Wesley plays an actor named Maxwell Saint in "A Space Adventure Hour." Saint is the swaggering star of a canceled science fiction adventure TV show called, "The Last Frontier," which is loosely based on Star Trek: The Original Series.
Speaking to TVLine, Paul Wesley described creating "a satirical, a more humorous version" of his performance of Lieutenant James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which was an ode to the bombastic way William Shatner played Captain Kirk that has been popularized in pop culture. Read Paul's quote and watch the video below:
Paul Wesley: I realized immediately what an opportunity it was to give the viewers a satirical, a more humorous version of what I could have done [as Kirk]… It’s a marriage of a fictional character named Maxwell Saint who is on a hit series called “The Last Frontier,” but at the time, that mirrors very much the Star Trek of the 1960s. So I sort of wanted to create a version of the James T. Kirk William Shatner that we know from TOS alongside Maxwell Saint, who has his own sort mannerisms, so I did a little of both. We had an absolute blast. I didn’t want to overdo it. But I also wanted to do enough, where it was a real wink to the true fans.
Paul Wesley also revealed how he collaborated with director Jonathan Frakes and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers to create Maxwell Saint:
Paul Wesley: Jonathan Frakes and I did a series of takes. And I would run off set and be like, “Was that too much?” And he would be like, “No, give me more!” And we did a bunch of different variations, and Henry and Akiva picked the ones that they liked the best.
How Paul Wesley Evoked William Shatner In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Episode 4
He's "Known For His Diction."
From his open uniform revealing his chest to his exaggerated "diction" that his cast mates and producers mock, asking him to speak like an actual human being, Paul Wesley's performance as Maxwell Saint in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 4 is a loving homage to William Shatner's Captain Kirk.
As Lt. James T. Kirk on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Paul Wesley deliberately avoided doing a William Shatner impression, preferring to pepper his young Kirk with subtle hints and mannerisms of the Captain of the Enterprise Kirk will become in the future. Maxwell Saint, however, allowed Wesley to lovingly do the Shatner-style Kirk caricature he had otherwise avoided.
Our Take On Paul Wesley's William Shatner Impression On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Wesley Plays Lt. Kirk In A More Subtle Way
Paul Wesley's Maxwell Saint is one of the best parts of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' "A Space Adventure Hour." Wesley is hilarious, whether he's arguing with plastic-headed aliens on the bridge of the USS Adventure or breaking his own captain's chair trying to perform the "Riker Maneuver" in the episode's outtakes.
Maxwell Saint was also equally funny as an insecure leading man during the Hollywood murder mystery Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) solved on the holodeck. As was Saint's exasperation at being accused of murder and his suspicion of La'an's companion, Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck).
As Lieutenant James T. Kirk, Paul Wesley has admirably walked a fine line of evoking William Shatner's Captain Kirk without doing an outright impression. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds gave Paul Wesley the opportunity to play with the layman's idea of William Shatner's Captain Kirk, drawing some of the biggest laughs in the episode as Maxwell Saint.
