Solow On Star Trek XI Characters
2 min readFormer Desilu Head Herb Solow shares his insights on the characters of Star Trek and Star Trek XI.
As reported by The BBC, the man responsible for giving the green light to Star Trek back in the 1960s explains which Star Trek XI characters were most true to their 1960s counterparts and which fell short. “The assembling of the new team was interesting and, for the most part set a genuine tone for the characters,” said Solow. “Most of the characters rang true.”While Solow felt that the new Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura had been done just right, he had issues with the other characters, including one named after him. “The young Sulu was of particular interest,” explained Solow. “Sulu was my namesake. Gene Roddenberry wanted to call him Solo, long before Han Solo made an appearance on screen, but we later changed it (my request!) to Sulu.”
“I was a little disappointed in this performance,” said Solow. “The original actor, George Takei, played the character with more grace and charm infused into his austerity.”
Star Trek XI’s Chekov was “a bit more hyper than we envisioned him to be,” said Solow. “He was originally to be a rather plodding Russian astronaut with no sense of humor. But this young Chekov was much more lively and a bit of a caricature.”
The young Spock, said Solow, was “certainly commendable. But I missed the depth of Leonard’s Spock, and the centuries of knowledge that always lurked in his eyes.”
As for the movie, Solow gave it the thumbs up. “The production looked flawless,” he said. “The photography, graphics and sound effects were brilliant. I was impressed and taken with the obvious concern to honor our original series. I hope the new series of movies will have that long life, and that Star Trek will continue to prosper.”
To read more, including Solow’s memories of Star Trek in the 1960s, head to the article located here.
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