Geek Gasp! Peter Capaldi and Anthony Head Auditioned to Play Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
It’s the 51st anniversary of Star Trek and I just saw the most wild thing pass by on Twitter. Doctor Who’s Peter Capaldi and Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Anthony Head apparently auditioned for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine back in 1992.
Notes from a UK casting session for DS9. Includes Alexander Siddig, @AnthonySHead, and HOLY CRAP PETER CAPALDI. July 23, 1992. pic.twitter.com/yTzKfUFMDq
— trekdocs (@trekdocs) September 7, 2017
Alexander Siddig (listed as Siddig El Fadil) is also on this sheet for Amoros, a previous name for Dr. Bashir. Obviously Avery Brooks made an awesome Captain Benjamin Sisko but this is really great trivia. Spooks’ Peter Firth is also listed as well as Robert Gwilym, Keith Allen, Pip Torrens, Ralph Brown, Jolyon Baker, Nick Brimble, Stefan Kalipha, Art Malik, Christian Burgess, David Schofield, Geff Francis, Steven Hartley, William Hope, and Karl Johnson.
But the best are these screenshots of the auditions themselves thanks to @DS9Doc on Twitter:
We can do you one better, @trekdocs. Here’s a sneak peek at some original audition tapes from 1992. #DS9 #AuditionTapes #WhatWeLeftBehind pic.twitter.com/zT56qpkxtB
— The DS9 Documentary (@DS9Doc) September 7, 2017
The forthcoming documentary, What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, is being lead by DS9 executive producer Ira Steven Behr. (You can find out more about it here.) Behr recently spoke about casting Brooks with TrekMovie.com:
TrekMovie.com: When the show was cast, was Sisko always going to be an African-American, or did you guys just like Avery?
Ira Steven Behr: When [co-creator] Michal Piller started his insidious plan to bring me back into the fold – so sitting together at baseball games, when he mentioned it to me, he mentioned to me as an African-American captain. Some people say that is too specific and that it was definitely going to be a brown person, definitely not a Caucasian. They hadn’t necessarily locked in to that person being African-American.
I actually have some of the auditions and some were sent in from England from some very good British actors. So they were covering on all fronts, but I think that was all just due diligence. It was always going to be a brown captain.
Both British actors, of course, went on to star in Doctor Who. Capaldi as the 12th Doctor (wrapping up his run this Christmas) and Head playing Mr. Finch in the Season 2 episode, “School Reunion.” Can’t wait to see those tapes in full!
Here’s the DS9 opening theme because I haven’t heard it for a while…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TsMyLt2BTM