Fortunately, if the venom was all coming from the second- and third-tier folks, it was usually only a problem for maybe one or two days a week, and possibly all but invisible to the Big Three.
Which Cast Got Along the Best? And Worst?
- Thread starter Lucky
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Has Colm Meany ever commented on the difference between the two sets?
Hmmm...y'know, come to think of it, I can't remember ANY interviews with Meany. Ever. I don't know if he ever went on the record on any subject.
To be fair to Beltran and Wang, the writers did give them nothing.
A character with a gimmick is easy to write for. Any one of us could come up with a dozen hologram stories off the top of our heads. Chakotay has no gimmick. He has one element of 'non-white-male-human'-ness, he was Native American. The writers know nothing about Native Americans, but they're like, all spiritual, right? Ok, look up a few spiritual Native American stuff and make episodes around it. Episodes that have nothing to do with his gimmick? Oh, way too hard, that would mean they have to be creative.
O'Brien had no gimmick either (Unless you count being married) and he got Whispers, Hard Time, Visionary, and The Assignment.
A character with a gimmick is easy to write for. Any one of us could come up with a dozen hologram stories off the top of our heads. Chakotay has no gimmick. He has one element of 'non-white-male-human'-ness, he was Native American. The writers know nothing about Native Americans, but they're like, all spiritual, right? Ok, look up a few spiritual Native American stuff and make episodes around it. Episodes that have nothing to do with his gimmick? Oh, way too hard, that would mean they have to be creative.
O'Brien had no gimmick either (Unless you count being married) and he got Whispers, Hard Time, Visionary, and The Assignment.
Sour grapes. A tv show is a dynamic thing, & ultimately, you get out of it what you put into it, especially when it's kind of a soap opera format set to sci-fi
McNeill's Tom Paris had no more a gimmick than Beltran or Wang, & what HE got was a relationship, which is what O'Brien got too
& usually those go to the characters that are most likable. Had Beltran & Wang done more to present themselves as being more interesting, then they'd maybe have been more likable or at least more engaging
Then you get better stuff to play. It's a two way street. You can't blame it all on the writers. Most of the time they're just writing for the people up on the screen, & the people up on the screen are in the hands of the actor
They just strike me as uninspired actors, who had no investment in their characters, or they'd have found a way to make something more of them
Yeah, but to be fair, Robert Picardo was an energetic genius. He had extra talents (especially his singing), and his own creative ideas were not just plentiful but good.
Whenever Picardo was paired with VOYAGER's other true star, Jeri Ryan (who also sang, and elevated the show far beyond the face-and-figure value she was hired for), the series reached its greatest heights. Seven and the Doctor were sensational together.
By contrast, nothing in seven years rang as fake and hollow, as tacked on, as the Seven/Chakotay relationship. It made me feel disappointed in Seven, that she would simplistically do what workaday women do: choose the tall, broad-shouldered corporeal guy instead of the talented, witty hololgraphic one. She let us down.
From what I`ve seen and heard (check the vids from conventions last year- Vegas and Peterborough) , the Voyagercast seamed to be like a great family (Roxanne said so).
Look at this Picardointerview
http://www.startrek.com/article/robert-picardo-remembers-caretaker-part-2
Robert Beltran interview after finishing the third season
http://www.reocities.com/trekguide/transcripts/beltran.txt
Do you enjoy working on Star Trek: Voyager and being part of the whole Star Trek phenomenon?
Robert Beltran: It has grown on me and yes, I do, I enjoy going to work and I enjoy our cast immensely. We have great producers and great writers. The fans are terrific; very loyal and very caring about the show. You can't ask for anything more than that. I'm really enjoying it.
[...]
We take our work seriously but at the same time, we don't let it get in the way of having fun.
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What? He's been interviewed numerous times - those that immediately spring to mind are the old Starlog Ds9 specials (esp. #24) and also the UK Star Trek Monthly has done several interviews with him over the years.
There is no doubts the TNG cast get along the best. I mean they're all still close 25 years after first working together which is unheard of in Hollywood. Watching the 25th anniversary reunion special on the Bluray you can tell these people really like being together.
As for the cast that got along the least well, it would probably be the TOS. I think Nimoy, Shatner and Kelly got along fine, but the rest of the cast pretty much loathed Shatner.
The DS9 cast were not close but I don't think there were any conflicts, they simply were coworkers rather than friends. Though I do think Nana, Rene, Alexander Siddig, Micheal Dorn and Armin are fairly good friends. I was watching one of Shatner's documentaries and there was a scene with Terry Farrell, Rene and Nana in a room together before going on stage at a convention and Rene and Nana comment that its been at least 10 years since they say Terry.
The VOY cast seemed to be very close (more like the TNG cast) for the first years until Jennifer Lien got fired and they brought in Jeri Ryan. It's no secret Kate Mulgrew was deeply unhappy about it and Kate was very hostile towards Jeri Ryan the whole of Jeri's time on set. Now, I love Kate Mulgrew but I've gathered from little bits and pieces from the cast over the years that many of them found her hard to work with at times. But I do think out of the original cast, most of them get along fairly well.
As for the cast that got along the least well, it would probably be the TOS. I think Nimoy, Shatner and Kelly got along fine, but the rest of the cast pretty much loathed Shatner.
The DS9 cast were not close but I don't think there were any conflicts, they simply were coworkers rather than friends. Though I do think Nana, Rene, Alexander Siddig, Micheal Dorn and Armin are fairly good friends. I was watching one of Shatner's documentaries and there was a scene with Terry Farrell, Rene and Nana in a room together before going on stage at a convention and Rene and Nana comment that its been at least 10 years since they say Terry.
The VOY cast seemed to be very close (more like the TNG cast) for the first years until Jennifer Lien got fired and they brought in Jeri Ryan. It's no secret Kate Mulgrew was deeply unhappy about it and Kate was very hostile towards Jeri Ryan the whole of Jeri's time on set. Now, I love Kate Mulgrew but I've gathered from little bits and pieces from the cast over the years that many of them found her hard to work with at times. But I do think out of the original cast, most of them get along fairly well.
That is very true. I mean, if you look at every line Colm Meany had before Data's Day, he didn't have anything interesting or with much of any emotional content to say, unless you count his short scene about model ship building. Yet, the character still came off as extremely interesting.
Still, I feel like Beltran's best moments were action sequences, and he rarely got any after he was sucked into the Seska baby melodrama.
Still, I feel like Beltran's best moments were action sequences, and he rarely got any after he was sucked into the Seska baby melodrama.
I always feel sorry for the production team whenever I hear the TNG cast talking about their antics on set. There's nothing more frustrating than working with talent who turn into annoying children when it's time to do a shoot and time is of the essence. I've never heard from any of the TNG production technicians, so I suppose they could have been in on the fun too. But I seem to recall Marina Sirtis and others commenting on how the production crew hated the cast (when cast members were out of control) because it took way too long to get a decent take and all they wanted to do was get the work done and go home at that point.
As far as actors complaining about not getting enough screen time, you can tell who the awesome actors are because the best actors end up getting the most out of the writers. What an actor does with what they get and how they interpret the role is a key part of whether/how the character develops. Even with very little or no dialogue, great actors are always fun to watch on screen. They seem to pull emotions and chemistry out of thin air. While weaker actors just take the bland writing and spit it out in an equally bland manner. There plenty of examples of both in Trek. An example of a great Trek actor is Andrew Robinson (Garak in DS9). He could say the most mundane line and still be incredible to watch, even through the makeup.
But, yes, it seems the cast of TNG are BFFs.
As far as actors complaining about not getting enough screen time, you can tell who the awesome actors are because the best actors end up getting the most out of the writers. What an actor does with what they get and how they interpret the role is a key part of whether/how the character develops. Even with very little or no dialogue, great actors are always fun to watch on screen. They seem to pull emotions and chemistry out of thin air. While weaker actors just take the bland writing and spit it out in an equally bland manner. There plenty of examples of both in Trek. An example of a great Trek actor is Andrew Robinson (Garak in DS9). He could say the most mundane line and still be incredible to watch, even through the makeup.
But, yes, it seems the cast of TNG are BFFs.
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In my opinion, the TNG seemed the closest, almost family, while the TOS cast may have fared the worst, but then, I wasn't around in the 1960s, so I'm not so certain. Having seen tons of bloopers and outtakes with the TNG cast, they had too much fun together for it to be anything other than a bonding, family event every taping.
I've always had the impression the TOS cast actually got on servicably on the set. In particular, I recall Nichelle Nichols saying that she and Shatner worked well together (ie, they shared jokes with each other, solicalised off the set, etc), but that his habit of going to directors and stealing the other actors' lines created tension. Having a good personal relationship doesn't always translate to having a equitable professional relationship. The TNG cast, by all accounts, managed to have both.
Kate Mulgrew (as quoted on Wikipedia):
Only three? I guess the other six cast members were all assholes, then.
I don't know if the other casts were a--holes, but I do know that Garrett Wang, Robert Beltran and Tim Russ have all stated that Mulgrew could be difficult to work with at times. Kate also had big issues with Jeri Ryan which lead to a great deal of tension on the set.
Marina Sirtis told a story at a convention I was at about how during one of her guest stints on Voyager she came for a wardrobe fitting and it was on a day Jeri and Kate were filming a scene together. Apparently, Jeri flubbed some lines and Kate lost it screaming "Do you even bother to read the f----ing script?"
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