Robert Culp as Captain Kirk?

[Aquehonga]

I remember hearing Robert Culp was in the running for, or considered to be cast as, Captain Kirk.

Is this true? Can any fellow aficionados confirm that? Or is it just grapewhine scuttlebut

Anyway, for pretend's sake, had Culp played Kirk, what do you think it would've been, be, like?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Culp was never in the running. It was Lloyd Bridges for the role of April/Winter/Pike, which went to Jeff Hunter (Pike). Then to Jack Lord, who wanted 50% ownership of the show, for Kirk. He was passed over and then Shatner was courted.

My woolgathering for the thread If You Were the Creator of TOS, What Would You Have Done Different, proposed a "what if Robert Culp, who had worked with Bob Justman on "The Outer Limits," was considered and got the part of April/Winter/Pike."

See:

http://trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=2589396&postcount=23

I think that he'd have made an interesting captain, certainly not as temperamental as Pike nor as suave as Kirk. Cool and charming nevertheless.

 

[Jeri]

And a good doubles partner.

 

[M'Sharak]

And a good doubles partner.

Heh, yeah. Culp already had a full-time television gig, starting the year before Star Trek went on the air.

 

[Gary7]

Meh... I keep thinking of Robert Culp in his role as FBI agent Bill Maxwell on "The Greatest American Hero" and the tremendous over acting he committed there. Worse than Shatner ever did. Could NOT see him as a Star Fleet captain.

Martin Landau became Commander Koenig on Space: 1999. Very stiff character... perhaps suitable for that rather starchy British sci-fi series. Maybe he could have pulled off the role of Mr. Spock... but Nimoy did such a fabulous job, that the role in his charge is so firmly etched in my mind and I can't see Landau being a substitute.

Bridges made a sci-fi appearance in Battlestar Galactica, as Commander Cain of the Pegasus. He was much older then... maybe it was more of his role as the "gun wielding cowboy commander" that keeps me from immediately accepting him as Captain Pike.

But given his acting talent, he probably could have pulled off a star fleet officer role.

 

[flandry84]

Robert Culp is a longtime favourite of mine but....
"Spock!Grab the jammies!"

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Meh... I keep thinking of Robert Culp in his role as FBI agent Bill Maxwell on "The Greatest American Hero" and the tremendous over acting he committed there. Worse than Shatner ever did. Could NOT see him as a Star Fleet captain.

And I always associate Robert Culp with Trent from "Demon With A Glass Hand." Hardly any overacting in that Outer Limits episode.

 

[Basil]

I like Robert Culp, especially on "I, Spy," but with those squinty, beady eyes, he always looked like he was cranky. I prefer Shatner's season one tiredness -- as though he were a man with the weight of the universe on his shoulders -- to Culp's seeming short-temperness -- as though he might come over the counter at me because his capacinno wasn't foamy enough.

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

Meh... I keep thinking of Robert Culp in his role as FBI agent Bill Maxwell on "The Greatest American Hero" and the tremendous over acting he committed there. Worse than Shatner ever did. Could NOT see him as a Star Fleet captain.

And I always associate Robert Culp with Trent from "Demon With A Glass Hand." Hardly any overacting in that Outer Limits episode.

I enjoyed that episode of "Outer Limits" and recently saw it again. It co-stars Arlene Martel who played Consuelo. Three years later she played T'Pring (Spock's wife) in "Amok Time" on the 2nd Season of TOS.

I remember reading that Robert Culp met with the Producers of [URL="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072564/"]"Space: 1999"[/URL], Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, to discuss the role of Commander Koenig. However, Culp's ideas for the role and show did not agree with producers so they went with Martin Landau and his wife Barbara Bain to play Koenig and Dr. Russell.


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[Nerys Myk]

Bill Cosby as Spock?

 

[plynch]

I have a hard time with either, due to their comedic roles. But Lloyd Bridges would have been good (pre-Airplane!). As good as Shatner, and he was good IMO.

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

Bill Cosby as Spock?

Ha Ha! I was thinking the same thing...

...but ya' know, it just may have worked. The combination of Culp and Cosby produced terrific chemistry on I Spy.