Why Jeffrey Hunter didn't continue with Star Trek

[johnnybear]

For a long while, I felt the same way. It's very possible Hunter could have grown into the role and had more warmth to his projection of the captain. But when I watch those early Shatner episodes, I change my mind. While some of his acting was over the top, he brought a terrific style to Kirk that really worked. There were plenty of rough edges to TOS acting and directing, because of the intense film schedule at hand (too little time from script to filming), and then the whole debacle as Season 2 came to a close (issues with production staff, Gene being absent for Season 3, etc). Sometimes I cringe at Shatner's performances... but overall, I'm still glad he was cast as Kirk.

I always thought that Shatner's overacting hamming took place in the third season rather than the earlier ones!
JB

 

[The Old Mixer]

^

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[STEPhon IT]

LOL. No fair. Kirk was simply one half of himself. I love that episode BTW.

 

[The Old Mixer]

50 percent Kirk...110 percent Shat.

 

[Kor]

I always thought of "The Cage" as something special. But it was this very forum that convinced me, years ago, of the potential superiority of a whole series featuring Pike and his crew. "If only, if only."

Kor

 

[Maurice]

I think "had he stayed on Star Trek X might not've happened" is your basic butterfly effect thing. Basically, had he done anything different the chain of events of the rest of his life could've gone a thousand different ways. He could have accepted to stay on Trek and been hit by a bus the next week. There's no way of knowing what would have happened, good or bad.