Worst Actor By Series

[Michael]

Inspired by all the Best X By Series threads of late I thought about this question: Who was the worst actor of each series?

TOS: Nichelle Nichols. (Not part of the main cast, but Grace Lee Whitney is also pretty bad. At least IMHO.)
TNG: I like her character, but I think Marina Sirtis' acting abilities are very limited.
DS9: Sorry, but I liked them all. (But Chase Masterson being the worst of the secondary cast.)
VOY: Garret Wang. (Though I really like him in Of Gods And Man.)
ENT: An easy one — Anthony Montgomery; though I somehow even liked his character ...

 

[Kegek]

TOS: William Shatner. To be fair, I'm only considering the three main credited actors. While he has some notoriously hammy moments, he's not that bad - just not Kelley or Nimoy.
TNG: Denise Crosby. She could never sell me on anything. She confronts lustful he-men, the fact she is meant to be dead in another universe, and being a conniving Romulan villain with the same flat, listless monotone. A runner-up would be McFadden.
DS9: Terry Farrell. Not terrible, just bland and mediocre.
VOY: Robert Beltran. He starts out bland, but things really collapse when he stops giving a damn.
ENT: Anthony Montgomery. They sidelined him so aggressively it became a joke, and when he did take centre stage we understood why.

 

[Darth_Daver]

TOS: of the main three, it has to be the Shat. Out of the whole bridge crew, it's probably Nichols...
TNG: Definately Sirtis. She's just bad.
DS9: The best cast, by far... There was noone I particulary disliked... The weakest was maybe Siddig or Farrell.
VOY: Here the problem was not with the actors, but with the terrible writing (see Jeri Ryan...) - but I agree, Beltran is the blandest.
ENT: okay, have to jump on the Travis Bandwagon.... There is a reason even Manny Coto kept sidelining him...

 

[egonbeeblebrox]

TOS: Koenig. Though it may be that I just hate the character.
TNG: Sirtis. She's boring, and so is the character
DS9: Farrell. She can't act. At all. I'll never forgive her for Hellraiser III.
VOY: Eh, this is probably the only cast that I think is strong all-around. Too bad the show's boring.
ENT: Montgomery, I guess. But this one's boring too, aside from "In A Mirror Darkly," I don't really like any episode.

 

[JiNX-01]

TOS: Majel Barrett
TNG: Majel Roddenberry (main cast: Tie: Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Wil Wheaton)
DS9: Nicole deBoer
VOY: Robert Beltran by a nose (runner-up Garrett Wang)
ENT: (edited to modify) Anthony Montgomery, tho' not as bad as many say. But the real "winner" for me is Princess Fishtick.

 

[StarryEyed]

TOS: Nichelle Nichols
TNG: Gates McFadden
DS9: Terry Farrel
VOY: Garrett Wang
ENT: Scott Bakula - I know he's highly regarded but all I've seen him in is Enterprise and he was painfully wooden and unconvincing there.

 

[TGTheodore]

No choices. They wouldn't have kept their jobs if they sucked.

--Ted

 

[Michael]

TG Theodore said:
No choices. They wouldn't have kept their jobs if they sucked.

--Ted

Why is this so? Because the people behind a Star Trek series never make faults?

 

[TGTheodore]

Worst implies "really bad." Of all the principal actors there weren't any bad actors.

There might have been weaker or less interesting CHARACTERS, but that's not the actor's fault.

--Ted

 

[Navaros]

TOS: Can't really find any bad actors here.
TNG: Deanna Troi actress.
DS9: Easily Terry Farrell. Truly terrible and at least 1000x below par of the entire rest of the cast.
VOY: Harry Kim actor.
ENT: Hoshi actress, almost as bad as Terry Farrell but not quite.

 

[JiNX-01]

Navaros said:
ENT: Hoshi actress, almost as bad as Terry Farrell but not quite.

Strongly disagree about Linda Park.
The problem was with Hoshi. They didn't know what to do with her (or for that matter, with Travis). IMO, the communications and pilot stations should have been run by various intermittent characters like they did on TOS, since their main roles on the ship were to sit on the bridge.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Poor Travis. But he's so awfully bland I keep thinking of him as "young Laredo". At least Laredo had lines he could say.

Anyway, he's the only actor who strikes me as pretty bad. And Denise Crosby. Btw was she fired or did she quit?

 

[Dane_Whitman]

TOS: Out of the big three, I'd have to say Shatner. Though I really dig the guy and I love the Kirk character and how he portrayed him.
TNG: Marina Sirtis, when the script called for a hightened emotional state she made it unwatchable.
DS9: Have to say Terry Farrel, she never really bothered me but she's not up to par with the rest of the cast.
VOY: Beltran never did anything spectacular, but Garett Wang experienced some serious acting issues in the first couple of seasons. In the later seasons he became better though.
ENT: Anthony Montgomery, he seems like a very likeable guy but he can't act. Scenes were his acting didn't seem 'somewhat off' were rare.

 

[Balrog]

TOS: Eddie Paskey - AKA Mr. Leslie/Connors. Give him a line, and he's garanteed to deliver it like a schoolboy who just got in trouble during recess. Also, he's the only Red Shirt to ever die and miraculously and yawningly come back to life in the same episode (Obsession).

TNG: Gates McFadden - Her sing-songy delivery of her lines was the listening equivalent to chewing on aluminum foil.

DS9: Barry Jenner - I think they replaced Admiral Ross with a cardboard cut-out in a couple of episodes and no one noticed... even the cast and crew...

VOY: Garrett Wang - Zzzzzzzzz.....

ENT: Scott Bakula - I like this guy, but his take on Archer was just... bad. I heard they had to do multiple takes of his scenes because they were continuously shooing away the woodpeckers.

 

[Balrog]

TG Theodore said:
No choices. They wouldn't have kept their jobs if they sucked.

--Ted

Well, there are two ways of looking at it. "Worst" can mean "sucky". But "Worst" can also mean, "By process of elimination, this actor's work ranks at the bottom of a strong list of actors."

It's all good.

 

[Vasquez Rocks]

TOS: Nichelle Nichols
TNG: Denise Crosby
DS9: Terry Farrell
VOY: Garrett Wang
ENT: Anthony Montgomery

 

[startrekwatcher]

JiNX-01 said:

Navaros said:
ENT: Hoshi actress, almost as bad as Terry Farrell but not quite.

Strongly disagree about Linda Park.
The problem was with Hoshi. They didn't know what to do with her (or for that matter, with Travis). IMO, the communications and pilot stations should have been run by various intermittent characters like they did on TOS, since their main roles on the ship were to sit on the bridge.

Yeah Linda Park is a fairly decent actress. It was just Hoshi never really got to do anything but episodes like IaMD or scenes like the one in Zero Hour show what she could do.

 

[S'kai]

CommanderRaytas said:
And Denise Crosby. Btw was she fired or did she quit?

The way I heard it, she quit because the character had so little role to play. She did not want to stand on the bridge being eye candy (ah . . . but what eye candy!) for seven years.

The fact that she came back as Sela indicates that she left on good terms.

 

[S'kai]

For the first season and a half of DS9 I thought Avery Brooks was _terrible. The most wooden performance I have since since Al Gore's 2000 run for the presidency. He loosened up later. I have seen pieces of plywood with more personality.

Looking back at reruns, it doesn't seem so bad now.

 

[MikeH92467]

Lloyd_Dobler said:

TG Theodore said:
No choices. They wouldn't have kept their jobs if they sucked.

--Ted

Well, there are two ways of looking at it. "Worst" can mean "sucky". But "Worst" can also mean, "By process of elimination, this actor's work ranks at the bottom of a strong list of actors."

It's all good.

Agreed on both counts. It takes a certain amount of talent to win a major role in a regular series. Some actors have more range and versatility, but saying someone "can't act" is really unfair. They can all act. If you don't get what I'm saying look at fan productions. No offense to the people who are doing some great work, it's just that it's taken a lot of hard work on the part of the New Voyages and Exeter crews to raise their skills to where the performances don't detract from the overall production. Acting ain't easy folks.

As far as the O.P. is concerned I really agree with the earlier poster who pointed out that many times what came off as lousy performances were often the result of weak scripts. Of course, directing may have something to do with it at as well. I think Shatner is an actor who with a good script and proper direction can turn in a terrific performance (Balance of Terror). However, when things aren't great in the script department it can be downright ugly (Turnabout Intruder)

That said, I don't think Brent Spiner gets nearly enough credit for consistently strong work: Data is a role that could have been ludicrous, instead of a solid anchor.