Worst Star trek actor ever

[WeAreTheBorg]

Choosing from guest stars is impossible, because there are hundreds from which to choose.

As far as regulars go... there is a reason the ENT writers didn't give Anthony Montgomery any lines.

Garret Wang isn't bad at all he was just given nothing good to work with by the writers. And Robert Beltran just didn't care... he was better in early seasons when he still gave a damn.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Also Bernie Casey in the Maquis was pretty bad

That's my vote, too. Start at 5:30, youch. It's weird watching Brooks play the "bantering" scenes right, and Casey get it all wrong, like they're in two different scenes rather than having a conversation. You're pretty bad when you made Brooks look like a perfectly natural, non-stilted actor by comparison.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkJ8XNBxetQ[/yt]

I think Chris did an awesome Kirk.

Chris Pine did a great job with Kirk as written. That Kirk is not the same guy as Shatner played. I think some folks miss that little detail. If you don't like how the character was written, take it up with Kurtzman and Orci. Considering how completely the box office validated heir writing, good luck with that.

Pine IS a juvenile punk, so it's not that much of a reach. He's just playing himself.

Just on the basis of his performance in Smokin' Aces, he has enough dramatic reach as an actor to successfully play two completely divergent characters. I have no idea if he is a "juvenile punk" in RL since I don't know him personally, but he's shown that he is not limited to "playing himself," unless he's schizophrenic.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Speaking of Brooks, he was still pretty rough in the DS9 pilot. I hope he didn't scare too many viewers away with this (start at 5:00):

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TILxjcNfiMo&feature=related[/yt]

His acting smoothed out and he got into the rhythm of the role, but his famous breakdown in "Far Beyond the Stars" is still controversial - is this great acting, or awful? Start at 3:40.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avd8k9yQYSI[/yt]

Funny how at the time, I was pretty about "Far Beyond the Stars," but now it's great seeing the characters without their makeup. I think at the time I was just afraid the whole series would end with it being a story written by Benny Russell. And it would have been the fans howling NOOOO!!!! IT'S REEEAAAALLL!!!

Now that that threat is safely behind us, I think the Benny Russell breakdown scene is great.

 

[TedShatner10]

Garret Wang was Pablum most of the time, but when given the opportunity he was alright. I was never really thrilled by his perma-noob ensign character, but he didn't seem too bad in Into the West.

 

[Cyke101]

Anyway I'm glad the show got Shatner instead of Jeffrey Hunter. Talk about a guy who just seemed to suck the fun out of everything.

Bruce Greenwood is one of the very few Trek XI actors that I preferred over the original counterpart. Hunter struck me as oddly handsome yet oddly ... uncharismatic. At least Shatner had that much going for him (sure, some will argue that Shatner had more than that in his arsenal, but I'll use charisma as a point of relation).

 

[Cyke101]

Also Bernie Casey in the Maquis was pretty bad

That's my vote, too. Start at 5:30, youch. It's weird watching Brooks play the "bantering" scenes right, and Casey get it all wrong, like they're in two different scenes rather than having a conversation. You're pretty bad when you made Brooks look like a perfectly natural, non-stilted actor by comparison.

I'm thinking they cast Bernie Casey with the Maquis twist in mind rather than the seemingly easy-going Starfleet veteran/friend portion of the role. Casey's pretty good in tough, disciplined roles, but his friendly exchange with Sisko and Dax was cringeworthy. He was miscast for half the story

 

[Merky]

Shatner in TOS, which is really weird to say because he's an excellent actor in everything else but Star Trek.

I actually agree with this statement. For a time I used to get really bewildered at all the praise that Shatner would get on this board, as if people were just kissing his butt out of favoritism more than anything else. But name another prominent show or film with Shatner and it's great. Denny Crane!

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan and I think he does his job in TOS. But TOS-Shatner isn't his best work imo.

~clip snip~

Maybe this is why nuKirk got to be captain so fast -- the higher-ups knew that if he didn't get the ship, THIS would happen

You guys are daft! You're only thinking about the really bad bits, the scenes that comedians copy for laughs. There's thousands of other scenes where he doesn't overact, and they're excellent.

Remeber Charlie X for example :
"Go to your quarters, or I'll pick you up and carry you there."

You have to look at all the scenes, not just the intense dramatic, screwed up ones. And the director has some responsibility there too, which is why I don't blame the tng actors solely for their incredibly stiff performances

Between Shatner's cadence as Kirk, the pause -cue music- dramatic close up -pause- dramatic face -cue fade out-, the over the top reactions to a lot of scenes... etc just came off as terrible compared to the rest of the cast.

Deforest Kelley was a veteran actor and excellent, on point, with his portrayal of the doctor. He was just natural with his delivery of his lines and could jump from a casual southern gentlemen to the straightforward and determined doctor. Leonard Nimoy's consistent performance as an emotionless being proved he was the better actor as well. It's not that easy to act completely detached, it is a natural human response, and to come into each role and not even flinch at a dramatic scene was really amazing. Not to mention that Nimoy's greatest performances was when he was performing a mind meld and essentially becoming another character in that scene until he breaks the meld and *snap* is in Spock mode again.

Shatner simply hammed up his role. Yes, it's iconic. Yes, the comedians rip it apart but it was also the weakest performance by far to the cast of TOS. He tried to make Kirk larger than life, and he did, but in return he also made his performance look very cheap in a lot of "dramatic" scenes that required a little less "stage" and a little bit more "realism".

Funny how at the time, I was pretty about "Far Beyond the Stars," but now it's great seeing the characters without their makeup. I think at the time I was just afraid the whole series would end with it being a story written by Benny Russell. And it would have been the fans howling NOOOO!!!! IT'S REEEAAAALLL!!!

That whole scene got destroyed with this clip. LOL I can never watch it seriously again:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lHgbbM9pu4[/yt]

 

[barnaclelapse]

Anyway I'm glad the show got Shatner instead of Jeffrey Hunter. Talk about a guy who just seemed to suck the fun out of everything.

Bruce Greenwood is one of the very few Trek XI actors that I preferred over the original counterpart. Hunter struck me as oddly handsome yet oddly ... uncharismatic. At least Shatner had that much going for him (sure, some will argue that Shatner had more than that in his arsenal, but I'll use charisma as a point of relation).

Charisma was a huge part of why Shatner worked so well on TOS. I do actually believe he turned in some good performances on that specific show, but as I said before I don't think that was the top of the list for his overall job description of playing Captain Kirk on that series.

I hope that at least makes a little sense.

I also agree with you completely about Greenwood. He was probably one of my favorite things in the whole movie.

 

[Captrek]

I don’t know his name, but he has one line and delivers it terribly. “What about that smell? You know only the top of the line models can even talk and...”

 

[Therin of Andor]

I never cared for Harry Landers performance as Dr Coleman in "Turnabout Intruder" (TOS). His delivery was so monotone and there was a scene where you're supposed to realise that Coleman perhaps loved the totally deranged Janice Lester, but it really gets lost in the flatness.

Making the situation worse, many of Landers' flubbed takes are part of the Season Three audio tapes that were found in a Paramount trash bin and included on the infamous Blue Pear LP record, "Star Trek Bloopers".

I agree that Anthony Montgomery (ENT) must have really unimpressed the writers, because it seemed like they stopped even trying to find him something to say or do, although in the episodes where he did have something meaty, he certainly didn't seem too bad.

 

[KJbushway]

Well, I can't say shatner, he was mostly a theatrical actor, so his bad acting skills weren't his fault.
Wang didn't like the show, so I will count him out.
I didn't like counselor from TNG. but I wouldn't count her as the worst.
I would have to go with Commander Reed, didn't like him.
Now that I think about it, its a tie between Reed and Hoshi.

 

[Ro_Laren]

To be honest, one of my least favorite main character acts was Scott Bakula. I know he is supposed to be a good actor, but I hated his portrayal of Archer.

 

[KJbushway]

^
I can see what your saying. It wasn't his best role. I don't know who else was running for the Archer position. But considering how the series played out, he did the best he could.

 

[lurok]

To be honest, one of my least favorite main character acts was Scott Bakula. I know he is supposed to be a good actor, but I hated his portrayal of Archer.

I felt the same too (initially) and was one of factors that put me off ENT. But year ago saw the mirror two-parter and thought he was quite good. So gave the series another shot, and although still not my favorite actor or capt, quite enjoyed him off-and-on throughout the run.

 

[Maxillius]

The *worst* star trek actor?? The commander of Earth Outpost 4 in "Balance of Terror". Seriously, his facial expressions are like he's retarded instead of hurt. The only part of that episode that is cringeworthy.

 

[Merky]

To be honest, one of my least favorite main character acts was Scott Bakula. I know he is supposed to be a good actor, but I hated his portrayal of Archer.

I felt the same too (initially) and was one of factors that put me off ENT. But year ago saw the mirror two-parter and thought he was quite good. So gave the series another shot, and although still not my favorite actor or capt, quite enjoyed him off-and-on throughout the run.

Yeah, from whatever little I did see of ENT, I thought he did camped up the role. But the whole mirror Archer schizophrenic scenes were really interesting in that Mirror Darkly episode.

Though, even in that episode, his whole " grawrras im an evil XO trying to get some respect " came off more like whinny jock that wasn't getting what he wanted than legit.

 

[Ro_Laren]

^ To be honest, I did not care for his acting in the two mirror episodes.

 

[scottydog]

I'll go by series:

TOS - William Shatner. His sentence construction and delivery really bugs the hell out of me.

TNG - Diana Muldaur. She was awful. A cheap knock-off of McCoy.

DS9 - Don't have any, loved the series and the cast.

VOY - Robert Beltran. It was obvious he didn't want to be there. Should have killed him off, promoted Tuvok and made Ayala the new Security Chief!

ENT - Jolene Blalock. Her method of doing controlled emotions was just a trout-pout. The character I didn't mind, but her delivery was weak in some places.

I agree with everyone on this list except for Shatner, who IMHO played Kirk to near perfection. The only problem I had with the Shat was the occasional ridiculous karate chop, especially the one he delivered to the Gorn.

 

[janeway59]

I have to say that the worst regular series actress is Jennifer Lein (Kes) I've been through the Voyager series several times and each time I go through it, she gets more annoying.

 

[Danny99]

I have to say that the worst regular series actress is Jennifer Lein (Kes) I've been through the Voyager series several times and each time I go through it, she gets more annoying.

She started out brutal, but got better. I'd rather have kept her over Wang or Beltran.