10 Behind The Scenes Reasons For Star Trek Characters' Quirks

there's an old saying in the creative arts that you should always write what you know that might seem to be an odd lesson to apply to star trek but whilst the setting might not be grounded in our own reality that doesn't mean the characters can't be thus there are countless three-dimensional heroes and also villains in the star trek franchise and more than a few of them are their brilliance to the extraordinary lives of the actors that played them my name is marcus bronzy this is trek culture and here are 10 behind the scenes reasons for star trek character quirks number 10 sulu wilsa rapier now the naked time was an early episode from the original series which centered on a virus that makes those infected act drunk and yes it's as ridiculous as it sounds and also if it's ringing a bell for you that's because the idea was kind of copied wholesale for the next generation's third episode the naked now where tasha yah and data well they are you know yeah he's anatomically and she's anyway back to the original series despite how absurd this all is george takei is incredible here he was approached early into filming by director mark daniels who informed him that sulu would be removing his shirt and going absolutely berserk in addition to this he would wield either a samurai sword or a fencing foil so kay asked him to select the latter citing that his reason was that a samurai sword might be more culturally appropriate then but by the 23rd century a man should be free to pick his hobby regardless of his ethnicity for the next three days to k spend all of his free time practicing with the weapon and doing as many push-ups as possible he recalled an incident where james doon was nearly found skewered by his rapier because he stepped around the corner at the wrong moment apparently this story spread across the lot and the fear in shatner's eyes was very real during their showdown on the bridge number nine michelle nichols was a talented singer the fan dance scene in star trek 5 the final frontier is one of the most recognized moments in all of its movies however its influence has gone even further than that with it getting parodied on the lower decks and michelle nichols making fun of herself in futurama but what gets forgotten is that scene came about initially to showcase nicole's voice and her musical talent this was not the first time that the audience had heard uhura sing because nicole's a talented musician had sung on the original series as well so she was delighted when she learned that this skill would be returning for star trek 5. she recorded the moons a window for heaven and performed the infamous scene only to be devastated to discover that she was overdubbed in post-production the version heard in the film was performed by a band called hiroshima and without her knowledge or permission whilst the scene was inspired by the fact that she was more than capable of singing to seduce nicole was pretty angered and it hurt that it was only her image shown in the final scene if someone can get the recording of nichelle singing please let us know in the comments i would love to listen to that number eight garak is claustrophobic by inferno's light and after image both show garrick's extreme claustrophobia on screen his role in the first episode was based on charles bronson's character in the great escape though actor andrew robinson bought a lot of himself to the scene whilst eric was written as a claustrophobic regardless robinson also suffers from the condition which led to a hyper-real portrayal he was also suffering from the flu on the day of filming which heightened the depiction of discomfort whilst he was trapped in the wall robinson quoted in the deep space nine companion book described the episode by saying he didn't have to act because it was all incredibly real to him in after image this is used as one of garrick's major weaknesses thanks to the increasing pressure of his responsibilities during the dominion war in the story he works through his claustrophobia with esri dax but in real life robinson stated that having to go to that place is always tough despite this both by inferno's light and after image are excellent examples of an actor's real-life struggles improving the on-screen performance number seven hands on hips in star trek voyager's third season the episode macrocosm features an alien race called the tact the entire reason that they were conceived was due to an in-joke on set with kate mulgrew who while playing captain janeway would often compulsively put her hands on her hips it became a recurring stance for the character during the run of the show and it also allowed the writers to have a bit of fun at her expense the tactac race were primarily obsessed with body language and gestures to denote meaning nelix thoroughly prepared for negotiations spends the opening moments of the episode doing his best to apologize for janeway's incredible faux pas placing hands on one's hips is the worst kind of offense in the tactac language resulting in an almost immediate cease of the talks if it wasn't for nelix there's very little doubt that starfleet would not have gained an ally that day although this would not be the end of her placing her hands on her hips it shone a light on the gesture going forward bringing the audience in on the joke number six martok can never forgive core jg hertzler had auditioned for just about every alien role in star trek before he was invited to come and read for martok he decided he was going to switch things up a little bit for this audition though he delivered a quiet and controlled performance as the klingon instead of the wild aggressive couple types that he was sure that producers had seen a thousand times before they responded by saying hey that was a great performance but can we have a little bit more wild and aggressive and classically kapla type klingon performance once he showed that he could do that as well they saw his full range and guess what he was hired in the seventh season martok was well established in deep space nine and a fiercely honourable man however when core boards his ship a new side of martok is revealed suddenly he seems to have a pessy hatred for this older man the writers decided that core would have blocked martok's ascent through the ranks early on in his life which left the man with a deep resentment herzla felt that this wasn't enough though he asked to include a line that gave martok greater depth after telling wolfe that he had earned a battlefield commission he added unfortunately my father did not live to see that day this changes the whole situation rather than martel's anger and hurt stemming from purely personal feelings of betrayal his anger toward core stems from his inability to prove his worth to his father before he passed to stovercore this was a small change but the addition of the line gave the two men a much deeper divide number five the cardassian neck trick the origin story the wounded introduced audiences to the kardashians who along with the borg would go on to become one of the primary antagonists in the trek universe mark eleimo stars as gol mossette the first soldier that the federation encounters during the next generation he sports a distinctive makeup designed entirely around his physique aleihimo has a very long neck one that makeup artist michael westmore used as inspiration for the race as a whole he designed the neck ridges that run from the base of his skull sweeping down and out towards his shoulders and every cardassian since has featured the same look when deep space nine rolled around and built the kardashians into the very premise they brought alaimo back and recast him as gold the cat beyond the look of the kardashians in general his style of speech played into how the cat was written with his slow methodical tone commanding any other character in the scene to operate at his pace this one man alone was responsible for the overall depiction of the entire cardassian race simply because he spoke slowly and had a long neck number 4 scotty's right hand in the original series and most of the tos era movies scotty rarely allows his right hand to be in frame his left hand features prominently in almost all shots as james duan did not want to display his other he had served during that allied invasion of normandy on d-day and during combat his right middle finger had been severed although there are scenes in the early years where for some reason or another his hand manages to slip into frame it would not be until star trek v the final frontier that doom seemed to relax his attempts to conceal it whilst he stands with the horror on the bridge discussing shore leave and about to tuck into lunch of rations his right hand is clearly visible missing finger and all though up to this point he had mostly used hand doubles during filming there was a scene in trouble with tribbles where the missing digit was noticeable while scotty held a huge armful of tribbles in the next generation episode relics he also doesn't try to hide it while sharing a drink with our good old picard on the hollow deck number three nimoy paid attention in the temple the famous vulcan salute first appeared in star trek in 1967 episode amok time this served as the episode that introduced many different aspects of the vulcan society and revealed that once every seven years spock is dtf leonard nimoy was the one who suggested this gesture in his 1975 autobiography i am not spock he wrote that he based it on the priestly blessing performed by the jewish kohanim with both hands thumb to thumb in this same position representing the hebrew letter shin which has three upward strokes similar to the position of the thumb and fingers in the gesture now nimoy said that as a child he had opened his eyes during a part of the ceremony that was meant to be heard and not seen during this he observed this blessing and it stuck with him the gesture is now one of the most famous in all of pop culture with live long and prosper being spoken as either a greeting or a fair well and the less common peace and long life can be used as either a precursor or a response number two frakes did his backing and the leg lift was born i don't care what you say this this and this is the original riker maneuver jonathan frakes asserts his dominance over almost every chair he encounters in star trek but far from the mean bait this might feel like this was actually due to a real life issue that has followed him for most of his life will wheaton confirmed this on a reddit thread that a back injury was the cause of frake's iconic leg lift and leans frake sustained an injury prior to his casting on star trek when his job moving furniture resulted in damaging his back this meant that he struggled with standing for long periods of time which would then in turn lead to a slight lean to the left raka is also well known for resting his leg against consoles and the odd rock if he can find one as well which was frank's way of taking some of the pressure off but his interactions with starfleet's various chairs is what has stuck long in the memory of the show's fans and thanks to this man i will never ever mount a chair in the same way again number one a very english very bald frenchman captain picard was based on horatio hornblower one of gene roddenberry's favorite characters picard was going to be swashbuckling though not nearly as much as james t kirk was designed to be and he was going to be viral young and definitely most definitely french at 47 years old patrick stewart was the absolute opposite to rodenbury's idea of the character his first issue with the actor was his boldness and after their initial meeting rodenbury bid him goodbye closed the door and announced to robert justman i just won't have him it took the combined team of jasmine and rick berman to convince ronbery to take a chance on him he was eventually invited back with the stipulation that he wear a wig for the audition and it went well enough for him to land the part mercifully though roddenberry eventually changed his mind about the two pace stating to a reporter that by the 21st century nobody would care this left one other issue picard was french and stuart was clearly not thus there exists a tape in the bowels of paramount of patrick stewart attempting a line in a french accent at this point roddenberry threw his hands up and said just do it in your normal voice switching the character from a frenchman with a full head of hair to a man with an english accent with french origins who was as bald as an egg and i wouldn't have it any other way so there you have it 10 behind the scenes reasons for star trek character quirks did we miss anything let us know in the comments below and of course you can like and subscribe us and find us on twitter at trick culture i'm on all social medias at marcus bronzy m-a-r-c-u-s-b-r-o-n-z-y and my podcast wherever you get those is called how to kill an hour until next time live long and prosper

Channel: TrekCulture

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Length: 12min 36sec (756 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021