Who would you cast for an imaginary TNG Reboot

Discussion in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' started by talon1579, Sep 3, 2010.

  1. Analog Kid

    Analog Kid Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    The person who recast Troi based their choice on her similarity to Marina Sirtis, so I thought we were going for people who'd be at least reminiscent of the original cast. Hence Jensen Ackles as Riker started out in season one as something of a 'pretty boy' before proving he was capable of being more serious and tough. Ackles I think can cover both angles.

    How about Alicia Witt for Beverley? She's 35, only three years younger than Gates was at the start of the original TNG and I've seen her play a professional on Law and Order.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2010
  2. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Yes, I know, because I was that person. But that was just an initial impulse and I'm willing to reconsider it.

    I guess it depends on what you're going for. If the goal is an Abrams-style reboot where they're presumed to be the same individuals in a variant branch of the same reality, then naturally you'd be going for physical resemblance. But if it's the kind of reboot where you just completely start over from scratch and divorce yourself from prior continuity -- which is implicit in the suggestion of turning Wesley back into the girl he was originally supposed to be -- then there'd be no obligation to have the characters look similar any more than there was in Galactica or, say, the remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 with Denzel Washington in the Walter Matthau role. Frankly I wouldn't mind a little more ethnic and gender diversity in the TNG cast. It didn't quite live up to the original intentions in that regard.
     
  3. iguana_tonante

    iguana_tonante Admiral Admiral

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    And they should make out. Seriously.
     
  4. Analog Kid

    Analog Kid Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    Hmm, if the idea is a hard reboot rather than a soft one, I shall have to consider my options further. Would the character names still be the same, or could that be part of the reboot?
     
  5. Joel_Kirk

    Joel_Kirk Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Off the top of my head:

    Picard: Timothy Dalton

    Riker: Idris Elba or Anthony Mackie

    Beverly Crusher: Cristina Hendricks or Alicia Witt

    Geordi LaForge: Ken Leung

    Data: A Latino actor

    Troi: Hmmmm....

    Tasha Yar: Dakota Fanning

    Wesley/Leslie Crusher: Unknown/upcoming child actor

    Worf: Some tall, buff actor (any racial background)
     
  6. C_Miller

    C_Miller Captain Captain

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    I think Naveen Andrews would be a decent Worf, especially if they play up the Worf who doesn't want to embrace their Klingon heritage.
     
  7. Joel_Kirk

    Joel_Kirk Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That will be a very dramatic Worf, if we had Andrews portraying the character...
     
  8. CaptainStoner

    CaptainStoner Knuckle-dragging TNZ Denizen Admiral

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    Excellent point, there's only so many actual stories to tell, or so the story goes...but I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing.
    It's the same way with musical theater as I recently found out while writing songs for a BMI workshop (which I didn't get into) - almost all musical theater is based on an existing story.
    But there is a difference between a retelling of one of the stories humanity has always gathered 'round to hear, and a remake of one of those retellings.
    The difference is that in the retelling, there is still some original & creative energy directing it. We could say that Luke Skywalker is a retelling of Arthur, and Obi-Wan is Merlin. And these types of stories go back to antiquity. But it's different to just keep remaking Luke Skywalker due to "brand recognition" than to find new characters, even if they are based on ancient ones.
    Any snake will eventually shed its skin though.
     
  9. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Again, most of Shakespeare's plays were remakes -- not just original tellings of classic themes and structures, but actual retellings of existing stories with (roughly) the same titles, plots, and characters, or fictionalizations (often grossly so) of real historical events. Not to mention all the Greek playwrights whose plays were retellings of existing myths. Sophocles didn't invent the characters of Oedipus, Jocasta, Antigone, and so on; he retold the existing myths about them in a new form. So it's a spurious distinction. Remakes, retellings, they're all part of the same continuum, the same human creative instinct to keep old stories alive.
     
  10. Boxyno1

    Boxyno1 Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    David Tennant as Q
     
  11. Malleus

    Malleus Admiral Admiral

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    Sorry, but she's way too skinny. Not Callista Flockhart skinny, but skinny enough to turn me off.

    Don't get me wrong. A few years ago I would have agreed with you entirely when I was riding her post-Firefly wave starting with Kevin Hill. That was her near-equal peak then, but this is now: I underlined Excel in my Post #12 for a reason.
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2010
  12. CaptainStoner

    CaptainStoner Knuckle-dragging TNZ Denizen Admiral

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    And yet it still doesn't seem a spurious disctinction to me regardless. Star Trek was sold as a western in space, its characters based on existing ideas, but it was an original take. Star Trek 2009 is a hyperactive interpretation of those characters.
    No, it isn't a spurious distinction at all from the point of view of the "genii", of generative creative power. Works that have that spark of originality have tapped into it, ones that ride on their coat-tails can be entertaining, but simply don't have "it". This gets into the subjective deep end, but can also be seen plainly with comparing something like A New Hope to The Phantom Menace. It's what was referred to when the question was asked all those years ago, "can Gene Roddenberry catch lightning in a bottle a second time?"
    What is spurious is implying that all remakes are lacking that spark. If everything is essentially a remake, then the spark of genius is another factor altogether.
     
  13. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Yes, both distinct approaches exist. The spurious distinction is claiming that one is right and the other is wrong. Retelling stories has always, always been part of human creativity and it always will be. In the grand sweep of history, going back to the first hunter-gatherers who told tales around the campfire, the concept that a story needs to have original character names and events in it in order to be valid is merely a recent fad. It's a notion mere centuries old, a flash in the pan. It's unreasonable to think that there will ever be a time when humans stop retelling stories that have been told before.


    That is true, but it is falsely superficial to think that the only measure of originality is whether the title and the names of the characters and the specifics of the plot are new. Originality is in the telling. Eragon is nominally a new story with new characters, but at its core it's a blatant rehash of Star Wars, so it has no originality at all. Whereas Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica reused the title, character names, and premise of Glen Larson's 1978 series, but found a wildly original way of retelling the story.


    Isn't that exactly my point?
     
  14. Ben

    Ben Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    He didn't make that up or anything!
     
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    The majority of movies have always been remakes, sequels, or adaptations. Back in the days of silent movies and early talkies, most films were adaptations of novels or plays, and the same films got remade over and over quite frequently (the Judy Garland Wizard of Oz was something like the seventh screen version of that tale). If you look at the American Film Institute's list of the hundred greatest American movies, focusing just on the top ten, four (The Godfather, Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, The Graduate) are adaptations of novels, one (Casablanca) is an adaptation of a play, one (Schindler's List) is based on a novel based on a true story, one (Lawrence of Arabia) is based on a real person's life, one (Citizen Kane) is a fictionalized version of a real person's life, one (On the Waterfront) is based on a series of nonfiction newspaper articles, and one (Singin' in the Rain) is an original story, but one that was constructed around a pre-selected set of songs. So every one of those great classic films is a derivative work in some way. And there are plenty more on the Top 100 list.

    People are always reacting to the abundance of adaptations, remakes, and sequels in Hollywood as if it were some shocking departure from the way it used to be, but the fact is that it's always been that way, and people have always reacted as though it were something shocking and new. I know I've been reading articles complaining about the "recent" Hollywood trend of constant remakes and sequels for at least the past quarter-century, and I'm certain you could find equivalent complaints in articles going back to the '40s or '30s, if not sooner.


    So anyway, any more casting suggestions for TNG? Anyone have any actual French actors in mind for Picard, say? Or someone Russian to play Tasha Yar? Or would you rather bring back to the original idea of Macha Hernandez as the security chief?
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2010
  16. Kelso

    Kelso Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Except Jason Isaacs! I forgot about him.

    If they decided to go with a younger, Frencher Picard... Vincent Cassel would be great.
     
  17. C_Miller

    C_Miller Captain Captain

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    Michael Emerson as Q! I kind of have Lost on the brain, but he would be positively perfect.
     
  18. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    Patricia Tallman for Beverly! Perfect!
     
  19. Malleus

    Malleus Admiral Admiral

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    Tallman is too old to play a younger Dr. Crusher.
     
  20. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    In fact, Patricia Tallman already has played Dr. Crusher many times, in a sense; she often served as the stunt double for Gates McFadden in the series and Generations (as well as doubling for Nana Visitor on DS9 and playing various other stunt roles). Which means that, yes, she's definitely too old (currently 53) to play the role in a relaunch/reboot/remake/rebar/rebus/rewhatever.