So...is Patrick Stewart heading the same way as Shatner?

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Prowl1984
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So...is Patrick Stewart heading the same way as Shatner?

Post by Prowl1984 »

Anyone else noticed him heading into self-parody territory? I'm pretty sure he was doing a voice over for a comparison site earlier with comedy overtones and it reminded me of Shatner with his whole price-line ads or whatever they were called. However, I don't have the same sense of pity for Stewart as I do with Shatner, weird really seeing as Stewart has superior acting skills and as such it should seem like more of a fall from grace. Love him in American Dad though.
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Post by Notabot »

I think a big difference is that Stewart's self-parody is done so very knowingly. Shatner is knowingly self-parodic now, but it didn't start that way. I think some of his early spoken word albums and such were meant to be serious work that were just so bad it was good. He finally caught on and went with it, but the sad part was when he didn't realize he was a joke. I haven't seen Stewart do anything along those lines... yet.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Stewart's always freely admitted that theatre is his first, great love and everything else has been various degrees of paying the bills and/or having fun (including Star Trek, both he and Brent Spinner only did it because it was a huge amount of money for what they expected to be a years work). His voice actually shows up in a lot of adverts, anyone remember "Chip and pin".

Shatner's very self aware and, with the possible exception of around the time he did that Rocket Man performance you can find on Youtube where he looks smacked up to the eyeballs, I'll bet he's always known exactly what he's doing. Much like Tom Baker he realised his most famous role was going to make it incrediably hard to be taken seriously as anything else, so he's just embraced his inner ham and spent his years making money from any old nonsense he can.

Mind, out of the two of them, Shatner's the one who's won an Emmy. So from an actor's POV that's not a bad direction to head in.
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Post by Jetfire »

Patrick Stewart recently got outstanding reviews for Waiting for Godot. He is a regular in the London westend for heavy weight theatre productions which he has always made clear is his first and best destiny with his screen career there to make him comfortable and able to act in what the heck he likes. He's never pretended otherwise and has long seemed happy to satarise his pubic persona, like in his excellent appearence in extras,
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Post by DrSpengler »

I've never seen an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation, so I only know Patrick Stewart from his comedy roles (and the X-Men movies).

He's really good in comedies, especially on American Dad, so I've no problem with him taking on more goofy material.

Meanwhile, I don't think I've ever seen *anything* Shatner has done besides that episode of The Twilight Zone. Never watched Star Trek, never watched TJ Hooker and Lord if I know of anything else he's done.

So when he shows up in cameos and on commercials I feel no attachment to him.


On the other hand, I love how Adam West's become a parody of himself. Which he has been for, what, 20 years (or whenever that Mr. Plow episode of The Simpsons was)?
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Post by inflatable dalek »

DrSpengler wrote: Meanwhile, I don't think I've ever seen *anything* Shatner has done besides that episode of The Twilight Zone.
I saw the first Shatner TZ episode the other day (the less famous one with the future predicting devil box thing), considering some friends had bigged it up as awesome it was crushingly dull. Shatner's great in it as a bright young thing with very few Shatnerisms but there's no real sense of jeopardy at all and they just wander off at the end.


Both his Columbo episodes are well worth watching though, the first with him as a ham actor is probably the beginnings of his full on self parody.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

It was a sad old time yesterday, I was looking up the actors of The Next Generation on Wikipedia; Data is 64!!!!!!

I'm shocked how much time has passed. Riker looks like a chunky fat bastard now, and Wesley Crusher looks like a hick with a slightly nerdy undercurrent (38 years old).

Worst of all was Tasha Yar. Holy f*** (I'm thinking of one photo particularly on the Wiki).

Worf has aged really well though, all his wrinkles have gone.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Auntie Slag wrote:Riker looks like a chunky fat bastard now
Same as ever then?
Worst of all was Tasha Yar. Holy f*** (I'm thinking of one photo particularly on the Wiki).
She usually has that haggard look of someone who realises they threw away six years of insanely well paid and iconic work to do guest spots on The New Adventures of Superman.

EDIT: ooohhhh yeah, I see what you mean. Even Data would have trouble staying fully functional with that on top of him.
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Post by Jetfire »

Auntie Slag wrote:It was a sad old time yesterday, I was looking up the actors of The Next Generation on Wikipedia; Data is 64!!!!!!

I'm shocked how much time has passed. Riker looks like a chunky fat bastard now, and Wesley Crusher looks like a hick with a slightly nerdy undercurrent (38 years old).
The actor who plays Wesley Crusher has some great, great appearences on the Big Bang Theiry recently.

Worst of all was Tasha Yar. Holy f*** (I'm thinking of one photo particularly on the Wiki).

Worf has aged really well though, all his wrinkles have gone.

I can't believe Worf is a vegan. It seems soooooo wrong.
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Post by Denyer »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpZc6aV7CCo

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Post by Cliffjumper »

Mmm - the problem is that Wikipedia's image policies mean pictures of celebrities and the like tend to be taken by sweaty-palmed nerds who are scared by the flash and are about to suffer a cardiac arrest from being that close to a woman. Not sure if it's still there, but there was a real shocker on Katy Perry's page at one point.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

She does indeed look better in the vid than the pic (where she suffers badly from Wallace and Gromit face syndrome and seems to be halfway through morphing into the second Holly from Red Dwarf).

I do like the look on her face when the bloke filming introduces himself as the Captain of the USS Madeupship (sure, there's nothing wrong with a bit of fun but it's like going up to Peter Cullan and telling him you're your fan fic character and expecting him not to have security not smack you down) and her struggle to sum up her career choices as something more worthwhile than "I need the work". Bless.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

Yeah that Youtube video does her much more justice. The picture on Wiki at the Big Apple Convention should be taken down.
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