Leonard Nimoy

"Of all the souls I've met, his was the most...human."  - Captain James T. Kirk

Whenever an icon in the entertainment industry dies, many attempts are made to lionize them.  Sometimes it's earned, sometimes...not so much.  In Leonard Nimoy's case, anyone who says the man didn't earn his iconic status is simply misinformed, or suffers from a bad case of the cynicisms.

In 1966, Leonard Nimoy was cast to play Mr. Spock in the original TV run of Star Trek.  He was told the character was all logic and reason, that he was from an alien race called the Vulcans, and that they were a people who strip away all human-like emotions and are basically robots.

Strange, then, that he was able to imbue so much humanity into the character.  If anything, Nimoy's performance showed us that there was room for compassion in the sciences, and even emotional merit in the search for logic and reason.  The character revealed how a yearning for knowledge needn't have the negative stigma it has gained for being such a "cold" pursuit.

I came relatively late to Star Trek.  I was born in 1979 and was raised on that other sci-fi adventure serial, the one with Wookiees and lightsabers.  I'd always heard from my schoolmates (or from the media) that Trek was the geekiest of geek stuff, that it was cheesy, dumb, filled with fake-looking monsters.  It's my fault that I listened to them.

Then one day I caught a marathon on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy), and I believe my intent was to watch it and make fun of it.  I happened to catch the episode called "The Corbomite Maneuver," in which the crew of the Enterprise encounter an alien of inestimable power, who tells the crew they will be destroyed in a matter of minutes.  What followed was a taut 40 minutes in which I sat on the edge of my seat, watching as Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock matched wits with the alien.  I was riveted as they came to understand that, incredibly, they might be able to bluff their way out of this one, since the Alien Being in question seemed to have no concept of fiction.

I didn't become a Trekkie overnight, no.  There was still high school and girls and comic books and learning to drive and getting my first job...all that stuff.  But over the years, I would discover DVD collections of the series on discount at Best Buy or Walmart.  I'd buy a couple of the "Best Of" episodes, discovered the TNG series and the movies, watched The Wrath of Khan until I was nearly blind from it, and, slowly but surely, I became a fan.

For me, what began to emerge from the series was a complex history of aliens, customs, and traditions, all being called into question.  Central to all of this was the relationship between Kirk and Spock, without which I'm certain the show would never have meant more than Lost in Space did to pop culture--an okay TV series with some good ideas for its time, but would've ultimately fizzled.

And about Mr. Spock specifically...

It wasn't just Nimoy's voice that made Spock stand out, though his deep, gravelly voice certainly didn't hurt.  And it wasn't just the sometimes-painted-on eyebrows.  It was the cold but thoughtful stare, one that's familiar to anyone who's ever sat across from a great chess player.  It was the way he measured the words coming from his captain and others, gauged their double meaning, and searched for the logic in them.  It was also the way he held himself--controlled, but never really stiff.  Whenever a human said something irrational to him, rather than stare blankly with a "does not compute" expression on his face, he appeared genuinely curious.  He was a searcher, a scientist uncovering the layers of human emotion.

In short, Spock served the purpose of the storyteller of defining us.  If Kirk ever did something that seemed spurred by pure emotion, Spock was there to comment on it, and Nimoy did more than just a serviceable job of adding the right amount of gravitas to his character's observation.  He wasn't just telling Kirk that he was being irrational, he (Nimoy) was speaking as a human, and asking us all why we behave this way.

Some people may think it's way too "mushy" to give an actor so much credit--particularly an actor known so well for only one major role--but I think that's a cynical mode of thinking.  Playing a character (any character) requires putting a little bit of yourself into it.  If you don't, it just doesn't come across as genuine.  That's probably why every actor that has ever played the eponymous role in Doctor Who has, generally, been remembered as a gentleman and a scholar.  Certainly there are exceptions in the media, but actors who can sincerely pull off heroes are to be commended, because it means they found something heroic within themselves and managed to tap into it.

Nimoy was man enough to admit he was an alcoholic and sought rehabilitation.  He also served as a sergeant in the United States Army.  He helped his costar William Shatner during very difficult times in his life.  Sounds like a hero to me.

He also helped create some of the most famous Trek lore--for instance, did you know he was the one who came up with idea for the Vulcan neck pinch?  Yep.  His character was meant to knock someone out in Engineering, but Nimoy felt that wasn't in keeping with the character's nature.  So he came up with the idea for the neck pinch as a nonviolent way to deal with a baddie.

It would be cliche to end this article with a reference to the character like "Live long and prosper."  But then, the show always had heart, and Nimoy had one of the biggest.  And the series has always been a bit self-referential, hasn't it?  So I'll leave you with a quote, with a brief explanation of why I chose this particular one.

Nimoy played the character almost all the way up to his death.  He played the character not just for himself, but for the fans.  The fans just ate him up!  They loved him.  They adored every appearance he made at a con or at a premiere.  No doubt, he pushed himself further and harder than he should have at times, especially with his advanced age and waning health, just so he could make most of those engagements.  He did it for the many fans.

So that's why I'm ending this with my favorite Spock quote of them all:  "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...or the one."