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Why is Alley prefered so much over Curtis for Saavik?

Tribble puncher

Tribble puncher

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I recently purchased the Star Trek Original Motion Picture Collection on Blu Ray. (I had my DVD's for years) Doing a Rewatch of the films (Picture Quality is VASTLY Improved over the DVD's, it's like watching them for the first time again) I realized I actually prefer Robin Curtis's turn as Saavik over Kirstie Alley, Curtis just seemed like more of a Legitimate Vulcan whereas Alley less natural, like she was uncomfortable being "emotionless" as an actress. I remember back in the day Curtis catching a bunch of flak for her portrayal of the character. Do people still hate her performance? Now that decades have passed has the opinion become more positive?
 
Why do some prefer either Pine or Shatner as Kirk?

I personally like Alley's performance over that of Curtis. My understanding is Nimoy (as director) insisted that Curtis play Saavik very Vulcan, unemotional, voice was flat, and body language unanimated. Alley obviously played Saavik quite differently.

It's all subjective.
 
Tenacity said:
Why do some prefer either Pine or Shatner as Kirk?

I personally like Alley's performance over that of Curtis. My understanding is Nimoy (as director) insisted that Curtis play Saavik very Vulcan, unemotional, voice was flat, and body language unanimated. Alley obviously played Saavik quite differently.

It's all subjective.
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So did you like the fact Alley didn't seem as "Vulcan" then?
 
Well, Saavik was originally intended to be half-Romulan. By that interpretation I think Alley does a better job.

I never "hated" Curtis's performance, but I think people misunderstand Vulcans in general. They're not "emotionless", but rather they continually suppress their emotions. In that sense, I think Curtis did a great job of playing the former but not such a great job of playing the latter, especially when she comes off as a bit too matter-of-fact about things like David's death. A bit more emotional struggle there would have been nice to see.
 
I preferred Saavik as a half-Romulan so therefore like Alley in the role. That being said Curtis isn't bad, she plays a good Vulcan but isn't the same character as in TWOK.
 
I found Alley to be much better in the part - I liked her performance and I liked her. I couldn't say that about Curtis.

In addition to that, they didn't look anything alike and there's a natural tendency to compare a replacement to the original by appearance.
 
She's the original saavik, and her exclusion in III was jarring and sort of interrupts the flow/stakes/connections of the Genesis trilogy so III feels.. almost less a sequel to II if that makes sense..(abit similar to TDK trilogy with Rachel only more so as Alley was great in the role.whereas Katie Holmes not as celebrated)

Also her performance seemed more 'there' - on the surface she was a completely emotionless but like Spock there were little hints at humour, irony, sarcasm, anger etc (and of course the funeral) and you could tell there was something more going on with her (and maybe the notion of the half romulan thing in the original script/novel adds to that for trekkies).. Robins Saavik didn't have much of that and was more literal

Also she just looked 'right' ..almost like a female version of Spock but also more human looking with less severe eyebrows, ears less on show (where as Robin had a completely different look with the sharp Vulcan eyebrows and prominent ears, and the big perm etc..although Alley had a similar hairdo in Runaway out the same year so had she come back maybe shed have had the perm too https://i.pinimg.com/736x/05/2b/cb/052bcb61f3b2952388dd55de1a565162.jpg)
 
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I like to think of them as two different people, the half Romulan Saavik is off doing other stuff and her half sister with the same name is on the Grissom, their 3rd cousin twice removed is where Valeris comes in.
 
Some of us actually prefer actually Robin. We're a small but close underground ;)

The problem with Alley is that it's Alley -- that lady from Cheers and Look Who's Talking, not Saavik.

Same problem with Christopher Lloyd. When famous or distinctive actors/actresses play prominent roles, it's sometimes tough to stay in-universe.

Always felt like Robin Curtis gave an excellent performance in TSFS.
 
like others have said, I just don't regard Curtis and Alley's characters as the same. Saavik may be the Jones or Kim of Vulcan.
 
Alley's Saavik was simply more interesting. Perhaps it was due to the original half-Romulan character concept coming through, I don't know. Curtis was robotic. Because of that she was probably a better vulcan than Alley but certainly not as interesting. Plus, it has to be mentioned that Alley was smoking hot. Yeah, superficial but true and that definitely plays into the discussion. Not that Curtis wasn't attractive but not in the same league as Alley.

I find vulcans more interesting when they aren't completely emotionless. Spock was a very interesting vulcan. Tuvok, not so much. On the other hand, the new movies making Spock even more emotional jumps the shark for me. It doesn't help that I keep thinking that Quinto's Spock will go all Sylar and start sawing off skull caps. ;)
 
Herbert said:
Alley's Saavik was simply more interesting. Perhaps it was due to the original half-Romulan character concept coming through, I don't know. Curtis was robotic. Because of that she was probably a better vulcan than Alley but certainly not as interesting. Plus, it has to be mentioned that Alley was smoking hot. Yeah, superficial but true and that definitely plays into the discussion. Not that Curtis wasn't attractive but not in the same league as Alley.

I find vulcans more interesting when they aren't completely emotionless. Spock was a very interesting vulcan. Tuvok, not so much.
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Curtis just gave the impression that she was trying to hard at being a Vulcan, especially in the opening scenes. Not that she was helped by the fact that Spock was supposed to be hyper-aging in front of her. That's not exactly an easy thing to act to.
 
To be fair, Nuniverse's Spock is younger than we've seen him before (I think?) and has suffered much more trauma in a short time period than Prime Spock ever had to deal with. I think it's entirely understandable that his emotional control wouldn't be on the same level but could get there with time.
 
M-Red said:
The problem with Alley is that it's Alley -- that lady from Cheers and Look Who's Talking, not Saavik.
.
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But that's only in hindsight. When the movie first opened in 1982, none of us had ever seen Alley before so we first met her as Saavik. CHEERS and the rest of it came later.

One could just as easily argue that Shatner is a problem because he's that guy from T.J. Hooker and Boston Legal, not Kirk. :)
 
Exactly. Vulcan's aren't emotionless. To the contrary, they're so repressed because their emotions are too powerful to be let loose (or so they've been taught). Playing a Vulcan is a tricky, but when done right, actors like Nimoy or Lenard or Alley manage to convey the strong emotions and personalities beneath the stoic facades.
 
I would like to add the talented Kim Cattrall, Zachery Quinto,and Tim Russ in the group who played Vulcans well. Curtis played her interpretation of Spock --Saavik in name only-- which was all wrong IMO.
 
Kirstie Alley gave a memorable turn as Saavik in TWoK and was a complete and total babe, besides. Saavik in TSFS was just an information dump. Alley wouldn't have been able to really shine in this one, as she had before and was probably done a favour by having things work out as they did. Under Leonard Nimoy's direction, she would've come across as rather stilted, in all likelihood.
 
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