park too,

I get that fan productions get these people involved to up the 'cred' factor and because these actors clearly love the franchise. Same goes with Axanar, I just couldn't get through it because all I could see was Martok, Kurn, etc.

Maybe it's just me but I just can't see these actors in different roles, yet what is meant to be in the same universe/

I guess you wouldn't accept these various actors in any future role they might play during their careers. If they are now just too firmly connected to their prior Trek roles, then they would be unbelievable in any production--not just Trek fan films, right?

I think this is a somewhat unfair and exaggerated assumption of what the OP is saying/asking.

Being typecast is a hazard all actors face in their careers, I suppose.

Typecasting is a different thing than what you are suggesting here.

It's just unfortunate that these fine actors can never work in acting ever again.

Agreed.

At the end of the day it's nice to see all these familiar faces again, so I really shouldn't complain.

 

[Iamnotspock]

Clearly I'm alone on this one, lol.

I understand where you're coming from. I have no problem with various supporting actors playing multiple roles in Trek, particularly because the most prolific - Jeffrey Combs, Vaughn Armstrong, David Warner et al. - usually play characters of different races in different prosthetics, so they're not that visually recognisable from role to role. But, when a certain actor highly associated with one particular role, especially a regular cast member like Robert Picardo, is cast in a completely unrelated human role (and is therefore more recognisable as the same person) in the same universe, it can be a big challenge to one's suspension of disbelief.

Being typecast is a hazard all actors face in their careers, I suppose. It's just unfortunate that these fine actors can never work in acting ever again.

It's also unfortunate that with so many fine actors to go around and most of them out of work, the same ones get to play multiple roles in the same fictional universe, but that's the nature of the business.

I'm an actor, and typecasting is certainly a very real fear, though not as big as being so closely associated with one particular role that you can't find work, which is not quite the same thing; I believe Leonard Nimoy said it's better to be typecast than not cast at all.

That said, I can completely understand why someone might have an issue with watching an actor extremely well-known for a particular Star Trek role playing another role in Star Trek in which they're very recognisable - I don't find it an insurmountable obstacle to enjoying an episode, but while I have no problem with watching Tony Todd in two Trek roles because Jake Sisko and Kurn are completely different species, it jars slightly when, for example, I watch "The First Duty" and retroactively see Tom Paris in virtually all but name. Watching and enjoying Robbie McNeill in something else, however, is another matter entirely, and I'm sure the OP doesn't have a problem with watching, say, Tom Cruise in two different unrelated films.

 

[JoeZhang]

Yep - I don't see how people are leaping from "famous for a trek role" to "famous for a trek role so I couldn't watch them in ANYTHING" because it's not there in the OPs post.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Just wondering if it's me, or if other people find it distracting when Trek actors are cast in fan productions?

Well, it's certainly not me!

 

[Amaris]

I know where you're coming from as well, lewisniven. Across franchises it's not that difficult; I can see Dwight Schultz as "Howling Mad" Murdock because it's the A-Team. In Star Trek, he's Reginald Barclay. Now, if he were to wear makeup, it would be much easier to ignore (hence why I can watch Jeffrey Combs because his identity just disappears behind those prosthetics), but as a human, he easily stands out, and I have to actively remind myself that this isn't Barclay.

This happened with Denise Crosby, too. When she was Yar, she was Yar. When she was Sela, she was Yar dressed in a Romulan outfit.

 

[lewisniven]

Thank you to those people that got where I was coming from!

J. Allen hit it on the head, when there's makeup etc, and its a supporting role it's easier to look past it. When it's prime actors cast in completely different roles its more difficult. mentioned Martok as well, granted he looks very different in axanar but he has such a recognisable voice, which may of been it.

 

[Bixby]

Could you get past Mark Leonard and William Campbell each playing 2 distinctly different characters during Trek's 3 seasons? Then I guess you'll be able to see other actors do the same... (While Leonard pretty much looked the same for both his roles, Campbell at least was dressed and made up in a completely different way)...

I would have mentioned Majel Barrett's two roles, but since so many ''fans'' have ridiculously been trying to link Number One and Nurse Chapel as sisters for decades, I guess she at least was not succesful enough at separating both roles...

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Could you get past Mark Leonard and William Campbell each playing 2 distinctly different characters during Trek's 3 seasons? Then I guess you'll be able to see other actors do the same... (While Leonard pretty much looked the same for both his roles, Campbell at least was dressed and made up in a completely different way)...

I would have mentioned Majel Barrett's two roles, but since so many ''fans'' have ridiculously been trying to link Number One and Nurse Chapel as sisters for decades, I guess she at least was not succesful enough at separating both roles...

I'm pretty sure fans have tried to link Pulaski, Mulhall, and Jones in some manner.

Have any tried to postulate that Sarek, and therefore Spock, was part Romulan?!?

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Every time I rewatch Stargate SG-1's fifth season I keep waiting for John de Lancie's character to reveal it's all a galactic prank and O'Neill is a most interesting representative of his species.

Similarly, John de Lancie's Breaking Bad character went perhaps a bit too far with his prank.

 

[Amaris]

Thank you to those people that got where I was coming from!

J. Allen hit it on the head, when there's makeup etc, and its a supporting role it's easier to look past it. When it's prime actors cast in completely different roles its more difficult. mentioned Martok as well, granted he looks very different in axanar but he has such a recognisable voice, which may of been it.

When I got to see J.G. Hertzler in Chicago, I knew the man had entered the building before ever appearing on the stage. That voice would be recognizable anywhere. I could be deaf, mute, and blind, and I'd still hear that man entering a room.

Could you get past Mark Leonard and William Campbell each playing 2 distinctly different characters during Trek's 3 seasons? Then I guess you'll be able to see other actors do the same... (While Leonard pretty much looked the same for both his roles, Campbell at least was dressed and made up in a completely different way)...

I would have mentioned Majel Barrett's two roles, but since so many ''fans'' have ridiculously been trying to link Number One and Nurse Chapel as sisters for decades, I guess she at least was not succesful enough at separating both roles...

Mark Lenard played a one shot Romulan in one (great) episode before taking on the very memorable and long-term role of Sarek. If he would have been Sarek for years, and then appeared in a bit part as a Romulan commander, it would have been quite difficult to reconcile in my own head, yes.

William Campbell played Trelane, but as a Klingon he was in heavy makeup, and it was much easier to ignore.

Diana Muldaur's characters of Miranda Jones and Kate Pulaski were far enough apart in years that it simply wasn't an issue whatsoever.

 

[Maurice]

It's MARK L E N A R D, not LEONARD.

 

[Bixby]

It's MARK L E N A R D, not LEONARD.

I'm canadian, it's like favor\favour!! LOL

 

[Zaminhon]

I'd like to see Walter Koenig make an appearance as Bester for a B5/Trek crossover. Psi- corp makes great villains.