posted
My beef is not with Tom Hardy, per se, and I certainly would not prefer the role of Schinzon (sp?) be played by a less accomplished, but bigger-named, actor. My problem is that the part calls for a twenty-something year old actor to begin with.
I have not read any of the supposed scripts, so perhaps my perceived problem is explained in them, or will be in the movie, but why would the Picard clone be in his twenties? Twenty years "ago" the Romulans had no contact with the Federation, so who cloned Picard? Now, I would not get my panties in a bunch if a story involved secret, nobody-else-found-out-about-it Romulan contact with the Federation during the time period in question, but why would such contact involve cloning Picard? How did the Romulans know he would be a valuable captain to clone? Or is/was it standard Romulan operating procedure to clone all Starfleet captains? And if the story suggests Picard was cloned during "The Next Generation" timeframe, or later, and the clone's ageing was accelerated, why did it stop at twenty?
Of course, if accelerated-then-stopped-ageing is, indeed, the case, the producers and writer are entitled to come up with whatever cockamamie reason they want to explain Schinzon's age. However, I submit it might have made more sense to accelerate the clone's age to match Picard's and allowed Patrick Stewart to play the role. We know Stewart can act, and he probably would have relished playing "evil" Picard. Also, with all due respect to Tom Hardy, Patrick Stewart is another man who went through the process described above by The_Tom, so, while Hardy might be highly trained, and gifted with great potential, Patrick Stewart has that and experience, and I find it hard to picture him and any young actor matching wits as equals on screen. Again, I do not mean to slight Hardy as much as to point out the incongruity of pitting a young, relatively inexperienced actor against a talented veteran and then expecting the audience to buy them as equals, two sides of the same coin.
[ June 30, 2002, 22:10: Message edited by: Raw Cadet ]
Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Marcus Nash was never very, well, very hard looking.
I'm sure they wanted somebody that could look like they were carved out of wood for the part of the villian.
Although, if the script is totally correct as compares to what makes it onscreen, I've got a BUNCH of questions about Picard's past now. But in difference to those that haven't read it, I'll save 'em.
They're probably all moot anyway.
Registered: Jan 2001
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quote:And if the story suggests Picard was cloned during "The Next Generation" timeframe, or later, and the clone's ageing was accelerated, why did it stop at twenty?
Why would it have been halted? Let's say he IS on accelerated ageing. How fast does it take to accelerate an ageing program? Maybe he ages 2 years for every actual year, and was thus first cloned 10 years ago.
Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Snay: Why would it have been halted? Let's say he IS on accelerated ageing. How fast does it take to accelerate an ageing program? Maybe he ages 2 years for every actual year, and was thus first cloned 10 years ago.
I apologize; I was not very clear. Though I did say "accelerated-then-stopped," I was referring to the producers choosing to portray Schinzon at twenty-something. He could still be ageing at whatever rate the story requires to make sense; I, however, think they should have kept on ageing him until he was Picard's age, for the reasons I offered above.
Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
^ Well, they very well may be. But of course, they need to educate him, too. It's possible he's been "engineered" to age faster rather then having to stay in a chamber. Be crazy to clone Picard if he's got the mental capacity of a baby and the body of a sixty-year old!
Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Snay: Be crazy to clone Picard if he's got the mental capacity of a baby and the body of a sixty-year old!
I cannot decide if what you say would result in an Academy Award winning performance from Patrick Stewart, or in plumbing depths not visited since "Star Trek V."
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posted
I believe the circulated script has Shinzon being cloned, aging normally, then being dumped on Remus because they decided they didn't want him after all.
[ July 01, 2002, 00:32: Message edited by: TSN ]
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posted
Yeah, but the script also has Shinzon's cells destabilizing slowly because there is a built-in ability to suddenly age up to the true Picard's age. So the script simultaneously mentions the ability to force-age clones, while having Shinzon be gestated at a time when the Romulans had no contact with the Federation, then agiung him normally for about 20 years.
quote:And I don't recall Robert Picard making any appearance at all in "Generations"
You're right about that. However, there are photos in Picard's family album showing Robert, & the pictures don't show the same actor who played him in the series. Considering they could have just used stills of Jeremy Kemp from the episode he was in, it didn't make sense to use pics of some other guy.
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
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posted
they wanted family shots, and they hadnt taken any real high quality stills that resembled the shots they wanted, so they made new ones.. its also possible that had taken shots they could use, but for whatever reason, Kemp decided not to grant them the rights to use them.
would it really be worth their time to hire an old television actor for what amounted to a photo spread? it just didnt seem feasible.. and as to replacing little Rene, it made sense, because that kid had grown up. (to be a really lame Picard replacement in 'Rascals' if i recall)..
you guys need to get with the realities of film production.. same with the Marcus Nash deal.. he didnt seem to be an actor, but rather a stuntman or extra who was picked to play young Picard in an action sequence (with no lines).. id rather they give the role to someone who could handle it, like Hardy.
and as to the clone age issue, its at the crux of the story because its the whole motiviation built into Shinzon is that his body has funky stuff going on relating to regular aging verus false aging and his programmed death...
[ July 01, 2002, 08:15: Message edited by: Capped In Mic ]
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Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
If what the supposed script says (according to TSN and Vogon Poet above) turns out to really be Shinzon's backstory in the film, it seems to me the producers/writer chose the most convoluted explanation(s) possible. So, Shinzon was cloned when the Romulans were in a period of isolation (with regards to the Federation)? Again, I am not the type to condemn all involved with such a story as Star Trek heretics, as it would be possible for individual persons of estranged powers to engage in secret contact with each other without the governing powers finding out. But it still begs the question: why did the Romulans clone Picard? And if, in the movie, the Romulans can accelerate his ageing process, why write that he would be younger than Picard (a problem to me for reasons I explained up above)? Or is Shinzon Picard's age, and Tom Hardy wears a Patrick Stewart mask in the movie ( )?
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