Who do you think was the worst actor among the TNG cast?

I thought all of them were pretty good (though Marina Sirtis was sometimes cringeworthy in her line delivery) except for Wil Wheaton.

I know people love to ridicule the character of Wesley Crusher (and for good reason), and while part of that was because he was written badly, I think an even bigger part was because he was just never a very good actor. He was OK sometimes in later seasons, but I always thought that his acting was definitely the weakest link among the cast. If a more capable actor had played that role, I really believe people wouldn't have been as annoyed by the character.

How about you?

 

As an actor, Wheaton isn't really that bad. He's pretty one dimensional, but he can still make it work. The big problem was how awkwardly that character was written.

I actually think Denise Crosby was the worst actor on the show. She's never turned in a quality performance in anything I've ever seen her. She's had bit parts on shows like Dexter & The Walking Dead, & she's entirely forgettable. She's dreadful in Pet Sematary, & useless in Deep Impact. I haven't seen Ray Donovan, which I hear is a good show. I can only hope she's passable in it, but I honestly don't know how she keeps getting work

As for her stuff on TNG, it was really bad. Her best is episode Yesterday's Enterprise, & even in that she was pretty weak tea

 

Yeah Denise was pretty bad too. And her Sela character seemed more like a joke to me than someone to be taken seriously, all because of her acting.

 

I never understood that, if she was so miserable why did she come back as a guest star? And a moustache twirling villain to boot.

 

"Moustache twirling villain" describes Sela perfectly!

 

It's nice to eat and pay rent.

 

Because she wasn't necessarily miserable, not any worse than some of them. It was an awkward start, all around. Most of them figured it was a flop, so she jumped ship figuring she'd have better options in the future, which didn't pan out. (Pet Sematary) Then by season 3 TNG caught on & she knew she'd bailed on a good opportunity, & took every bone she could get them to throw at her. They were pretty lean years for her otherwise.

I swear, if they'd offered her a job playing a holodeck Yar that Data uses to study his "multiple techniques" she'd have jumped at it in a heartbeat

 

I did think the backstory of Tasha saving her crew on the ENT-C by becoming a war conquest/mistress was interesting though.

 

Denise? Surely if she was that desperate there were other opportunities?

 

I'm not saying she's bad, but Marina's acting... especially early on, not that great.

In early TNG her pronunciation wasn't that good?

 

I think Marina Sirtis is one of the better actors on TNG, the show just rarely gave her something to work with but when she was allowed to do more than feel stuff she was quite good. "Man of the people", "Fave of the Enemy", "The Loss", "A Fistful of Datas" and "Power Play" for example. She's memorable in all of those.
I liked Troi but that was probably only because of Marina, she made the most out of a thankless role the writers often didn't know what to do with.

Personally I was never impressed with Spiner, he was good as Data but unlike Marina he fell flat as soon as he had to play someone who wasn't regular Data. Lore, Soong, and the two dozen characters he played in "Fistful" and "Masks" were all kinda meh.

 

Marina really got a tragic deal. She isn't a bad actress. She has a bad character. I think she's done better work on the show than Gates McFadden did. It took me a while to warm up to Dorn too, for the same reason as Sirtis. Ironically, I very much liked Burton in the EARLY seasons, but the writing just derailed him down the line & his stuff became much harder to watch. Almost the exact opposite thing happened to Frakes. By the time of Frame of Mind, & Parallels, & Chain of Command, he's digging his teeth into very meaty stuff. I think Sirtis pulled that off sporadically throughout too. I love her in Disaster, & Face of The Enemy, & even in Thine Own Self

 

I'm not sure why this thought seems to take hold around here so much; she's worked steadily ever since.

 

Doing what?

 

Marina Sirtis is not a good actress. It's not the character- it's her. Cate Blanchett could do a good Troi. Meryl Streep could do a good TroI.

Denise Crosby owes her career to her lineage and being attractive in her youth. None of her scenes have the gravitas they required.

Wil Wheaton: a very limited actor. Without "Stand By Me", would he have been considered for Wesley? He couldn't do emotion well.

Jonathan Frakes is another limited actor- it's astonishingly good fortune to have played second fiddle to Patrick Stewart. He improved tremendously and was quite natural by the time of "Generations" however- and does have a likeability factor the above actors lack.

Scenes that stick out:

1) "The Bonding"- where Wesley was prompted by Troi to tell Picard why he resented him. Embarrassing acting by Wheaton!

2) Troi impersonating the horny Officer with that cockney accent, in the briefing room with Data and Picard. Where she does those repulsive facial expressions and wink. Good lord. Oh, and her drunken scene in "First Contact". Cripes!

3) The Yar episode where she rants/cries about it being "Frustrating". Was it "Code of Honor"? Total over acting. Oh- like the court scene in "Encounter at Farpoint". Her acting somehow fit the 80's cheese vibe of Season 1.

As a whole-- "Deep Space Nine" & "Voyager" were MUCH better cast. Nana Visitor and Avery Brooks had a propensity to OVERACT- that's an understatement- but they could act. "Voyagers" cast was pretty much perfect.

 

Every Chief Engineer before LaForge took over.
Diana Muldaur
Whoopi Goldberg

 

Majel Barrett as Lwaxana Troi. She was the character that I loathed seeing as a child. I can tell she was there for comic relief but it failed as she was too loud and obnoxious. They humanized her character a bit at the end but by then the damage was already done.

 

Considering they had no idea how TNG would do, they probably couldn't sell the idea to a lot of good actors, or have a budget big enough to hire good actors.

It's kind of a shock they got Patrick Stewart to come aboard. It would be interesting to know what his midset was.

 

I didn't say she hadn't worked. I said they were lean years, meaning anything she did was not really all that worthwhile. Whereas, TNG had gone and gotten itself huge by season 3.

It's pretty telling that in a 40 year career, the profile pic on her IMDB page is still her from 1987 as Yar. That's why she kept coming back. It was the most notoriety she will likely ever have as an actress... & it wasn't, even that good

I actually think Sirtis is as good as Frakes ever was. They were mostly soap actors

 

Wheaton and Crosby were both bad. A lot of it could have been the writing though, hard to tell.