Discuss Star Trek: The Next Generation
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Bad Acting-- Not a Hit Job!
posted by northcoastSTAFFMOD on July 4, 2021 at 1:15 PM
Hello, everyone.
Just watched an episode of TNG and DS9 not long ago, and was struck by how bad the acting was. The TNG episode had to do with a new species being invited to join the Federation; during a shuttle flight with the lead alien representative, Picard and the alien crash on a stormy planet, where Picard encounters a lone human woman who is not what she seems. The DS9 episode concerned the station's crew undergoing strange personality changes after a fatally-damaged Klingon Bird of Prey emerges from the wormhole and one surviving Klingon from the ship manages to beam aboard the station. I can't recall the names of either episode, but since I know that there are a fair number of ST fans on TMDB who know the names and plots of every single episode from each and every ST series, people here can provide the episode titles if they so wish:) (I mean this all in good fun, my friends-- I greatly envy your recall abilities).
Anyway, as a long time Star Trek fan, I was surprised by just how bad and hokey the acting was, from everyone concerned. I'm wondering if anyone else agrees, that from an acting standpoint, that perhaps many of the episodes from the various shows just have not aged very well? Good stories, intriguing ideas, but just not very good acting?
The original Star Trek has always been my favorite, and I enjoyed all six of the original movies, and I want to say the acting with all of those is still decent, notwithstanding Shatner's penchant for overacting somewhat.
Next in line for me was TNG, followed by DS9, but again I want to say the acting was not so good, although the TNG movies had some good acting.
Although not my favorites, Voyager and Enterprise could still hold my interest, and I do think they still had decent acting (have only seen a little of Enterprise, actually).
I have deliberately stayed away from the Chris Pine ST movies and the Discovery series, so I cannot comment on those.
What are everyone else's thoughts about this? Many of us have grown up with these shows, but if you haven't seen them in a while (like me) and then revisit them, I don't think the acting holds up quite so well. But perhaps others will feel differently.
Reply by revengine
on May 18, 2022 at 3:04 AM
It's funny you cite the TNG episode Liaisons for bad acting because the characters in that episode are actually taking on roles their culture has no experience with except for the found journal of two survivors of a crash. So, in a way, the bad acting is deliberate. That said, I've always found Patrick Stewart to be a great actor - it's too bad he's let his TDS push political activism ahead of actual good story telling in the series Picard.
Reply by Steve
on May 18, 2022 at 8:34 AM
Acting has gotten more naturalistic on TV in the past 15 years. But, yeah, I do agree. I'm watching Stargate SG1 and the acting reminds me of soap operas from years past. Say what you want about new Star Trek, but the acting for the most part is superior - except for the over dramatics and whispering on Discovery. DS9 and TNG have series regulars that just were never good even after years. Still, as long as I can look past it and enjoy the shows it doesn't really matter.
Reply by Nexus71
on May 18, 2022 at 6:45 PM
I like ENT and TOS as well TNG had a good run from season 3 to season 6/7 DS9 had good season from season 4 onwards . As for Voy that was always a mixed bag knowing that the show had such potential but somehow the showrunners screwed that up But I do enjoy the occasional VOY episode.