Why was Robert Hooks Replaced with Brock Peters in TVH

[Workbee]

According to early script drafts for TVH, the part that ultimately became Admiral Cartwright was originally Admiral Morrow, so it seems that they were thinking about having Robert Hooks come back for TVH. Does anyone know what happened? Was Hooks unable or unwilling to return? Or did they change the character for a different reason?

I thought that Hooks did a pretty good job. By not bringing him back, they lost a dramatic opportunity to have Kirk face the Admiral he directly disobeyed instead of a new character we never met (and yes, I know that in the final film Kirk and Cartwright never face each other or directly communicate anyway).

Just curious if anyone has some insight into what happened.

 

[Therin of Andor]

According to early script drafts for TVH, the part that ultimately became Admiral Cartwright was originally Admiral Morrow, so it seems that they were thinking about having Robert Hooks come back for TVH. Does anyone know what happened? Was Hooks unable or unwilling to return?

Dunno. Hooks made two telemovies in 1985, "Words by Heart" and "The Execution", and "DC Cops" in 1986. Sometimes telemovies are squeezed in between the headline actors' ongoing TV series, so the rest of the cast, once committed, don't have leeway to do motion pictures at the same time.

ST IV did consider it a bit of a coup to secure the services of Brock Peters, though.

 

[Workbee]

^That is true -- Brock Peters is a very good actor. Though it seemed he was underutilized in TVH. Pretty much all he does is look grim and tell the audience how screwed Earth is. Which isn't Peters fault, that's just how the part was written. I think he was used to much better effect in TUC, controversial as it might be.

If you are going to go through the trouble of bringing in Brock Peters, they should use him. This could have been accomplished with minimal changes -- all they had to do was have Cartwright conduct the trial at the end instead of the President. Or have him give the Planetary Distress Call. Or let him have some lines back and forth with Kirk over the viewscreen before they go back in time. As it stands, he has essentially no interaction with our main characters.

I dunno -- I guess chalk this on up to the longstanding Trek tradition of rotating supporting cast. Aside from a couple repeat performances (which were more the exception than the rule) it wasn't until DS9 we had an admiral played by the same actor for several appearances.

As good as Brock Peters was, having someone different makes it feel like Kirk got off too easy. Yes, he did save earth, but disobeying orders is a huge deal. Especially since as we saw in TVH, it made a tense political situation even worse.

I don't disagree with him getting forgiven after saving Earth, but he should have had to face the superior officer that he disobeyed and lied too at the very least.

 

[Therin of Andor]

If you are going to go through the trouble of bringing in Brock Peters, they should use him. This could have been accomplished with minimal changes -- all they had to do was have Cartwright conduct the trial at the end instead of the President.

Well, you said it yourself: the role played by Brock Peters was written to be the character Morrow, and presuming a returning Robert Hooks.

No way was the ST IV UFP President being rewritten; Robert Ellenstein was a longtime friend of Director Nimoy.

 

[jpv2000]

According to early script drafts for TVH, the part that ultimately became Admiral Cartwright was originally Admiral Morrow, so it seems that they were thinking about having Robert Hooks come back for TVH. Does anyone know what happened? Was Hooks unable or unwilling to return? Or did they change the character for a different reason?

I thought that Hooks did a pretty good job. By not bringing him back, they lost a dramatic opportunity to have Kirk face the Admiral he directly disobeyed instead of a new character we never met (and yes, I know that in the final film Kirk and Cartwright never face each other or directly communicate anyway).

I agree it would have been better with Hooks, but Peters did a good job as a replacement Admiral.

 

[austen_pierce]

Agree, I just wish Cartwright hadn't turned traitor in TUC

 

[DonIago]

Given that they considered having Saavik be a traitor, I'm just as glad they went with Cartwright. It's much more impactful to have at least one character we've met previously prove to be a conspirator than have them all be unknowns.

That said, the minute Valeris shows up on some level it registers as "Enterprise crewperson of some importance who we've never met before getting a fair degree of attention". It almost would have been more surprising if she hadn't been one of the conspirators.

 

[Christopher]

I agree it would have been better with Hooks, but Peters did a good job as a replacement Admiral.

Rather, it would've been better if Peters had been in ST III in the first place. He was a much more powerful and interesting actor than Hooks.

 

[dub]

Brock Peters also had a great role in DS9, where he also could have been used more IMO!

I definitely liked the Romulan representative as a traitor in TUC. He gave me the creeps. I also think some of these would have been a good contenders as traitors in TUC:

How cool it would have been to have David Warner playing 2 roles...the traitor and the peacemaker:

He definitely didn't want peace:

The Trekkies in the audience (including me) would have enjoyed seeing this guy as a traitor:

I don't think he liked Klingons either:

 

[Workbee]

@ Christopher: Agree completely.

Brock Peters was a fine choice for fleet admiral and serves the needs for the movie just fine. This is probably one of those cases where what was best for the individual story is somewhat at odds with what was best for the story arc. In TSFS they depicted Starfleet as being full of stiff necks and buffoons to make our hero's look better. But for story about planet Earth being in mortal peril, with a significantly tone, a more professional take on Starfleet was likely in order. Not sure if this was the reasoning for the cast change.

 

[DonIago]

^^John Talbot wasn't a traitor (or are you saying Gorkon was?)...

 

[dub]

DonIago, I'm saying I think those would have been some interesting choices to be traitors (for the writers of TUC) if they didn't go with the ones we had in TUC.

(I edited my previous post to try to make that more clear, sorry for the confusion)

 

[Workbee]

The Trekkies in the audience (including me) would have enjoyed seeing this guy as a traitor:

This just gave me a great idea -- what if they had Styles in TUC, acting like a racist jerk though the film, but have him actually be innocent? That would have really had audiences misdirected, and give a shock ending when it was revealed that it was the respected Cartwright, not Styles, that was involved with the conspiracy.

 

[dub]

This just gave me a great idea -- what if they had Styles in TUC, acting like a racist jerk though the film, but have him actually be innocent? That would have really had audiences misdirected, and give a shock ending when it was revealed that it was the respected Cartwright, not Styles, that was involved with the conspiracy.

That would just piss me off. I vant to see Styles waporized.

 

[DonIago]

DonIago, I'm saying I think those would have been some interesting choices to be traitors (for the writers of TUC) if they didn't go with the ones we had in TUC.

(I edited my previous post to try to make that more clear, sorry for the confusion)

Ah, thanks for the clarification!

Klaa actually does appear in TUC...in a manner of speaking.

 

[Leto_II]

^^John Talbot wasn't a traitor (or are you saying Gorkon was?)...

 

[jpv2000]

Klaa actually does appear in TUC...in a manner of speaking.

Really? I missed this. Where/who was he?

 

[Leto_II]

During Kirk and McCoy's trial-scene on Q'onoS -- Klaa (or rather, Todd Bryant, the actor who played him in TFF) acts as one of the interpreters, relaying General Chang's Klingonese-dialogue in English.

At least, I consider him to be Klaa, making a reappearance...he's not explicitly credited as playing that character, per se, but he looks and sounds exactly the same, and I have no trouble with considering him as actually being Klaa in that scene.

Makes for some nice inter-film continuity on Nick Meyer's part.

 

[DonIago]

IIRC you get to hear him serving as translator, saying something along the lines of, "That Enterprise fired on..."

I -think- it's between Chang opening speaking in Klingon and him continuing in English.

 

[Leto_II]

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Yup, that's the scene.