RetroFedExamples of roles where actors from Star Trek give better performances than they did on Star Trek?
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James R Kirk
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Walter Koenig was a great Chekov, but his role as Bester the PsyCop from Babylon 5 was a more nuanced role that gave him way more to do.
Bester was so great. Great vilain
I came here to say this. I first saw Walter Koenig as Chekov, but I really loved him as Bester. I’ve heard that he lights up when people bring up Bester at conventions and such.
Can confirm. I was an avid 90s Star Trek convention attendee, and got to hear a couple quick Bab5 anecdotes from him years ago.
Bester still gives me the creeps.
Best character in the entire series. Never before would have imagined Walter making my skin crawl.
For me Colm Meaney wins this hands down. Good in Star Trek but great in other things.
Layer Cake, It’s always sunny in Philadelphia and Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa are the 3 that come to mind first.
pretty good in the “Hell on Wheels” series. It also features Anson Mount.
great villain in stargate atlantis
The Commitments.
Con Air, as the baddie.
The Man Who Went Up A Hill And Came Down A Mountain, as a goodie.
He’s great in intermission. And it’s a good movie.
And the snapper!
Colm Meaney’s performance in Layer Cake is simply astounding!
Gangs of London
Karl Urban was an okay Dr. McCoy, but the 157 different roles he played on Xena Warrior Princess was where he really shined the brightest.
I honestly enjoyed him more in Dredd (where he had to do more with less) than in Star Trek.
TIL!
Really only a handful, but that hilarious he had a few characters
Jeffrey Combs must have been busy.
He really did have range with them. I watched Xena when I was a kid, and I had no idea they were the same actor
Bakula on “Quantum Leap”
Eve Harlow on “Agents of SHIELD”
There’s an episode of Scrubs where Bakula plays a janitor and secretly wants to leap back as a little Easter egg
Also, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Bakula on “Men of a Certain Age”.
Andreas Katsulas had a recurring role as Commander Tomalak on TNG, but he absolutely shone as G’Kar on Babylon 5, especially in later seasons.
He gave me goosebumps in several scenes, especially this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJmuHNDcXLQ
TIL Tomalak was G’Kar. I don’t know how I didn’t know.
Definitely Scott Bakula.
At the same time, I’m getting the feeling they weren’t given the greatest scripts or directors to work with on Enterprise.
I was excited to see where Archer and Malcom would go with their characters, but now they’ve been distilled too far into an angry little men.
I get the reasoning, but come on. Malcom’s a complete wanker past season 3, and Archer’s face never changes beyond “It’s all about the mission!”
Conversely, I believe Robert Picardo nails his hammy characterization of The Doctor perfectly.
I love the fact that even still with shows like Prodigy or Academy, he’s still willing to show up with that trademark EMH snark
Whoopi Goldberg, Sister Act II
Jeff Combs was excellent in “The Frighteners”
Jeff Combs was excellent in everything, though.
Jeff Combs was
excellentin everything, though.How many roles did he play?
And *Re-animator*, and *Castle freak*. He has a very good track record in a certain subset of horror movies!
Ayy, +1 for Castle Freak. Isn’t that the one where the freak rips off his own ding-dong?
I honestly don’t recall. You’d think that sort of thing would be etched onto your memory 😬
Oh, I was just referencing a bad movie podcast that has frequently mentioned that movie. One of the hosts repeatedly recommended Castle Freak, and claimed that the freak ripped off his own ding-dong. This was subsequently disputed by listeners, and one of the other hosts.
At one point, one of the show’s listeners tweeted at Stuart Gordon, asking if the freak ripped off his own ding-dong. Stuart Gordon responded, simply, “No.” However, Jonathan Fuller, who played the titular freak, provided the show an autographed picture on which he wrote, “I ripped it off myself!” So the matter still pends.
Ha, sometimes even the production crew suffer from the Mandela effect 😆
Jeff Combs in Transformers Prime, voice of Ratchet. He did some excellent voice delivery as that character.
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock
Benny in the behind-the-scenes footage from The Hobbit in his mo-cap suit.
Mulgrew. Flemeth. (Kidding).
Levar Burton will always be reading rainbow guy, no matter what he does.
Zachary Quinto. Silar. One of the better villains, until the writers went on strike and the show fell off the rails. Granted, this likely just marks the man’s range as an actor.
John Cho. The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.
Koenig. Bester.
You could argue that everything Stewart does is equally well done. Scrooge. X. Gurney.
Karl Urban, Dredd
Any of his roles are awesome, but I’d hold McCoy up there with the rest. I believed he was the doctor. Criticize the script for lines and actions, but Karl nailed the mannerisms. As he always does. He’s got a Gary Oldman ability to become something different every time.
100% agree. Of all of the Kelvin cast, he felt like Bones. Karl Urban was a fantastic casting decision.
Karl Urban is ALWAYS a fantastic casting decision!
Michelle Yeoh, Supercop
She participated in the greatest movie fight scene ever. Crouching Tiger.
Which one is she in it? https://youtu.be/uxkr4wS7XqY
https://youtu.be/07n7fWtQW1I
Either way, she is cool.
I think Patrick Stewart was pretty great in that episode of Extras.
There’s a an admiral in Star Trek Beyond that looked familiar, I had to look it up and it’s Shohreh Aghdashloo. A forgettable role, only noteworthy because I recognized the actor.
She plays Avasarala in The Expanse. Total powerhouse performance.
Anthony Montgomery (Travis Mayweather) as Postmaster P in Leprechaun in the Hood
The fact that it lost to American Beauty that year is a travesty
It would be easy to just gesture vaguely at all of Sir Patrick Stewart’s career. But your question was about better performances than in Trek, and I actually think he did an excellent Picard during the original TNG run. Not quite a hot take, I know.
However, for a double off-Trek billing, I suggest Green room (2015) where he plays against Anton Yelchin among others. It’s a pretty taut little thriller about a punk band on the road that realise to their horror that their gig for the night is at a neonazi club out in the sticks. It goes downhill from there.
Oh fuck yeah. That movie was wild and Sir Patrick Stewart delivered a truly evil performance.
It’s jarring if you only know him for his cool-headed leader or mentor roles like Picard or professor Xavier… He really lets rip as this extremist POS.
Whoopi Goldberg for The Color Purple.
Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once
Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Oh hell yes for Louise Fletcher…!
Michelle Yeoh in everything
*almost everything (you forgot about section 31?)
You are right, that was bad…
It was bad, but I don’t think it was her fault.
Brent Spiner was brilliant in Master of Disguise, a phenomenal movie
Damn, nearly did not recognize Keating, his performance in that gif gives heavy David Tennant to me.
He should have won best actor for his performance as “Ian” in Jungle 2 Jungle.
Armin Shimmerman was just as good as Principal Snyder as he was as Quark.
I met him at a convention once and got him sign a letter as Principal Snyder, suspending my friend (who’s a huge Buffy fan) from Sunnydale High and threatening to expel her. He read it and thought it was hilarious.
That’s an awesome story and I agree he was great in that role.
curiously, the podcast “the incomparable” made an episode exactly about this topic (more specifically, performances before their trek appearances ) https://www.theincomparable.com/theincomparable/823/
Oh fun I will have to check it out
John De Lancie in Breaking Bad. Not that he was bad as Q, of course, but he didn’t usually have very meaty material to work with.
I think Alexander Siddig did good in Game of Thrones. I like his acting of Prince Doran Martell.