What on earth does Star Trek have to do with the new generation in Hollywood? No you haven’t missed any new star climbing amongst the ranks of Star Trek; there isn’t even a show on right now. The Star Trek effect is just an expression for actors and actresses that get their name fused with a certain role. If you mention names like William Shatner, Leanord Nimoy, James Doohan or George Takei most people don’t know who you;’re talking about. Yet if you mention Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Scotty or Sulu they will know.

This doesn’t just happen to people on Star Trek; usually actors are used that aren’t too well known up to that point. Once they got on the Star Trek shows and the shows became popular (though in the case of the original Star Trek it was after the show ended, but the same is true for the newer shows) they weren’t known as themselves but as their characters.

There are plenty of teen actresses that have to deal with the same problem; they never get rid of a certain role in a way. People will always see them for their breakout part and not for the rest of their career and sometimes this really hurts their careers. The best example from the past in my mind doesn’t actually come from Hollywood but from Austria. Maybe not everyone is familiar with the Sissi movies but they’re about a Bavarian princess that marries her cousin to become empress of Austria, the story is based on historical figures. (more…)