Star Trek’s Worst Acting Was On Purpose
While Star Trek: Voyager has some major fans, many audiences felt that it had some of the worst acting in the franchise, especially compared to previous shows like The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. While it’s easy to dismiss this as just the petty claims of haters, one prominent Voyager actor blames a producer for the poor acting on the show. Ensign Kim actor Garrett Wang claims that infamous Trek producer Rick Berman told the cast “to underplay our human characters…to make the aliens look real.”
Garrett Wang Names The Culprit
It’s obviously a bold claim from the Star Trek actor, and the context for his claim about some of the franchise’s worst acting is very surprising. In an interview with the official Trek site, Wang received a relatively softball question about any “missed opportunities” from the actor’s time on Voyager. They mostly wanted to know if there were any aspects of Harry Kim’s character that the show could have explored better, but Wang used this opportunity to go after someone he truly seems to despise: Rick Berman.
Reshoots To Take Out Emotions
According to the actor, after the show had been cast, Berman invited everyone to a “congratulatory luncheon.” It was during this meal that Wang and the other actors were allegedly told by the producer that “he expected all actors portraying human roles to follow his decree…to underplay our human characters.” Wang says that Berman “wanted our line delivery to be as military– and subsequently devoid of emotion.”
This made the young Star Trek actor fear Voyager would have the worst acting when compared to shows like TNG. He claims that Kate Mulgrew often “had a teary eye on more than one occasion” in the first season and that producers would always demand a reshoot to remove that emotion.
The Janeway Theory
The memory of this caused an angry Wang to rhetorically ask, “If you can allow Captain Picard to bawl his eyes out for 10 minutes over the death of his relatives in the opening of the film Generations, then how on earth can you not allow Captain Janeway the chance to show some genuine emotion?”
Because he was new to Star Trek and relatively new to Hollywood, Wang didn’t want to rock the boat by pointing out how Berman’s decree would lead to the worst acting in franchise history.
Non-Humans Could Do What They Wanted
The actor speculated that removing emotion from Janeway early on might have been a response to the “death and bomb threats” that Paramount received from fans angry at the prospect of a female captain. Regardless, he remains annoyed that the human characters didn’t get to have either “tears” or “laughs,” noting that “Only the holographic doctor (Picardo) and the alien Neelix (Ethan Phillips) were allowed to be funny.”
As something of a Star Trek superfan, this decision particularly irked Wang…he thought this was the worst decision because some of the best acting in Star Trek: The Original Series came from the “light joking banter between Kirk…Bones…and Spock.”
Wang Is Still Frustrated
Years later, a still-annoyed Wang made a comment to TV Guide that “I think the producers of Voyager did not take the risks to make the show as good as it could be.” This off-record comment ended up getting published, and Wang maintains “that printed comment alone sealed the death of my ambitions to direct an episode of Star Trek.“
While Wang spins a fantastic tale of Star Trek producer Rick Berman forcing talented people to engage in the worst acting as part of an arbitrary “decree,” it is notable that none of the other Voyager actors have really corroborated this claim.
Fan Push Back
Considering that all of the cast would have been at this luncheon, that lack of corroboration may be somewhat suspect. Then again, it’s possible that everyone stayed silent about the matter for fear of rustling some powerful feathers, and that might be why they got opportunities (like directing gigs) that Wang did not.
Some Star Trek fans even push back against Wang’s claims because they think Voyager has some of the best (not worst) acting in the franchise’s storied history.
Of course, that show has an upcoming documentary, with screenings for backers airing this year. That doc could ultimately be our last real chance to learn whether Wang’s claims are substantial or whether he somehow has a very different memory of those early Voyager days than anyone else.
