Star Trek’s Worst Movie Villain Was Almost Thrown Off The Set
William Shatner directed exactly one Trek film—1989’s Star Trek V: The Final Frontier–but the icon nearly shut down production because of his villain, Sybok played by Laurence Luckinbill. According to a recent ScreenRant interview with Luckinbill, Shatner threatened to shut things down because the actor playing Sybok was making one of his cast mates laugh too much.
Laurence And George
Promoting his memoir Affective Memories: How Chance and the Theater Changed My Life, Laurence Luckinbill told ScreenRant about his experiences on the set of The Final Frontier. Asked about rumors that Shatner had threatened to throw him off the set, Luckinbill reminisced.
“Well, George [Takei] has a funny laugh,” Laurence Luckinbill explained. “And I could make George laugh, and I did… the movie days are long days… And so I’m making George laugh. And we hear from Bill: ‘If you don’t shut up, I’ll close this set!'”
Sybok
Laurence Luckinbill plays one of the most sympathetic villains in the Star Trek film franchise. His character, Sybok, is the estranged brother of Spock. As a Vulcan who proudly ignores the teachings that lead most of his kind to purge themselves of emotion, Sybok is an outcast.
Like his brother, Sybok has telepathic gifts and in his case he has the ability to liberate others of their deepest emotional pain—something that helps the Vulcan recruit followers.
Sybok believes he has been contacted psychically by the creator of universe, by God himself, and he uses his abilities to recruit a force to capture the Enterprise and use it to journey to the center of the galaxy—where God supposedly waits for him.
Luckinbill Says Sybok Is No Villain
Laurence Luckinbill’s interviewer mentioned the cameo of a new actor playing Sybok in Season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Assuming another appearance is in store, Luckinbill was asked if he had any advice for a new Sybok actor.
He had advice, including insisting Sybok wasn’t a villain.
“I would tell anyone who’s got the new Sybok robes to remember, really, that his impulse is good, is really good,” Laurence Luckinbill said. “He is not a villain. He is someone who has made mistakes… And in terms of trying to change your family or hold the community better, or something like that, you might get nuts and say, ‘No, you will do it this way.’ But the impulse [is] to make things better, and really, at its heart, is let me take your pain away… And I told Bill that. I said he’s not a villain. He’s a heroic guy.”
In fact, as Luckinbill points out, while Sybok starts out as an enemy to the Enterprise crew, he ultimately sacrifices himself to save them. When it becomes clear the entity who contacted him is not God, he uses his abilities to distract the thing while the Enterprise crew escapes.
Luckinbill Replaced Connery
William Shatner’s first choice to play Sybok was Sean Connery, but unfortunately the legendary James Bond actor wasn’t available. Connery was already playing another estranged family member—the eponymous hero’s father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
According to Laurence Luckinbill, there was another possibility to play Sybok. He heard that Leonard Nimoy had lobbied to play both Spock and Sybok, but that Shatner shot down the idea.
Source: ScreenRant
