LEONARD NIMOY: 1931-2015
Leonard Nimoy had enjoyed reasonable success before taking on the role of Lieutenant Commander Spock, the Vulcan science officer of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise. Nimoy’s performance in the 1964 pilot was not particularly auspicious, chiefly because of inauspicious scripting.. He played a minor role, and few of Spock’s famous signatures were evident except for his oversized elfin ears.
NBC rejected the pilot, but someone up there liked the concept of an interstellar vessel on a five year journey, tasked “to boldly go where no man has gone before” (later emended for the Politically Correct – “to go where no one has gone before…”). A repurposed STAR TREK debuted in 1966. This time around, the writing was better, and Nimoy had a firmer grip on Spock – or Spock on Nimoy – of which more presently.
Spock’s character quickly proceeded to fascinate audiences worldwide – especially late adolescents and young adults. By the second season he had become the Enterprise’s most popular character next to William Shatner’s intrepid Captain James T. Kirk. Spock went on to achieve cult status. with the usual accoutrements: multitudes of worshipful fans, fan clubs and “zines”, rubber ears, action figures and assorted other chotchkes.
NBC cancelled the original series after three seasons. Nevertheless, STAR TREK grew into an enormously successful Paramount franchise. Megaprofit was generated by reruns, new series – STAR TREK: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Explorer, Enterprise – and nine feature films, five of which featured the original cast (Nimoy directed two). Spock/Nimoy made cameo appearances in the sequels, and two recent prequels, obviously pitched at bringing a new generation of fans on board – Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness..
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For the few unfamiliar with his background, Spock hails from Vulcan, a planet vaguely resembling Mars. Over centuries, his ancestors waged relentless war, until a Vulcan Moses taught them to be ruled by absolute logic, and to suppress all emotion.
With the reign of peace firmly established a mighty culture evolved. The Vulcans of Trek’s time piquantly resemble the Victorian English in their zealous execise of the puritan virtues – thrift, hard work, abstemiousness, altruism and self sacrifice.
They are brilliant scientists, able jurists and diplomats, and intensely spiritual. A central focus of their daily meditation is the universe’s “IDIC” – Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Their speech is Aspergerish-stilted; they possess herculean strength; are mildly telepathic, quietly xenophobic, and never seem to have much fun. .
Spock would have made a premier Vulcan, were he not a human/Vulcan hybrid, perennialy wrestling with the clamor of his emotions. As a ‘halfbeed’ he was – unlogically — taunted and scorned throughout his youth. The gauntlet of rejection heightened the innate schizoid inwardness of his Vulcan side. He left Vulcan, incurring the stern diplomat of his diplomat father, and joined Starfleet – the military arm of Trek’s “United Federation of Planets”.
Spock rose rapidly through the ranks to achieve the high post of a starship’s executive/science officer. The Enterprise’ crew view him with a mixture of admiration, affection, and occasional irritation with his icy logic – notably when annhilation looms. He is generally unaware of his colleagues’ esteem; remains a perennial outsider, uncomfortable in human and Vulcan company, as well as in his own skin.
Because of his nuanced depiction, Nimoy was often asked if and how he identified with Spock. His 1975 autobiography, I Am Not Spock , aggravated many fans who felt he was distancing himself from his Vulcan alter ego and Treck itself. In I Am Spock (1995), Nimoy assured his followers that he only wanted to explain how he went about constructing the character. He claimed that he indeed came to identify with Spock over the years to his benefit.
From my first viewing of the series I was struck by the similarity of Spock’s vicissitudes to the struggles of earthly adolescents. I theorized that every adolescents can be perceived as a hybrid: During puberty we keep internalizing what seems relevant from people in our immediate and wider worlds and rejecting the rest, until we attain a – hopefully – felicitous synthesis of personality.
Like Spock, teenagers often keenly view themselves as lonely outsiders; feel alien in their new bodies; wrestle with unruly emotions; are often annoyingly blunt. Akin too Spock, their egregiously insensitive facade – notably to parents – often masks a dawning, poignant appreciation of mortality and suffering, articulated with touching altruism.
I wrote to Nimoy in 1967 about my speculations. I doubted he would reply, but what could be bad if he didnt?. His quick response put me in mind of Spock’s seriousness, his spirit of inquiry and scrupulous attentiveness – however leavened with unSpocklike gentle humor. Nimoy understood and appreciated my ‘take’, but underscored that Spock’s very complexity – and mystery – made him attractively open to many interpretations. He also graciously credited the viewers, writers, and others connected with Trek – Gene Roddenbury in particular – who helped him shape Spock’s persona.
Nimoy’s warm letter spurred an enduring interest in his life and career after Trek. I discovered that he gave unstintingly of time, talent, and money. He kept his charitable donations, with rare exceptions, under the radar. He did permit the Thalia, a renknowned New York art cinema, to be renamed “The Leonard Nimoy Thalia” after he rescued it from foreclosure (it’s a few streets down from my Gotham apartment.).
Nimoy tutored young actors in his craft; made frequent guest appearances to support research and education in the sciences, notably space exploration. Several generations of engineers, scientists, and astronauts have stated their youthful admiration for Spock kindled their careers. Many non-scientific admirers have likewise said that Spock’s virtues were instrumental in molding their values. .
With his Vulcan contemplation of “IDIC”, Spock would have admired the diversity of imoy’s interests beyond acting and directing . He wrote credible poetry; was an exceptionally gifted professional photographer. In two his best known exhibitions, he respectively addressed received notions of female beauty (The Full Body Project) and explored the feminine aspects of divinity (The Shekhina Project).
Like Spock, Nimoy had his demons, knew suicidal depression and alcoholism, and recovered from both. Whatever else sustained him, I believe he found solace in a long-abiding devotion to his Jewish faith and principles. .
I learned that his grandparents fled persecution in their small Ukrainian village to settle in Boston’s West End. He spoke affectionately about his childhood neighborhood, but also had his first painful experiences of anti-semitism there. He drifted away from the Orthodox tradition of his youth, returning later to a less doctrinaire Reformed Jewish practise. .
Nimoy spoke fluent Yiddish, acted on the Yiddish stage as a young man, played Tevya in Fiddler On The Roof, and was active in preserving the language. His best known Jewish Trek reference was Spock’s Vulcan greeting, “Live long and prosper”, accompanied by the iconic right hand salute. It’s an exact copy of the Rabbinic gesture made while blessing congregants – “May the Lord bless and .protect you… and grant you peace.” .
Nimoy’s inveterate humanism and opposition to bigotry of any stripe was firmly grounded in Jewish tradition.. He was honored for his fight against the surge of Holocuast denial, notably for producing and acting in Never Forget, a 1991 film on the subject.
As for the reverse of the medal, Nimoy initially declined invitations to speak in Germany because of the Holocaust. He accepted after his rabbi, a close friend, urged that a new generation of Germans needed to be told about the importance of Nimoy’s Jewish background in his portrayal of Spock.
Appearing before a young German audience, Nimoy described his Trek experience, then told his ‘Jewish story”, speaking eloquently about first seeing the Rabbinic gesture as a child in synagogue, peeping from under his grandfather’s prayer shawl. He received a standing ovation, and accounted this “one of the most moving moments in my public life”.
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The final requirement for graduating Starfleet academy was participation in a virtual reality scenario in which a candidate took the helm of the Starship Kobahashi Maru during a cascade of catastrophic enemy attacks. One was supposed to design a survival strategy – but in fact none was possible. The test – often cooly judged by Spock – was designed to show how a captain would meet death.
Nimoy lived long and prospered well until his own death from from COPD several weeks ago. He typically kept his illness private, handling it with summary courage and dignity. Arguably this was the solution to his own ‘Kobayashi Maru’ dilemma. I like to think he had another strategy, the one recommended by 17th century English poet, George Herbert – – “Living well is the best revenge…”
Playing Spock or being himself, Nimoy’s was an exemplary life. In a world which daily seems to verge upon one or another real Kobayashi Maru scenario, we can well profit from his example.
Dr. Greenberg has frequently written about Star Trek for Psychiatric Times. In Search of Spock: A Psychoanalytic Inquiry appeared in the Journal of Popular Film and Television, Volumre 12, 1994, pp. 52-65. For a copy, contact Dr. Greenberg at 320 West 86th Street, New York City, NY 10024–3139.