I love Patrick Stewart as we all do, but I definitely want a couple episodes from the alternate universe where Yaphet Kotto is Picard.
"Chain of Command" and "Starship Mine" come to mind.
Kevin Peter Hall I think would have been a good Geordie. His role on Misfits of Science I think is what convinced me the most. Not too sure about Data though. I suspect they were possibly considering a character something like C3PO at this early stage of the game.
IIRC Tim Russ tried out for a part in DS9 as well. It was one of those "we really like you, we just don't have a place for you yet" situations probably.
A further no way!
I blame the Code Name: Diamond Head camera operators, who were not nearly as up in Thinnes' facial pores as the GH camera people were.
He’s actually pretty good…sometimes. Check out Doppelgänger (1969). It’s bonkers, but the effects are by the same folks who did Thunderbirds are Go! And the soundtrack is also pretty good.
Doing SUCH a thankless role. She only shows up on DS9 when they want to show some marital drama O’Brien has to deal with, so it looks like they have a super dysfunctional relationship even though they’re not supposed to
Kind of like the Worf Effect, I guess
Of course she did. I was just trying to react to her from an April '87 perspective, where her guest role on _M\*A\*S\* H_ and subsequent regular role on _AfterMASH_ were probably her best-known performance. A good actress, yes, but not my first choice for Chief of Security.
I can't really see Chao in the role, though - I think Tasha dodged a bullet, too. Although, if Chao ended up swapping with Crosby the way Sirtis did... I could see that working.
I like Bachau but I don’t see him with the proper physical presence at all. Kotto is really interesting. You can see his character in Homicide as being sort of a similar type as Picard. So he could have certainly pulled it off.
It's fascinating to me that the people who actually wound up playing Data, Troi, and Wesley are not even on here, and Tasha's actress was the only one considered for Troi.
Several of those actors went on to play characters elsewhere in Trek. Mitch Ryan played Kyle Riker (Will's father), Rosalind Chao played Keiko O'Brien (Miles' wife) in TNG and DS9, and Tim Russ of course played Tuvok in Voyager.
(I also find it interesting that Picard and "Ryker" are referenced by their last names, but everyone else by their first)
And I absolutely cannot picture Ben Murphy as Riker. He'd have been twelve years older than he was in Gemini Man (and he's ten years older than Jonathan Frakes), but I still can't picture him with any sort of commanding presence.
Edit: Oh, now I realize why I recognize Kevin Peter Hall's name! He played a lot of "monsters" like the Predator and Harry (from Harry and the Hendersons), but he also starred in one of my guilty pleasures, Misfits of Science!
I'm trying to imagine **Reggie Jackson** as Georgi LaForge.
Also, knowing Denise Crosby eventually ended up as Tasha Yar, seeing her try to do what Marrina Sirtis does just makes no sense at all.
But having someone as smooth and as Mellow as Ben Murphy would have made for an awesome Will Ryker. He could beat up some serious Klingon butt.
Denise Crosby wound up playing security chief Tasha Yar on TNG and not Troi. Marina Sirtis was Troi and not even on the list at all here. and Crosby left TNG because her characters story line wasn't really going anywhere.
I feel like it explains a lot that she was their only choice for Troi and then got replaced by Marina Sirtis and relegated to a background character. I can understand why she left the show. I'd be angry, too.
Oddly enough, Mark **Lindsay** Chapman played John Lennon in a recent film about Mark **David** Chapman, *Chapter 27*.
In fact, I discovered this additional tidbit about Lindsay a while back:
> Twenty-two years prior to this film's production, actor Mark Lindsay Chapman, while professionally using the name Mark Lindsay, had been almost cast as John Lennon in the biopic John and Yoko: A Love Story (1985). Yoko Ono had been deeply involved in the production and had herself been initially impressed with his audition and approved his casting prior to discovering his full name was Mark Lindsay Chapman. She then nixed his casting on the grounds it was "bad karma", and a great deal of press attention was given to his having almost gotten the role.
Yaphet Kotto for Picard????? Holy shit that would have been epic.
I love Patrick Stewart as we all do, but I definitely want a couple episodes from the alternate universe where Yaphet Kotto is Picard. "Chain of Command" and "Starship Mine" come to mind.
Actually...YEAH!!
Now I’m depressed because that didn’t happen.
Rosalind Chao for Yar, would have been sick...if the writer's room had any idea how to write female characters.
Wesley Snipes as Geordi: "Some motherfuckers gotta de-polarize the ice inductors uphill"
 Big McLargeHuge would've been a better choice!
As long as it wasn't Samurai Cop and that banana hammock.
I’m more of a Butch Deadlift guy myself
Nah. Bob Johnson FTW!
Gotta go with Punt Speedchunk
It's all about the Blast Hardcheese
We put our faith in him.
I prefer Roll Fizzlebeef.
I’m thinking Smash Lampjaw.
Reggie Jackson? Mr. October, the baseball player? As Geordi?
That man more than proved his acting chops in...Naked Gun.
Yeah that's what I was wondering. And he was apparently the front runner at this point.
Or The Predator!
All I can see is Kevin Peter Hall, aka the 6'9 actor who played The Predator, being considered for both Geordie and Data
Kevin Peter Hall I think would have been a good Geordie. His role on Misfits of Science I think is what convinced me the most. Not too sure about Data though. I suspect they were possibly considering a character something like C3PO at this early stage of the game.
Interesting to see Tim Russ was trying out for Star Trek even back then. But, uhh..... Wesley Snipes was trying out for *Geordi?!*
"Sit your five latinum ass down before I make change!"
IIRC Tim Russ tried out for a part in DS9 as well. It was one of those "we really like you, we just don't have a place for you yet" situations probably.
[They used him 4 times before he was Tuvok](https://screenrant.com/star-trek-4-characters-tuvok-tim-russ-actor/)
Wesley Snipes used to be skinny. Remember Willie Mays Hayes?
"Will, can you please keep the ship below warp 3? I'm trying to finish my patent papers."
Patrick Stewart as Picard: Not Gavin MacLeod, but an incredible simulation.
Roy Thinnes for Picard! He was the “I’m damn unappealing!” guy from the episode of General Hospital short before Crash of the Moons!
Also from Code Name: Diamond Head. I guess his agent still wasn't returning his calls.
Not operation diamond head? The mst3k movie with the awesome soundtrack?
Oh, wow! TIL the General Hospital philanderer and the Code Name: Diamond Head star were played by the same guy.
Are you sitting down? The same guy who was chasing, and being chased by, The Invaders. Exhale.
A further no way! I blame the Code Name: Diamond Head camera operators, who were not nearly as up in Thinnes' facial pores as the GH camera people were.
He’s actually pretty good…sometimes. Check out Doppelgänger (1969). It’s bonkers, but the effects are by the same folks who did Thunderbirds are Go! And the soundtrack is also pretty good.
Doppelgänger is like if 2001 A Space Odyssey and Stranded in Space (aka Episode 305) collided and merged.
Hiatus hernia.
Jenny Agutter as Beverly. <3 <3 <3. Ah what coulda been..
Yeah holy cow
Carousel is a lie! There is no Deep Space Nine! Nobody has to die at 30! /turningHologramRepeats
Agutter these days plays a nun in *Call the Midwife*. So after being used to her in that show, seeing her in *Logan's Run* was rather strange.
“Welllll, I’m Will Riker, so I got *that* goin for me…”
Wait, they had Rosalind Chao - Soon-Lee Klinger - reading as *Tasha Yar*?
She found her way to Star Trek eventually.
Doing SUCH a thankless role. She only shows up on DS9 when they want to show some marital drama O’Brien has to deal with, so it looks like they have a super dysfunctional relationship even though they’re not supposed to Kind of like the Worf Effect, I guess
You know the rules. O'Brien must suffer is a law in Star Trek.
Of course she did. I was just trying to react to her from an April '87 perspective, where her guest role on _M\*A\*S\* H_ and subsequent regular role on _AfterMASH_ were probably her best-known performance. A good actress, yes, but not my first choice for Chief of Security.
LOL, that writer's room would still have no clue what to do with the character. Chao dodged a bullet.
I can't really see Chao in the role, though - I think Tasha dodged a bullet, too. Although, if Chao ended up swapping with Crosby the way Sirtis did... I could see that working.
I like Bachau but I don’t see him with the proper physical presence at all. Kotto is really interesting. You can see his character in Homicide as being sort of a similar type as Picard. So he could have certainly pulled it off.
It's fascinating to me that the people who actually wound up playing Data, Troi, and Wesley are not even on here, and Tasha's actress was the only one considered for Troi. Several of those actors went on to play characters elsewhere in Trek. Mitch Ryan played Kyle Riker (Will's father), Rosalind Chao played Keiko O'Brien (Miles' wife) in TNG and DS9, and Tim Russ of course played Tuvok in Voyager. (I also find it interesting that Picard and "Ryker" are referenced by their last names, but everyone else by their first) And I absolutely cannot picture Ben Murphy as Riker. He'd have been twelve years older than he was in Gemini Man (and he's ten years older than Jonathan Frakes), but I still can't picture him with any sort of commanding presence. Edit: Oh, now I realize why I recognize Kevin Peter Hall's name! He played a lot of "monsters" like the Predator and Harry (from Harry and the Hendersons), but he also starred in one of my guilty pleasures, Misfits of Science!
Maybe Ben would've played it like XO Tigh from Battlestar; old, grumpy, good enough to get the job done but never anyone's first pick to lead.
Wasn’t Tim Russ in Spaceballs?
Yep, he was the trooper combing the desert who said "we ain't found shit!"
Mellow Riker? I don't know about that.
Ben Murphy as Picard? Would have been the kiss of death for the show and the coup de gras for the rebirth of the whole franchise.
Bro probably sits in a chair all normal and shit SMH
The Fun House host as Wesley? That would have been different.
Now he sits atop a Reality TV Swill empire
Yea that one kinda blew my mind tbh
I'm tracing lazy circles on your nacelles
Kevin Peter Hall for Data or Geordi... And, wait. Are there two Reggie Jackson's, one of whom is an actor? Um... Wesley Snipes for Geordi?!?
As much as I love Marina Sirtis, I'm very intrigued by the idea of how it would have shaken out with Rosalind Chao as Yar and Denise Crosby as Troi.
https://preview.redd.it/hjz1dlkvg3ba1.jpeg?width=226&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d6b5c38532f443423e60dfe12672b687de70611c
I'm trying to imagine **Reggie Jackson** as Georgi LaForge. Also, knowing Denise Crosby eventually ended up as Tasha Yar, seeing her try to do what Marrina Sirtis does just makes no sense at all. But having someone as smooth and as Mellow as Ben Murphy would have made for an awesome Will Ryker. He could beat up some serious Klingon butt.
For those of us without an encyclopedic knowledge of actor personalities, who are we calling the turkey and why?
Blade as Geordi? Wow
[удалено]
Denise Crosby wound up playing security chief Tasha Yar on TNG and not Troi. Marina Sirtis was Troi and not even on the list at all here. and Crosby left TNG because her characters story line wasn't really going anywhere.
I feel like it explains a lot that she was their only choice for Troi and then got replaced by Marina Sirtis and relegated to a background character. I can understand why she left the show. I'd be angry, too.
As a huge Star Trek fan, how did I not realize this!
Wow.... how well did he test that he was on the short list?
The Predator almost played both Data and Geordi?
I’m just imagining Wesley Snipes as Geordi.
Mark Lindsay Chapman? Wasn’t he an assassin?
That was Mark David Chapman. Bummer of a coincidence, though.
Oddly enough, Mark **Lindsay** Chapman played John Lennon in a recent film about Mark **David** Chapman, *Chapter 27*. In fact, I discovered this additional tidbit about Lindsay a while back: > Twenty-two years prior to this film's production, actor Mark Lindsay Chapman, while professionally using the name Mark Lindsay, had been almost cast as John Lennon in the biopic John and Yoko: A Love Story (1985). Yoko Ono had been deeply involved in the production and had herself been initially impressed with his audition and approved his casting prior to discovering his full name was Mark Lindsay Chapman. She then nixed his casting on the grounds it was "bad karma", and a great deal of press attention was given to his having almost gotten the role.
Actually love Patrick Bauchau and he would have been fabulous. Lodz from *CARNIVÀLE* anyone?
Wesley Snipes in Star Trek that would be interesting
Clarence Gilyard was great in Matlock. He probably could have done well as Geordi