From: v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Avery Brooks's acting Re: Sisko's line delivery
Date: 25 Jan 93 17:34:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1jv5uiINNboe@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>, somaiah@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Somaiah Kumbera) writes...
>In article 1jcm5mINN76p@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu, somaiah@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Somaiah Kumbera) writes:
>>It seemed like Sisko still wants to get the hell out of DS9. I thought
>>he had decided to stay at the station after the first episode. But the way he 
>>delivered his lines in the second episode (the one with the Baejoran terrorist)
>>it still looks detached and...even bored with the whole station thing. Perhaps
>>he's just taking the "cool and collected" image too far. Whatever he's doing,
>>he's not doing a very good job of filling Picard's shoes. 
>				   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
>What makes you think he's supposed to filling Picard's shoes???  He's a
>commander of a station in his own right - nor is he taking over for Picard.
>Maybe in the sense of being the star of the series, but since these are two
>different series, and TNG is still going for at least another 1 1/2 years,
>Sisko probably shouldn't be looked at as filling Picard's shoes.  What do you
>want?  A clone of TNG?  TPTB are trying to make this a different kind of
>ST series.

     I think saying Sisko is "bored" with the assignment or that part
     of him still wants to transfer out is a wrong assessment.  The
     pilot intertwined Sisko's LIFE with his assignment at DS9.  In
     "Emissary," Sisko was forced to finally face Jennifer's death --
     and in so doing, he was forced to acknowledge that he has spent
     the last three years RUNNING from life in the face of his wife's
     death -- i.e., he's running but not getting anywhere ("You exist
     _here_.").

     I think a more correct assessment would be to say Avery Brooks
     doesn't quite have a handle on the role yet --- the fault is not
     with the character, who I like very much; the fault is with the
     actor.  He DOES seem flat at times - especially when spouting
     technobabble ("I'd say we just discovered a wormhole.")  Suspension
     of disbelief in an SF series or film rests almost entirely on
     the audience buying technobabble -- but if Brooks reads these lines
     flat, believability breaks down.  I'd say Brooks should look to
     Nana Visitor for a bit of nuance -- "There's your wormhole!" "...
     since I was old enough to pick up a phaser."  Etc.  
> 
> 
>What makes me think he's filling Picard's shoes? Well, for starters, he is
>supposed to be the main character in DS9, right? Just as Picard was(is) the 
>main character in TNG and Kirk was the main character in TOS.

     I agree that a comparison between Stewart and Brooks is inevitable,
     but it's clear that Sisko has much more in common with Riker on
     a character-comparison level... and that doesn't yield much anyway.

>Anyway, my point wasn't about Sisko filling Picard's shoes. (I guess we'll
>just have to leave that to Odo!!) My point was, and still is, that Sisko
>doesn't have half the charima that Picard does. You can wail all you want, 
>but I still think Sisko needs to sound like he's more "into" the show.

     I agree 100% with Brooks needing to get more "into" the show -- 
     but I want to point out also that he's had some great moments
     as well as flat ones: he was brilliant through "Emissary's" 
     teaser, and he has nice chemistry with Cirroc Lofton (Jake),
     as well as with Armin Shimerman (Quark).  Where he's lacking
     a lot is with Dax.  The writing is excptional - and Dax, in
     "A Man Alone," suddenly goes from one of the most uninteresting
     in a cast of great characters to one of the most mysterious and
     intriguing.  But where I liked Sisko's "old man" reference in
     the pilot - and hope to see Sisko use it more often - I feel
     he and Terry Farrell fall flat in creating the chemistry needed
     to make the backstory between the two characters believable -
     to make us FEEL it, instead of know it through exposition.

     Overall, I find DS9 to be far superior to any TV Trek, and I
     think this one has more potential as a tv series.  TNG was clearly
     made as a politically correct update of TOS, and Roddenberry was
     adamant that the series WOULD NOT showcase story arcs, the
     serialization of character's lives within an episodic structure,
     or any other post-Hill Street hourlong drama convention.  I sense
     that DS9 will embrace, in part, both of these new convntions.
     This will make it impossible to air reruns in "any order" as
     was the standard practice in the 60s and 70s -- but, then again,
     who cares?  

     Scott Gorcey
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current