• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

WTF moments in TOS...

Shatner gets a bad rap. If you look at first-season TOS, and much of the second season -- and just about everything he did pre-TOS -- his work is very subtle, understated, and naturalistic (at least by the standards of a stage-trained actor). I tend to suspect that changed as a result of the accident he suffered during the shooting of, I believe, "The Apple," when an explosion went off too close and gave him a bad case of tinnitus. After that, his performances began to get broader. I imagine it can be hard to gauge the level of your performance when there's a loud ringing in your ears driving you nuts.
 
Don't get me wrong, I love his acting. In all seriouness, the biggest difference between TV shows of the 60's and today is the use of actors who cut their teeth on the stage. Actors that go straight to TV just aren't the same.

BTW, I didn't know about the accident on "The Apple" - how unpleasant for him!
 
Don't get me wrong, I love his acting. In all seriouness, the biggest difference between TV shows of the 60's and today is the use of actors who cut their teeth on the stage. Actors that go straight to TV just aren't the same.

BTW, I didn't know about the accident on "The Apple" - how unpleasant for him!
Arena.

Frankly, my suspicion is that once Nimoy's popularity took off Shatner changed his approach to the character to try to be more appealing, and ended up heading down the path to hamhood. I also suspect the scripts that came out under Gene Coon as producer, which put more banter into the characters, affected his outlook on the character.
 
^I used to think it was "Arena," and it's commonly reported as such, but the description Nimoy gives corresponds to a scene in "The Apple."

http://trekmovie.com/2007/12/04/lan...the-the-return-of-the-archons-preview/#330900
“Bill Shatner and I both have a case of tinnitis. In both our cases it’s a ringing or hissing in the right ear and some loss of hearing. We believe it was due to an explosion set off by special effects in one of our episodes and this may very welt be it. The explosion was off to our right and both of us had our right ear affected and I believe DeForest Kelley had some impact as well. The explosion I’m referring to happens when Spock throws away the piece of material that he finds on the ground early on in the episode.”
 
OK, I'm going to say it - Kirk's behaviour in "requiem for methuselah" is nothing short of an aberration - Season Three at its worst.


I have to agree. The idea that the crew was experiencing a disease that would kill them off while Kirk is acting like a love struck teenager was just unforgivable. I love trek, love TOS, but that was awful.
 
Re: What moments in the original series made you cringe or say wtf

Yeah - we've done this already but thanks for joining the party... :lol:

wtf_cat.jpg
 
Re: What moments in the original series made you cringe or say wtf

Well, in that episode with the spores, I really thought to myself, "somebody's got to 'WATER THOSE FLOWERS.'" I stand by that.
 
I don't know how much tinnitus would affect (or is it effect?) his acting, but i can tell you (as a sufferer of tinnitus myself) it can be at times, quite maddening. It's there, all the time, you cannot escape it and you have to learn to train and refocus your attention on the other sounds around you. It sucks verily.
 
I don't know how much tinnitus would affect (or is it effect?) his acting, but i can tell you (as a sufferer of tinnitus myself) it can be at times, quite maddening. It's there, all the time, you cannot escape it and you have to learn to train and refocus your attention on the other sounds around you. It sucks verily.

It does suck, doesn't it? Although, I find that it's worse some times than other times. Worse at night, definitely.
 
In all seriouness, the biggest difference between TV shows of the 60's and today is the use of actors who cut their teeth on the stage. Actors that go straight to TV just aren't the same.

Quite right.

Nice. Succinct and accurate. I'd challenge any modern-day "soap opera"-trained actor to match the depth of their performances...
A lot of the soap opera trained actors are also stage actors (especially those in NYC)
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top