Let’s not put older Star Trek actors out to pasture

Star Trek, though moving toward its 58th year, is still barreling along, telling new stories with beloved characters.

Before season three of Star Trek: Picard debuted, there were rumblings of the actors who portray the characters being too old, that they should let new talent take the spots. Some fans have called the Star Trek: The Next Generation actors “long in the tooth,” which essentially means they’ve gotten older. That can’t come as a surprise considering The Next Generation debuted in 1987.

But here’s the thing, if the actors can still deliver the lines, bring in the emotions, and deliver the adventure, who is to say they are too old or past their prime?

Star Trek should continue to embrace the members of its roster of actors.

These “older” actors are the very reason why Star Trek became as successful as it is. And as evidenced by the popularity of Picard’s third season, many fans are not done with the characters from the late eighties and nineties. Star Trek: Lower Decks just brought back a character from thirty years ago, and the producers had to work hard to make that happen. That shows they know the value of a person’s work.

In a recent post,Chad Porto wrote that Patrick Stewart was “just as past his prime as Shatner.” I could not disagree more. Both of these actors still bring depth and talent to any role they play, and there is no reason why another Star Trek: The Next Generation movie can’t work with all of the original characters.

Leonard Nimoy was an excellent Mr. Spock into his eighties, and no one would have considered him to be too old to play the character. And season three of Picard showed actors in their seventies and eighties doing exactly what they did in their younger years—bringing us good entertainment.

Star Trek will always be about the past as much as the future. It was the past that brought us to this point, and putting the original actors who helped shape this franchise “out to pasture” would simply be wrong.