Advice WILLIAM SHATNER Gave PAUL WESLEY to Play Captain Kirk on STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS 

I wonder how many people get this

that would be so trippy... def a candid camera moment. I wonder if Shatner ever thinks about a gremlin on the wing when he flies?

Which is funny because in TOS, the Captain is a horndog that will bone anything with legs. Maybe repressed sexuality from his "college" years.

You are 100% right, and I came here to same something similar. Shatner was a very good actor, and even his biggest detractors (like Takei) have freely admitted this. If you watch the original series, his performance is nothing like the caricature that everyone seems to have accepted as truth. There are maybe two or three times in the whole series where his delivery is a little stilted, and he has said himself that he was simply trying to remember his lines in the midst of a hectic shooting schedule.

I agree. The myth of his kirk acting is based on skits etc, which are of course caricatures.

An article from Quilette suggested that Shatner’s exaggerated acting was done with an awareness of how hard it was to get good reception on TV sets in the 60s when antennae ruled the roofs. It’s like he was playing to the back of the living room.

There's moments that just stand out, or even entire episodes. The Enemy Within where he screams I'M CAPTAIN KIRK (as the evil half) The one with Sargon inhabiting his body where he's practically loving on himself (Return to Tomorrow?) Those moments are so easy to mock and then they take on bigger and bigger life than they really were, until that's all there was. And it's just not true. Unlike most others, it seems, I really like Paul Wesley's Kirk. He is exactly as Gary Mitchell described in the second pilot. "A stack of books with legs". He was a nerd. He was picked on by upperclassmen at the Academy (Finnegan). He was bookish as hell, motivated and determined. Paul Wesley's Kirk is all these things. And I mean... the swag, the bravado... has to come from being the youngest Captain ever AND getting command of the freakin Enterprise to boot.

its funny hardly anyone knows that

When he did The Masked Singer I didn't know who he was from the song. When he did an interview segment later, even with his voice altered, his pacing and emphatic delivery was a dead giveaway. It may be from doing Shakespeare on stage, but Shatner has internalized it to the point that it's his normal speaking voice.

Shatner wrote in "Star Trek Memories" about this. Apparently, Roddenberry was rewriting the scripts as they were shooting, and new pages were coming out so fast that the cast didn't always have time to memorize the lines. So..those...dramatic pauses...weren't always dramatic pauses. Sometimes he was merely trying to remember the new lines. Like Wesley says, those have been badly emphasized over time.

Well, yes, but there’s more to it than that. 60s televisión was full of camp and over the top reactions. ST was no exception. Shatner was hardly the only one doing these sequence. The whole cast, even Nemoy, had a hand full of the sequences when they were put on display like that. It just happened that Shatner had the biggest bulk.

yeah to imitate how he did it would be hilarious parody. As long as he has the same nuances. I always saw him as a burning the candle at both ends. black coffee kind of person( Shatners character not Shatner himself. No way is he that stoic.). Mccoy threatened to hit him with a shot to help him sleep. That and a workaholic, and not about the paycheck and married to his ship.

But playing Kirk as an emo sucks. Hopeless actor. Doesn't not convince me at all that he could one day be a captain. he doesn't copy the Shat but at least act like someone who could make the rank of captain and not emo out. I'm so sick of emo producers hiring these types of actors.

best ep of the season I think

Yeah, I'm glad he didn't aim for a Shatner impression. Wesley's take on the role seems a little more natural as a result. I do appreciate that they seem to be emphasizing Kirk as an intuitive "out of the box" thinker, which seems appropriate for the character.

His portrayal is his own, but IMO, it's not Kirk. He lacks the charisma to command of the scene, and the character is neutered (writing).

@@Me-qp8vz Kirk was always emotional. You don't get Trek.

NEEEEERRRRRDDD

Don Ricardo Montalbán. Yep.

Thank you for clarify! These kids these days! Lol

In the TOS episode and the sequel. Props to RC but he was no Khan.

@@Daemon3667 lol

He does well with the role! I was at first disappointed he wasn't aping Shatner but after I got over it I saw that they really wrote the scripts well for the character and he did a great job of portraying him. Kirk, in the novels and in TOS was the captains captain; he knew starfleet regulations like they were wrote onto the back of his hands and for the most part abided by them. He was also a brilliant tactician and it was a lot of fun to see the call out to TOS where he always beat Spock in 3D chess. I've really warmed up to him in the role and look forward to him.

Really he does such a good job of it that if you alternate between watching SNW and TOS episodes it's not jarring in the least-it seems to fit.

Yes couldnt agree more he does a damn fine job and the best part is he doesnt OVER dramatize shatner like so many others have done strange new worlds is an epically written pre kirk series if that makes sense it is like its bringing the pilot episode its proper history

Are you kidding?

Only an emo would say that. I hope you grow out of that.

@@Me-qp8vz it’s a wide held opinion that Wesley was miscast. Completely different personality. Facts.

he's not the only one who's ever said that Ernest Borgine for example also said that as did Mickey Rooney as well and i'm sure many others that i'm not aware of. not that long ago i watched some and i'm not making this up but in the early 50's long before he became part of Star Trek he did some musicals and he wasn't bad one is called Latin Lovers (1953) it's a really bad fucking film but he's good in it and i can't remember if he sings in that one but he's not a bad singer either.

Although Montalban probably spelled his own name right.

@@Scipio488 wow, someone put a penny in the arsehole!

🧢

reruns.......

Perfect description …he shows his swagger when he’s sitting down……it’s was Shatner’s energy that initially made the captain what he is.

The best character is leaving it's going to suck now.

Yeah he seems more like the old serious Kirk (although I havent seen a lot of the show). I think the Abrams version misinterpreted him as a just doing everything off the cuff and completely undisciplined. The original had his moments of improvisation, but he always seemed more calculating and strategic than people give him credit for (I suppose they are comparing him to Spock). Also during the Wrath of Khan he just got complacent and screwed up after sitting in the Admiral's office too long.

@@ironfist7789 One issue I think of is we are seeing characters at different times in their lives. Perhaps Kirk was undisciplined as a youth in the original timeline we aren't sure. But growing up without his father in the new timeline caused this discipline problem. I wouldn't mind seeing Wesley get a series of his own after they conclude strange new worlds. Or they could run alongside each other. Kirk could have his own command before he takes over the Enterprise. Your point about the original series was true. Kirk was a by the book commander who was cunning.

XD theres also the fact that CGI wasn't really a thing back then lol. wrath of Khan did have one of the first if not the first CGI clip though.

Even as a kid, I heard the rumors of his supposed rubber chest in ST2. That said, hearing he suffered from back pain a good lot of his life does put into context why in his latter years he was wheelchair bound.

@@ablaze1989 Yes, the Genesis Device demo was the first full CGI sequence done for a film.

You are correct! Also, one or more actors played Kirk on the story records.

@@wadebarnett2542 I WISH that I'd kept all that memorabilia ! If I sold it, I could move to a place that isn't a CLOSET or at least keep myself in Johnny Walker Red or Jim Beam until my liver implodes / goes boom.

Must agree with you , as this is a pet hate of mine . Jimmy Fallon and Conan are notorious for this . Just shut-up and let your guests talk . People don't tune in or watch because of the interviewer . Bottom line it's rude and disrespectful in my opinion .

@@Jodi28 I was the creator/host of a commercial television series on Science-, Medicine- and Technology-themed subjects. The show did quite well, for many reasons, the top two of which were that 1) I insisted on "just-the-facts" journalism, with no room for opinion, hyperbole, jargon, "truths," dogma or fringe theory and 2) the STAR of the show...was the facts. Not the guests, not the host... The series was broadcast live, in real-time, with no digital delay and no censorship. My instructions to my guests, "pretend we are in a Starbucks, talking about your science (or whatever their core competencies were). There is no audience. This is a conversation." and, "feel free to share whatever facts you wish (try to avoid using inappropriate vulgarities(!)), so long as whatever you are stating as fact is fact-based and can be independently verified by multiple, reliable sources (peer-reviewed journal articles, etc.)." And, "don''t be afraid to get as esoteric as you wish. My role will be as 'naïve audience..' (e.g., "you said that the NIH has oversight or this? What acronym is this, NIH?" "Oh, National Institutes of Health") and reel in the narrative so that as your conversational partner at the table, I can understand all the $1,000,000 words you just used... " My series aired for five "seasons." The last live broadcast had eight+ millions viewers, in more than 50 countries. THAT is how great television is made. Don't tell your audience what to think. Allow them to come to their own conclusions, based upon the facts. Don't feed your audience pablum... provide them with thoughtful, carefully researched and intellectually challenging. I was stunned by how our audiences grew in number, and by the broad swathe demographic represented.

I was a little concerned at first, too. All I could think of was his days playing a vampire on Vampire Diaries. Luckily. It never really crosses your mind.

Have to agree, I wasn't really into the Vampire show, but it seemed pretty standard level of CW acting challenge. Lazy scripts, overdramatic for a teen audience etc. But man does this guy get it. He nails Kirk and more importantly as you can hear here. He is loving do it. As for the Interviewer, that's Lex Luthor you're talking about! It's a podcast rather than an interview, so the format is conversational.

He played Lex Luther on Smallville.

Plus Paul Wesley thought Shatner was only one before him to play Kirk, when everybody knows Sandra Smith played Kirk trapped in the body of Janice Lester in the series finale "Turnabout Intruder."

@@waltonsimons12 I’ll let them slide on that. 😃

We just nitpick cos we feel bigger inside doing it. Trek trolling is so fun. Puke.

@@davidsmith5523 I should probably have included a smiley or a "/sarcasm" tag with my comment. Since I didn't, let me clarify that I don't actually expect Paul Wesley-- or anybody else-- to know that anybody besides William Shatner played Kirk in the original series. And I CERTAINLY don't think it's a requirement for being able to portray Kirk in the modern series.

He should have. Generations was an awful end for Kirk.

​@heleneb2105 Actually, it was a great end. It was originally done that he was killed by a phaser blast by Soran. But they thought that was too anticlimactic. So, and bear with me, cuz it's lengthy: 1) At the beginning, Worf makes a leap of faith and physical leap for his promotional bars, 2) In the middle, Kirk leaps with his horse over a trench (revealing that he's afraid of heights, which was not true in past shows and movies, but for this movie its critical to the storyline). 3) At the end, even with fear, he makes the leap for Soran's controller, and dies in the process. We even get to hear him say it was fun, as he saved the galaxy again. So, in classical storytelling and a typical Roddelberry morality tale, there is a symmetry to the idea that you must ignore your fears and leap for what is righteous. (Oh, and in Classic Kirk style he also saves the Enterprise B).

@@andytay5507 I just can't agree.

Did you know, allegedly Anson was offered Lex but turned it down for undisclosed reasons.

@@deterlanglytone he looked a lot like Clark back then .. could have played Clark

The advice was the tweet. Thats it lol

Not just good but fucking good. Does that mean anything?

He needs to gain some weight and I see Carrey the whole time.

So many writers & producers act like they're reinventing the wheel with reboots, & they ARE. They're just making it square or rectangular.

I see nothing wrong with this (and it could well be the plan).... provided the writing improves...

Indeed

Maybe he was runner up for the part.

EXACTLY! I added that exact same criticism in my comments. Paul Wesley, great new take on Kirk...interviewer, please be quiet.

He’s awful at this. He must have called gates McFadden old like ten times

Sounds rude, but she is old...

@@JB-1138 😂😂 I know but you don’t tell a woman that