Leonard Nimoy/Spock

Before I leave the subject of Leonard Nimoy, I would like to add the following.

For me, Nimoy/Spock is the cornerstone of Star Trek. Here are some stats:

• He appeared in all 80 episodes of TOS, which nobody else did.
• He appeared (if that is the right word) in all 22 episodes of "The Animated Series".
• He appeared in 2 episodes of "The Next Generation", which no other TOS actor did.
• He appeared in 8 of the movies, including the two most recent movies.
• He directed 2 of the movies, which no other Star Trek actor did.
• His son, Adam, directed 2 TNG episodes.

The man is a legend.

Here is an interview he gave to Pharrell Williams. Towards the end, he had the following to say:

The Spock character opened up my life,  personally and creatively. It created great opportunities for me to do work that I chose to do, rather than work that I had to do to make a living. I had choices for the first time in many years. And still, to this day, I consider it a great opportunity and a blessing to live a creative life; to live a life that has to do with finding ideas and expressing ideas; and hopefully making a contribution to the human condition.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

I have a huge amount of fondness for ST:TMP. I know lots of people dislike it or dismiss it, but I am not one of them. Obviously I am aware that it was very slow, and perhaps ponderous, but I like it nevertheless.

I think there are a few reasons for this:

1) I was so delighted at the time to see the characters I loved appearing on the big screen.

2) Apart from the pace, I think there was a lot to like. The movie looked great. The visual and sound effects were great. The score was great.The development of the Spock character was great.

3) When I was on my way to an interview for my second job (back in 1981) I stopped off in the Brown Thomas shop (then called Switzer's) and they were playing the movie on a LaserDisc player. I was early for my interview so I stayed for a while and watched some of the movie. When I left and headed off the the interview I was feeling great. No wonder I got that job!

One of the people who doesn't seem to have great things to say about that movie is Leonard Nimoy. Here is what he had to say:

I think he [Robert Wise] and Gene Roddenberry were looking for a [2001: A] Space Odyssey kind of thing, like [Stanley] Kubrick had done. A cold, cool “we’re out here in space and it’s kind of quiet and things move very slowly.” [laughs] There was a lot of that and a lot of cerebral stuff. There wasn’t enough drama. It just wasn’t a Star Trek movie really. It had the Star Trek people, but it didn’t use us as Star Trek characters very well.

And here is the video where he said this (starts at  5:39)

Leonard Nimoy Interviews (1966, 1967)

The following video shows two interview which Leonard Nimoy did during the filming of Season One and just before the start of filming of Season Two.

I had never seen them before and they are quite interesting. He even speaks of his singing career!

Nimoy and Quinto Together (Great Ad)

Here's a fantastic advert featuring Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto.

The punchline (and there is no need for a punch!) is excellent.

New Spock's Tribute to Old (Real) Spock

Zachary Quinto appeared on Conan and had some really nice things to say about Leonard Nimoy.

He spoke very nicely about him.

You can see it here:

Leonard Nimoy Passes Away

I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Leonard Nimoy today.

Famously he wrote a book called "I am not Spock" (which I have) but for me he always will be Spock.

Star Trek (the original series) was one of my 2 favourite TV shows of all time. And Spock was my favourite TV character of all time.

I mentioned Spock once before in this blog, in relation to "ASCII Art".

By coincidence I watched an episode of the TV show during the week. I watched the second pilot ("Where No Man Has Gone Before"). I did not watch it because it is one of my favourite episodes (it is not) but because the DVD has a text commentary by Mike and Denise Okuda and I was interested to see what information was included in it.

I also started watching the first movie ("The Motion Picture") during the week. I know other people didn't but I really liked that movie. I guess I was so glad at the time to see my beloved characters coming back to life.

And, of course, the second movie has the fabulous scenes relation to Spock's death. All so very well done. Spock famously says to Kirk: "I have been, and always shall be, your friend".

As well as being a great actor, he was apparently a very nice man.

He has been, and always shall be, my hero.

Here is his last tweet, which finishes with the acronym for "Live Long and Prosper":