Uhura Joins The Cast of Heroes… WTF is Up with the Star Trek Connection?
In the first season of Heroes, when George Takei appeared for a couple episodes as Hiro’s father, it seemed like a case of brilliant casting. Bringing back a great actor within the confines of a show that was well-loved by geeks everywhere made for a big win on all accounts, right? Well now it’s starting to look like there is some sort of ulterior motive here, some master plan that will see old school Star Trek fans absorbed into the cult of Heroes, while simultaneously conditioning young Heroes fanboys to become the next generation of Trekkies. Sound crazy? Check this out:
A couple weeks ago we heard that Enterprise’s Dominic Keating had joined the cast of Heroes for next season. Then around Comic Con it was announced that Zachary Quinto (Sylar on Heroes) had been cast in the upcoming J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek film as a young Spock. This has been followed by rumours of James Kyson Lee (Ando on Heroes) being interested in the young Sulu gig. Now, this week it was announced that Nichelle Nichols (Uhura on the original Star Trek) will be joining the cast of Heroes in its second season. What the heck is going on here?!
While it is by no means a stupid approach to try cross-marketing two shows that have a similar audience, I question how similar their audiences really are. Are we to assume that Heroes is the closest thing to Star Trek on TV today? Maybe I could understand if it was Battlestar Galactica or something. I guess my main complaint is that it’s starting to become less about choosing the right actor for the job, and more about choosing the actor with the right fanbase. I don’t hate Heroes and I am by no means a die hard Trek fan, but am I alone in thinking that the two don’t entirely mix?
Comments (6)
Not a die hard Trek fan?!?
I don’t know what the producers of Heroes are doing casting Dominic Keating, but as far as the new Spock I think it’s the case of him being the only non-complete noname dude who resembles Leonard Nimoy as a youngster.
Is there a character on ‘Heroes’ named ‘Hiro’ though? Fuck it something ever summed up (modern) television that decision would be it. I am interested in the ‘Origins’ miniseries though. I think it could be good if the powers were cool, but it’s probably going to star Kate Mulgrew, Tim Russ & Colm Meaney.
Posted by Henrik on August 14th, 2007It’s the whole “Fanboys make or break a film” mentality. They’re playing it safe with this incestuous decision making. I’m going to sit back and see how it all plays out. should be interesting.
Posted by Daniel on August 15th, 2007Henrik, you must be a die-hard Trek fan. Only a die-hard Trek fan would reference Kate Mulgrew, Tim Russ, and Colm Meaney. And spell their names correctly as well!
Sean, it’s not like characters from Star Trek are appearing in Heroes. So I don’t see why there would be reason to complain about actors playing different characters in two different television series. (BTW, I can’t believe you referred to George Takei as a great actor. I think he just became a member of your fan club.)
I admit this cross-pollenization is kind of strange. Has anyone else noticed the number of actors who acted in the various Roots series and specials, and eventually ended up in major (and minor) roles on Star Trek? Someone should remake the original Roots series with Anthony Montgomery playing Kunta Kinte. (Henrik will probably be the only person who understands this reference.)
Posted by Pacifistopheles on August 18th, 2007Pacifistophele: Boy do I love Star Trek. Even though the only series I really got into was Next Gen.
Did you see Die Hard 4.0? When Tuvok shows up as a government agent I was totally taken out of the movie.
Posted by Henrik on August 18th, 2007No, I haven’t seen the latest Die Hard. When you wrote that Tuvok showed up as a government agent, I actually envisoned Tuvok and not Tim Russ.
If I ever become a filmmaker, I’m only going to cast actors from small town repertoire theatres. I can’t believe any story when I see a recognizable actor in a role. I guess that’s why actors get type-cast. I suppose I could “use my imagination” or “suspend my disbelief,” but maybe that’s why books are more believable to me than television or movies.
For an actor, it sucks to be type-cast. That’s why they need to become stars so that people will pay to see them rather than the story they are in.
BTW, I prefer the original series. Next gen had some good stories, but I really don’t understand why that series became so popular.
And I don’t know why Nemesis tanked with the general populace, but IMO, it deserved to. Funny that the tag-line for Nemesis teased that it would be the last next gen movie, and still no one went. Good thing the general populace didn’t fall for that trick, but now the irony is that because people didn’t fall for the trick, it really was the last next gen movie.
I think FilmJunk is cross-pollenizing by pulling us Trekkies in with their Trek movie stories. But I’m guessing that the FilmJunk crew are closet Trekkies.
Posted by Pacifistopheles on August 18th, 2007Haha, some more closet than others *coughGregcough*
The reason I wrote Tuvok is because I couldn’t handle seeing Russ without the uniform. It was so fucking strange.
Next Gen has Picard, for me easily the zenith of the entire Star Trek universe. I know it’s problematic to like Next Gen over TOS, because TOS was where they came up with everything and NG couldn’t exist without it, but I still think it’s a superior show. Romulans and Borg are more interesting than Klingons and Q is unparallaled to me. And like I said, capt. Picard… He’s just such a great character, unlike any I have seen on TV. I’ve seen people like Kirk before. Spock is also cool, but I think I prefer some of the storylines that Worf had in the NG run. Like the episode where the romulan needs a blood transfusion.
Nemesis is a terrible movie. Stuart Baird is one of the shittiest directors ever, and the fact that he was allowed to do a Trek movie makes my blood boil. Not to mention getting the fucking HACK writer John Logan to come up with the idea. It deserved to fail because it was so horrible.
Posted by Henrik on August 19th, 2007Leave a Reply