Takei & Wheaton Talk About Favorite Episodes of TOS and TNG

In a new video for the Kirk v Picard Script Writing Contest George Takei and Wil Wheaton talk about their favorite episodes. Takei’s pick is "The Naked Time" and Wheaton’s favorite is (as an actor) "The First Duty," but said "Inner Light" was his favorite as a fan.  

In a second video Wheaton answers some fan questions showing off his true nerdiness, and also acts out some classic Wesley dialog from the KvP script writing contest.

Video courtesy of Fanlib, Clips form CBS

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“The Inner Light” is one of the best Star Trek episodes of all time!

If this whole acting thing doesn’t work out, I think Takei and Wheaton have a bright future as Herbalife pitchmen.

Naked Time is only Sulus fave cause he gets to run around without his shirt

its an ok ep but i really doubt anyone else would choose it as their all time fave of TOS

My fave has always been – SPECTRE OF THE GUN – for its trippy Twilight Zone feel…I know theres lots of 1st and 2nd season eps that are much better but thats MY personal fave

as for Wheato – well who gives ashit what he likes right? might as well ask the guy who played Jar Jar Bink what his fave Star Wars film is (he’d say Phantom no doubt)

MY fave TNG ep is Yesterdays Enterprise – its just a shame they didnt hold that story for Generations..and have the A instead of the C come through the rift..or even had just gone and rejigged it for Gen in a similar way to how TMP rejigged The Changeling and Doomsday Machine…

‘the lesson from that is…’

dont play an annoying kid onTNG for 4 years.

OK, you added the correct clip now. I see the new stuff.
I’d love it if the CBS-R DVDs include stuff this good. I think Wheaton will be back as an actor. It’s just a period when the audience is ‘forgetting’ or ‘forgiving’ the use of Wesley. Don’t forget, this ‘kid’ knocked audiences socks off in ‘Stand by Me.’ (I still hate going swimming in ponds.) He needs to find a few good roles, no matter how indie.
As for best eps… obviously, actors pick their own starrers. I would have picked “Final Mission” for Wesley’s character. As for Naked Time, it’s hard to question that choice. It’s very important to the series, and George seems to like leaping about with his shirt off. (**oh the snark bites, with his teeth dear…**)

ps- ah snake, your warmth is a beacon in the dark, chill of space…

In my opinion and I’m pretty sure most fans will agree but these are the best episodes from each series.

Best episodes for TOS – The City On The Edge Of Forever, Doomsday Machine, The Trouble with Tribble, and Mirror Mirror.

Best episodes for Next Generation – Yesterdays Enterprise, Measure of a Man, Q Who, BOBW part 1, and The Inner Light,

Best episodes for DSN – The Visitors, Duet, In the Pale of Moonlight, Far Beyond the Stars, and Trials and Tribble-actions.

Best episodes of VOY – Timeless, Living Witness, Drone, Scorpion,

Best episodes if ENT – Dear Doctor, Cogentior, Shuttle Pod One, Damage, Tiwilight.

I probably forgot a few goods one but these are the ones that came off the top of my head.

6 – a few mistakes there –

Voy has no best episodes. they are all rubbish (yes they are)

DSP – only had one (as you correctly mentioned Trials and Tribs)

and Ent – Why no Mirror Universe eps? – I’d have to say they are the best of the whole of ENT (plus Twilight as you said)

I can’t really understand why everyone goes on and on about those Mirror Universe eps on Enterprise. They really aren’t that good. Sure, production-wise they did a great job but that Gorn was laughably bad and it still suffered from Enterprise’s biggest flaw – the leads look bored nearly all the time.

8 – I agree the Gorn looked awful – they should have just used make up and a suit.

as for them looking bored – i didnt really notice it – but i know they were all told that Ent was being cancelled whilst shooting it

#9

I dunno, that was always my biggest gripe about Enterprise. The actors always looked a bit listless like they just couldn’t care less what was going on in a particular scene. I really like Scott Bakula but thought he was pretty piss-poor in that show. It seemed as though they never quite got their characters down.

I’m with you though, I think a good makeup job probably would have worked better. Hell, I’d of gone for some kind of Farscape-ian muppet over that CGI monstrosity.

#6 good solid choices although I’d add The Cage in there for TOS
TNG – Except for the episode where the Q wanted to take out the girl with the Q powers – any Q episode is great.
DS9 – hard to say as I liked the long story arcs for the Dominion wars so individual episodes don’t stand out as much but I LOVE the ones you picked.
STV – Loved most of the Doctor stories, 8472 etc.
#7 You’re welcome to your opinion but basically mine is that yours is rubbish.
Ent – Didn’t like any of them at 1st and bailed after the 1st year but I got a great deal on the series box and gave it another try after I heard about the changes made in the 3rd and 4th years. Experiencing them as a whole I found that I actually liked the long stories as with DS9. Loved almost the whole 4th year except the last episode which was really just an OK TNG holodeck story.

All the movies except V and X although both had a few good moments.

TAS – Yesteryear.

#I1

I always believe the cast of Enterprise was great. Trainner gave a moving performance in Shuttlepod One, Forgotten, Cogentior, and the one he got cloned it.

Linda Park, Dominic Keating, and John Bellingley also all gave great strong performance. It is one thing not to like the show but the diss the actors as well is kind of a low blow.

They just finished airing season 4 of Enterprise on Sci Fi. I never caught all of it first time around, but made a point to give it a chance this time. I think the stories were all good. Really enjoyed it, but the acting was awful.

I just mentioned on another thread that the only characters I really enjoyed were Trip, T’Pol and Phlox. I’m going to add Porthos to that. The rest of them slept through their parts, and Bakula, was just never sure who he was as far as I could tell.

The show also had some great space effects, but weak matte style painting effects… the landscapes often looked like little toys. The Gorn was also maybe a poor choice, they didn’t quite pull it off.

All in all the season 4 story telling made it worthwhile for me, while before that i just couldn’t stand the show.

Doug L.

#6–Yes, I would agree that your choices were pretty good, excepting your regrettable exclusion of “The Menagerie” (still the best two hours of Trek ever put on film IMO). And don’t worry about #7, who apparently still hasn’t worked out how to play well with others.

#1, word. Some years previous a short-lived revival of “The Twilight Zone” had aired an adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s famous short story “The Star,” but in fact the conclusion of “The Inner Light” was everything that episode should have been, and its Hugo award was well-deserved.

Takei’s choice of his favorite TOS episode is not suprising at all. It’s one of the few episodes were he actually had a chance to do some acting….

I can imagine that both Takei and Koenig were more than a bit disappointed with most of the TOS episodes they read, because their speaking parts were so few and mostly insignificant. Saying “phasers locked” or “shields down to 30%” was not exactly great dialouge and required almost no acting ability. But they did an admirable jobs with the small roles they played. Both of these men had talent and could act competently. It’s just too bad they never had much of an opportunity to show it.

I think one of the reasons I like DS9 so much is that the it’s truly an ensemble cast of equals. Each character is fully developed over the course of seven seasons and you have a sense that you really got to know each of them to some degree. In my opinion, you really can’t say that about the cast of TOS. Only the characters of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty were fully developed.

Mike :o

bakula totally changed his performance for 3&4…he was less touchyfeely and wantin to have breakfast with his crew & more decisive. btw that FC borg ep was ok too…

hey ok so i took a cheap shot at wheato , voy & ds….that dont mean i an ahole. its just i dont dig much ST apart from tos, films & a few eps of tng & ent

I appreciated the comments of one reviewer who said the supporting cast of Trek should thank their lucky stars they didn’t get stuck as supporting cast members on shows such as ‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.’ Trek really didn’t focus much on the supporting cast, but it wasn’t designed to be an ensemble piece. It was driven by Kirk and Spock and sometimes McCoy.

re tos supporting cast- they got their moments in the films. konig had a big role and was superb in 2 plus had a biggish role in 4. takei in 6. not much for scot & uhura tho. unless u count the shat suddenly deciding that they were lovers in 5…

The casts have overall been mostly good actors. It’s the writing for the characters that has been wildly uneven. Luck of the draw whether you get to play Data or, heaven help you, Harry Kim.

Or Wesley. It’s easy to forget that not everyone subscribes to SuicideGirls, where Wil Wheaton writes regular editorials. His retrospectives on ST are fantastic, and he’s a gifted and insightful guy.

DS9 was the only series with no “wasted” characters. They found distinctive arcs and beats for all of them. By the fourth season they practically wrote themselves. Ron Moore said that was a conscious decision; shame VOY and ENT didn’t learn from it.

MichaelJohn:

Sorry, but I must disagree with the comment that George Takei did an “admirable job” (comment #15). He was adequate. If he was a good actor, someone would have noticed it, just like they noticed Nimoy as Spock or Brent Spiner as Data. Brent Spiner went from smaller parts to a HUGE presence because he was an excellent actor (and maybe because the fan mail came pouring in…). If George had been that good, they would have written more stories around him. Hollywood is like that when it comes to money. They’re not fools — they ride the winning horse. The reason Shatner and Nimoy got more lines is because they were cast in the lead parts (duh) and did an excellent job (which makes one wonder why the show was cancelled). Speaking of which, I believe the show got cancelled because the writers failed the actors, not vice versa.

Anyway, if Takei was that good an actor, believe me, he would have gotten their attention. He just couldn’t pull it off (in my opinion). I’ve seen him in interviews and it’s clear that he is a legend in his own mind. (Sorry, George, but come on…). I’m sorry he feels that way, but he is just not that good at acting.

@19: Uhura at least got that scene in ST3 in the transporter room, and Scotty got the NG episode “Relics”. And by the way, I think it was probably David Loughery who decided Scotty and Uhura should get together in ST5 and not Shatner.

#21…Ouch! You are sooo hard on poor George! Hahahaha

I’m not saying George Takei was in the same league as Pacino and Deniro…but how much can any actor really do with such limited role? For the most part, all he did was sit in a chair on the bridge for over 70 episodes! I think Nichols, Koenig and Takei were all very good in their supporting roles, but I agree they would not have been good choices in lead roles..

But you have to remember that almost everyone in TOS was typecast to some degree after the series ended. Even Doohan, who was very talented in my opinion, was hopelessly typecast after Trek ended and found it difficult to find work.

Shatner’s and Nimoy also struggled to some extent after the show ended, and their acting resumes in the 1970’s were unimpressive. It wasn’t until ST: TMP was released that their fortunes dramatically changed. After that film made tons of money, they were both in great demand and the rest is history…..

But in the end, they ALL became famous and earned some mighty big paydays from the TOS movies. So I’m not going to feel one bit sorry for any supporting cast member from TOS that didn’t go on to bigger and better things….

Mike :o