(August 11th, 2022, 12:49 AM)Michael Wrote: I've never understood why the Jeffrey Hunter Star Trek wasn't greenlighted. Yes, I've read the books that explained all that, but it comes down to the choices of the network/studio executives who decided that recasting was needed. I don't believe their points of view have ever been explained.
The only thing I can think of is that they may have felt the look of the show was too dated - too much like the 1950s.
Could be, but then again I understood
Star Trek was sort of a tough sell regardless, especially as the budget was concerned. Many of the classic Star Trek TOS tropes most beloved, e.g. the transporters, originated as cost-cutting measures only to later inspire plot points and even storylines in themselves. IMO the "look" of ST-TOS was very much mid-1960's, plus blocky and minimalist (again, to save $$$$). Exhibit: the brief often revealing costumes for the female actors, esp. mini-skirts hardly imaginable as serious uniforms of a space navy!
I guess Hunter seemed maybe
too stereotypical action hero / commander?
Funny, I kept picturing another possible actor as a Starfleet captain: Guy Williams! IMO his "straight-man" commanderly turn as John Robinson, patriarch-commander in the near-contemporary series
Lost in Space IMO enabled at least pretending to take it seriously while the show otherwise devolved into the Jonathan Harris as Dr. Smith Show Featuring the Bubble-Headed Booby! Sorta makes me wonder how Williams could have worked as Capt. Pike?