Seeing Jeffrey Hunter in the first Star Trek pilot, or Gary Lockwood playing either a Marine lieutenant or a Starfleet officer, it becomes obvious just how much of a contribution William Shatner makes to the success of Star Trek. It’s something of an understatement to say that Shatner’s performance is not naturalistic in places. Many places. It’s clearly a choice, though, with the actor working against the solid, businesslike nature of a lot of Roddenberry’s scripts, finding interesting words to emphasize and odd places to smile or shrug.
