One Star Trek Actor Requested Set Changes To Look Taller

Winston «Win» De Lugo shared how William Shatner requested to reconfigure a scene in Star Trek to make him taller.

Star Trek, across its various series and iterations, has a rich tradition of featuring guest stars in prominent roles. These guest appearances serve to enrich the storytelling, introduce new characters, and often provide opportunities for established actors to explore roles within the Star Trek universe and Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS), was no exception to this practice. Among the popular actors who appeared in TOS were Joan Collins, Joan Marshall, Barbara Anderson, William Campbell, Ricardo Montalban and De Lugo. De Lugo only appeared in one episode of Star Trek. He played the character of Timothy in Star Trek: The Original Series first season episode «Court Martial.» However, in the 2013 book These Are The Voyages: Season One, he recounted his experience filming with Shatner, who allegedly requested to make himself taller in their scene.

De Lugo shared how director Marc Daniels told him to stand in a certain area and informed him that the men in red shirts were his crew. The director also compared his role to Shatner's character, Admiral James T. Kirk, a commander of Starship, and how they would meet at a bar. De Lugo admitted that he didn't understand what Daniels was saying because he only got the script, and it was only years later that he understood the rank he was playing in the franchise. According to him, his Star Trek character was «trying to intimidate Kirk,» Slash Film reported. When they shot the scene, he was surprised at how short Shatner was. De Lugo was over six feet tall, while Shatner was only 5 feet 10 inches. Shatner was in the middle of throwing a line to De Lugo's character, Timothy, but suddenly looked up at him and shouted, «Cut.» According to De Lugo, Shatner grabbed Daniels and whispered something. He didn't hear what they were talking about, but the director called for a break to make «some changes.»

It turned out