Who never guest starred on TOS that should have?

[scotpens]

Thinnes was one of the top candidates for the role of Jean-Luc Picard. (Cue for someone with photoshop abilities).

Here ya go.

(Although Roy would have needed a bit of shoulder padding to fill out Patrick Stewart’s uniform!)

 

[lurok]

Couple of others who came to mind:

Walter Pidgeon & Anne Francis - though may have been a bit too close to Forbidden Planet for comfort

The lead guy in The Forbin Project - name escapes me but could imagine as alt Gary Seven, or superior alien-of-the-week...

Edward G. Robinson - think would have made a good professor/inventor, or keeper-of-ancient-secret

 

[Satyrquaze]

I was going to say Julie Newmar or Yvonne Craig, but then I remembered... d'oh!

 

[Greg Cox]

The lead guy in The Forbin Project - name escapes me but could imagine as alt Gary Seven, or superior alien-of-the-week...

That would be Eric Braeden, who also appeared in the third PLANET OF THE APES movie and played a werewolf on KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER.

He was appearing regularly in RAT PATROL back when STAR TREK was on so he was certainly doing American tv back then.

 

[Timewalker]

My nominees would be Robert Culp or Roddy McDowall. I could easily see Culp as a Starfleet Captain and McDowall as a villain or an exotic alien.

I've often wondered what "Star Trek" would've been like had Roddenberry cast Robert Culp as Captain Robert M. April with Martin Landu as Mr. Spock and Landu's then-wife Barbara Bain as Number One instead of the future Mrs. Roddenberry.

I'm having visions of "Greatest American Hero" combined with "Planet of the Apes" aboard a starship...

As for Martin Landau/Barbara Bain, no thanks. Space 1999 was awful enough.

Am I the only one not impressed by Joan Collins in City...? I know it's iconic, but perhaps coming from later generation she just feels...wrong.

I always thought Joan Collins was a little bit too "Dynasty" to play the role of Edith Keeler credibly.

From the pov of someone who fell in love with this episode long before Dallas was on the air, let alone Dynasty, I thought Joan Collins was terrific and really sold the idea of Edith being Kirk's soulmate.

That's like not being able to accept Leslie Nielsen as a serious spaceship commander in Forbidden Planet because he was the funny guy in Airplane! and the Naked Gun movies. Joan Collins played many "good girls" before the role of Alexis on Dynasty solidified her "diamond-studded bitch" image.

I didn't mean to denigrate Ms. Collins' skills as an actress, and she unquestionably turns in a fine performance in "City". It was that, good girl or bad girl, she had a sheen of aristocracity that didn't quite jibe with the character of Edith Keeler. The slight English accent doesn't help, either.

Nothing wrong with her having an accent. Considering the time period the episode takes place in, it's entirely reasonable that Edith would/could have been one of the many who emigrated from England in the aftermath of WWI.

As to who could have guest-starred on TOS, here is my list of possible actors.

Roy Thinnes,

Thinnes was one of the top candidates for the role of Jean-Luc Picard. (Cue for someone with photoshop abilities).

OMG, no! I absolutely HATED him when he replaced Clint Ritchie in One Life To Live (as Victoria Lord's love interest, Sloan Carpenter). He couldn't act, and he was a totally unsympathetic character. I was so relieved when they killed him off. He would have ruined TNG (even more than it was already ruined).

 

[lurok]

I was going to say Julie Newmar or Yvonne Craig, but then I remembered... d'oh!

I get those doh moments too...

^^thanks for Forbin name and Apes reminder, greg - knew had seen him in something else...

Goldie Hawn could have been an interesting alt Roberta Lincoln.

 

[Christopher]

Walter Pidgeon & Anne Francis - though may have been a bit too close to Forbidden Planet for comfort

The hell with that. Anne Francis in a skimpy Bill Theiss original? That would've been awesome.

The lead guy in The Forbin Project - name escapes me but could imagine as alt Gary Seven, or superior alien-of-the-week...

That would be Eric Braeden, who also appeared in the third PLANET OF THE APES movie and played a werewolf on KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER.

He was appearing regularly in RAT PATROL back when STAR TREK was on so he was certainly doing American tv back then.

At the time, he was going by his real name Hans Gudegast (Colossus in 1970 was the first time he used the Braeden stage name), and appeared in two of the strongest episodes of Mission: Impossible's first two seasons, shot right next door to the Trek soundstages at Desilu.

As for Martin Landau/Barbara Bain, no thanks. Space 1999 was awful enough.

They were both excellent in Mission: Impossible. I don't know what happened between then and Space: 1999.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Richard Basehart. I would have loved to see Basehart and third-season Shatner going at it and Basehart just spent 4 years playing an Admiral…

As for Martin Landau/Barbara Bain, no thanks. Space 1999 was awful enough.

They were both excellent in Mission: Impossible. I don't know what happened between then and Space: 1999.

Laudau was fine in Space:1999, but Bain... Damn, she just forgot how to do the job.

 

[lurok]

Richard Basehart. I would have loved to see Basehart and third-season Shatner going at it and Basehart just spent 4 years playing an Admiral…

As for Martin Landau/Barbara Bain, no thanks. Space 1999 was awful enough.

They were both excellent in Mission: Impossible. I don't know what happened between then and Space: 1999.

Laudau was fine in Space:1999, but Bain... Damn, she just forgot how to do the job.

Basehart v Shatner would have been epic No scenery left unchewed...

Only know Bain & Landau from cult sixties watching; heard Space 1999 pretty awful. Maybe I'll give it a shot when finish UFO. Or is life too short?

 

[Chaos Descending]

Jack Lord
Robert Culp
Robert Vaughn
Telly Savalas
Peter Graves
Martin Landau
Peter Cushing
Jon Pertwee
Roger Delgado

 

[Steve67]

Patrick McGoohan would've been magnificent as a Trek guest star.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Patrick McGoohan would've been magnificent as a Trek guest star.

Wasn't he up for the role of Ira Graves in "The Schizoid Man"?

Roy Thinnes, James Olson, Russell Johnson, Nehemiah Persoff, Edward Mulhare, Donald Harron, Anthony James, and Alf Kjellin.

Donald Harron? That would have been priceless. I'd love to see a Trek captain talk like Charlie Farquharson (the KORN guy Harron played on Hee Haw).

Anthony James *was* on Trek, though. He played one of the Romulans in "The Neutral Zone" on TNG.

 

[lurok]

^And Persoff was also in TNG (The Most Toys). Thought name rang a bell as watched all of TNG recently so googled...

Can imagine McGoohan in Alternative Factor. Would have been like re-run of Prisoner finale

 

[T'Laina]

Alfred Hitchcock!

 

[Ziz]

I always thought Adam West would be great as a fellow starship captain, maybe an old classmate of Kirk's.

A conversation between those two would have had more halting line delivery and inappropriate pauses than anyone could handle.

A friend and I were talking about Shat vs West last week and we concluded that they could have put Shat in the Bat suit and West on the bridge and both series would have still played out exactly the same.

 

[ToddPence]

Thinnes was one of the top candidates for the role of Jean-Luc Picard. (Cue for someone with photoshop abilities).

Here ya go.

(Although Roy would have needed a bit of shoulder padding to fill out Patrick Stewart’s uniform!)

"Jean Luc Picard has seen the Borg. Now he must convince a disbelieving Federation that the nightmare has already begun."

 

[Elder Knight]

A friend and I were talking about Shat vs West last week and we concluded that they could have put Shat in the Bat suit and West on the bridge and both series would have still played out exactly the same.

Does anyone remember the guilty-pleasure 1958 film Frankenstein's Daughter? The mad scientist is played by one Donald Murphy, who must have attended the same acting school as Shatner and West. Do check it out.

 

[A.V.I.A.F.]

Peter Lorre as a drunken Klingon commander taunting Kirk in battle.

 

[nightwind1]

Richard Boone. After all, Roddenberry and a number of Trek writers wrote for "Have Gun, Will Travel", and a number of the guest stars on Trek were also on opposite Paladin.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Richard Boone. After all, Roddenberry and a number of Trek writers wrote for "Have Gun, Will Travel", and a number of the guest stars on Trek were also on opposite Paladin.

Boone would have been a brilliant klingon!