Lastly, I never got much of a sense of differentiation in the roles he played (with the possible exception of Dirk Wilkins, and then not even much). He's always the same guy.
That's exactly my perception, Luciaphil! I don't mind Roger Davis as an actor. The shouting and the hair-touching never registered on me the first time that I watched the episodes, but I felt that he simply went through the motions of the script without bothering to cultivate a particular character. John Karlen had a variety of differentiated characters that he played with finesse (Willie vs. Carl vs. Desmond, etc.) I can easily believe that Thayer David
is Ben Stokes because he really shows a dedication to the role. On the other hand, I feel as though I'm simply watching Roger Davis deliver his lines. That's a separate problem; he's admitted to a lot of ad libbing on the show, and it shows. He must have flubbed at least half a dozen lines the first day that Nathan Forbes was on the stand. Davis is a better actor than some of the people who made it on the show, but he's not exactly my favorite.
ProfStokes
