What's some of the worst acting you've seen in the first 10 Trek movies?

Uh, okay. While I think TSFS is a weaker entry than TWOK (most of the Trek films are, though...), I think TSFS contains some of the best and most memorable sequences of the franchise. If you think it "sucked ass", I can only wonder what you thought of the other films.

 

I didn't think that Merritt Butrick was a particularly good actor at least as Kirk's son (he was slightly better on TNG) and him and Robin Curtis (she was also better on TNG) together were a snooze.

Someone mentioned Patrick Stewart in Nemesis. I adore Patrick Stewart and generally I think he can do no wrong but his acting to me, was slightly off as Picard in that film verging on bored at some points to overacting at other points (The wedding, first meeting with Shinzon). Perhaps it was the way he was being directed or the space between films being longer or the X-Men films and having to play Professor-X but he was slightly different, not bad by any stretch but not his usual spot on flawlessness.

I thought Data in Generations was perfect, how else do you play a crazed android having an emotional breakdown?

 

I think he was one of the best "Star Trek" actors, but I didn't care for De Kelley's
performance in "Star Trek V". Kind of like the complaint about his replacement in "Star Trek into Darkness", it seemed like a retread of all the old familiar Bones lines instead of giving him something new to do.
But he did a nice job with the death of his father scene that was a really difficult scene for
De to do....according to Harve Bennett.

 

Spiner in pretty much everything. He is the only actor from all of Trek that I feel actually got progressively worse at acting.

 

That was the main example that came to my mind. Most of the other examples people are giving didn't really bother me, but that one briefly takes me out of the film.

 

Two moments for you:

1) Chekov saying "warp speed now!"

2) Scotty hitting his head on a pipe which certainly was very, very visible to him.

 

Agreed on all counts. Conversely, the actor who played Khan's #1 (Judson Scott) is pretty good in TWoK, but kind of annoying in the TNG Symbiosis episode where he reunites with Butrick. Took me forever to realize those were the same 2 actors on opposite sides of a conflict again

As for some of the worst performances in a Trek movie... I'm going to nominate Gorkon's daughter in TUC. Sounded like she had marbles stuffed in her face

 

I love Data, but Brent Spiner doesn't seems to play the exploration of what a childhood is in Insurrection with a lot of conviction. I don't blame him, because it just doesn't seem like a compelling direction to explore with the character, but the performance is lacking.

The two klingon leads in The Final Frontier are trying to hard.

Also from The Final Frontier, the Sulu and Chekov "We're lost!" scene. It's a nice idea, but the energy isn't quite there. I've seen TV edits that omit it, and it helps the movies pacing; when put back in the performances just kill the story's momentum. That probably doesn't make sense, but it's how it feel when I watch it.

There's a scene in The Undiscovered Country were the UFP president receives a briefing on how a top secret black ops mission can extract Kirk and McCoy from the Klingons, with the freakin' Romulan ambassador sitting in on this. And the whole scene feels lifeless and flat.

 

I believe the TUC scene was cut from the theatrical release as well?

 

Worst "acting" in any Trek movie by FAR is the woman who interacts with Commander Branch of Epsilon 9 towards the beginning of TMP, telling him that the probe that had just destroyed the Klingons was "on a direct heading for Earth". She was not a professional actress, rather the wife of associate producer Jon Povill. Her "line reading" (a more appropriate term for what she did in the film) was even singled out by Harlan Ellison in his review of the film.

 

I think they should have replaced her with Shelley Long.

 

Or Shelley Duval?

 

Doohan was okay in the first movie but got progressively worse with each picture. His sobbing over his dead nephew in TWoK was the beginning. It went downhill from there with "up your shaft" in ST3, went to awful lows in TVH with "humpback people," "there be whales here" and "hello, computer?" When I didn't think it could get any worse, then came TFF with "I know this ship like the back of my hand." And finally the way he strode around the bridge in TUD as he ranted "raving lunatics, that's what they'll call us" hit rock bottom. (Although in hindsight, that feels almost like the prototype for how Archer always paced around when he was trying to look thoughtful.)

 

You do realize that some of that was due to the awful writing and direction, right? Some of that was so awful that pretty much nobody could have made it sound good.

 

Some of it, but I sincerely think a good actor would have been able to save some of those scenes. For instance, someone with more restraint could have done that ST VI scene and made it seem genuine, not walking around the bridge for no reason. If you want to blame that on Nick Meyers' direction, that's your prerogative. I definitely blame Shatner for the entire atrocity that was TFF. I just wonder sometimes if Doohan was already in the early stages of his Alzheimer's and forgetting how to act.

 

No

 

Dude... No. Just NO. Do not go there.

 

They're people, not gods. Stop worshipping at their feet as if they can do no wrong. There's strong evidence that Reagan was in the early stages of Alzheimer's during his time in the Oval Office. It's quite possible Doohan was afflicted years before his diagnosis.

 

I blame Shatner for Star Trek V as well. But as for Doohan, if he walked around the bridge, he did it because the director told him to do it.

On a TV or movie set, THE DIRECTOR IS THE BOSS. Actors don't get to just wander willy-nilly wherever they want. Everything is meticulously planned, including what gets said, how it's said, and what facial expressions are on the actor's face.

I used to work in musical theatre, so it's similar. When it pertains to what happens on stage, the director has the final say over where people go, what they do when they get there, and how they do it. The stage manager has the say over where people go in the wings (it can be a dangerous place if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time and they absolutely do not want anyone getting in the way where they could be hurt or mess up any actors' cues or technical cues), but again, the director decides how a scene is blocked and the actor catches holy <choose your own word> if he or she deviates from that blocking.

I don't know what Doohan's exact medical history was, and frankly it's not really my business. He didn't do any worse than anyone else (who told Kim Cattrall she could act?), and the movie wasn't the worst of the lot.