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Leonard Nimoy, Spock of ‘Star Trek,’ Dies at 83

The man who was spock, leonard nimoy, best known for playing the character spock in the star trek television shows and films, died at 83..

Is there a more famous TV gesture than the Vulcan Salute? You know the one. Leonard Nimoy, who popularised the gesture in his role as Mr. Spock on the 60s TV series Star Trek, both lived long and prospered, before dying at the age of 83. In an age where the word is overused, the half-man, half-alien was truly an iconic character. Pointy ears. Upturned eyebrows. Bowl haircut. Maddingly logical. Frustratingly dispassionate. The show was cancelled after three seasons - shocking for how famous it has become - and Nimoy went on to star in the show Mission: Impossible and hosted “In Search Of...” a series that investigated mysteries and paranormal phenomena. He also had a memorable role as a psychiatrist in the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The following year, he and his fellow Star Trek crew would go on to star in the first of six feature films based on the series, 2 of which Nimoy directed. Anyone who’s ever been defined by a single accomplishment can understand why Nimoy was at points ambivalent about his legacy. This was a man who wrote two autobiographies, and cheekily titled them “I Am Not Spock” and “I am Spock.” But Nimoy truly embraced the role, turning in many cameos that traded on his character. He appeared in both the Star Trek reboot and its sequel and happily attended fan convention after fan convention. To paraphrase one of the franchise’s most famous (and, come on, moving) scenes, Leonard Nimoy was, and always will be, Mr. Spock.

By Virginia Heffernan

• Feb. 27, 2015

Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous, gaunt-faced actor who won a worshipful global following as Mr. Spock, the resolutely logical human-alien first officer of the Starship Enterprise in the television and movie juggernaut “Star Trek,” died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was 83.

His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed his death, saying the cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mr. Nimoy announced last year that he had the disease, attributing it to years of smoking, a habit he had given up three decades earlier. He had been hospitalized earlier in the week.

His artistic pursuits — poetry, photography and music in addition to acting — ranged far beyond the United Federation of Planets, but it was as Mr. Spock that Mr. Nimoy became a folk hero, bringing to life one of the most indelible characters of the last half century: a cerebral, unflappable, pointy-eared Vulcan with a signature salute and blessing: “Live long and prosper” (from the Vulcan “Dif-tor heh smusma”).

Mr. Nimoy, who was teaching Method acting at his own studio when he was cast in the original “Star Trek” television series in the mid-1960s, relished playing outsiders, and he developed what he later admitted was a mystical identification with Spock, the lone alien on the starship’s bridge.

Yet he also acknowledged ambivalence about being tethered to the character, expressing it most plainly in the titles of two autobiographies: “I Am Not Spock,” published in 1975, and “I Am Spock,” published in 1995.

In the first, he wrote, “In Spock, I finally found the best of both worlds: to be widely accepted in public approval and yet be able to continue to play the insulated alien through the Vulcan character.”

“Star Trek,” which had its premiere on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966, made Mr. Nimoy a star. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the franchise, called him “the conscience of ‘Star Trek’ ” — an often earnest, sometimes campy show that employed the distant future (as well as some special effects that appear primitive by today’s standards) to take on social issues of the 1960s.

His stardom would endure. Though the series was canceled after three seasons because of low ratings, a cultlike following — the conference-holding, costume-wearing Trekkies, or Trekkers (the designation Mr. Nimoy preferred) — coalesced soon after “Star Trek” went into syndication.

The fans’ devotion only deepened when “Star Trek” was spun off into an animated show, various new series and an uneven parade of movies starring much of the original television cast, including — besides Mr. Nimoy — William Shatner (as Captain Kirk), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), George Takei (the helmsman, Sulu), James Doohan (the chief engineer, Scott), Nichelle Nichols (the chief communications officer, Uhura) and Walter Koenig (the navigator, Chekov).

When the director J. J. Abrams revived the “Star Trek” film franchise in 2009, with an all-new cast including Zachary Quinto as Spock, he included a cameo part for Mr. Nimoy, as an older version of the same character. Mr. Nimoy also appeared in the 2013 follow-up, “Star Trek Into Darkness.”

Nimoy Explains Origin of Vulcan Greeting

As part of the yiddish book center wexler oral history project, leonard nimoy explains the origin of the vulcan hand signal used by spock, his character in the “star trek” series..

His zeal to entertain and enlighten reached beyond “Star Trek” and crossed genres. He had a starring role in the dramatic television series “Mission: Impossible” and frequently performed onstage, notably as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.” His poetry was voluminous, and he published books of his photography.

He also directed movies, including two from the “Star Trek” franchise, and television shows. And he made records, singing pop songs as well as original songs about “Star Trek,” and gave spoken-word performances — to the delight of his fans and the bewilderment of critics.

But all that was subsidiary to Mr. Spock, the most complex member of the Enterprise crew, who was both one of the gang and a creature apart, engaged at times in a lonely struggle with his warring racial halves.

In one of his most memorable “Star Trek” performances, Mr. Nimoy tried to follow in the tradition of two actors he admired, Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff, who each played a monstrous character — Quasimodo and the Frankenstein monster — who is transformed by love.

In Episode 24, which was first shown on March 2, 1967, Mr. Spock is indeed transformed. Under the influence of aphrodisiacal spores he discovers on the planet Omicron Ceti III, he lets free his human side and announces his love for Leila Kalomi (Jill Ireland), a woman he had once known on Earth. In this episode, Mr. Nimoy brought to Spock’s metamorphosis not only warmth, compassion and playfulness, but also a rarefied concept of alienation.

“I am what I am, Leila,” Mr. Spock declares after the spores’ effect has worn off and his emotions are again in check. “And if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else’s.”

Born in Boston on March 26, 1931, Leonard Simon Nimoy was the second son of Max and Dora Nimoy, Ukrainian immigrants and Orthodox Jews. His father worked as a barber.

From the age of 8, Leonard acted in local productions, winning parts at a community college, where he performed through his high school years. In 1949, after taking a summer course at Boston College, he traveled to Hollywood, though it wasn’t until 1951 that he landed small parts in two movies, “Queen for a Day” and “Rhubarb.”

He continued to be cast in little-known movies, although he did presciently play an alien invader in a cult serial called “Zombies of the Stratosphere,” and in 1961 he had a minor role on an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” His first starring movie role came in 1952 with “Kid Monk Baroni,” in which he played a disfigured Italian street-gang leader who becomes a boxer.

Mr. Nimoy served in the Army for two years, rising to sergeant and spending 18 months at Fort McPherson in Georgia, where he presided over shows for the Army’s Special Services branch. He also directed and starred as Stanley in the Atlanta Theater Guild’s production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” before receiving his final discharge in November 1955.

He then returned to California, where he worked as a soda jerk, movie usher and cabdriver while studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. He achieved wide visibility in the late 1950s and early 1960s on television shows like “Wagon Train,” “Rawhide” and “Perry Mason.” Then came “Star Trek.”

Mr. Nimoy returned to college in his 40s and earned a master’s degree in Spanish from Antioch University Austin, an affiliate of Antioch College in Ohio, in 1978. Antioch University later awarded Mr. Nimoy an honorary doctorate.

Leonard Nimoy won a worshipful global following as Mr. Spock in the television and movie juggernaut “Star Trek.” Mr. Nimoy, who was teaching Method acting at his own studio when he was cast in the original “Star Trek” TV series in the mid-‘60s, relished playing outsider characters, and he developed what he later admitted was a mystical identification with Mr. Spock.

“Star Trek,” which had its premiere on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966, made Mr. Nimoy a star. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the franchise, called him “the conscience of ‘Star Trek.’”

In addition to starring roles in television programs, movies and onstage, Mr. Nimoy made records on which he sang pop songs as well as original songs about “Star Trek” and gave spoken-word performances — to the delight of his fans and the bewilderment of critics. In 1968 he performed on “The Dick Clark Show” in Los Angeles.

Mr. Nimoy and his first wife, Sandra Zober, arrived for the Emmy Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., in 1969. He was nominated for four Emmys during his career, although he never won. His marriage to Ms. Zober ended in divorce. 

Mr. Nimoy expressed ambivalence about his being forever tethered to the unflappable, cerebral, pointy-eared Vulcan. His double consciousness was reflected in the titles of two autobiographies: “I Am Not Spock,” published in 1977, and “I Am Spock,” published in 1995.

In “I Am Not Spock,” Mr. Nimoy wrote, “In Spock, I finally found the best of both worlds: to be widely accepted in public approval and yet be able to continue to play the insulated alien through the Vulcan character.”

From left, Mr. Nimoy with the director Robert Wise, the producer Gene Roddenberry and the actors DeForest Kelley and William Shatner on the set of the movie “Star Trek” in 1978. Mr. Nimoy later directed two Star Trek movies, “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” (1984) and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986), which he helped write. 

Mr. Nimoy appeared in numerous made-for-TV movies. He received an Emmy nomination for the 1982 movie “A Woman Called Golda,” in which he portrayed the husband of Golda Meir, the prime minister of Israel, who was  played by Ingrid Bergman.

Mr. Nimoy appeared in an episode of “T.J. Hooker” with his “Star Trek” co-star, William Shatner, in 1983. He later appeared with Mr. Shatner in two commercials for Priceline.com.

Mr. Nimoy directed two of the “Star Trek” movies, “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” (1984) and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986), pictured, which he helped write.

When the director J.J. Abrams revived the “Star Trek” film franchise in 2009, with an all-new cast, he included a small part for Mr. Nimoy, as an older version of Spock. Mr. Nimoy and his wife, Susan Bay, arrived for the film’s premiere in Los Angeles.

Mr. Nimoy wrote poetry voluminously and was also an accomplished  photographer. “Secret Selves,” a series of photographs in which he encouraged people to reveal their hidden natures any way they chose, was exhibited at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in 2010.

Mr. Nimoy gave the Vulcan salute after he was awarded an honorary doctor of Humane Letters degree during Boston University’s commencement ceremony in 2012.

“To this day, I sense Vulcan speech patterns, Vulcan social attitudes and even Vulcan patterns of logic and emotional suppression in my behavior,” Mr. Nimoy wrote years after the original “Star Trek” series ended.

But that wasn’t such a bad thing, he discovered. “Given the choice,” he wrote, “if I had to be someone else, I would be Spock.”

Mr. Nimoy directed the movies “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” (1984) and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986), which he helped write. In 1991, the same year that he resurrected Mr. Spock on two episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Mr. Nimoy was also the executive producer and a writer of the movie “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.”

He then directed the hugely successful comedy “Three Men and a Baby” (1987), a far cry from his science-fiction work, and appeared in made-for-television movies. He received an Emmy nomination for the 1982 movie “A Woman Called Golda,” in which he portrayed the husband of Golda Meir, the prime minister of Israel, who was played by Ingrid Bergman. It was the fourth Emmy nomination of his career — the other three were for his “Star Trek” work — although he never won.

Mr. Nimoy’s marriage to the actress Sandi Zober ended in divorce. Besides his wife, he is survived by his children, Adam and Julie Nimoy; a stepson, Aaron Bay Schuck; six grandchildren and one great-grandchild; and an older brother, Melvin.

Though his speaking voice was among his chief assets as an actor, the critical consensus was that his music was mortifying. Mr. Nimoy, however, was undaunted, and his fans seemed to enjoy the camp of his covers of songs like “ If I Had a Hammer .” (His first album was called “Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock’s Music From Outer Space.”)

From 1977 to 1982, Mr. Nimoy hosted the syndicated series “In Search Of ...,” which explored mysteries like the Loch Ness monster and U.F.O.s. He also narrated “Ancient Mysteries” on the History Channel and appeared in commercials, including two with Mr. Shatner for Priceline.com. He provided the voice for animated characters in “Transformers: The Movie,” in 1986, and “The Pagemaster,” in 1994.

In 2001 he voiced the king of Atlantis in the Disney animated movie “Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” and in 2005 he furnished voice-overs for the computer game Civilization IV. More recently, he had a recurring role on the science-fiction series “Fringe” and was heard, as the voice of Spock, in an episode of the hit sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.”

Mr. Nimoy was an active supporter of the arts as well. The Thalia, a venerable movie theater on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, now a multi-use hall that is part of Symphony Space, was renamed the Leonard Nimoy Thalia in 2002.

He also found his voice as a writer. Besides his autobiographies, he published “A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life” in 2002. Typical of Mr. Nimoy’s simple free verse are these lines: “In my heart/Is the seed of the tree/Which will be me.”

In later years, he rediscovered his Jewish heritage, and in 1991 he produced and starred in “Never Forget,” a television movie based on the story of a Holocaust survivor who sued a neo-Nazi organization of Holocaust deniers.

In 2002, having illustrated his books of poetry with his photographs, Mr. Nimoy published “Shekhina,” a book devoted to photography with a Jewish theme, that of the feminine aspect of God. His black-and-white photographs of nude and seminude women struck some Orthodox Jewish leaders as heretical, but Mr. Nimoy asserted that his work was consistent with the teachings of the kabbalah.

His religious upbringing also influenced the characterization of Spock. The character’s split-fingered salute , he often explained, had been his idea: He based it on the kohanic blessing , a manual approximation of the Hebrew letter shin, which is the first letter in Shaddai, one of the Hebrew names for God.

“To this day, I sense Vulcan speech patterns, Vulcan social attitudes and even Vulcan patterns of logic and emotional suppression in my behavior,” Mr. Nimoy wrote years after the original series ended.

But that wasn’t such a bad thing, he discovered. “Given the choice,” he wrote, “if I had to be someone else, I would be Spock.”

An earlier version of this obituary, using information from Antioch College, misstated the name of an institution that awarded Mr. Nimoy an honorary doctorate. It was Antioch University, not Antioch College.

An obituary on Saturday about the actor Leonard Nimoy misstated the year his first autobiography, “I Am Not Spock,” was published. It was 1975, not 1977.

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Daniel E. Slotnik and Peter Keepnews contributed reporting.

Laura Santhanam Laura Santhanam

Justin Scuiletti Justin Scuiletti

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/leonard-nimoy-best-remembered-spock-star-trek-dies

Leonard Nimoy, best remembered as Mr. Spock on ‘Star Trek,’ dies at 83

Leonard Nimoy, best remembered by “Star Trek” fans as the iconic Mr. Spock, died Friday. He was 83.

His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed reports of Nimoy’s death at his Los Angeles home, saying that he succumbed to end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the New York Times reported . Last year, he attributed his declining health to his smoking habit, which he had successfully quit more than 30 years earlier.

For decades on both the “Star Trek” television series and movie franchise, Nimoy played the character of Mr. Spock, a half-Vulcan, half-human science officer who operated under a rigid adherence to logic and helped guide the crew of Starship Enterprise through the galaxy. It was a role that Trekkers, or devout “Star Trek” fans, came to adore. Nimoy won three Emmys for his work on Star Trek and established a life-long role as a science fiction icon.

“The show valued education, it valued teamwork, and it valued loyalty,” Nimoy told PBS’ “Pioneers of Television” in 2010. [“Star Trek”] was forward-looking, always, just by its very nature. And I think those things appealed.”

Leonard Nimoy in character as the iconic Mr. Spock in a third season episode of “Star Trek.” Photo by CBS via Getty Images

Beyond “Star Trek,” Nimoy was a consummate artist who directed film, composed poetry and photography and taught acting.

News of the actor’s death elicited countless reactions from former co-stars and fans alike. President Barack Obama issued a statement Friday afternoon that said, “Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy,” and that the president “loved Spock”:

Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy. Leonard was a lifelong lover of the arts and humanities, a supporter of the sciences, generous with his talent and his time. And of course, Leonard was Spock. Cool, logical, big-eared and level-headed, the center of Star Trek’s optimistic, inclusive vision of humanity’s future. I loved Spock. In 2007, I had the chance to meet Leonard in person. It was only logical to greet him with the Vulcan salute, the universal sign for “Live long and prosper.” And after 83 years on this planet – and on his visits to many others – it’s clear Leonard Nimoy did just that. Michelle and I join his family, friends, and countless fans who miss him so dearly today.

Former “Star Trek” castmates William Shatner and George Takei remembered the actor on their social pages:

"I loved him like a brother. We will all miss his humor, his talent, and his capacity to love." -William Shatner http://t.co/U8ZN98tVYp — William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) February 27, 2015

On Instagram , actor Zachary Quinto, who inherited the role of Spock from Nimoy for 2009’s “Star Trek” film reboot and its 2013 sequel, “Star Trek Into Darkness,” posted a tribute.

my heart is broken. i love you profoundly my dear friend. and i will miss you everyday. may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

NASA also remembered Nimoy in a tweet, praising “Star Trek” for inspiring generations of future NASA workers. Nimoy, alongside many of the original show cast, were on hand in 1976 to dedicate NASA’s space shuttle “Enterprise,” named for the show’s starship.

RIP Leonard Nimoy. So many of us at NASA were inspired by Star Trek. Boldly go… http://t.co/qpeH5BTzQc pic.twitter.com/nMmFMKYv1L — NASA (@NASA) February 27, 2015

Nimoy remained active in his later years, even after his self-proclaimed 2010 retirement from acting. StarTrek.com, in a tribute post today , remembered asking the actor in 2012 if he truly considered himself retired:

“Yeah, I do. I am. Look, I liken myself to a steamship that’s been going full-blast and the captain pulls that handle back and then says, ‘Full stop,’ but the ship doesn’t stop. It keeps moving from inertia. It keeps moving. It keeps moving. It’ll start slowing down, but it doesn’t stop. It doesn’t come to a dead stop. That’s the way I am. I still have a few odds and ends things that I enjoy doing. I don’t want to get up in the morning and have nothing to do that day. That would be boring.”

A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP — Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) February 23, 2015

Laura Santhanam is the Health Reporter and Coordinating Producer for Polling for the PBS NewsHour, where she has also worked as the Data Producer. Follow @LauraSanthanam

Justin Scuiletti is the digital video producer at PBS NewsHour.

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Leonard nimoy, the logical spock of ‘star trek,’ dies at 83.

The cerebral actor played the half-Vulcan, half-human character on and off for nearly 50 years, starred on 'Mission: Impossible' and directed 'Three Men and a Baby.'

By Mike Barnes , Bryn Sandberg February 27, 2015 9:18am

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Leonard Nimoy - H 2015

Leonard Nimoy , the Hollywood renaissance man who fashioned a long and prosperous career as the supremely logical and cerebral science officer Mr. Spock from Star Trek , has died. He was 83.

The actor tweeted on Jan. 14, 2014, that he had lung disease. “I quit smoking 30 years ago. Not soon enough. I have COPD . Grandpa says, quit now!!” As he always did, Nimoy signed off with the acronym LLAP , short for “Live Long and Prosper,” his Star Trek character’s most celebrated phrase.

Nimoy  died Friday at 8:40 a.m. at his home in Bel Air. His granddaughter,  Dani , said on Twitter that the cause of death was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Nimoy was a vagabond TV character actor when he made his debut as the somber Spock on NBC’s Star Trek , which debuted on Sept. 8, 1966. He went on to play or voice the half-Vulcan, half-human on live-action shows, cartoons, films, video games, etc. all the way through J.J. Abrams ’ movie sequel Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) — marking an amazing span of nearly 50 years.

“For whatever reason, I projected some kind of quality that people said, ‘OK, he’s a good alien,’ ” he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1999 interview.

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In the 1970s , Nimoy replaced Martin Landau in the cast of CBS’ Mission: Impossible series, playing Paris, a master of disguise. And recently, he recurred on the Fox science-fiction drama Fringe as William Bell, the founder of the Massive Dynamic corporation.

His last tweet came on Feb. 22: “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP “

Leonard Simon Nimoy was born on March 26, 1931, in the West End section of Boston; his father owned a barbershop, and his mother was a housewife. After attending Boston College on a scholarship, he moved west and joined the Pasadena Playhouse troupe. When he was 20, he made his first film appearance, in Queen for a Day (1951).

In 1952, Nimoy ventured into sci-fi for the first time with Zombies of the Stratosphere and had the title role in another film released that year, Kid Monk Baroni , a tale about a disfigured street punk turned boxer.

Remembering Leonard Nimoy's Career (Photos)

He served in the U.S. Army from 1953-55, then appeared in guest roles on such shows as Highway Patrol , Broken Arrow and Wagon Train (as Native Americans), Dragnet , Sea Hunt , Bonanza , Rawhide , The Twilight Zone , Perry Mason , Dr. Kildare , The Man From U.N.C.L.E. , Combat! and Get Smart .

Before landing the Star Trek role on the Paramount/ Desilu TV series that catapulted him to fame — he had come to the attention of series creator Gene Roddenberry at an earlier audition for the producer’s NBC series The Lieutenant — Nimoy hadn’t had a job on any TV show or movie that had lasted more than two weeks. Teaming up with William Shatner aboard the USS Enterprise provided him with the first steady work of his career.

For Spock, Nimoy invented the V-shaped Vulcan “Live Long and Prosper” hand gesture and the neck pinch that rendered his enemies unconscious. (He said he devised the latter move because he had grown tired of getting into staged fistfights . “Here’s a chance to cleverly avoid that,” he said in a 2000 interview with The Archive of American Television .)

Nimoy was not happy about wearing pointy ears, but Roddenberry convinced him to do it.

Nimoy received three supporting Emmy Award nominations for playing Spock, one for each season of the show. When he opened a letter to learn that he was nominated the first time, in 1967, he cried.

“I thought, whoa. Wow. What a thrill. Particularly because the nominations are done by your fellow actors, and I thought, ‘They’re getting it; they can see what I’m doing,’ ” he said in the TV Archive interview.

'Star Trek' First Aired Episode: THR's 1966 Review

When Star Trek , hamstrung by its Friday night time slot, was canceled in February 1969 after 79 episodes, Nimoy quickly segued to Mission: Impossible , another Paramount show.

By 1975, Star Trek was airing in syndication and had grown into a cultural phenomenon, airing on 160 local stations in the U.S. and in more than 50 countries. Star Trek conventions were springing up and attracting tens of thousands of people, and Paramount was determined to bring back the property in some form.

In 1978, the studio announced at a news conference attended by 200 journalists that two-time Academy Award-winning director Robert Wise would direct a $15 million film adaptation of the series and that Roddenberry would produce.

Nimoy was said to be one of the last of the original castmembers to sign on but denied he was a holdout: “It’s been a complicated relationship with Paramount the last several years. The main reason was that the mail service between here and Vulcan is slow.”

Star Trek: The Motion Picture , released in December 1979, grossed $139 million worldwide.

Nimoy returned for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) in which Spock is killed by radiation poisoning and his coffin shot into orbit. “He’s in the box! I’m calling it death, dead, finished,” he told the L.A. Times in 1984.

Nimoy as Spock, of course, wasn’t finished. The character returned in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), both helmed by Nimoy (he only agreed to return to the third film if he were allowed to direct). He also co-wrote the stories for the fourth and six films in the series.

He was back as Spock in two 1991 episodes of the syndicated series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and provided the uncredited voice of a Spock action figure on a March 2012 episode of The Big Bang Theory titled “The Transporter Malfunction.”

Nimoy earned his fourth career Emmy nomination for playing Morris Meyerson , the husband of Israeli prime minister Golda Meir ( Ingrid Bergman ), in the 1982 telefilm A Woman Called Golda .

He also appeared opposite Yul Brynner in Catlow (1971) and in the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers ; voiced a character in the 1998 sci-fi animation series Invasion Earth , co-created by Steven Spielberg and Star Trek film scribe Harve Bennett ; and hosted In Search Of , a 1977-82 TV series devoted to mysterious phenomena.

After being impressed with the humor in Star Trek IV , new Disney studio chiefs Jeffery Katzenberg and Michael Eisner , fresh from Paramount, asked Nimoy to step in to direct Three Men and a Baby , a remake of the 1985 Oscar-nominated French film Trois Hommes et un Couffin (Three Men and a Cradle). Coline Serreau , who directed Trois Hommes , had exited the American version because of “creative differences.”

Starring Tom Selleck , Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg as bachelors scrambling to take care of a child, Three Men and a Baby raked in $167 million in the U.S., and no film grossed more that year.

“I’m finally coming around to do what I was going to do about 25 years ago,” Nimoy , who was enrolled in a directors’ training program at MGM in the early 1960s , said in a 1987 interview.

Nimoy’s feature directorial credits also included The Good Mother (1988), starring Diane Keaton and Liam Neeson ; Funny About Love (1990), toplined by Gene Wilder ; and Holy Matrimony (1994), with Patricia Arquette .

A deep-thinker, Nimoy authored nine poetry books; a comic book titled PriMortals (developed with writer Isaac Asimov ); a 1977 autobiography, I Am Not Spock ; and another autobiography in 1995, I Am Spock . He once said that the contradicting titles “baffled the reading audience” but that he “had some fun with that.”

On Broadway, Nimoy starred in Full Circle and Equus and directed The Apple Doesn’t Fall … in 1996. He toured in the early 1980s in the one-man show, Vincent: The Story of a Hero , a critically acclaimed look into Vincent Van Gogh ’s life that he wrote, directed and starred in.

During the 1970s , when his time was divided between film, TV and the stage, he recorded 10 narrative albums.

Photography also was a passion; his black-and-white photographs, based on the idea of a spiritual manifestation of the feminine presence of God on Earth, culminated in a 2002 book, Shekhina .

Nimoy was an avid art collector, and he and wife, Susan Bay Nimoy , a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, established The Nimoy Foundation, a national grant program to support the work of contemporary artists.

In 2001, the couple donated $1 million for the renovation of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. A 200-seat multimedia theater inside the landmark bears Leonard Nimoy’s name.

What was it about outer space and Nimoy ? In a 1986 interview, he was asked to explain the ageless appeal of Star Trek .

“I think there’s something to seeing these very professional people helping each other to solve a problem and in the idea that mankind is humane and will do the right thing eventually to each other and to others,” Nimoy said. “And we all like the idea that there are great mysteries still to be explored.”

Duane Byrge  contributed to this report.

Twitter: @mikebarnes4

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Leonard Nimoy dies at 83; fascinating life of fame as Spock

Leonard Nimoy was a poet, photographer, movie director and above all Spock, a voice of pure reason in a time of social turmoil.

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LOS ANGELES — When Leonard Nimoy was approached about acting in a new TV series called “Star Trek,” he was, like any good Vulcan contemplating a risky mission in a chaotic universe, dispassionate.

“I really didn’t give it a lot of thought,” he later recalled. “The chance of this becoming anything meaningful was slim.”

By the time “Star Trek” finished its three-year run in 1969, Mr. Nimoy was a cultural touchstone, a living representative of the scientific method, a voice of pure reason in a time of social turmoil, the unflappable and impeccably logical Mr. Spock.

Free Leonard Nimoy display at EMP

What: This weekend, the EMP Museum at Seattle Center will display the tunic worn by Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock on “Star Trek.” It will be in EMP’s South Lobby, free and open to the public. After this weekend, the display will be moved inside the museum.

Where: 325 Fifth Ave. N.

Information: https://www.EMPmuseum.org, 206-770-2700.

He was, as the Los Angeles Times described him in 2009, “the most iconic alien since Superman,” a quantum leap for a character actor who had appeared in plenty of shows but never worked a single job longer than two weeks.

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Mr. Nimoy, who became so identified with his TV and film role that he titled his two memoirs, somewhat illogically, “I Am Not Spock” (1975) and “I Am Spock” (1995), died Friday at home in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 83.

The cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said his son, Adam.

Mr. Nimoy revealed last year that he had the disease, a condition he attributed to the smoking he gave up 30 years earlier.

While he was best-known for his portrayal of the green-tinted Spock, Mr. Nimoy more recently made his mark with art photography, focusing on plus-sized nude women in a volume called “The Full Body Project” and on nude women juxtaposed with Old Testament tales and quotes from Jewish thinkers in “Shekhina.”

He also directed films, wrote poetry and acted on the stage.

As Spock, he was the pointy-eared, half-Vulcan, 23rd-century science officer whose vaulted eyebrows seemed to express perpetual surprise at the utterly illogical ways of the humans who served with him on the starship Enterprise.

Spock could barely wrap his mind around feelings. He was the son of a human mother and a father from Vulcan, a planet whose inhabitants had chosen pure reason as the only way they could survive. When he thwarted deep-space evildoers, it was with logic simple enough for a Vulcan but dizzying for everyone else, including his commanding officer, Capt. James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner.

While worlds apart from the racial strife and war protests of the 1960s, “Star Trek” explored such issues by setting up parallel situations in space, “The final frontier.”

“Spock was a character whose time had come,” Mr. Nimoy later wrote. “He represented a practical, reasoning voice in a period of dissension and chaos.”

He also turned Mr. Nimoy into an unlikely sex symbol.

When he spoke at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University in the 1970s, a woman asked: “Are you aware that you are the source of erotic dream material for thousands and thousands of ladies around the world?”

“May all your dreams come true,” he responded.

Trekkies everywhere greeted each other with Mr. Nimoy’s “Vulcan salute,” a gesture he adapted from one he had seen at an Orthodox synagogue when he was a boy.

“I was awe-struck,” Mr. Nimoy recalled in a 2004 Los Angeles Times interview.

At the altar, five or six men chanted prayers with their arms raised. They held their hands with fingers parted between the ring and middle fingers and thumbs stuck out — a representation, Mr. Nimoy said, of the Hebrew letter “shin,” the start of “Shaddai,” a term for God.

LSD guru Timothy Leary once flashed Mr. Nimoy the Vulcan salute. So did cabdrivers who sped by on the street, and interviewers who momentarily suspended their journalistic detachment. At a 2007 fundraiser in Los Angeles, presidential candidate Barack Obama spied Nimoy across a room, smiled and held up his hand in the familiar gesture.

Four years later, President Obama told ABC’s Barbara Walters that his critics wrongly believed he was “Spock-like,” or too analytical.

For much of his career, Mr. Nimoy had to deal with the same sort of perception problem.

While his 1975 autobiography was “I Am Not Spock,” he later called the title a mistake because it was so easily misconstrued. In the book, he said he couldn’t think of a TV character he would sooner have played.

At the same time, he was disquieted by mountains of fan mail addressed not to Leonard Nimoy, but to “Mr. Spock, Hollywood, Calif.”

The melding of actor and character was sometimes uncomfortable.

On a tour of California Institute of Technology, Mr. Nimoy was asked his thoughts about complex projects by students who must have believed he had a Spock-like insight.

“I would nod very quietly, and very sagely I would say, ‘You’re on the right track,’ ” he told The New York Times in 2009.

Mr. Nimoy appeared in the original “Star Trek” TV series, which ran on NBC from 1966 to 1969. He received three successive Emmy nominations.

He also was Spock in feature films through 1991, retiring from “Star Trek” pictures until 2009, when he became Spock Prime, a Mr. Spock who inhabited an alternate universe in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek.” He did a cameo performance as the same character in “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013).

Rumors of Spock’s impending on-screen demise in 1982’s “Star Trek II” prompted death threats to director Nicholas Meyer.

“I received a helpful letter that ran: ‘If Spock dies, you die,’ ” Meyer wrote in “The View from the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood.”

The scene was filmed anyway — so affectingly, according to Meyer, that the crew wept openly “as the dying Spock held up his splayed hand and enjoined Kirk to ‘live long and prosper.’ ”

Thanks to an ancient Vulcan ceremony and some tortuous plot twists, Spock was resurrected in “Star Trek III.” Mr. Nimoy directed that film and “Star Trek IV.” He went on to direct the 1987 comedy “Three Men and a Baby” and the 1988 drama “The Good Mother.”

In numerous public appearances, he pointed out the irony of his success.

“My folks came to the U.S. as immigrants,” he said in a 2012 speech at Boston University. “They were aliens, and then became citizens. I was born in Boston a citizen, and then I went to Hollywood and became an alien.”

Born on March 26, 1931, Leonard Simon Nimoy first acted in a community settlement house for immigrants. At 17, he was cast in a Boston production of the Clifford Odets play “Awake and Sing!”

To his parents’ chagrin, it confirmed his passion for acting. The play was about a Jewish family much like Mr. Nimoy’s and it probed his kind of teenage confusion.

“I was electrified,” he recalled. “The author gave me a voice when I was struggling to find my own.”

Mr. Nimoy’s Ukrainian-born father Max, who ran a barbershop in a Boston tenement neighborhood, tried to warn his son about the dangers ahead.

“Learn to play the accordion,” he urged. “You can always make a living with an accordion.”

Instead, Mr. Nimoy briefly studied drama at Boston College, sold vacuum cleaners, and, at 18, left for acting school in California. He dropped out after six months.

His earliest film roles include Narab, a Martian in the 1952 film “Zombies of the Stratosphere.” The same year, he scored his first title role, in the boxing movie “Kid Monk Baroni.”

After a stint in the Army, Mr. Nimoy was back in Los Angeles by the mid-1950s, studying acting and picking up work on shows such as “Dragnet,” “Bonanza,” “Dr. Kildare” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”

In 1965, he drew the attention of Gene Roddenberry, the producer behind the upcoming “Star Trek” series.

In an early scene, Spock and company were huddled over a computer screen and he uttered the one-word line: “Fascinating.”

Then he tried it again.

“The director gave me a brilliant note which said: ‘Be different,’ ” Mr. Nimoy recalled in an interview for the Archive of American Television. “Be the scientist. Be detached. See it as something that’s a curiosity rather than a threat.”

“I said, ‘Fascinating.’ Well, a big chunk of the character was born right there.”

Despite its fans’ enthusiasm, the show ended its run in 1969, a victim of low ratings and tepid support from NBC.

By then, Mr. Nimoy was famous. Even his much-derided 1967 record album, “Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock’s Music from Outer Space” sold more than 130,000 copies.

Poems, photographs

He put in an unsatisfying two years on “Mission: Impossible” and then pursued a range of interests befitting the Renaissance man he had become.

He earned a master’s degree in education from Antioch University. He turned out seven books of poetry and created a comic-book series with science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. He directed six films and, from 1978 to 1980, toured in a one-man show, “Vincent,” about Vincent Van Gogh.

From 1977 to 1982, he hosted “In Search Of … ,” a documentary TV series about paranormal phenomena. In 1978, he played a pompous self-help guru in the film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

He poured himself into projects reflecting his Jewish heritage. In 1982, he appeared as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s former husband in the TV movie “A Woman Called Golda”; nine years later, he played a Holocaust survivor who waged a courtroom battle against Holocaust deniers in the TV movie “Never Forget.”

His photography book, “Shekhina,” pictured nude and sensually draped women, with a cover shot of a woman wearing “tefillin,” Jewish ritual objects traditionally worn by men. It raised some hackles in the Jewish community, but Mr. Nimoy said it was his vision of feminine Jewish spirituality.

“I’m not introducing sexuality into Judaism,” he said. “It’s been there for centuries.”

In 2009, the Santa Monica Museum of Art exhibited images Mr. Nimoy made in Northampton, Mass., of strangers willing to be photographed as their “secret selves.”

The show, called “Who Do You Think You Are?” featured a rabbi with a leather vest over his bare torso and a conservatively dressed female psychologist toting a chain saw.

Asked about his own secrets, Mr. Nimoy demurred.

“I have to laugh,” he said. “I have no secrets left. I revealed it all a long time ago.”

He was married to Sandi Zober from 1954 to 1987, when they divorced.

In addition to his children from that marriage, son Adam and daughter Julie, his survivors include Susan Bay, his wife since 1989; his stepson Aaron Bay Schuck; six grandchildren; a great-grandson; and his brother Melvin.

Leonard Nimoy, Spock on 'Star Trek,' Dies at 83

Actor Leonard Nimoy, who portrayed the iconic logical Vulcan Spock on TV's "Star Trek" and in feature films, has died. He was 83.

Nimoy's career spanned TV, feature films, art and photography, but he was perhaps best known for playing Spock, the logical Vulcan on the starship the USS Enterprise, in "Star Trek." Nimoy died from complications due to "end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," according to the  New York Times , which first reported the actor's death Friday morning (Feb. 27).

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP [Live long and prosper]," Nimoy wrote in a recent  post on Twitter  on Feb. 23. The actor would sign his tweets "LLAP," echoing Spock's famous words on "Star Trek." [ President Obama, space experts react to Nimoy's death ]

Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 26, 1931 and started acting by the time he was 8 years old, according to the New York Times.

His idea for Spock's signature Vulcan salute was actually inspired by his Jewish heritage after seeing men at his synagogue use the hand gesture during prayer. He suggested it to the director as a Vulcan greeting and it stuck, Nimoy told the Yiddish Book Center in a video .

Aside from being a beloved science fiction star, Nimoy also got involved with real space science. He narrated a video for NASA detailing the space agency's Dawn mission to the dwarf planet Ceres for the first time. 

NASA paid tribute to the actor today with a post on Twitter featuring a photo of Nimoy and his "Star Trek" co-stars in front of the space shuttle Enterprise, named for the fictional starship in the television show. In April 2012, Nimoy greeted the space shuttle Enterprise with a Vulcan salute when the spacecraft prototype was delivered to New York City for installation at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

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"RIP Leonard Nimoy. So many of us at NASA were inspired by Star Trek. Boldly go ..." NASA officials wrote on Twitter.

Nimoy's friends and colleagues have posted their feelings about the "Star Trek" legend on social media as well.

"I loved him like a brother," William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk alongside Nimoy's Spock on the TV show, said via Twitter . "We will all miss his humor, his talent, and his capacity to love."

"Today, the world lost a great man, and I lost a great friend," George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu on the original series, said on Facebook . "We return you now to the stars, Leonard. You taught us to 'Live Long And Prosper,' and you indeed did, friend. I shall miss you in so many, many ways."

Nimoy also starred as Spock Prime in the J.J. Abrams directed "Star Trek" reboot released in 2009. Zachary Quinto, who plays the new Spock in the franchise, paid tribute to Nimoy on Instagram today.

"My heart is broken," Quinto wrote. "I love you profoundly my dear friend. And I will miss you everyday. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer . Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook   and Google+ . Original article on Space.com .

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Miriam Kramer joined Space.com as a Staff Writer in December 2012. Since then, she has floated in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight, felt the pull of 4-Gs in a trainer aircraft and watched rockets soar into space from Florida and Virginia. She also served as Space.com's lead space entertainment reporter, and enjoys all aspects of space news, astronomy and commercial spaceflight.  Miriam has also presented space stories during live interviews with Fox News and other TV and radio outlets. She originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee where she and her family would take trips to dark spots on the outskirts of town to watch meteor showers every year. She loves to travel and one day hopes to see the northern lights in person. Miriam is currently a space reporter with Axios, writing the Axios Space newsletter. You can follow Miriam on Twitter.

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Actor Leonard Nimoy, 'Mr. Spock,' dies at 83

The legendary actor who made being logical sound cool in his "Star Trek" role as Spock, beloved by generations of fans, died at his home in Los Angeles Friday.

Actor Leonard Nimoy, beloved by geeks of all stripes for his role as Mr. Spock in the original "Star Trek" TV series, died Friday at age 83.

The legendary actor, famed for his role as first officer of the USS Enterprise on "Star Trek," died at his home in Los Angeles. He died of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his son Adam said, according to CBS News . He had reportedly been hospitalized earlier this week.

Last February, Nimoy revealed on Twitter that he had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, which he attributed to years of smoking. He had given up the habit three decades earlier, but not soon enough, he tweeted.

Nimoy's "Star Trek" run from 1966 to 1969 was only part of his long career in movies, television, and on the stage. But for most, he will always be known as Spock, a star of one of television and film's most revered cult series. Half-human, half-Vulcan, his character was the calm counterpoint to William Shatner's more volatile Captain Kirk, and his gracious demeanor was familiar to those who met the actor.

Leonard Nimoy: A look back at his fascinating life (pictures)

He portrayed Spock in numerous "Star Trek" movies and voiced the character in cartoons and video games. In addition to "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Animated Series," Nimoy starred in "Mission: Impossible" and "Fringe." Nimoy also hosted of "In Search of..." and narrated "Ancient Mysteries." He directed various TV episodes and two "Star Trek" films -- "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" in 1984 and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" in 1986 -- not to mention the popular comedy "3 Men and a Baby" in 1987.

Acting and directing weren't Nimoy's only talents, however. He released five records and sang " The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins " in 1967 and was an avid photographer and poet. He also penned two autobiographies: "I Am Not Spock" (1975) and "I Am Spock" (1995).

Emotional tributes to the actor from fans and former co-stars immediately flooded social media Friday.

"I loved him like a brother," his longtime co-star William Shatner tweeted .

"I loved him like a brother. We will all miss his humor, his talent, and his capacity to love." -William Shatner http://t.co/U8ZN98tVYp — William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) February 27, 2015

Actor Jonathan Frakes , who played First Officer Riker on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," tweeted, "RIP to the best First Officer. "

"My heart is broken," tweeted actor Zachary Quinto , who played a young Spock in the 2009 "Star Trek" reboot and in its sequel "Star Trek Into Darkness" in 2013, in which Nimoy reprised his role. "I love you profoundly my dear friend. And I will miss you every day."

Nimoy himself sent a poignant last tweet this past Sunday. "A life is like a garden," he wrote . "Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP"

LLAP, of course, stands for the Vulcan salutation "Live long and prosper."

It is with sadness that I heard of Leonard Nimoy's death. I was lucky to spend many happy, inspiring hours with him. He won't be forgotten. — Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) February 27, 2015

God Bless You, Leonard Nimoy... May Angels guide thee to thy rest! #agoodman #talented #funny #awesome — LeVar Burton (@levarburton) February 27, 2015

my heart is broken. i love you profoundly my dear friend. and i will miss you everyday. may flights... https://t.co/WPJmt1X4ox — Zachary Quinto (@ZacharyQuinto) February 27, 2015

We stood on your shoulders, and wouldn't have had a galaxy to explore if you hadn't been there, first. Thank you, Leonard, Rest in peace. — Wil Wheaton (@wilw) February 27, 2015

Leonard Nimoy, Spock from 'Star Trek,' Dies at 83

Leonard Nimoy, the actor best known for playing the emotionless, pointy-eared Spock on the “Star Trek” television series, died on Friday. He was 83.

His granddaughter, Dani, confirmed the death on Twitter. She called him “an extraordinary man.” Nimoy revealed a year ago that he had been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

As the half-human, half-alien chief science officer for the Starship Enterprise, Spock gave the world the indelible blessing “Live long and prosper” and his familiar split-fingered Vulcan salute. He was second in command to William Shatner’s Captain James T. Kirk, his stoicism the perfect counter to Kirk’s fiery personality.

“I loved him like a brother,” Shatner said in a statement. “We will all miss his humor, his talent and his capacity to love.”

Word of his death inspired expressions of respect not just from his fellow actors and from “Star Trek” fans but from NASA.

RIP Leonard Nimoy. So many of us at NASA were inspired by Star Trek. Boldly go... http://t.co/qpeH5BTzQc pic.twitter.com/nMmFMKYv1L — NASA (@NASA) February 27, 2015

“Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. “Cool, logical, big-eared and level-headed, the center of Star Trek’s optimistic, inclusive vision of humanity’s future.”

“I loved Spock,” he said.

Nimoy’s career boldly went beyond television. He was also a poet, a photographer, a director and a singer. And a decade after the series went off the air, he breathed new life into the brand by appearing in a series of blockbuster movies.

“The word extraordinary is often overused, but I think it’s really appropriate for Leonard,” the actor George Takei, who played Sulu on the series, told MSNBC. “He was an extraordinarily talented man, but he was also a very decent human being.”

Nimoy invoked his best-known line in his last tweet, posted Monday: “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP.”

When the original “Star Trek” series ended in 1969, after three season, Nimoy moved to the adventure series “Mission: Impossible.” He also hosted the mystery-probing television series “In Search Of … ” More recently, he played Dr. William Bell on the Fox series “Fringe.”

He credits as a movie director included “Three Men and a Baby.” But he was by far most famous for giving life to the green-blooded Spock.

In a 1995 interview with the AP, he ventured that people “recognize in themselves this wish that they could be logical and avoid the pain of anger and confrontation.”

“How many times have we come away from an argument wishing we had said and done something different?” he said.

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'Wrath of Khan' director reveals how he killed Spock in the 1982 blockbuster

It's been forty years since Spock put the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few — or the one — in the final moments of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. With the U.S.S. Enterprise 's warp drive inoperable thanks to a devastating attack launched by Khan Noonien Singh (Richardo Montalban), Starfleet's most popular Vulcan officer descends into the starship's engine room and absorbs a lethal dose of radiation, surviving just long enough to save the day and say goodbye to his closest companion, James T. Kirk. And no matter how many times you've seen Wrath of Khan in the four decades since the movie's June 4, 1982 release, Spock's passing never fails to trigger tears, whether you're human, Klingon... or Gorn .

The tears were certainly flowing on the Wrath of Khan set when William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy — who had been part of each other's lives since the 1966 premiere of the original Star Trek TV series — played what was intended to be their final scene together. In his 2010 memoir, The View From the Bridge , Wrath of Khan director, Nicholas Meyer, described members of the crew weeping as Spock told Kirk: "I have been, and always shall be, your friend."

The only person who wasn't crying was Meyer himself. Speaking with Yahoo Entertainment ahead of the film's 40th anniversary, the filmmaker says that his job demanded dry eyes and a clear head. "I had to be the audience surrogate and make sure there was nothing in the frame and nothing in the performances that would bounce anybody out of the emotional intensity of what was going on," Meyer explains. "If I started crying, I was going to lose that objectivity! If you are the puppeteer, you cannot be out front sobbing at the performance. You must remain backstage and make sure that the strings do not become tangled."

Not that Shatner and Nimoy needed any puppeteering. For much of the shoot, Meyer says that he worked to break some of the "bad habits" he saw popping up in Shatner's non- Trek work, including the cop drama, T.J. Hooker , which premiered on ABC two months prior to Wrath of Khan 's theatrical opening. "I stumbled into a solution of working with him, which was to keep asking him to do scenes again and again," Meyer remembers. "He would seem to get bored, and when he got bored, he dropped all of the 'acting' and just sort of became. He would just be, and that's when his performance got great."

But when it came to Spock's death scene, Meyer says that both Shatner and Nimoy knew exactly what the pivotal scene demanded of them and showed up to set ready to... engage   with the drama of the moment. "They were totally there," he remembers. "You know, they had started out as rivals in the early days of the show, but then they sort of realized that they needed each other. So even though they were very different people, they had a genuine friendship."

The weight of the Shatner and Nimoy's shared history adds to the gravity of Spock's death, pushing it to an emotional catharsis that was nearly two decades in the making at that point. And while that history predated Meyer — who confesses to not being much of a Star Trek fan prior to making The Wrath of Khan — it was felt by the crew members who had been part of the Enterprise 's long-term mission.

"I looked at my cinematographer, Gayne Rescher, and he was weeping," the director says. "Other people were weeping. I thought, 'What the hell is going on here?' That's how much I didn't understand about this show."

At the same time, it was that lack of personal connection to Star Trek that landed Meyer The Wrath of Khan gig in the first place. Although 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture successfully turned the long-dormant TV series into a feature film franchise, Paramount wanted to avoid the behind the scenes struggles — including budget overruns and creative disputes — that plagued the production.

With Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, exiled from direct involvement in the second film, producer Harve Bennett was brought in to steer the Enterprise going forward. After commissioning several screenplays that all crash landed in one way or another, Bennett brought in Meyer to craft a story that would, essentially, save Star Trek .

"When I got involved there were five drafts of a second Star Trek movie, and none of them were related," remembers Meyer, who wrote bestsellers like the Sherlock Holmes adventure, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution , before moving behind the camera . "What I wound up doing after consulting with Harve and his producing partner, Robert Sallin, was to make a laundry list of the things we liked in those five scripts. Then I wrote a brand new script fiddling with those different pieces like a Rubik's Cube in order to get a coherent story."

According to Meyer, Spock's death was a key part of each of those five scripts — a pre-condition that Nimoy demanded if he was going to return to a role he was increasingly tired of playing. But the specifics of the Vulcan's passing weren't settled right away. "One of the scripts had a simulator sequence of a fake disaster that appeared on page 45," Meyer recalls. "I moved it to the first scene in the movie, and Spock wasn't in it. Harve and I were discussing the script one morning and I said, 'We should put him in the first scene and kill him off then.' To my astonishment, Harve said, 'That is genius!'"

Rather than go with a shocking early death a la Psycho , though, Meyer decided to take a cue from a thematic idea that shares a name with another Alfred Hitchcock picture . "Spock's death ultimately isn't an act of sacrifice — it's lifeboat ethics," he explains about how he hit upon the sequence of events that sends Spock into the Enterprise 's radiation-filled engine room in the film's climax. "If a lifeboat becomes overloaded with people then somebody is going to have to go overboard if the sea is anything but calm. Like Spock says, 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.' So he decides, 'I'll save the many.'"

Although Nimoy went into Wrath of Khan ready and willing to be the Star Trek cast member that plunged overboard, his resolve wavered as the date of his "execution" approached. Meyer says that the actor, who died in 2015, was "testy and tense" as he prepared to film Spock's death, nagged by "second thoughts" about whether he had made the right decision to exit the franchise that had defined his life and career.

The keepers of the Star Trek franchise felt the same way: After Meyer filmed Shatner and Nimoy's final scene, last minute adjustments were incorporated into the film to pave a way for Spock's return. Those adjustments started with a new scene where Spock uses a mind meld to transfer his katra — the Vulcan word for "living spirit" — to his friend and regular foil, Doctor McCoy (DeForest Kelley).

Also added to the final cut was an epilogue set on Genesis , a previously desolate planet instantly terraformed by the life-giving Genesis Device . As Spock's coffin touches down amidst Genesis's lush forests, we hear Nimoy's voice speaking Shatner's classic Trek lines about "exploring strange new worlds" and boldly going "where no man has gone before."

In his memoir, Meyer describes being infuriated by the attempts to preemptively undo the emotional farewell he had orchestrated for Spock. Discussing those behind the scenes disagreements again now, he confirms that he flat-out refused to shoot the epilogue, which was instead directed by Sallin. "At the time, I protested. I said, 'This is so wrong and so unfair to the people who have invested themselves in this story.' I thought that after we'd wrung the tears out of them, we were just going to say, 'Forget fit, folks! It didn't really happen.'"

Sure enough, Spock's death was swiftly undone in Star Trek III: The Search of Spock , which was released two years after The Wrath of Khan became one of 1982's biggest blockbusters. And Meyer says that he turned down the opportunity to helm that installment, specifically because he wasn't interested in having to bring the character back to life. Nimoy ended up directing his own resurrection, and continued to play Spock   in various Trek movies and shows in the ensuing years, making his final onscreen appearance in 2016's Star Trek Beyond .

In the four decades since Khan 's release, Meyer's own stance on Spock's return has softened. "In retrospect, I think I was wrong to make such a fuss," he admits. "Once he was resurrected, I just kind of accepted it as fact." Eleven years after killing Spock, Meyer directed Nimoy again in 1991's Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , the final feature film starring the original Enterprise crew. "Leonard was always very pleased that I knew how to write for Spock, which for me was like writing Sherlock Holmes. And, in fact, in Star Trek VI , Spock implies that they're related!"

While he couldn't have realized it at the time, Meyer's commitment to killing Spock established a narrative template that major Hollywood franchises have followed ever since. It's not an exaggeration to say that almost every blockbuster sequel made in the past four decades models itself either after The Empire Strikes Back , where evil (temporarily) triumphs over good,   or The Wrath of Khan , where a major character dies in the third act only to be resurrected later on — think the Alien   or Pirates of the Caribbean   series. (And some sequels, like Avengers: Infinity War , find a way to reference both at the same time.)

Even Star Trek itself has gone back to the Khan well: The second installment in J.J. Abrams's rebooted Kelvin Timeline film series, Star Trek: Into Darkness , incorporated multiple elements from Meyer's film, which featured Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan. In the third act, Chris Pine's Kirk — rather than Zachary Quinto's Spock — dies from radiation poisoning, but is swiftly brought back to life by Genesis Project-like restorative properties in Khan's blood. (For the record, Meyer says he wasn't consulted on the Into Darkness storyline, and calls its use of Khan "absurd.")

"I don't believe in formulas," Meyer says when asked how he feels about the larger impact of Wrath of Khan on blockbuster storytelling, as well as his subsequent work, including the forever-timely 1983 TV movie, The Day After . "If I could boil this process down to anything formulaic, I'm not sure it would work and I certainly would lose interest in it. I don't think, 'Who should live, and who should die?' Or, 'There should be this or there should be that.' I never think of the 'should be's.'

"I also don't concern myself with the fans," Meyer continues. "Fans don't know what they want until they get it. Art may be a collaborative process, but it isn't made by committee. That's how I see my job: My assumption always is that if I like it, other people will like it. That's the best I can do."

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is currently streaming on Paramount+. It will return to theaters on Sept. 4th, 5th and 8th as part of Fathom Events and TCM's Big Screen Classics series .

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Why Spock Died in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

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Looking back at Star Trek history, the death of Spock seems superfluous. The infamous scene occurred at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Leonard Nimoy went on to play Spock in six more films and The Next Generation . But none of those other appearances would have happened if Spock hadn't died in The Wrath of Khan .

Star Trek producers so feared the backlash from Spock's demise that they included a tease at the last minute suggesting the beloved Vulcan was only "mostly dead," according to documentaries produced and articles written since the film's debut. Yet when it was conceived, Spock's death was a major moment in the movie that everyone assumed would be the final film in the series. But as The Wrath of Khan continued into production, everyone began to realize Star Trek was a legitimate franchise -- and it was about to be stuck continuing without its most popular character.

RELATED: Sorry Spock, Jolene Blalock's T'Pol Is Star Trek's Most Interesting Vulcan

Spock Died in Every Version of the Star Trek II Script

Before returning for Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Nimoy had a business disagreement with Gene Roddenberry and Paramount, according to The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek . He saw his likeness on action figures, lunch boxes and other merchandise, but received no remuneration for it. The filming of the first movie was a disaster, and so Nimoy wanted no more to do with Spock or Star Trek . Jack B. Sowards wrote his first draft for Wrath of Khan with Spock in the story -- and killed him at the end of the first act. Producer Harve Bennett went to Nimoy to convince him to return. The actor couldn't resist giving Spock a grand death on-screen, especially since the emotionless Vulcan was to go out saving the Enterprise from destruction.

Saavik, played by Kirstie Alley, was meant to be Spock's replacement. Early drafts even suggested that Spock and Saavik were intimate , before the much younger Alley was cast. Yet Nimoy had doubts as filming neared completion, as the actor recounted in the making-of documentary on the DVD release of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Nimoy enjoyed making Wrath of Khan (via Film4 UK ). Unlike the first film, Star Trek II captured the chemistry of the cast that many viewers felt was left behind in The Motion Picture . The movie had a clear villain and genuine conflict. He began to wonder if he'd not made a mistake in agreeing to the death of the character -- and then Bennett approached him with a question.

According to the DVD special features, Bennett asked if Nimoy had any ideas about "something" he could do that might imply Spock wasn't really gone -- unaware the actor was already thinking about it. Nimoy suggested mind-melding with an unconscious Dr. McCoy and improvised the line, "Remember." Wrath of Khan still ended on Spock's funeral, and Kirk's statement about the humanity of his friend's soul. When producers did a test screening, the audience sat in depressed silence. Bennett then insisted director Nicholas Meyer put a scene at the end of the film showing Spock's casket resting on the planet below. The visual effects team at Industrial Light & Magic had to scramble to include the final shot of the improvised casket on the surface of the Genesis planet, setting the stage for Spock's return.

RELATED: Star Trek: Leonard Nimoy Created Spock's Vulcan Neck Pinch

Starfleet career

Starfleet academy.

During his time at Starfleet Academy, Spock had Onafuwa for Fundamentals of Quantum Stochastics and several other advanced courses. He was commissioned as a Starfleet officer in 2250 with the serial number S 179-276 SP and held an A7 computer expert classification. Later in life, he wrote a memoir about the challenges he faced at Starfleet Academy, titled The Many and the One . ( PIC : " The Star Gazer "; ST : " Q&A "; TOS : " The Enterprise Incident ", " Court Martial ", " The Ultimate Computer ")

In the alternate reality, Spock began programming the Kobayashi Maru scenario in 2254. The writers of the film Star Trek stated, in the movie's audio commentary , that they felt this event overlapped with the prime reality and that Kirk also met Spock at a hearing after he cheated on the test. According to the script for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , after taking the Kobayashi Maru test for the third time, Spock said to Kirk that his solution would not have occurred to a Vulcan mentality . [2] This would have implied that Kirk and Spock knew each other since the late 2250s , and that Spock was at the Academy. As it was, this information was not in the theatrical or director's cut of the film . Furthermore, Spock was to have been depicted as a Starfleet cadet in two undeveloped productions: Star Trek: The First Adventure and a story suggested for inclusion in ENT Season 4 . (For more information, see Reappearances .)

Early postings and assignments

One of Spock's early assignments was to the USS Kongo . ( SNW : " Memento Mori ")

Serving under Christopher Pike

Arrival on the enterprise.

Spock and Lieutenant Una Chin-Riley in a turbolift shortly after his arrival.

In 2253 , Spock was assigned to the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike . When Ensign Spock was first transported aboard the Enterprise , he bonded with the ship's first officer , Lieutenant Una Chin-Riley (who preferred to be known simply as "Number One"). When they became trapped in the turbolift while on their way to the bridge, Spock asked Una many questions and the two opened up to each other. ( ST : " Q&A "; SNW : " Among the Lotus Eaters " display graphic )

By 2254 , he was promoted to lieutenant . ( TOS : " The Cage ")

Spock's promotion to lieutenant can only be extrapolated by comparing his rank in "Q&A" (ensign) with that in "The Cage" (lieutenant).

Rescuing Pike from the Talosians

Spock in 2254

Later that year, Lt. Spock was wounded in the leg when Pike's landing party was attacked on Rigel VII .

As the ship proceeded to the Vega colony for medical care, a radio wave distress call forced Pike to divert the ship to Talos IV . Still limping, Spock joined a landing party that transported to the barren surface of the planet where Talosians captured Pike.

He was the first of the ship's crew to realize the Talosians had powerful illusory abilities. Spock's final report, along with Pike's, recommended a ban on visitation to the planet. Starfleet's General Order 7 supported that judgment. ( TOS : " The Cage ", " The Menagerie, Part I ", " The Menagerie, Part II ")

At one point during the filming of "The Cage", Gene Roddenberry intended for Spock to appear in an installment which was to be filmed later but set before "The Cage". In that episode, Spock would have been depicted injuring his leg. Roddenberry, as a way to set the story up, asked Spock actor Leonard Nimoy to limp on-screen during "The Cage". Nimoy complied with that request but the planned episode was never filmed, leaving the reason for Spock's leg wound as somewhat of a mystery. [3] (X)

Searching for the Red Angel

Spock in 2257

Following the end of the Federation-Klingon War in 2257 , Spock took an unspecified leave of absence from Starfleet. He had accumulated a number of months during the five-year mission which, according to Pike, took a toll on the whole crew as well as Spock. Upon reviewing Spock 's personal log entries on the Enterprise , Michael Burnham learned that Spock had been having visions ever since he was a boy, and that he had had premonitions of the mysterious red bursts that the USS Discovery was likewise investigating, which Spock believed were related to his childhood visions of "the Red Angel." ( DIS : " Brother ")

Spock followed his visions to an unknown planet where he encountered the Red Angel. Through a mind meld , he discovered that it was a Human but one clad in a suit far beyond 23rd century technology. Through the meld, he received a vision of the destruction of Earth , Vulcan , Andor , and Tellar , and began experiencing time non-linearly. ( DIS : " If Memory Serves ") He decided to have himself committed to the psychiatric unit on Starbase 5 . In doing so, he requested that Starfleet not inform his family about the matter, including his father and foster sister. While there, he was observed to display acutely emotional dissociation and extreme empathy deficits. When he was told the red bursts had occurred as he had predicted, Spock broke out of the facility, disabling three of his doctors with Vulcan nerve pinches and fleeing on a shuttlecraft . ( DIS : " New Eden ", " Point of Light ", " If Memory Serves ")

Starfleet subsequently claimed that Spock had murdered his doctors and made finding him a priority. The USS Discovery and Section 31 became involved in the search. Aware he was being pursued, Spock abandoned his shuttlecraft in the Mutara sector and secretly returned to Vulcan. There, his mother hid him in a sacred crypt where katra stones shielded him from telepathic searches. Spock had become delusional and incoherent, unable to bear the experience of viewing time non-linearly, and repeated the First Doctrines of Logic and a sequence of numbers over and over. Burnham convinced Amanda to take her to Spock, but Sarek followed Burnham and convinced her that the best way to help Spock was to hand him over to Section 31. Burnham took Spock to the Section 31 ship NCIA-93 where Captain Leland promised he would help repair Spock's mind. However, Philippa Georgiou warned Burnham that Leland intended to extract Spock's memories using a process that would destroy his mind. At Georgiou's suggestion, Burnham overpowered her and took Spock from the Section 31 ship in a shuttlecraft. ( DIS : " Saints of Imperfection ", " Light and Shadows ")

Burnham realized that, since Spock's mind had regressed to childhood, the sequence of numbers he had been repeating was reversed due to his L'tak Terai . In the opposite order, the numbers represented the coordinates for Talos IV . Burnham thus set a course for that planet. There, the Talosians and Vina agreed to help heal Spock and subsequently projected illusions to the pursuing NCIA-93 to allow Burnham and Spock to escape to the USS Discovery which was commanded by his old friend Captain Christopher Pike while the USS Enterprise was down for repairs. ( DIS : " Light and Shadows ", " If Memory Serves ")

Stopping Control

Spock subsequently joined the Discovery 's ongoing mission to investigate the red bursts , discovering that Control had framed Spock for murder ( DIS : " Project Daedalus ") and helping to trap the Red Angel on Essof IV . To everyone's surprise, the Red Angel was revealed to actually be Gabrielle Burnham , Michael Burnham 's mother who was long believed to be dead. While attempting to prevent Control from wiping out all life in the galaxy after gaining full sentience, Gabrielle had discovered that Spock was the only one capable of truly perceiving her and her purpose. However, an effort to beam Gabrielle into their time permanently failed and resulted in the Red Angel suit and Gabrielle getting pulled back into the 32nd century , unable to return due to Gabrielle's time crystal being destroyed. ( DIS : " The Red Angel ", " Perpetual Infinity ")

When the decision was made to send Discovery into the future in order to prevent Control from ever getting its hands on the Sphere data, Spock decided to accompany his sister on the one-way trip. During the Battle near Xahea , Spock helped to guide Burnham's use of the second Red Angel suit from a shuttlecraft, but his engines were damaged and he couldn't return to the ship with her. With Discovery too badly damaged to risk lowering its shields to beam him onboard, Spock was forced to remain behind in 2257 . Burnham promised to send the seventh red burst to signal her brother that they had successfully made it and offered him some final words of advice. Spock told Burnham that he loved her, a sentiment that she returned, before Spock had the USS Enterprise beam him out. From the Enterprise bridge, Spock witnessed Burnham successfully lead Discovery through the wormhole to the future. ( DIS : " Such Sweet Sorrow ", " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 ")

Return to Starfleet

Spock in 2258

After the battle against Control , Spock returned to his position as science officer aboard the Enterprise in 2258 . He was sworn to secrecy, along with the rest of the crew of Pike's starship, to never again speak the name of his adoptive sister or the ship she served on aloud in public again. Four months after the Discovery 's departure, the seventh red burst appeared near Terralysium , confirming to Spock that his sister had made it to the future. ( DIS : " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 ")

In 2259 , T'Pring, his betrothed, proposed marriage to him, which he accepted. ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ")

Later that year, the pirate Captain Angel , lover of Spock's half-brother Sybok, came aboard, manipulating Spock at an attempt to free Sybok from the Ankeshtan K'til Retreat he was currently confined to. Angel ultimately took control of the Enterprise and tried to blackmail T'Pring into releasing Sybok, using Spock as leverage. Spock and Christine Chapel foiled her plans by pretending to be in love with each other and temporarily ending his betrothal to T'Pring. They renewed their bonding afterwards. ( SNW : " The Serene Squall ")

When an alien consciousness from the Jonisian Nebula brought the fairy tale The Kingdom of Elysian to life on the Enterprise , Spock was used for the character of the Wizard Pollux . He didn't remember the events after the ship was returned to normal. ( SNW : " The Elysian Kingdom ")

Spock was part of a mission to the USS Peregrine , which had made a crash landing on Valeo Beta V . Inside the ship, confronted with young Gorn who had just hatched and hunted the landing party, Spock allowed himself to give into his unchecked emotions and rage to provoke and draw out the Gorn. Afterwards, he had still trouble controling his anger as well as his pain and that his mind was weak, but was assured by Christine Chapel that it was not a weakness, but him being Human. ( SNW : " All Those Who Wander ")

Meeting Leila Kalomi

On Earth briefly in 2261 , Spock met Leila Kalomi . Although she declared a love for Spock, his emotional control prevented him from reciprocating until 2267 when he was infected by the spores on Omicron Ceti III . Under the spores' influence, he became peaceful and happy but Captain James T. Kirk infuriated him, which killed the spores and returned him to normal. ( TOS : " This Side of Paradise ")

Spock's service under Pike (eleven years, four months, and five days) inspired considerable respect and loyalty from the young officer. In 2267, Spock risked his life and career for the sake of his former captain. ( TOS : " The Cage ", " The Menagerie, Part I ", " The Menagerie, Part II ")

Serving under James T. Kirk

Lieutenant Commander Spock in 2265

After Pike's promotion to fleet captain , Kirk assumed command of the Enterprise in 2265 , with Spock as his first officer. An early mission proved disastrous when Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell , a close friend of the new captain, developed enhanced psionic abilities when the Enterprise encountered an energy barrier at the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy .

Spock and Kirk in 2265

Spock examined the tapes of an earlier ship, the SS Valiant , that had encountered the same barrier and was destroyed. As Mitchell's powers increased, Spock believed he had become extremely dangerous and feared that he would destroy the Enterprise . He therefore advised Kirk to either strand Mitchell on the uninhabited and desolate Delta Vega to isolate him from galactic civilization or kill Mitchell before it was too late. Kirk hesitated but initially attempted the former, but the scope of Spock's concerns were eventually borne out and Kirk was forced to kill Mitchell. ( TOS : " Where No Man Has Gone Before ")

In the final revised draft of the script for "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (dated 8 July 1965 ), Spock's final line of the episode was to have featured him admitting he had "hated every minute of being logical about" the treatment of Gary Mitchell. [4] This line of dialogue, however, wasn't used.

The Enterprise repelled the first Romulan incursion of Federation space in over a century on stardate 1709.2. Spock and the bridge crew became the first Starfleet officers to make visual contact with Romulans who finally revealed their Vulcan-like appearance to Starfleet. Lieutenant Stiles briefly suspected Spock of being a Romulan agent until Spock saved his life in the course of battle. ( TOS : " Balance of Terror ")

Spock kidnapped Fleet Captain Pike and hijacked the Enterprise . Pike had been crippled and was confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak, as a result of an accident. Spock wanted to return him to Talos IV ; he wished to return Pike to the Talosians there so he could enjoy the rest of his life in an illusory reality and would not have to continue enduring his disability. After a lengthy inquiry into the matter, and in light of the Talosian-provided images, Kirk allowed Pike to beam down. Commodore Jose I. Mendez also dropped all charges against Spock. ( TOS : " The Menagerie, Part I ", " The Menagerie, Part II ")

While commanding an away mission aboard the Galileo on stardate 2821.5, the shuttlecraft crashed on the surface of Taurus II . Giant hostile creatures killed two crewmembers while the shuttle was stranded there. Spock, aided by Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott , eventually launched the shuttle. Knowing that it could not break free of the planet's gravity, Spock ignited the shuttlecraft's remaining fuel to use it as a flare. His gamble paid off; it alerted the Enterprise which turned around and rescued the team. ( TOS : " The Galileo Seven ")

Spock in command of the Enterprise after the Metrons abduct Kirk

After being thrown back in time to Earth of 1969 and interacting with that planet's US Air Force , Spock was able to recreate a time warp with a slingshot maneuver around the sun. ( TOS : " Tomorrow is Yesterday ")

Spock being questioned at Kirk's trial in 2267

When Kirk was court-martialed for causing the death of Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Finney , Spock proved that Finney had altered the Enterprise 's computer tapes to frame Kirk, by beating the computer at chess four times in a row, something which would ordinarily be impossible. ( TOS : " Court Martial ")

Spock confronts Landru with Kirk

Spock, along with Kirk, helped disable Landru , a computer that controlled the lives of a civilization on Beta III and allowed no free thought or creative thinking. ( TOS : " The Return of the Archons ")

Spock helped Kirk to retake the Enterprise after Khan Noonien Singh , a 20th century Augment dictator whom the Enterprise 's crew had found in stasis , commandeered the starship. He flooded the ship with gas, disabling Khan and his followers. ( TOS : " Space Seed ")

On stardate 3192.1, Spock and Kirk were taken prisoners on Eminiar VII which had been at war for over five hundred years with Vendikar . Computers fought the war virtually so that the destruction of actual warfare did not devastate the two worlds, thus preserving both civilizations. Whenever the computer registered a hit, the affected citizens reported to a disintegration chamber where they were vaporized. When the Enterprise entered orbit around Eminiar VII, it became a legitimate target for Vendikar. The war computer soon declared that a tricobalt satellite explosion had destroyed the Enterprise ; as a result, Eminiar officials expected the crew to report to the disintegration stations. They abducted Kirk and Spock to ensure compliance, but the two escaped captivity and destroyed the computers on Eminiar VII. With the threat of a real war looming over the inhabitants of both planets, Spock and Kirk negotiated a peace between Eminiar VII and Vendikar. ( TOS : " A Taste of Armageddon ")

On the mining planet Janus VI , an unknown creature was killing miners there. After locating the creature, Spock mind melded with it. He discovered that the creature was called a Horta and determined that its killing of the miners was an attempt to protect its young. The miners had been unintentionally killing the Horta's offspring by destroying silicon nodules which were really the creature's eggs. Spock negotiated a pact between the Horta and the miners: The miners would leave the eggs alone and the Horta, in turn, would help the miners locate valuable minerals. ( TOS : " The Devil in the Dark ")

Spock is forced to use a destructive measure in order to protect the Federation

Spock and Kirk later became trapped on Organia during a Klingon occupation of that planet. The Klingons wanted to use Organia as a base in their war against the Federation. The Organian council refused the Federation's help, and after the Klingons invaded and took control of Organia, Kirk and Spock had civilian identities imposed on them, with Spock being given the identity of a merchant . They then became involved in sabotage. After the Klingons captured them, the Organians set Spock and Kirk free. Just as war began to break out, the Organians revealed themselves to be powerful energy beings. They neutralized both sides weaponry and stopped the war. ( TOS : " Errand of Mercy ")

On stardate 3134.0, Spock and Kirk traveled back in time using the Guardian of Forever to retrieve Dr. Leonard McCoy who had entered the time portal and somehow changed history. Spock discovered McCoy saved the life of Edith Keeler who, in the altered timeline, led a pacifist movement that delayed the United States of America 's entry into World War II , thus allowing Adolf Hitler to win the war. Spock persuaded Kirk that allowing Keeler to die in an auto accident was only way to restore the timeline. ( TOS : " The City on the Edge of Forever ")

A neural parasite attacking Spock

Near the end of the year, a Denevan neural parasite that destroyed the colony on Deneva also attacked Spock. He submitted to an experiment that destroyed the creature inside him but also left him blind. However, the blindness was only temporary due to an inner set of eyelids that all Vulcans possessed. ( TOS : " Operation -- Annihilate! ")

Commander Spock in 2267

In late 2267 , the Enterprise encountered a probe called Nomad that had destroyed multiple star systems and their inhabitants. Spock mind-melded with the probe and discovered it was an old Earth probe originally tasked with seeking out new life. Somehow damaged in space, it had merged with an alien probe on a mission to sterilize "imperfect" biological organisms from soil. These two missions had merged into sterilizing or improving anything that was not "perfect." Using its own logic against it, Kirk destroyed the probe. ( TOS : " The Changeling ")

On stardate 3219.8, an alien cloud creature took control of a shuttlecraft carrying Spock, Kirk, and Federation diplomat Nancy Hedford , landing it on a deserted planet. There, they found Zefram Cochrane , the inventor of Earth's warp drive who was believed to have died decades ago. The cloud creature, which Cochrane called the " Companion ", had discovered him and kept him alive and young. The creature had brought the three Starfleet officers to be companions for Cochrane. When Spock tried to repair the shuttlecraft, the Companion stopped him. The situation was resolved when the Companion joined with Hedford, who was terminally ill, and cured her. Hedford/The Companion remained on the planet with Cochrane. ( TOS : " Metamorphosis ")

At some point around Spock's fourth year on the Enterprise , he was offered an assignment with Medusan Ambassador Kollos which he turned down, as he claimed that he " was unable to accept, " as his " life is here, " aboard the Enterprise . The assignment, instead, went to Miranda Jones . ( TOS : " Is There in Truth No Beauty? ")

In 2268 , Spock and other crewmembers of the Enterprise encountered Harry Mudd stranded on a planet of androids . The androids wanted the Enterprise to escape the planet and serve Humans so that they would not have to explore space. Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew eventually managed to overload the androids' central control by acting in a illogical manner, causing the chief android, Norman , to have a breakdown. ( TOS : " I, Mudd ")

While traveling to a peace conference on Babel , Spock was reunited with his parents. There was still much friction between Spock and his father. When Sarek was accused of the murder of another delegate , it was revealed that he was ill with a cardiac defect which made it unlikely that he could have committed the crime. McCoy was then tasked with performing surgery on Sarek while in a space battle with an enemy ship. It was then discovered that Orions were responsible for the murder, and Spock made himself available for a blood transfusion for his father's surgery because they shared the same rare blood type , T-negative . Recovering in sickbay , Sarek and Spock made peace with each other, even playfully teasing Amanda. ( TOS : " Journey to Babel ")

On stardate 4523.3, Spock helped foil a Klingon plot to poison quadrotriticale earmarked for Sherman's Planet while at the same time trying to clear the Enterprise of a fast-breeding alien species called tribbles . ( TOS : " The Trouble with Tribbles "; DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations ")

Spock later visited Sigma Iotia II whose inhabitants had modeled their society on the gangster era of Earth's 1930s . An earlier starship had left behind a book about gangsters from Earth's 20th century that the imitative Iotians had used as a blueprint for their society. Spock played the part of one of the bosses of the main syndicate, "The Federation," and helped Kirk unite the two warring bosses into a form of government . ( TOS : " A Piece of the Action ")

Spock sensing the terrible deaths of an entire Vulcan crew

Spock, along with the Enterprise , encountered a space amoeba that destroyed entire star systems . The USS Intrepid , which was sent to investigate the phenomenon, was destroyed, and Spock felt the Vulcans on the ship dying. In order to gain information on the creature, Spock piloted a shuttle into the amoeba and found that it was about to reproduce by fission. He subsequently destroyed the creature with an antimatter bomb. ( TOS : " The Immunity Syndrome ")

Spock's body was later taken over by Henoch , one of three survivors of an ancient civilization that had destroyed itself. The three had become energy beings to survive and wished to build androids to house their minds. Henoch, the rival of fellow survivor Sargon , refused to relinquish Spock's body and attempted to kill Sargon. He himself was killed with the help of Spock's consciousness and Sargon's wife Thalassa . ( TOS : " Return to Tomorrow ")

Ekosian Nazis capture Spock

Spock came in contact with various other worlds in the early part of 2268. He was captured by Ekosians who had based their society on that of Nazi Germany and tortured him for information about the Enterprise . John Gill , a Federation historian , had visited Ekos and attempted to use the efficiency of Nazi Germany to bring stability to the planet. Toward the end of the encounter, it was found out that Gill was drugged by his deputy Melakon. Through the use of the mind meld, Spock helped bring Gill to almost full wakefulness. ( TOS : " Patterns of Force ")

Spock battled Kelvans who tried to take over the Enterprise in order to return to their homeworld in the Andromeda Galaxy . He helped Kirk stop Ronald Tracey , a Federation captain interfering in Omega IV 's societies by arming the Kohms against the Yangs . He battled the government of a planet where a Rome -like civilization had never fallen and gladiatorial games still took place in the planet's modern era. ( TOS : " By Any Other Name ", " The Omega Glory ", " Bread and Circuses ")

Spock's mindless body equipped with a neural stimulator after the Eymorgs stole his brain

Later the same year, Spock's brain was stolen by the Eymorgs to help power the Great Teacher that controlled their society and provided for all their needs. McCoy was able to reconnect Spock's brain to his body with the same technology used to remove it. ( TOS : " Spock's Brain ")

Spock, along with Kirk, stole a cloaking device from the Romulans. As part of the plan to retrieve the device, he pretended to kill Kirk in self-defense and romanced the craft's commander in order to gain her trust. He initially intended only to carry out his mission but experienced actual feelings for the beautiful and brilliant commander. After Kirk returned to the Romulans' craft disguised as a Romulan and stole the device, Spock stalled the Romulans long enough for the device to be installed in the Enterprise . The ship escaped with the cloaking device and the Romulan commander on board, who made a pact with Spock to keep their mutual feelings for the other a secret. ( TOS : " The Enterprise Incident ")

Spock later saved Kirk and a tribe of transplanted Native Americans when he helped save their planet Amerind from an asteroid by activating a deflector beam. ( TOS : " The Paradise Syndrome ") He allowed Kollos to take over his body so that he could guide the Enterprise back into the galaxy after a mad Larry Marvick had driven it into an uncharted region. The Medeusans were a highly intelligent species but their bodies were grotesque in form – so much so that gazing upon a Medeusan would cause instant insanity in humanoids. However, it was said that telepathically viewing a Medeusan's mind, as Spock did, was quite a beautiful experience. ( TOS : " Is There in Truth No Beauty? ")

Spock helped save an landing party from the Melkotians who had, as punishment for trespassing, forced them to relive the infamous gunfight at the OK Corral in a recreation of Tombstone , Arizona . ( TOS : " Spectre of the Gun ") He also helped redirect Yonada from colliding with Daran V . ( TOS : " For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky ")

Spock took command of the Enterprise when a spatial interphase trapped Kirk between universes. Despite a Tholian attack from Commander Loskene , Spock and the Enterprise crew managed to retrieve Kirk and escaped from the Tholians' energy web. ( TOS : " The Tholian Web ")

A race of psychokinetics later captured Spock, Kirk, and McCoy. The aliens forced them to take part in dangerous games and unwanted love affairs. ( TOS : " Plato's Stepchildren ")

After hyper-accelerated aliens took over the Enterprise and hyper-accelerated Kirk to take as a hostage, Spock managed to receive a warning from Kirk and became hyper-accelerated himself but carried an antidote with him. He and Kirk stopped the aliens and retook the ship. ( TOS : " Wink of an Eye ")

Spock was part of a landing party that aliens were using to test the worthiness of an empathic race. A supernova was going to destroy their planetary system, and the aliens wanted to see if their race should be saved. After the aliens tortured Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, the empath Gem healed them. Impressed by this, the aliens saved her planet. ( TOS : " The Empath ")

Spock attempting to differentiate between two almost identical Kirks in 2269

In early 2269 , Spock and Kirk took a new medicine that could cure mental illness to a Federation mental facility. However, under the leadership of former Starfleet captain Garth of Izar , inmates had taken over the facility. Garth captured Spock and Kirk, putting their lives in danger. Spock escaped and found Kirk but Garth, who had developed shapeshifting powers, had assumed Kirk's identity. Spock determined the real Kirk from the impostor and subdued Garth, thus giving him medication that helped his mental illness. ( TOS : " Whom Gods Destroy ")

In the same year, Spock was part of a landing party that found a Human named Flint . He found masterpiece paintings and original classical music. Flint admitted that he had been Johannes Brahms and Leonardo da Vinci on Earth , and that he was an immortal being. ( TOS : " Requiem for Methuselah ")

Spock with Droxine

Spock helped Kirk negotiate a peace treaty between two societies on Ardana . He also became attracted to Droxine , the daughter of Plasus , the ruler of Ardana; he referred to her as a work of art and even discussed pon farr with her. However, nothing ever came out of the relationship. ( TOS : " The Cloud Minders ")

The Excalbians forced Spock and Kirk into a battle between good and evil to study Human concepts. The aliens created images of people who possessed "good" qualities, such as Abraham Lincoln and Surak , against "bad" people such as Colonel Phillip Green and Kahless . ( TOS : " The Savage Curtain ")

Spock, Kirk, and McCoy entered a time portal, and were stuck in different past eras of Sarpeidon which was about to be destroyed by an exploding sun. Spock and McCoy traveled into the planet's ice age where they met Zarabeth , who had been sent there as punishment. Even though McCoy was dying from the cold, Spock wished to remain with the woman with whom he had fallen in love since, in this time period, he had emotions. Eventually, he discovered the portal door and saved McCoy. ( TOS : " All Our Yesterdays ")

After Janice Lester transferred her consciousness into Kirk's body and his consciousness into her body, she attempted to kill Kirk and assume his captaincy. However, Spock managed to expose her and helped to re-transfer Kirk's consciousness into his body. ( TOS : " Turnabout Intruder ")

Spock (left) along with McCoy, rapidly aged on planet

Spock with Klingons from the IKS Klothos

Spock joined a landing party that beamed down to inspect the second planet of the Taurean system . There, he became affected by the glandular secretion of the female members of Theela's species who inhabited there, who were known for controlling the male mind. This drained Spock of his "life force," causing him to age at a rate of ten years per day. Spock escaped the females of the planet and contacted the Enterprise . An all-female security detachment led by Lieutenant Nyota Uhura eventually recovered him and the landing party. By using their molecular pattern stored in the transporter system, Spock and the others were returned to their previous ages. ( TAS : " The Lorelei Signal ")

Spock Two performing a mind meld on Spock

On a mission to Phylos , Spock was captured by Stavos Keniclius who planned to clone him and make an army of Spock clones to enforce an era of peace throughout the galaxy. His first clone, Spock Two , possessed all of the original's memories, abilities, and sense of logic. However, the cloning process left the original Spock near death. Since Spock Two possessed his progenitor's sense of logic, he mind melded with him and restored his mind, most likely transferring his katra back into the original Spock. The original Spock proposed that Spock Two remain on Phylos to help Keniclius rebuild the Phylosian society. ( TAS : " The Infinite Vulcan ")

Purging emotions

After completing the Enterprise 's five-year mission of exploration, Spock chose to return to his home planet. As a result of his occasional displays of emotion during his Enterprise missions, he decided to undergo the kolinahr ritual to purge himself of the last vestiges of emotion. ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture )

V'ger crisis

Two and half years after leaving Starfleet, Spock felt the arrival of a vast consciousness. He aborted his kolinahr training and resumed his Starfleet career both for personal reasons and to help Rear Admiral Kirk during the V'ger incident. Spock's return to Starfleet amazed former colleagues and others but his reputation remained excellent, with Commander Will Decker stating that he was "well-aware of Mr. Spock's qualifications" when Spock offered to again serve as science officer. Within three hours, he helped Scott repair the Enterprise 's malfunctioning warp drive . ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture )

Commander Spock in the 2270s

This film was one of the few instances in which Spock was not second in command or a commanding officer for that matter. Since Decker had a temporary grade reduction from captain to executive officer, this left Spock to serve only as a science officer without the dual responsibility of a first officer.

" Jim, this simple feeling is beyond V'ger 's comprehension. "

Spock's attitude towards his colleagues was far different from when he had served with them during the five-year mission. Wishing to rid himself of any personal attachments to Starfleet, he no longer considered any of the crew to be his friends and barely acknowledged them upon his return except where his duties demanded it. Feeling that the consciousness would answer for his quest, he broke into an airlock and stole a thruster suit . He exited the ship and proceeded to the next chamber of the mechanism, witnessing a planet populated by living machines. There, he attempted a mind meld and he realized V'ger 's quest. Knocked unconscious by the enormous power of V'ger during the meld, Spock was recovered in open space by Kirk. Later, he was in sickbay being treated for neurological trauma. He informed Kirk that V'ger was a life-form of its own, seeking answers to its questions; specifically " Is this all that I am? Is there nothing more? " Grasping Kirk's hand while lying on a biobed , Spock told Kirk that the simple feeling of touching another was something beyond V'ger 's comprehension.

Spock later accompanied Kirk, Decker, and McCoy to the heart of V'ger , guided by the Ilia probe . The group discovered V'ger was actually the 20th century NASA probe Voyager 6 . Spock deduced that the old probe was found by the living machine inhabitants of a planet located on the other side of the galaxy and they built the mammoth vessel so it could fulfill Voyager 's simple programming, " learn all that is learnable ." Spock told Kirk that V'ger had to evolve, as its knowledge had reached the limits of the known universe.

Spock informed McCoy and the others that other dimensions and higher levels of being could not be proven logically and V'ger was therefore incapable of believing in them, needing the Human quality to leap beyond logic. Decker chose to merge with V'ger , and Kirk, McCoy, and Spock escaped shortly thereafter when it and Decker evolved into another dimension. Afterwards, Spock chose to remain on the Enterprise rather than return to his homeworld .

Spock's direct encounter with V'ger showed him that purging his emotions and operating on pure logic would not answer his questions but would simply create new ones. ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture )

Death and resurrection

Sometime after the V'ger incident, Spock was promoted to captain and assigned to Starfleet Academy where he trained cadets on the Enterprise which had been retired from active service.

The death of Spock in 2285

In early 2285 , Spock, while on a training mission, ceded command of the Enterprise to Kirk during a mission that involved keeping the Genesis Device from Khan Noonien Singh . When Kirk and the Enterprise defeated Khan, he armed the device. Spock repaired the Enterprise 's warp drive in a severely irradiated portion of engineering in order to save the crew. He saved the ship but sacrificed his own life in the process. Following his funeral service, Kirk gave Spock a "burial by sea" by firing Spock's body into space inside a torpedo casing. ( Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan )

Spock, resurrected on Mount Seleya

Spock's coffin landed on the surface of the Genesis Planet . The radiation emanating from the planet regenerated his cells. Spock was thus reborn as a child but quickly aged to adulthood. However, his mind was a complete blank. Kirk and the rest of the Enterprise 's senior staff disobeyed Starfleet orders so that they could retrieve Spock's body. On Vulcan, Spock's living body, now at the age of his death, was reunited with his katra which Spock himself had placed in McCoy prior to his death via mind meld. ( Star Trek III: The Search for Spock )

After his katra and body were re-integrated, Spock trained for three months with the help of his mother to bring his knowledge and intellect back to where it had been before he died. Answering many complicated questions at rapid fire during his memory test , he had difficulty answering the question " How do you feel? ", something he felt was irrelevant, though his mother disagreed. Returning back to Earth aboard the HMS Bounty with his Enterprise crewmates to offer testimony in their defense to the Federation Council , Spock and the crew discovered that the planet was under siege by a mysterious alien probe which was causing critical damage to Earth's oceans and subsequently Earth's ecosystem. Analyzing the transmission the probe was producing, Spock concluded that the probe was transmitting the songs sung by whales , specifically humpback whales . Spock informed Kirk that the humpback whales had been extinct since the 21st century and suggested the crew travel back through time to acquire humpback whales. Spock's calculations from memory for the slingshot effect around Sol proved instrumental in the Bounty 's successful journey back to the year 1986 .

Spock, with Kirk in San Francisco in 1986

Upon the landing of the cloaked Bird-of-Prey in Golden Gate Park , Spock teamed up with Kirk and together they set off in search of humpback whales. The pair discovered George and Gracie at the Cetacean Institute in Sausalito . Spock jumped into the whales' tank and mind melded with Gracie, discovering she was pregnant . After traveling back to 2286 with the whales and cetacean biologist Gillian Taylor , Spock and the rest of the crew saved Earth once again by releasing George and Gracie into the San Francisco Bay from the sunken Bounty . The whales successfully communicated with the probe and it left Earth's solar system . After the dismissal of all charges to the crew of the Enterprise , save for Kirk, Spock spoke to his father and asked him to relay a message to his mother: That he felt fine. Spock went on to serve as a Starfleet officer for several more years aboard the new USS Enterprise -A . ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home )

In Star Trek III: The Search For Spock , Kirk honors Spock, after his death, in a toast with Kirk's senior staff in his apartment on Earth. "To absent friends" is the same toast Picard gave in Data 's honor after his death in Star Trek Nemesis . This is a traditional naval toast.

The Enterprise -A

Prior to the launch of the new Enterprise , Spock was recruited to test the new brig as he was the most "intelligent and resourceful person the designers could find." However, despite his ingenuity, he failed to escape. ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier )

Spock joined Kirk and McCoy for shore leave at Yosemite National Park and observed Kirk climbing El Capitan with his levitation boots . He saved Kirk's life when he slipped and fell off of the mountain, grabbing his ankle just seconds before he was killed by the impact. Later, Spock told Kirk and McCoy that before leaving the Enterprise -A, he had studied all the details involving "camping out" and roasted a marshmallow over a fire . Spock's shore leave was interrupted when Commander Uhura brought the shuttlecraft Galileo to the trio's campsite to bring them to the Enterprise as the transporters were malfunctioning.

Spock says goodbye to his half-brother Sybok

Upon the Enterprise 's mission to Nimbus III to resolve a hostage situation, Kirk retained Spock as his first officer. During the Enterprise strike team's rescue mission to Paradise City on Nimbus III, Spock discovered his long-lost half-brother Sybok had been the leader of the Galactic Army of Light , the group responsible for capturing the three diplomats. Sybok hijacked the Enterprise and ordered that it be brought through the Great Barrier . During the subsequent voyage in the shuttle Copernicus to the mythical Sha Ka Ree , Spock tried to console his brother when they could not initially find " God " on the surface.

Shortly thereafter, the landing party encountered the supernatural being when it presented itself to them. Learning of the malevolent nature of the being calling itself "God", Sybok sacrificed his life to save Spock and his friends. Spock and McCoy were beamed up to the Enterprise through the repaired transporter, leaving Kirk alone. The transporter was severely damaged when Klaa's Bird-of-Prey fired on the Enterprise . Spock saved Kirk's life from the entity by commandeering the Bird-of-Prey with the help of General Korrd and firing on it with the Klingon ship's weapons. Later, in the Enterprise -A's observation lounge, Spock reflected on the loss of his brother. Kirk told him that he had lost a brother once, but he was fortunate in that he got him back. Returning to Earth, Spock resumed his shore leave in Yosemite with Kirk and McCoy, this time playing " Row, Row, Row Your Boat " on his Vulcan lute . ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier )

In 2293 , Spock was chosen to be the Federation's special envoy to the "Gorkon Initiative" as it was he who opened secret talks with Chancellor Gorkon following the Praxis disaster. Spock later committed Kirk to the negotiations with the Klingon Empire. During Kirk and McCoy's subsequent trial and imprisonment for the assassination of Gorkon, Spock took command of the Enterprise and the murder investigation. He led the rescue mission of Kirk and McCoy from Rura Penthe and helped stop an assassination attempt on the Federation President. Though this mission was successful, Spock blamed himself for endangering Kirk and the consequences that followed, a guilt that lasted seventy-five years. ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ; TNG : " Unification II ")

One version of the Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country 's script would have revealed that Valeris was Spock's daughter with Saavik, also named Saavik after her mother. [5]

Diplomatic career

Captain Spock (2293)

In 2293, on the suggestion of his father, Spock opened a dialog with Gorkon in the hopes of initiating peace talks. He recommended an alliance between the Klingon Empire and the Federation at the Khitomer Conference , and Gorkon agreed to negotiate. His recommendation produced a major dispute because the Federation viewed Klingons as outlaws who built their empire through violence and brutality. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, an alliance was nevertheless forged, bringing peace and stability to the Alpha Quadrant that had not existed for two hundred years. Tuvok , who initially opposed the alliance, later noted that " Spock's suggestion, so controversial at first, proved to be the cornerstone of peace ." ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ; VOY : " Alliances ")

Also during the Khitomer Conference, Spock opened up negotiations with Ambassador Pardek of Romulus in an attempt to unify Vulcan and the Romulan Star Empire . ( TNG : " Unification I ", " Unification II ")

Picard stated in the episode " Sarek " that, as a lieutenant, he had briefly met with Sarek at the wedding of the latter's son. Episode writer Ira Steven Behr recalled that caution was still in place during early Star Trek: The Next Generation about dealing with characters from Star Trek: The Original Series , thus it was only implied that the son in question was Spock. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion , 2nd ed., p. 127) In the novel Vulcan's Heart , it was the wedding of Spock and Saavik, in 2329 , and Lt. Picard, not really knowing why he was there, spent most of it in the company of one of the few other Humans in attendance, Leonard McCoy.

Ambassador Spock in 2368

Spock and Sarek publicly disagreed over issues involving the Cardassians , leading to a rift in their relationship. ( TNG : " Unification I ")

In his later years, Spock went into semi-retirement, choosing to act as a Federation ambassador, much as his father had done. ( TNG : " Unification I ")

Reunification attempts

In 2368 , Spock undertook a secret personal mission to Romulus , unauthorized by the Federation Council or Starfleet. As he knew it would be risky, he preferred not to involve others and wrapped up his affairs. He acted to facilitate Romulan-Vulcan reunification , avoiding contact with the rest of the Federation as he was reluctant to risk anyone's life but his own on such a mission after the near-fatal consequences to Kirk and McCoy in their involvement in the Khitomer conference. Captain Jean-Luc Picard met Spock on Romulus and informed him of his father's death. Before Picard's departure, the two mind-melded, allowing Spock to realize the depth of his father's feelings for him. ( TNG : " Unification I ", " Unification II ")

In 3189 , a recording of Spock made on stardate 45825 while on Romulus was retrieved from the personal files of Admiral Picard and viewed by Michael Burnham and Cleveland Booker . ( DIS : " Unification III ")

"Cowboy diplomacy"

In 2369 , Spock was involved in an incident of " cowboy diplomacy " in which Deanna Troi was temporarily kidnapped to help with the defection of three Romulans, including Vice-Proconsul M'ret , to the Federation. He also had a message sent back to the Federation indirectly through the defector DeSeve . ( TNG : " Face Of The Enemy ")

When an unknown person was beamed on board the USS Enterprise -D in 2370 , Ben told a few junior officers that he heard that this was Ambassador Spock. ( TNG : " Lower Decks ")

In the novel Star Trek: The Motion Picture , it was mentioned in the footnote that James T. Kirk heard of rumors about an affair with Spock, something he denied: " I was never aware of this lovers rumor, although I have been told that Spock encountered it several times. Apparently he had always dismissed it with his characteristic lifting of his right eyebrow which usually connoted some combination of surprise, disbelief, and/or annoyance. As for myself, although I have no moral or other objections to physical love in any of its many Earthly, alien, and mixed forms, I have always found my best gratification in that creature woman . Also, I would dislike being thought of as so foolish that I would select a love partner who came into sexual heat only once every seven years. "

In 2380 , Ensign Beckett Mariner asked Ensign Brad Boimler if he knew who Spock was, to which Boimler answered, "I think I know who Spock is." ( LD : " Second Contact ")

The Red Matter incident

Spock arrives too late to prevent Romulus' destruction

In 2387 , Romulus faced destruction when its sun threatened to go into a massive supernova . After a synth attack on Mars destroyed the Federation fleet being assembled to evacuate Romulus, Spock formed a plan which involved injecting red matter into the star, thus creating an artificial black hole which would consume the star instead. Piloting the Jellyfish , an advanced spacecraft equipped with red matter, Spock proceeded to the star to carry out his mission. Before he could, the star went supernova and destroyed Romulus. With other worlds threatened with destruction, Spock continued his mission and successfully created a black hole which consumed the supernova. Before he could escape, however, the Romulan mining vessel Narada , commanded by Nero , intercepted him. Nero blamed Spock for Romulus' destruction and was bent on revenge. The black hole eventually pulled in the Narada and the Jellyfish . ( Star Trek , PIC : " Remembrance ")

In the script of Star Trek , Spock was established as having seen "the beginning" of the supernova and its destructive effects. His mission to stop the supernova was a kamikaze run, as Spock did not plan on returning, and actually underwent "a ritual ceremony of a Vulcan Kamikaze pilot" (involving " tea , sipped inside the Ark ") before leaving Vulcan. Also, Spock purposely created a second, smaller black hole that he deliberately used to escape by traveling back in time. [6] In the final version of the film , it is unclear if he saw the supernova prior to approaching it in the Jellyfish , Spock was beginning his return journey when Nero intercepted him, and he was accidentally pulled into the black hole, of which there was only one.

Though brought up to embrace a Vulcan way of life that he would eventually commit to as a young man, Spock's encounter with V'ger had a profound impact on his personal philosophy. From that point forward, Spock began to further embrace his Human half and more readily explore the influences and impacts of Human emotion, though he continued to temper his outward expressiveness. ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , Star Trek )

Spock's self-sacrifice to save the Enterprise from Khan formed the basis of Starfleet's The Needs of the Many holographic training drill , while the rescue of his resurrected self from the Genesis Planet was the basis for the Escape from Spacedock drill. Both simulations were in use by 2381 . ( LD : " I, Excretus ")

Kirk's old bar on Starbase 25 still had Kirk and Spock's names scratched into the counter top as of 2381. ( LD : " An Embarrassment Of Dooplers ")

Spock was known as " Sprok " to Enderprizians , and was " well-known for his words so wise ", including the phrase " most illogical. " ( PRO : " All the World's a Stage ")

By 2399 , Spock would become known as "The Great Spock". ( PIC : " The End is the Beginning ")

His work towards reunification eventually led Romulans to settling on Vulcan and beginning to merge their society with the Vulcans, later renaming the planet to Ni'Var centuries after Spock's disappearance. However, they eventually left the Federation after the Burn . After reaching Federation Headquarters in 3189 , a year after her arrival from 2257 , Michael Burnham learned of her brother's achievements and viewed a recording of Spock talking to Jean-Luc Picard . Despite Ni'Var's separation from the Federation, Burnham's status as Spock's sister opened the chance for her to negotiate for the SB-19 data. ( DIS : " Unification III ") While onboard the ISS Enterprise , Burnham stared nostalgically at the science station and commented to Cleveland Booker that it had been her brother's station on the USS Enterprise . ( DIS : " Mirrors ")

Spock's legacy further extended into the alternate reality. It was he who located New Vulcan, a new homeworld for the Vulcans following the loss of their old one. ( Star Trek ) Following his death, alternate reality Spock originally planned to resign his Starfleet commission and continue the work the ambassador began on New Vulcan. However, after seeing a photograph of the prime reality Enterprise crew that was among old Spock's personal effects, alternate Spock changed his mind, having come to the conclusion that for now, his destiny lay with his crewmates. ( Star Trek Beyond )

Involvement in the alternate reality

Spock witnesses the destruction of Vulcan

Spock emerged from the black hole in the year 2258 of the alternate reality . Since Nero had emerged twenty-five years earlier , Spock was immediately intercepted by the Narada upon his arrival. Both Spock and the Jellyfish were captured by Nero who had been waiting for him. Spock's life was spared by Nero, although Nero marooned him on Delta Vega where he could witness the destruction of Vulcan from the planet's surface. After Nero used some of the red matter from the Jellyfish to create a black hole in Vulcan's planetary core , Spock watched helplessly from Delta Vega as his homeworld was destroyed.

As of 5 November 2007 , the script of Star Trek did not include Spock witnessing the destruction of Vulcan. [7]

Spock realizes whose life he just saved

Shortly thereafter, Spock rescued a Starfleet officer from a hengrauggi , only to discover that the young officer was James T. Kirk himself, that reality's Spock having marooned him on the planet for mutiny . The elder Spock was surprised that Kirk was not captain of the Enterprise . When Spock heard from Kirk that Captain Christopher Pike had been captured, Spock knew that Nero was responsible, describing the Romulan as "particularly troubled." Through a mind meld, Spock explained to Kirk his presence in this time period and the reasons behind Nero's actions.

An ultimately omitted line of dialogue from the script of Star Trek would have established that Spock, prior to scaring a hengrauggi away in the movie, was already familiar with that species of animal. [8]

Spock with Kirk on Delta Vega

He then walked with Kirk to the Starfleet Delta Vega outpost , where they met Montgomery Scott . Using Scott's equation for transwarp beaming (which Scott had not actually figured out yet), Spock was able to transport Kirk back to the Enterprise along with Scott. When asked why he would not come with them, Spock stated that his other self must not know of his existence, implying that it could cause some kind of temporal paradox. Knowing his younger self would never take the course of action that could stop Nero but that Kirk would, Spock instructed Kirk to use Regulation 619 to force his younger self to give up command to him by proving he was emotionally compromised. He informed Kirk he knew his younger counterpart was emotionally compromised due to the destruction of his homeworld. Kirk followed his advice and, by emotionally manipulating the alternate Spock, managed to take command of the Enterprise .

Spock meets himself

After the Enterprise defeated the Narada and Nero, the elder Spock returned to Earth. There, he met his less-than-surprised younger self (while Kirk had kept his word, his word was no match for even the intellect of the younger Spock, as he had figured out who Kirk's mysterious benefactor must be) and convinced him to remain in Starfleet. He also explained the reason he had not returned to the Enterprise with Kirk to explain things was that he had not wished to deprive Kirk and Spock of the chance of working together and developing the friendship they were destined to have. He then wished his younger self good luck and walked away.

In ultimately omitted dialogue from the script of Star Trek , Spock additionally told his alternate reality counterpart that he and Kirk were " Opposing yet complimentary opposites, " and went on to say, " It was that balance between us – I should say you and Kirk – that often made the impossible, possible. " His heart heavy, Spock admitted, however, that he was "in no position to judge," and that his own actions had "robbed" the younger Spock of much. Moments later, Spock Prime advised his younger self, " The world you've inherited lives in the shadow of incalculable devastation… but there's no reason you must face it alone. " [9]

" Thrusters on full… "

Afterwards, Spock witnessed the official promotion of Kirk to captain of the USS Enterprise , repeating what he knew the crew would say before launch, apparently commiserating on his own experiences as a member of the crew of the Enterprise . He left with an intention to establish a Vulcan colony . His attempts to convince his younger self succeeded and the younger of the two Spocks returned to the Enterprise to act as Kirk's first officer. ( Star Trek )

Spock also planned to help start a new Vulcan Science Academy, due to the destruction of Vulcan and the elimination of the old version of that organization. [10]

Spock warns his younger self just who the Enterprise is up against

A year later, Spock was living on New Vulcan, having made a solemn vow not to further interfere with history by keeping information about his experiences confidential. However, when the younger Spock contacted him for information regarding Khan Noonien Singh , the old Spock felt obligated to break his vow. He responded that Khan was the most dangerous adversary the Enterprise had faced, and that it had required a great sacrifice to stop him.

Ironically, the younger Kirk later made the same sacrifice Spock himself had made when facing Khan in the prime reality to save the crew of the Enterprise , though he was revived. ( Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ; Star Trek Into Darkness )

Final death

Ambassador Spock: 2230.06-2263.02

Spock passed away of natural causes on New Vulcan on January 2, 2263 .

Having been born in 2230 in his own timeline, Spock would be around 161 years old at the time of his death if the time travel in 2387 through the black hole was in very short time and it led him to the same month in 2258. ( TOS : " This Side of Paradise "; TAS : " Yesteryear "). However, the obituary document published upon his passing reflected the paradoxical nature of his temporal journey by stating his lifespan as "2230-2263," as if he died at the same age of his younger alternate reality counterpart.

Spock and his comrades, 2287

After his death, a small cache of personal items Spock had managed to retrieve from the Jellyfish was turned over to the younger Spock, including a photograph of the prime reality's bridge crew of the Enterprise -A from around 2287 , illustrating to the younger Spock that his destiny was to serve alongside Kirk, McCoy, and the others for decades to come. After struggling at first with whether or not to leave Starfleet in light of the elder Spock's death, this inheritance caused the younger Spock to change his mind and remain with his friends instead. ( Star Trek Beyond )

In the script of Star Trek , Spock was to "appear to be 75 earth-years old" at the age of 157. [11]

The death of Ambassador Spock was written into Star Trek Beyond in memory of the actor who played him, Leonard Nimoy , who had died shortly beforehand. Including Nimoy in the film was appreciated by Zachary Quinto , who portrayed the younger Spock and stated about the tribute, " I think people will see where it's coming from, and it's coming from a place of love. I felt it was very important that we acknowledge it, and I think Simon Pegg and Doug Jung , who co-wrote the film together, did a beautiful job of finding a way to fold it in. " ( Star Trek Magazine Movie Special 2016 , p. 32)

Alternate timelines and realities

Alternate neutral zone incursion.

Commander Spock in an alternate 2266

In an alternate timeline where Captain Christopher Pike avoided his crippling fate, Spock was his first officer on the USS Enterprise in 2266 during the Neutral Zone Incursion . Having been brought from 2259 by his future self to see the consequences of his actions, Pike enlisted Spock's help to make sense of his presence in the future and what he was meant to do there. During the following confrontation with the Romulans, Spock worked on repairing the weapons systems on the Enterprise and was severely injured, leaving him in a state similar to the Pike of the correct timeline. Spock's prognosis was grim and even if he survived, he was unlikely to ever be the same again. As a result, Spock could not take part in causing reunification between the Vulcans and Romulans and Pike came to believe that he had exchanged his own fate for Spock's. ( SNW : " A Quality of Mercy ")

After showing his 2259 self the future, the Christopher Pike of the alternate timeline revealed that he had learned from the Boreth monks that in every timeline where Pike changed his own fate, Spock died as a result. Because of this, in all of those futures, Spock couldn't go on to do the great things that he was meant to do which would change the fate of the galaxy. ( SNW : " A Quality of Mercy ")

Alternate 2259

Captain Spock in an alternate 2259

In an alternate timeline where Vulcan was at war with the Romulan Star Empire, where by 2259, Spock held the rank of captain and commanded the Sh'Rel .

During an engagement with the Romulans, the Sh'Rel was damaged and he requested United Earth Fleet Captain James T. Kirk of the UEF Enterprise for assistance. Kirk however refused as United Earth had their own problems with the Romulans and could not afford to fight a war on two fronts. ( SNW : " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ")

Anything but canon scenarios

First contact day party.

Spock providing entertainment for the First Contact Day party

According to an anything but canon account, Spock provides entertainment for a First Contact Day party . The duty originally was assigned by the captain of the USS Enterprise to Lieutenant Hemmer , the chief engineer , however he turned it over to Spock, since Spock actually was both Human and Vulcan ; and therefore a better choice considering the holiday was intended to be a celebration based upon the first meeting between those two species .

Spock begins with a blooper reel that he had compiled featuring clips of many of the biggest bloopers in Starfleet. Most of the bloopers that had occurred aboard the Enterprise , including a gruesome transporter malfunction , that Chapel, Number One, Nyota Uhura and many others that were present found to be more disturbing than humorous, and finally Uhura tells him that he needed to tone it down a little. She explained that it doesn't have to involve such big bloopers, because those aren't funny at all, especially when death resulted from it. She told him that bloopers should be smaller than that, like when someone accidentally runs into a door that doesn't open in time, or when someone mispronounces his name as " Spork ."

Spock believed that he finally got the idea of what she was trying to say, even though it seemed pretty clear that he still didn't fully understand the concept of humor in the same way that they did. He decided to play one last video in the hopes of making them laugh . It involved an ensign with space diarrhea who, while running, slipped on a freshly mopped floor, which caused him to slam his genitals into the mop , before pooping his pants right then and there. Uhura told him that was the perfect blooper. Spock was finally pleased with his success, and grabbed a mop and chased Hemmer with it, to demonstrate to the crew a "live blooper." ( VST : " Holiday Party ")

Klingons destroy the Enterprise

Spock, minutes before his death

In another anything but canon account, Spock was present on the bridge while the ship was under the command of another captain , while ship was under attack by several Klingon battle cruisers .

During the scenario, Spock reported to the captain that their weapons were disabled and their shields were down. The captain then informed Spock that he knew of a way out. After hearing this, Spock further updated the captain, informing him that their warp and impulse engines were also offline. The captain then turned to Spock, and uttered a figure of speech that compounded the situation by offending a number of the bridge crew. As the misunderstandings continued, Spock interrupted to suggest that the captain avoid the use of figures of speech until they were free of the impending doom. The captain continued to trip over his own tongue, as Spock updated the captain that the hull was breached , and the next shot woulf finish the ship off. As the captain continued on his tangent, the Enterprise exploded killing Spock and the rest of the crew. ( VST : " Skin a Cat ")

Jam session on the bridge

Spock on the viewscreen along with McCoy, Scott, and Kirk

During another anything but canon account, a Post Mainframe Acid-Cardassian Ten Forwardcore jam session broke out on the bridge, during which, scenes appeared on the viewscreen that used sound effects for the song, such as the hum of the transporter when Spock, Kirk, Scott, and McCoy transported wearing life support belts .

Other clips on the viewscreen corresponded with the song lyrics and showed Spock putting his hands around two Klingon's shoulders , as if they were his " buddies ". That was followed by a clip of Spock during the time Nurse Chapel feigned "accidentally" sat down on his lap after she used Harry Mudd 's love crystals on him. A final clip of Spock and Kirk helping one another from slipping in an icy corridor, looped to appear as if they were dancing . ( VST : " Walk, Don't Run ")

Although half Human, Spock's physiology retained most of its Vulcan characteristics such as the green blood, the placement of his liver, ( TOS : " The Apple ", " A Private Little War ") his strength, ( TOS : " The Naked Time ", " This Side of Paradise ", " Operation -- Annihilate! ") telepathic abilities, ( TOS : " Dagger of the Mind ", " A Taste of Armageddon ", " By Any Other Name ") and his greater lifespan ( TOS : " The Deadly Years "; TAS : " The Lorelei Signal "; TNG : " Unification II "; Star Trek ) when compared to the average Human. However, it should also be noted that the life he lived was still about forty years shorter than the average Vulcan, who generally lived to be around two hundred years old. His father Sarek, for example, was 203 at his death. ( Star Trek Beyond ; ENT : " Broken Bow "; TNG : " Sarek "; TNG : " Unification II ")

His Human characteristics were obvious when Sarek was in need of a blood transfusion and concern over donating his hybridized blood would be a danger to Sarek's full Vulcan physiology. ( TOS : " Journey to Babel ") The other instance where his Human side was evident happened during the final stages of his Kolinahr ritual acceptance. While on Vulcan performing the ritual, the V'ger probe approached proximity and its own emotional instability affected Spock's Human emotional side which he worked so hard to repress. ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture ) Spock's Human side was also present when spores affected him on Omicron Ceti III . ( TOS : " This Side of Paradise ")

Like most Vulcans, he experienced pon farr neurochemical imbalance at least every seven years until the symptoms were remedied through ritual mating or kal-if-fee (dueling). If not dealt with, a Vulcan could die within eight days of the first symptoms. Spock experienced pon farr at least twice, once performing the kal-if-fee with Kirk's assistance, once mating with Saavik while physiologically a youth as a result of his regeneration by the Genesis Device . Both successfully relieved his symptoms of pon farr 's neurochemical issues. ( TOS : " Amok Time "; Star Trek III: The Search for Spock )

As of Vulcan rituals concerning death, Spock was able to transfer his katra into someone that was close to him – such as a family member – who could then transfer the katra into a large repository on Vulcan. In his case, he picked Dr. McCoy as a host for his katra when he decided to expose himself to fatal warp core radiation in order to restore warp power to the Enterprise . His corpse regenerated when his torpedo casing casket was shot towards the Genesis planet and was subjected to the Genesis cycles that rapidly evolved all life on the planet. ( Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ; Star Trek III: The Search for Spock )

Spock was also written to die and be resurrected in the ultimately undeveloped TOS episode " Shol ".

After Spock received a mind meld from Captain Picard, he seemed to have accepted his Human side. He admitted to being emotionally compromised and showed some emotions when he dealt with Nero destroying Vulcan in the alternate timeline and dealing with his younger self . ( TNG : " Unification II "; Star Trek )

Spock playing three-dimensional chess

On his Human side, Spock once implied he had an ancestral relationship to British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

Personal interests

Spock carried a lifelong interest in art, literature, poetry, music (especially the Vulcan lute and the piano), and three-dimensional chess . ( TOS : " Requiem for Methuselah ", " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", " Charlie X ", " The Cloud Minders ", " Court Martial "; TAS : " The Jihad ", " The Magicks of Megas-Tu ") He disliked Italian food, possibly because like most Vulcans, he was a vegetarian . ( TOS : " All Our Yesterdays "; TAS : " The Slaver Weapon "; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home )

Relationships

Friendships, james t. kirk.

Lt. Kirk and Lt. Spock meeting for the first time in 2259

Spock first met Kirk aboard the Enterprise in 2259 , when it was under command of Fleet Captain Christopher Pike . ( SNW : " Lost in Translation ")

In 2265 , after the death of Gary Mitchell , Spock's detached and logical analysis was relied on by Kirk as a supplement to his own intuitive and impulsive nature. Their official relationship deepened into a friendship of mutual respect and love that was, without a doubt, the most important relationship of both Spock and Kirk's life. As Edith Keeler observed of Spock's place in the world, " You? At his side. As if you've always been there and always will. " ( TOS : " The City on the Edge of Forever ")

Spock with Kirk and McCoy

Kirk once described his Vulcan friend as "the noblest half of myself" and declared that Spock's immortal soul "is my responsibility, as surely as if it were my very own." Kirk even told Spock's father that he would never realize how important Spock was to him, and declared that, despite losing the Enterprise and his son, had he not tried to rescue his friend, " the cost would have been my soul. " ( Star Trek III: The Search for Spock )

Spock's first ever scene with Kirk, in " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", was not included in that episode's first draft script. In ultimately unused dialogue from that scene in the final revised draft of the teleplay (dated 8 July 1965 ), Spock concluded a sentence for Kirk, who later predicted Spock might someday learn to enjoy his "bad blood."

The polywater intoxication that affected the Enterprise crew in 2266 led to a difficult encounter between Spock and Kirk. When Spock was urgently required by his commanding officer, an anguished and reflective Spock was found by Kirk, Spock regretting his inability to express love even for his mother. Trying to bring the first officer around to the moment, Kirk slapped him. Spock's reaction was flat and revelatory, " Jim, when I feel friendship for you, I'm ashamed. " Struck again, Spock responded in kind, sending Kirk backwards over a table. ( TOS : " The Naked Time ")

Spock was sympathetic to Kirk's plight after the transporter divided the captain's personality into opposite aspects. He referred to his own halves, "submerged… constantly at war with each other." Spock believed that Kirk could survive such a contest intact, and urged him to embrace the part of himself that, seemingly ugly, was crucial to his personality and captaincy. ( TOS : " The Enemy Within ")

Spock comes into conflict with Kirk over destroying a Gorn starship

After Kirk discovered emotional rage was the key to nullifying the effect of the pod plants ' spores , his first step in retrieving his crew was to taunt Spock into anger. Anticipating the result of a Vulcan's strength pitted against him, Kirk wielded a pipe for protection. After calling him an "elf with a hyperactive thyroid" and saying he belonged "in the circus, right next to the dog-faced boy," Spock indeed lost control, nearly killing Kirk before regaining control of himself. ( TOS : " This Side of Paradise ")

Kirk holding Spock after his encounter with a Denevan neural parasite

In 2267 , Spock began his pon farr mating cycle, and behaved bizarrely aboard the Enterprise . Kirk called Spock "the best first officer in the Fleet" and "an enormous asset to me" as he pled with Spock to explain his actions. When told that taking Spock to Vulcan was against Starfleet orders, Kirk fired back, " I owe him my life a dozen times over! Isn't that worth a career? " Joining him on Vulcan for his marriage ceremony, Kirk was drawn into T'Pring's scheme to marry another, and forced to fight Spock to the death. McCoy, knowing Kirk was endangered, faked Kirk's death, and the marriage was not consummated. Spock, despondent that he had murdered his captain, was thrilled at the sight of Kirk alive, exclaiming, " JIM! " which McCoy delighted in needling Spock about, once he gained his composure. ( TOS : " Amok Time ")

Kirk's understanding of Spock had an enormous impact on the parallel mirror universe , visited after a transporter accident in 2267 . As Kirk's party prepared to return to their proper universe, Kirk implored the mirror Spock to re-examine his role in the fascistic Terran Empire , insisting, " One man can make a difference. " Mirror Spock's consideration of those words led to his rise to dominance and reform of the Empire, with drastic consequences. ( TOS : " Mirror, Mirror "; DS9 : " Crossover ")

When Kirk was trapped in spatial interphase during a rescue operation in Tholian space, Spock ordered the Enterprise to maintain its position in an effort to retrieve him, in spite of the danger the Tholians presented and the disruptive nature of the local space. After Kirk's assumed death, Spock and McCoy viewed the "last orders" Kirk had prepared. He urged Spock to use all the Vulcan disciplines at his disposal, tempered with intuitive insight. Kirk believed Spock had the latter qualities, but should they elude him, he was urged to seek out McCoy. ( TOS : " The Tholian Web ")

Spock making Kirk " forget " about Rayna Kapec

Kirk once commented to Captain Garth that he and Spock were "brothers". Spock merely responded, " Captain Kirk speaks somewhat figuratively, and with undue emotion, but what he says is logical and I do, in fact, agree with it. " ( TOS : " Whom Gods Destroy ")

When Dr. Janice Lester , a former lover of Kirk's, took over Kirk's body, Spock performed a mind meld on Kirk while he was trapped in Lester's body. Spock believed Kirk was Lester before anyone else, and when Lester as Kirk ordered his execution, he continued to stand by his friend. ( TOS : " Turnabout Intruder ")

Spock with Kirk aboard the Enterprise again in the 2270s

At the end of the Enterprise 's five-year mission, a period marked by his frequent loss of emotional control, Spock chose to leave Starfleet and his friends, to pursue the kolinahr discipline of logic on Vulcan. His return to the Enterprise during the V'ger threat was a cold event, without acknowledgment of his past friendships. In V'ger 's aftermath, Spock finally achieved equilibrium, able to express his friendship for Kirk without the influence of aliens or illness, and notably lacking any threat of physical violence. In 2285 , Spock was calmly able to tell Kirk, " You're my superior officer. You are also my friend. I have been and always shall be yours. " ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture ; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan )

Kirk and Spock, together on Kirk's birthday

Spock's sacrifice of his own life, to save the Enterprise from Khan's detonation of the Genesis Device , deeply affected Kirk. At his funeral, Kirk could only bring himself to say of Spock, " Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most… Human. " ( Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan )

The revelation that Spock's katra , his living spirit, survived in the tormented mind of McCoy, led Kirk to risk his career, and in turn, his crew's. He first asked Fleet Admiral Morrow for permission to retrieve Spock's body from the Genesis Planet , to bring it, and McCoy, to Vulcan. Kirk insisted that any chance to save Spock's soul was his responsibility, " as surely as if it were my very own. " His request declined, he told his crew, " the word is No. I am therefore going anyway. "

With the help of Uhura, Scott, Sulu, and Chekov, Kirk rescued McCoy from confinement and commandeered the Enterprise from Spacedock One . The renegade mission saw the death of Kirk's ship as well as his son. Finding Spock's body re-animated by Genesis, Kirk brought him and McCoy, to Vulcan for the fal-tor-pan (re-fusion) ritual. The first person Spock recognized was Kirk: " Jim. Your name, is Jim. " ( Star Trek III: The Search for Spock )

During their homecoming from Vulcan, and eventually their trip to 1986 , Kirk tried to remind the resurrected Spock, suffering from memory loss, of their friendship and past adventures together. After Kirk and the crew's trial, Spock told his father, his "associates" were his friends. ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home )

Spock in an attempt to save Kirk's life at Yosemite National Park

In 2287 , Spock accompanied Kirk and McCoy on a camping trip together at Yosemite National Park , which abruptly ended when Spock's half-brother, Sybok, diverted the Enterprise to Nimbus III . After their adventure on Sha Ka Ree and Sybok's death, Kirk referred to Spock once again as his "brother", and told him and McCoy that they were his real family. ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier )

When Spock later entered the alternate reality , he told the James T. Kirk of that reality of their deep friendship, despite the fact that the alternate Spock had marooned Kirk on Delta Vega . Before returning Kirk, along with Scott's counterpart , to the USS Enterprise (revealing to this Scott an advancement in transporter technology over a century before his prime counterpart perfected it), Spock – who in this reality had designed the Kobayashi Maru simulation and openly begrudged Kirk outsmarting it – was reminded that this could be viewed as "cheating", to which he replied that an "old friend" – namely, Kirk – had taught him how to cheat.

Later, when Spock Prime spoke to his own alternate reality counterpart about that universe's Kirk, he explained that he had resorted to a level of subterfuge in order to inform both men of the necessity of their friendship, both to themselves and to others. Spock Prime explained, " I could not deprive you of the revelation of all that you could accomplish together, of a friendship that will define you both in ways you cannot yet realize. " ( Star Trek )

According to the script for "The Wrath of Khan", after taking the Kobayashi Maru test for the third time, Spock said to Kirk that his solution would not have occurred to a Vulcan mentality. This would have implied that Spock had known Kirk since the late 2250s, and that Spock had attended Starfleet Academy. As it was, this information was not in the theatrical or director's cut of the film. In the film Star Trek , the alternate Spock programmed the scenario and leveled charges of cheating against Kirk.

Another scripted but never executed moment was when, in the first draft script of Star Trek Generations , Spock's role as an ambassador was discovered by Kirk, who learned it from Picard and replied, " Spock's an Ambassador ? What have things come to…? I can see I'm needed in your century. "

In an ultimately unused line of dialogue from the script of the aforementioned film Star Trek , Spock made reference to Kirk Prime upon reacting to the Kirk of the alternate reality clearly looking confused by a particular regulation . In reply, Spock said, " Yes. I forget what little regard you had for such things. " [12]

Leonard McCoy

The relationship between Spock and Dr. Leonard McCoy seemed a little strained at times on McCoy's part because of his taunts about Spock's green blood and lack of emotion . However, there was an obvious respect and friendship among James T. Kirk , Spock, and McCoy. McCoy, in fact, was one of the two friends Spock requested to join him in his marriage ceremony. ( TOS : " Amok Time ")

While he would rarely do so without provocation, Spock was also quite capable of turning the tables on the doctor. During Kirk's court-martial, after an astonished McCoy discovered him in the briefing room playing chess against the ship's computer, Spock casually allowed him to assume the worst (to the point of thanking him after the furious doctor had said he was " The most cold-blooded man I've ever known "), waiting until he reached the door to reveal that he had been victorious in four consecutive games – since the computer, whose account of the incident was the main evidence against Kirk, was programmed to be unbeatable, this proved that it had been tampered with (something only Kirk, Spock, and the "dead" Commander Finney were authorized to do), and cast doubt on the credibility of its account, keeping the trial going long enough to discover that Finney was, in fact, alive.

Later that year, after the Enterprise crew had defeated the androids on planet Mudd (beings almost Vulcan-like in their lack of emotion and their "logical, pragmatic" thinking), McCoy told Spock that he must be quite unhappy to see that "poor, illogical" Humans were able to fairly defeat them, Spock responded that this was quite satisfactory, as nobody needed him and his logical ways as much as a ship full of Humans. ( TOS : " Court Martial ", " I, Mudd ")

In an ultimately unused line of dialogue from the final draft script of " Charlie X ", Spock voiced a statement of approval about McCoy, saying, " Occasionally the doctor does associate himself with a scientific fact. "

In the first draft script of Star Trek Generations , Spock's first line of dialogue, while in a very small turbolift with McCoy as they traveled to the bridge of the USS Enterprise -B , was to tell him, " I haven't felt this close to you in years. "

Christopher Pike

Spock and Pike developed a mutual respect and fondness for one another during their service aboard the Enterprise ; Pike at one point expressed how important Spock was to him, a feeling Spock reciprocated. ( SNW : " A Quality of Mercy ") Spock's loyalty to Pike went even so far as to risk court martial in 2267 to kidnap his disabled former captain and bring him to Talos IV to live a life of illusion and happiness. ( TOS : " The Menagerie, Part I ", " The Menagerie, Part II ")

Sybok, Spock's elder half-brother, encountered Spock on Nimbus III in 2287 , shortly before Sybok hijacked the Enterprise -A for his quest to find Sha Ka Ree in the Great Barrier . Spock had remained silent on the subject of his brother for decades, not even telling Kirk until Sybok had already taken control of the Enterprise . At first, Spock was extremely distant from him, but following Sybok's death, he realized what he had lost. ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier )

Michael Burnham

Michael Burnham was Spock's adoptive sister after her parents' presumed deaths. When she first met him, a very young Spock shut his bedroom door on her after greeting her with a holographic drawing of a dragon screaming. Over time, Spock and Michael grew closer and Spock grew to idolize his older adoptive sister. However, feeling that she placed her adoptive family in danger from logical extremists who targeted her due to being Human, Michael decided to run away. Spock tried to persuade her otherwise, telling her that he "loved her" and would run away with her. To push Spock away, Michael insulted him by calling him a "half-breed" who was "incapable of love." While well meaning, her insults deeply hurt Spock who shunned his Human half in response and grew to no longer trust people. Over the years, Michael tried to make amends, but Spock showed no interest in reconnecting.

After they both grew up and entered Starfleet, they rarely talked to each other. Eventually Spock and Michael were forced to come to terms with each other after the Federation-Klingon War. Michael searched for a missing Spock after meeting his commanding officer, Captain Christopher Pike of the USS Enterprise . Eventually finding her brother, she was dismayed to find Spock suffering from a mental breakdown due to an encounter with a time traveler. She was able to help restore Spock's mind with the help of the Talosians, but this did not resolve the animosity between the siblings as they clashed several times with Spock blaming her for causing the Federation-Klingon war and calling her out on her habit of assuming responsibility for all the wrongs in the universe. Eventually, the two came to terms with their respective short-comings and eventually grow closer as they worked together to solve the mystery of the Red Angel.

When Burnham needed take Discovery to the future in order to avoid Control having access to the Sphere information stored in the ship's memory, Spock volunteered to help her. Unfortunately, while helping Burnham prepare, Spock's shuttle was badly damaged. Both distraught that they could not be together in the future, they shared a bittersweet farewell and Spock was transported away after one last "live long and prosper." ( DIS : " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 ")

In the months following Discovery 's disappearance, Spock was unnerved that they had not received a signal to indicate that Discovery had arrived safely in the future. When the signal arrived, Spock found peace. ( DIS : " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 ")

Burnham and Book watch a holo-recording of Spock

In 3189 , Michael Burnham watched a recording of Spock. She told her boyfriend Cleveland Booker that since she had arrived in the 32nd century , she hadn't bothered researching history to find out the type of man that Spock eventually became. But she was proud of who he had became, and she was happy he had found a way to reunify the Vulcans and Romulans. ( DIS : " Unification III ")

Spock with T'Pring in 2267

At age seven, Spock was bonded to T'Pring in a family-arranged Vulcan ceremony described in Human terms as " less than a marriage, but more than a betrothal. " ( TOS : " Amok Time ")

T'Pring formally proposed marriage to Spock in 2259 , but the two had not been married by 2267. ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ")

When Spock experienced his pon farr of 2267 , he succumbed to the madness of the plak tow mating instinct. The Enterprise diverted to Vulcan in time to consummate the marriage. Accompanied by Kirk and McCoy, Spock arrived at his family's ancient koon-ut-kal-if-fee site for the wedding ceremony officiated by the matriarch T'Pau . Unexpectedly – but within the bounds of Vulcan tradition – T'Pring demanded the challenge of kal-if-fee , forcing Spock to earn the right to marry his bride through victory in personal combat. Rather than her prospective consort Stonn , T'Pring chose Kirk as her champion.

Unwilling to appear weak or disrespectful in front of the legendary T'Pau, Kirk agreed to fight his first officer . Between rounds using the lirpa and ahn-woon weapons, T'Pau belatedly revealed the combat was "to the death," and it became clear that Kirk had little chance against Spock in the throes of his blood fever. McCoy intervened, deceptively dosing Kirk with a drug that simulated his death.

Spock's plak tow subsided after his apparent victory. Appalled at the turn of events, Spock calmly questioned T'Pring's decisions. T'Pring admitted her distaste for Spock's growing fame among Vulcans, and her mutual attraction to Stonn. By her logic, choosing Kirk meant neither victor would claim her in the end, and she would have her life with Stonn. Spock acknowledged her way of thinking, referring to it as "flawless". T'Pring, for her part, was honored, but Spock advised Stonn that he would find that " having… is not so pleasing a thing after all… as wanting ."

After returning to the Enterprise , McCoy revealed Kirk's clandestine survival. A rare show of extreme emotion came from Spock when he exclaimed " JIM! " with a beaming smile. ( TOS : " Amok Time ")

Christine Chapel

Spock and Christine Chapel met when she was assigned to the Enterprise in 2259 along with Doctor Joseph M'Benga . ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ")

Spock kissed Christine in a ruse to prevent T'Pring from handing over Sybok to the pirate angel

When the pirate Angel took over the Enterprise , Angel took Spock and Christine Chapel hostage in an effort to get T'Pring to hand over a prisoner that was Angel's lover. To prevent the prisoner transfer, Spock and Christine Chapel engineered a ruse where Spock and Christine had developed romantic feelings for one another and kissed in front of Angel and T'Pring. ( SNW : " The Serene Squall ")

During Chief engineer 's Hemmer 's funeral , Chapel consoled Spock as he was feeling emotions such as rage and pain. Spock didn't want her to follow him but did so anyway and Chapel ended up hugging him. ( SNW : " All Those Who Wander ")

Spock and Chapel entered into a relationship for some time after his engagement with T'Pring ended due to him not confiding in her that he was transformed into a full Human and stripped of his Vulcan genes. The relationship reached its conclusion when Chapel was accepted into Roger Korby 's fellowship . ( SNW : " Charades ", " Subspace Rhapsody ")

Spock with Christine Chapel, being emotionally influenced by the Psi 2000 intoxication

When the Psi 2000 intoxication infected the crew of the Enterprise in 2266 , Chapel admitted her love for Spock, who was thereupon emotionally shocked. Her love for him was an ongoing issue, but never interfered with her professional duties. ( TOS : " The Naked Time ")

Chapel once housed Spock's consciousness to keep him from being destroyed by Henoch . They were later forced by powerful telepaths to kiss each other, but neither enjoyed the forced situation. ( TOS : " Return to Tomorrow ", " Plato's Stepchildren ")

While under the spell of Harry Mudd 's love potion , Spock became infatuated with Chapel, and was willing to fight for her love. However, the potion eventually wore off and then Chapel, as a side effect of the drug, seemed to hate Spock for a brief time. Spock commented to Mudd that a few brief moments of love being paid for with several hours of hatred is scarcely a bargain. ( TAS : " Mudd's Passion ")

Leila Kalomi

On stardate 3417, Spock was infected by Omicron spores while on Omicron Ceti III by Leila Kalomi , who was serving as the Omicron colony 's botanist. The spores broke down Spock's emotional control, and he confessed his love for Kalomi. Their time together was short-lived, however, as Kirk deduced a method of destroying the spores with intense emotion and induced anger in Spock.

Once free from the spores, Spock freed Kalomi and the rest of the planet from their influence. He later reflected that his time with Kalomi was the first time in his life at which he had felt happy. ( TOS : " This Side of Paradise ")

When visiting the planet Sarpeidon Spock got trapped in in the planet’ ice age in the past with Dr. McCoy. When there Spock began to act like the Vulcans of that time period and started to act emotional. There he fell madly in love with her. Eventually McCoy realized what was happening and they were eventually able to escape back to their time period without Zarabeth . ( TOS : " All Our Yesterdays ")

A hologram of Spock was created by the Romulans in 2368 for Sela to use to give a false address to the Federation . It was known by the title " Spock One ". ( TNG : " Unification II ")

During Dal 's setup of the Kobayashi Maru scenario aboard the USS Protostar in 2383 , he requested that the computer select the best officers on his behalf, which included a holographic version of Spock, from the TOS era , as a member of his command crew. ( PRO : " Kobayashi ")

Spock's head on a holographic amalgamation of four other Starfleet officers

The head that resembled Tucker was attempting to freeze the playback of a holographic program that featured Neelix watching a holonovel that was one of many "silly stories " he saw on his PADD . The program seemingly froze, but then Tucker noticed he wasn't actually Tucker, but a strange monstrous combination of the aforementioned Starfleet officers .

• 2230 : Born in ShiKahr on Vulcan
• 2247 – 2250 : Cadet at Starfleet Academy
• Between 2250 and 2253: Assigned to the USS Kongo
• 2253: Assigned to the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike
• Takes a leave of absence from Starfleet following the Federation-Klingon War
• Assists the USS Discovery in solving the mystery of the Red Angel
• 2258 : Returns to service aboard the Enterprise .
• 2259 : Becomes engaged to T'Pring
• 2268 : Is offered an assignment with Medusan Ambassador Kollos .
• 2270: Resigns from Starfleet and returns to Vulcan to undergo the Kolinahr ritual
• 2270s : Returns to Starfleet to help with the V'ger crisis
• Between the 2270s and 2285: Appointed captain of the USS Enterprise
• Dies on the USS Enterprise
• Transfers his Katra to Leonard McCoy
• Is resurrected on the Genesis planet
• Transfers to the USS Enterprise -A
• 2287 – 2293 : First officer/science officer of the USS Enterprise -A
• Resigns from starfleet
• Becomes a Federation ambassador
• Begins attempts to reunify the Romulan and Vulcan people
• 2387 : Attempts to stop a star from destroying Romulus and ends up pulled into a black hole and transferred to an alternate reality.
• 2258 ( alternate reality ): leads the surviving members of the Vulcan people to start a new colony on New Vulcan
• 2263 (alternate reality): Dies on New Vulcan. The age must be around 161 if the time travel in 2387 through the black hole was in very short time and it led him to the same month in 2258.

Memorable quotes

" Is there a valuable question in your arsenal? " " Yes. Do you actually think the beard is working? "

" History will not provide an answer to your query, doctor. Instead you should be asking me, 'How is it I can remember tomorrow?'"

" This will go easier if you answer me. Or it could go harder. " " I beg to differ. Say goodbye, Spock. " (Spock raises his hand in the Vulcan salute) " Goodbye, Spock. "

" Greetings, captain. " " Spock. Are you all right? " " Much better for seeing you in person, sir. Even if we are riding into danger. " (Spock smiles) " Is that a smile I see on your face?" " I believe it is. Yes. " " Well, Welcome to Discovery . "

" I don't suppose the Red Angel offered you any advice on how to handle a situation like this. " " No. But my limited experience as a fugitive suggests only one course of action. " " And what is that? " " We run. "

" I happen to have a Human thing called an adrenaline gland. " " That does sound most inconvenient, however. Have you considered having it removed? " " Very funny. " " Try to cross brains with Spock, he'll cut you to pieces every time. "

" I am endeavoring, ma'am, to construct a mnemonic circuit using stone knives and bearskins. "

" I have never understood the female capacity to avoid a direct answer to any question. " ( TOS : " This Side of Paradise ")

" A curious creature. Its trilling seems to have a tranquilizing effect on the Human nervous system. Fortunately, of course, I am… immune… to… its… effect… "

(To Alice 27) " I love you. " (To Alice 210) " However, I hate you. " " But I am identical in every way with Alice 27! " " Exactly. That is exactly why I hate you; because you are identical. " [The androids violently malfunction.] " Fascinating. "

" Logic is a little, tweeting bird, chirping in a meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers that smell bad. " ( TOS : " I, Mudd ")

" Nowhere am I so desperately needed as among a shipload of illogical Humans. " ( TOS : " I, Mudd ")

" On my planet, 'to rest' is to rest, to cease using energy. To me, it is quite illogical to run up and down on green grass, using energy instead of saving it. " ( TOS : " Shore Leave ")

"Enterprise to signaler on planet's surface. Identify self. " (Reads answer) " 'Hip, hip, hurrah…' and I believe it's pronounced 'Tally ho'. " ( TOS : " The Squire of Gothos ")

" 'Fascinating' is a word I use for the unexpected. In this case, I should think 'interesting' would suffice. "

" I have been, and always shall be, your friend. "

" Jim. Your name is Jim."

" If I were Human, I believe… my response would be 'Go to Hell.' If I were Human. "

" Billions of lives lost, because of me, Jim because… I failed. "

" Thrusters on full. "

" Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise . Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new lifeforms and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before. "

Catchphrases

" Fascinating. " ( Star Trek: The Original Series )

" Live long and prosper. " ( Star Trek: The Original Series )

" Interesting. "

" The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. "

Kirk and Spock

" Have I ever mentioned you play a very irritating game of chess, Mr. Spock? " " Irritating? Ah, yes: one of your Earth emotions. "

" Your illogical approach to chess does have its advantages on occasion, captain. " " I prefer to call it 'inspired'. " " As you wish. "

" You'd make a splendid computer, Mr. Spock. " " That is very kind of you, captain! "

" So, we're stranded here, in the middle of a Klingon occupation army. " " So it would seem. Not a very pleasant prospect. " " You have a gift for understatement, Mister Spock. It's not a very pleasant prospect at all. "

" You didn't really think I was going to beat his head in, did you? " " I thought you might. " " You're right. "

" Well, Mr. Spock, if we can't disguise you, we'll find some way of explaining you. " " That should prove interesting. "

" My friend is obviously Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain. " [Long pause.] " Perhaps the unfortunate accident I had as a child. " " The 'unfortunate' accident he had as a child. He caught his head in a mechanical… rice picker. "

" Don't grieve, admiral. It's logical. The needs of the many… outweigh… " " The needs of the few. " " Or the one. I never took the Kobayashi Maru test, until now. What do you think of my solution? "

" You know, coming back in time, changing history… that's cheating. " " A trick I learned from an old friend . "

Awards and achievements

Spock in dress uniform 2267

• Twice decorated with the Starfleet Award of Valor ( TOS : " Court Martial ")
• Vulcanian Scientific Legion of Honor ( TOS : " Court Martial ")
• The Vulcan IDIC ( TOS : " Is There in Truth No Beauty? ")
• An A-7 computer expert classification ( TOS : " The Ultimate Computer ")
• Innovator of time travel methodologies: the warp drive cold start and the "slingshot" maneuver ( TOS : " The Naked Time ", " Tomorrow is Yesterday ")
• Twice recommended for commendations by Captain Kirk. ( TOS : " Space Seed ", " The Immunity Syndrome ")

Spock's personnel file

Spock wears a total of nine medals in 2269 , not counting the IDIC medal he wore in "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" It is likely he accumulated a great many more decorations by the time of his eventual retirement in the late 2290s .

Additional references were listed on his personnel file in " Among the Lotus Eaters ".

Appearances

• " The Cage "
• " Where No Man Has Gone Before "
• " The Corbomite Maneuver "
• " Mudd's Women "
• " The Enemy Within "
• " The Man Trap "
• " The Naked Time "
• " Charlie X "
• " Balance of Terror "
• " What Are Little Girls Made Of? "
• " Dagger of the Mind "
• " The Conscience of the King "
• " The Galileo Seven "
• " Court Martial "
• " The Menagerie, Part I "
• " The Menagerie, Part II "
• " Shore Leave "
• " The Squire of Gothos "
• " The Alternative Factor "
• " Tomorrow is Yesterday "
• " The Return of the Archons "
• " A Taste of Armageddon "
• " Space Seed "
• " This Side of Paradise "
• " The Devil in the Dark "
• " Errand of Mercy "
• " The City on the Edge of Forever "
• " Operation -- Annihilate! "
• " Catspaw "
• " Metamorphosis "
• " Friday's Child "
• " Who Mourns for Adonais? "
• " Amok Time "
• " The Doomsday Machine "
• " Wolf in the Fold "
• " The Changeling "
• " The Apple "
• " Mirror, Mirror "
• " The Deadly Years "
• " I, Mudd "
• " The Trouble with Tribbles "
• " Bread and Circuses "
• " Journey to Babel "
• " A Private Little War "
• " The Gamesters of Triskelion "
• " Obsession "
• " The Immunity Syndrome "
• " A Piece of the Action "
• " By Any Other Name "
• " Return to Tomorrow "
• " Patterns of Force "
• " The Ultimate Computer "
• " The Omega Glory "
• " Assignment: Earth "
• " Spectre of the Gun "
• " Elaan of Troyius "
• " The Paradise Syndrome "
• " The Enterprise Incident "
• " And the Children Shall Lead "
• " Spock's Brain "
• " Is There in Truth No Beauty? "
• " The Empath "
• " The Tholian Web "
• " For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky "
• " Day of the Dove "
• " Plato's Stepchildren "
• " Wink of an Eye "
• " That Which Survives "
• " Let That Be Your Last Battlefield "
• " Whom Gods Destroy "
• " The Mark of Gideon "
• " The Lights of Zetar "
• " The Cloud Minders "
• " The Way to Eden "
• " Requiem for Methuselah "
• " The Savage Curtain "
• " All Our Yesterdays "
• " Turnabout Intruder "
• " Beyond the Farthest Star "
• " Yesteryear "
• " One of Our Planets Is Missing "
• " The Lorelei Signal "
• " More Tribbles, More Troubles "
• " The Survivor "
• " The Infinite Vulcan "
• " The Magicks of Megas-Tu "
• " Once Upon a Planet "
• " Mudd's Passion "
• " The Terratin Incident "
• " The Time Trap "
• " The Ambergris Element "
• " The Slaver Weapon "
• " The Eye of the Beholder "
• " The Jihad "
• " The Pirates of Orion "
• " The Practical Joker "
• " Albatross "
• " How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth "
• " The Counter-Clock Incident "
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• Star Trek Into Darkness
• Star Trek Beyond (picture only)
• " Unification I "
• " Unification II "
• DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations " (archive footage)
• " Brother "
• " New Eden " (archive voice footage)
• " Light and Shadows "
• " If Memory Serves "
• " Project Daedalus "
• " The Red Angel "
• " Perpetual Infinity "
• " Through the Valley of Shadows "
• " Such Sweet Sorrow "
• " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 "
• " Unification III " (archive footage)
• " Stormy Weather " (picture only)
• " Q&A "
• " Ask Not "
• " No Small Parts " (picture only)
• " An Embarrassment Of Dooplers " (picture only)
• PRO : " Kobayashi " (hologram; archive audio)
• " Strange New Worlds "
• " Children of the Comet "
• " Ghosts of Illyria "
• " Memento Mori "
• " Spock Amok "
• " Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach "
• " The Serene Squall "
• " The Elysian Kingdom "
• " All Those Who Wander "
• " A Quality of Mercy "
• " The Broken Circle "
• " Ad Astra per Aspera "
• " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow "
• " Among the Lotus Eaters "
• " Charades "
• " Lost in Translation "
• " Those Old Scientists "
• " Under the Cloak of War "
• " Subspace Rhapsody "
• " Hegemony "
• " Skin a Cat "
• " Holiday Party "
• " Holograms All the Way Down " (background hologram)
• " Walk, Don't Run " (archive footage)

Background information

Spock was played by Leonard Nimoy in the vast majority of the character's television and cinematic appearances. The Genesis -regenerated versions of Spock at nine, thirteen, seventeen, and twenty-five years of age in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock were portrayed by Carl Steven , Vadia Potenza , Stephen Manley , and Joe W. Davis , respectively. Spock's screams in that film were provided by Frank Welker .

The young Spock from TAS : " Yesteryear " was voiced by Billy Simpson . Carey Scott recorded some dialogue for a younger Spock in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , but his scenes were cut . Spock is also portrayed by an unknown infant in that film. And while Nimoy portrayed the elder Spock in the film Star Trek , his younger alternate reality adult self was played by Zachary Quinto (who reprised the role in Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond ), as well as briefly by Jacob Kogan , who portrayed Spock as a young boy. Nimoy reprised the role of Spock for a cameo in Star Trek Into Darkness . Liam Hughes portrayed a young Spock in the Discovery episode " Brother " while Ethan Peck voiced the adult version of the character in the same episode. Peck also played the character in subsequent episodes of Star Trek: Discovery , Star Trek: Short Treks , and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

A deleted scene from Star Trek featured a newborn Spock, portrayed by Jenna Vaughn . As Spock's birth would have occurred before the universe split, technically, she would have been the only performer to portray both Spock Prime and his alternate reality counterpart, as well as the only actress ever to play Spock.

Jane Wyatt , who played Spock's mother Amanda Grayson , was once asked by fans at a convention what Spock's first name was. She replied, perhaps jokingly, " Harold " [13] However, the question itself was flawed, since the episode " Journey to Babel " makes it clear that "Spock" is Spock's personal name.

On the other hand, Spock's family name has never been established in canon . In the episode " This Side of Paradise ", Leila Kalomi says to Spock, " You never told me if you had another name, " to which he replies, " You couldn't pronounce it. " D.C. Fontana – who was considered the "Vulcan expert" of the TOS behind-the-scenes staff and who created such details as the fact that Spock's father was an ambassador and his mother a school teacher – revealed, in an issue of the fanzine Spockanalia , that she had intended his family name to be "Xtmprsqzntwlfd", but since this is unpronounceable, there wasn't really any way to get this said in dialogue during an episode.

The Pocket TOS book Ishmael gives Spock's full name as "S'chn T'gai Spock". This name was also used on a poster for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds at the Mission Chicago Trek Convention, but CBS said that it was "incorrect" the next day and had the posters replaced. [14]

Since the release of the film Star Trek , the original reality version of Spock is now often referred to on websites and other media as "Spock Prime", to differentiate from the alternate reality version of the character.

From concept to series

From the start of thinking Spock up, Gene Roddenberry knew he wanted the character to be partly alien, and that he wanted Leonard Nimoy to play the role. Roddenberry later explained, " I made [Spock] a half-caste, because I remember thinking a half-breed Indian would be a lot more interesting than a full-blooded Indian or white, because he's going to be tugged in many different directions. " ( Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before , p. 15)

Gene Roddenberry also wanted Spock's appearance to be very similar to typical portrayals of Satan the Devil. " I did purposely give him a slight look of the 'devil' because I thought that might be particularly provocative to women, particularly when his nature contrasted so greatly to this, " Roddenberry stated. [15]

The following character biography appeared in Roddenberry's original, 1964 series pitch Star Trek is... (and was reprinted in The Making of Star Trek ) [ page number? • edit ] :

In the revised first draft script of " The Cage " (dated 6 October 1964 ), Spock was described thus; " The only exception to the familiar types represented by the crew, Mister Spock is of partly alien extraction, his reddish skin, heavy-lidded eyes and slightly-pointed ears give him an almost satanic look. But in complete contrast is his unusual gentle manner and tone. He speaks with the almost British accent of one who has learned the language in textbooks. " The episode's revised final draft script (dated 20 November 1964 ) excluded mention of the "reddish skin" but otherwise remained the same. Later in the script, one of Spock's statements was directed to be delivered in an "excited" manner.

Gene Roddenberry thought up the unemotional aspect of Spock. Roddenberry explained, " As I created him, I said to myself, 'If I could just get rid of the emotions that plague me and work things out logically… ah , the things I could do! " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 11/12, p. 47) Casting Director Joseph D'Agosta added, " On the Spock character, the only guidelines I had were that he had to be thin, and a good actor with no emotion. He was a cold, calculating, logical person. Humor was not even considered at that time. " ( The Star Trek Interview Book , p. 213)

Actor Martin Landau (Commander John Koenig of Space: 1999 ) was an early casting consideration for the character of Spock in TOS. This was before the role went to Leonard Nimoy.

In spite of studio request to get rid of "the guy with the ears," Gene Roddenberry insisted on keeping the character through both pilot episodes of the series. ( Leonard Nimoy: Star Trek Memories ; Mind Meld: Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime )

According to Leonard Nimoy, he felt the need to play the character as more emotional when Jeffrey Hunter was playing the internalized Christopher Pike, as opposed to William Shatner 's portrayal of Captain Kirk. ( Mind Meld: Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime ; et al.) Also, there was room for Spock's emotional detachment when the similarly emotionless character of Number One was discarded along with Pike, after " The Cage ". ( Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before , p. 15)

NBC 's early- 1966 publicity booklet gave this bio for Spock (reprinted in Inside Star Trek: The Real Story ):

The unemotional quality of Spock's persona was extremely appealing to Leonard Nimoy. " What immediately intrigued me was that here was a character who had an internal conflict, " Nimoy observed. " This half-Human, half-Vulcan being, struggling to maintain a Vulcan attitude, a Vulcan philosophical posture and Vulcan logic, opposing what was fighting him internally, which was Human emotion. There was a dynamic there to work with from an acting point of view. " ( Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before , p. 15)

Gene Roddenberry recognized Spock as a team effort. " I'll take credit for formulating Spock and guiding the character, " he said, " then give as much credit to Leonard Nimoy for making it work, and also credit to the writers who kept it going in many story situations. " [16] On the other hand, Roddenberry proclaimed, in a letter to Isaac Asimov , " It's easy to give good situations and good lines to Spock. " Roddenberry also thought it was easier to write Spock than it was to write McCoy. [17] Nonetheless, the depiction of Spock was still to be further developed as the show began. Recalling the character's genesis, TNG Producer Robert Lewin noted, " Spock was not the hero that he became during the early part of the first series. " ( The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years , p. 71)

The series writers' guide (third revision, dated 17 April 1967 ) gave the following description of Spock ( Star Trek: The Original Series 365 ):

Season 2 salary issue

In the spring of 1967 , before production began on Star Trek 's second season , Leonard Nimoy and his agent got into an argument with the producers regarding the actor's salary (Nimoy felt it unfair that series star William Shatner was paid US$5,000 per episode, while he was only paid US$1,250). The agent wanted US$3000 per episode for his client, and would settle with US$2,500. However, a misunderstanding resulted in the agent believing that Mission: Impossible stars had at least US$11,000 salaries, so he suddenly demanded US$9,000 for Nimoy. The studio, of course, refused. Nimoy threatened to leave the series if the dispute was not solved.

In response to Nimoy's threats, Desilu executive Herb Solow asked Casting Director Joseph D'Agosta to compile a list of possible "Vulcan replacements", in case negotiations went unresolved. Three lists were made of actors who were deemed suitable for the role of Spock:

"A" List: Mark Lenard , William Smithers , Liam Sullivan , Lloyd Bochner , Joe Maross , Donald Harron , Edward Mulhare , James Mitchell , Michael Rennie , Peter Mark Richman , Charles Robinson , Chris Robinson , Stewart Moss , David Canary , John Anderson , David Carradine

"B" List: Anthony James , Perry Lopez , George Bachman , Alan Bergmann , Lee Kinsolving , Blaisdel Makee , Bill Fletcher , Henry Darrow , Anthony George , Curt Lowens , Jacques Denbeaux , Maxwell Reed

"C" List: Lawrence Montaigne , Ron Hayes , Patrick Horgan , Paul Mantee , Bruce Watson , Robert Yuro , Richard Evans , Joseph Ruskin , Ted Markland , Lee Bergere , John Rayner

In reality, these lists were only a psychological ploy to put pressure on Leonard Nimoy and his agent. The only two actors considered as possible replacements were Mark Lenard and Lawrence Montaigne (ironically, both of them appeared as Vulcans in the second season, Lenard playing Spock's father, Sarek).

Eventually, Desilu (at the insistence of NBC ) and Nimoy settled with US$2,500 per episode, plus US$100 for additional expenses, a better billing, a better merchandising deal, and more script input. However, when Montaigne was cast as Stonn in " Amok Time ", his contract had an option of recalling him to be cast as Spock, "just in case." ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 317-324)

Animated depictions

For approximately half an hour while Star Trek: The Animated Series was in early development, a boyhood version of Spock was considered for inclusion as a regular character in the upcoming series, along with other child equivalents of the series' main characters. ( The Art of Star Trek , pp. 42 & 43)

While initially developing TAS : " Yesteryear ", D.C. Fontana realized she wanted to feature Spock in the story, since he had always been her favorite main character and was the focus of her favorite episodes from the ones she had written for Star Trek: The Original Series , such as " This Side of Paradise " and " Journey to Babel ". ( Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before , p. 56) She was excited by the prospect of showing "part of what made Spock Spock," delving into his backstory in "Yesteryear". ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 97)

Reappearances

The notion of Spock suffering racial prejudice, alluded to in TAS : " Yesteryear " and the film Star Trek , was shared by the unmade prequel Star Trek: The First Adventure , in which Spock first met Kirk when he was defended by him from bullies at Starfleet Academy.

Gene Roddenberry once distributed a memo to the TNG writing staff which declared that, due to financial considerations, it would probably be impossible for Leonard Nimoy to ever guest star on that series as Spock (though Roddenberry also suggested Sarek appearing in a guest star role as an alternative). ( The Making of Yesterday's Enterprise , p. 22)

In an interview with TrekMovie.com 's Anthony Pascale in July 2007 , Leonard Nimoy explained that he felt Spock had been superfluous in the script of Star Trek Generations and that that was why he had chosen not to appear in the film. Nimoy initially proclaimed, " There was no Spock role in that script, " then elaborated, " There were five or six lines attributed to Spock […] but it had nothing to do with Spock. They were not Spock-like in any way. I said to Rick Berman , 'You could distribute these lines to any one of the other characters and it wouldn't make any difference.' And that is exactly what he did. There was no Spock function in the script. " [18]

In a memo he wrote Manny Coto (on 20 August 2004 ), Michael Sussman suggested that both an elderly Spock and a young version of the character be featured in a story covering an episode or two from the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise , if Leonard Nimoy was interested in appearing. As Sussman proposed, the older depiction of Spock would have been portrayed, in a framing story, by Nimoy, while the young Spock would have been played by another actor (a technique inspired by the portrayal of Indiana Jones in a two-parter from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles called "Mystery of the Blues", which features not only a young version of Jones, but also a middle-aged Jones, played by Harrison Ford ). In the same memo, Sussman envisioned Spock in the 24th century, as a "distinguished and retired Ambassador," being visited by a young Vulcan/Human hybrid who sought advice for balancing the two halves of his own personality. The elderly Spock then began recounting an adventure that took place in the early 23rd century, in which he, as a Starfleet cadet, assisted a middle-aged T'Pol , learning, in the process, "some lesson which helped him choose his own path in life." Sussman went on to suggest that a lot of new details about Spock could be divulged in the story, possibly including that, in his young adulthood, he had been torn between life as a diplomat (like his father) and a Starfleet career. The memo continued by proposing that Spock's mission include the now-aged other senior officers from Enterprise NX-01 , and be "a secret and possibly illegal TBD mission." However, this Spock story ultimately wasn't developed. [19]

Roberto Orci , a co-writer of the film Star Trek , wrote the Spock character as being essential to that film's narrative without considering a back-up story, had Leonard Nimoy turned down appearing in the film. He recalled Nimoy raised an eyebrow at the idea of the destruction of Vulcan . [20] Commented J.J. Abrams , " Leonard was a dream to work with. He was always incredibly encouraging and excited about what he was seeing. He had a couple of thoughts, but he loved everything related to his role […] He was happy to see Spock look so damn good! " ( Star Trek: Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier , p. 240) Abrams also stated, " It's a big deal for him to come back and play this part again. I don't think it's something he expected to do. Directing him as Spock for the first time was as surreal a moment as I've had. It was preposterous, but wonderful. " ( Empire , issue 234, p. 126)

After the making of the film Star Trek , Leonard Nimoy retired (again) from acting and publicly stated that he did not intend to return to the role of Spock again, as he felt that to do so would be unfair to Zachary Quinto. Nimoy even went as far as to say, " I definitely will not be in Star Trek 2," and, " I think I can be definitive about the fact that I will not be in it. " ( SFX , issue #200, p. 68) However, it was eventually confirmed that he would indeed be returning to the role of Spock for the sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness . [21] [22] Regarding how J.J. Abrams invited him to make a cameo appearance in the film, Nimoy recalled, " He just said, 'Would you come in for a couple of days and do me a favor.' " Whereas Nimoy had declined to cameo in Star Trek Generations because he felt Spock's part in that movie had been too general, Nimoy was persuaded that Spock had such a specific role in Star Trek Into Darkness that he was willing to accept the part. Addressing why he had claimed not to be in the film, Nimoy, who was very pleased that the truth of his involvement was kept secret, initially said, " I was asked time and time again if I was in the movie, and I managed to avoid answering without lying. " He laughed, but was then reminded that he had flat-out denied being in the film and replied, " Maybe I was confused. Of course, speaking, if you'll pardon me, logically, I wouldn't know if I was in the movie until I saw the movie. " [23] His cameo marked Nimoy's final appearance as Spock and his final role overall prior to his death in February 2015 .

In 2017, Star Trek: Discovery producer Akiva Goldsman said that Spock would not be seen on Discovery . [24] However, two years later, Spock did appear in Discovery's second season , played by Ethan Peck.

Other language voice actors

An excerpt from the German version of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ; Weicker, voicing Spock, saying, " Wenn ich ein Mensch wäre, wäre meine Antwort mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit: Fahr zur Hölle!… Wenn ich ein Mensch wäre. " English: If I were Human, I believe my response would be 'Go to Hell!'… If I were Human.

Herbert Weicker was a German stage and voice actor who is widely associated with Spock, since he voiced this character in all German translations of episodes and films with the exception of the first run of Star Trek: The Animated Series .

Similarly, Czech television and film dubs have almost uniformly featured the late Jiří Plachý in the role of Spock, specifically, in the dubs of the TV appearances in Star Trek: The Original Series , Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , as well as in the six TOS era films and the first two Kelvin Timeline films. Zdeněk Junák dubbed the younger alternate reality Spock of the Kelvin Timeline films, while Lukáš Hlavica voiced Spock in the Czech dub of Star Trek: The Animated Series .

Slovak film and television dubs of Spock have included Štefan Kožka for the six installments of the TOS era film series, Ivan Letko for Spock's appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation , as well as Marián Slovák as an older prime timeline Spock and Filip Tůma as a younger alternate reality Spock in the first Kelvin Timeline film.

Spock became one of the most enduring symbols of Star Trek . Accounting for the character's popularity, Gene Roddenberry stated, " I think that everyone was so smitten with Mr. Spock because he stood for loyalty and reliability. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 11/12, p. 47)

The popularity of Spock was one factor that motivated Leonard Nimoy into demanding a salary increase for the second season of TOS. " By this time, Leonard's popularity had convinced him of what he already knew: He had the most important role, " Herb Solow observed. In a memo Gene Roddenberry sent Gene L. Coon (on 1 April 1967 ), Roddenberry mentioned Spock having generated "considerable mail volume and public adulation" during the first season. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 317 & 319) NBC likewise regarded Spock and Nimoy as the most popular part of the original Star Trek series, and believed that losing them would be very unflattering. The popularity of the character was thus influential in Leonard Nimoy's continuation in the part. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 324)

Roberto Orci has cited Spock as his favorite character. [25]

Casting Leonard Nimoy as an elderly version of Spock in the film Star Trek gave irate fans pause, caused them to stand down, and even won them over. ( Empire , issue 234, p. 126) However, William Shatner has been disapproving of how Spock is portrayed in that movie and its sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness , commenting, " I thought the two Spock appearances were gratuitous. J.J. [Abrams] wanted to pay homage to Spock I guess, but he didn't offer anything to the plot […] I told Leonard, 'You know that you're old when you go back in time and you're still old.' " (" Empire Presents 50 Years of Star Trek " supplement, p. 15)

Spock is referred to as a lieutenant commander in " Court Martial ", though the final draft and revised final draft of that episode's script instead referred to him as a full commander . The Star Trek Chronology listed Spock as having been promoted from lieutenant commander to full commander following "Court Martial". However, in a captain's log entry made by Kirk in " The Menagerie, Part I ", Spock is still identified as a lieutenant commander, as he is again in " Tomorrow is Yesterday ". Spock was first referred to as a commander in " Amok Time ". Throughout all his appearances on The Original Series , Spock wore the rank stripes of a full commander.

Near the end of the Star Trek: Discovery episode " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 ", Spock dons his Starfleet uniform for the first time in that show, wearing lieutenant junior grade stripes. However, in the earlier episode " Project Daedalus ", Spock identifying himself as a lieutenant . "Lieutenant" is the proper way to address lieutenant junior grades as well as full lieutenants, however, Spock was stating his own rank while being questioned by Admiral Cornwell and thus would have used his full rank. In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Spock was still identified as a lieutenant and wore the correct insignia.

Spock was the inspiration for the Decepticon scientist, Shockwave, from the "Transformers" franchise. Comic book writer Bob Budiansky, who gave Shockwave his name and personality, described the character as "my attempt to take Spock from Star Trek and make him into a Decepticon." [26]

A portion of this article was paraphrased into first person and used as the content of Spock's memoir The Many and the One in PIC : " The Star Gazer ". [27]

Barbara Hambly 's novel Ishmael gives Spock's unpronounceable full name as "S'chn T'gai Spock," with "S'chn T'gai" apparently being the family name as opposed to the personal name. The ebook Seasons of Light and Darkness also uses this name.

According to Diane Duane 's novel Spock's World , Spock was a descendant of Surak .

The novelization of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home states that during the exile of the Enterprise command crew on Vulcan, Spock and McCoy underwent a series of mind melds facilitated by T'Lar to ensure that any lingering parts of the other's personalities were transferred back to the right person. In the days following Kirk and the Enterprise command crew saving Earth from the destructive effects of the whale probe, McCoy went to see Spock, who was temporarily staying at the Vulcan embassy on Earth and expressed worry that any punishment handed down by the Federation might not let him participate in future mind melds if needed. Spock assured McCoy that the fal-tor-pan was complete, and no further mind melds were needed. Spock told McCoy the two would always retain a smart part of each other in their minds.

Spock briefly reactivated his Starfleet commission , with the rank of admiral , during the Dominion War , according to Spectre , a novel on whose writing William Shatner collaborated with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens .

In the novel Crossover , Spock and several unificationists were captured by the Romulan Empire. He was ultimately rescued by Montgomery Scott, Commander Riker , Data , and Geordi La Forge aboard the USS Yorktown that Scott stole from a Starfleet museum using the shuttle he was given by Picard to control the Yorktown 's computer. After believing Scott dead for 75 years, Spock was momentarily startled to see him behind the transporter controls, but quickly regained his control. Scott promised to explain how he reached the 24th century later to Spock.

In the novel The Fire and the Rose , Spock began to lose his emotional control after hearing of the death of Captain Kirk , and eventually returns to Gol to take Kolinahr training again. Spock ultimately succeeded and became truly emotionless, a situation that neither Sarek nor Amanda agreed he should have tried to do. Amanda in particular, felt Spock had rejected his Humanity and therefore in some measure, her by extension. Spock's lack of emotion also ultimately alienated McCoy when he came to ask Spock to stand with him at his wedding to Tonia Barrows and Spock refused. Ultimately, after Amanda's death in a shuttle accident and Spock seeing Sarek grieve for Amanda (which surprised Spock as he mistakenly believed Sarek to have also been a student of Kolinahr ) , and when Spock realized that he can't grieve for Amanda and that he didn't even miss her, he sought McCoy out on Earth to help him engage in an ancient Vulcan ritual to reverse the Kolinahr , allowing Spock to feel emotions again. This accomplished, Spock rebuilt his relationship with McCoy, was able to grieve for his mother and Captain Kirk, and once again found the balance and peace between his Vulcan and Human halves, allowing him to have emotional control again without rejecting his emotions.

In the novel Provenance of Shadows , Spock, having been contacted by McCoy's wife Tonia Barrows , and told that McCoy was taking a turn for the worse, went to see McCoy because he had regretted that he didn't get to see either Kirk or his mother once more before their deaths, and he was not going to make that mistake this time. Spock did spend the day with McCoy and planned to return the next day, but as he left McCoy's house, Spock was left with the impression he would never see McCoy alive again. Spock's feelings are proved correct as McCoy does die peacefully in his chair on the porch that same evening before Spock can return, with Tonia by his side, reflecting on his life and the good work he's done and his family and friends.

In the novel Vulcan's Forge , Spock commanded the science ship Intrepid II in 2294 , a year after Kirk was lost in the Nexus . Within the story, Uhura was Spock's first officer and McCoy his chief medical officer .

Other novels set after Star Trek VI established that Picard was at the wedding of Spock and Saavik met Sarek.

In the novel Yesterday's Son , Spock found out that he had a son with Zarabeth , whom she had named Zar.

In the game Star Trek: Armada , Ambassador Spock was sent aboard a Galaxy -class starship to mediate a treaty between the Klingon and Romulan empires on Romulus. The Borg intercepted this ship and assimilated him. The USS Enterprise -E traveled two days back in time to make sure he reached the peace conference. The plan succeeded, resulting in Romulan and Klingon ships being dispatched to assist the Federation in defending Earth.

Spock in Star Trek: Countdown

In the comic series Star Trek: Countdown , leading up to Star Trek , Spock was aided in his attempts to help convince the Vulcans to provide the Romulans with the red matter necessary to stop the impending supernova explosion by Jean-Luc Picard , who was now Federation Ambassador to Vulcan, as well as by a restored Data , who was now captain of the Enterprise -E. Also, the comic established that Geordi La Forge had designed the Jellyfish , which Spock used to drop the red matter into the supernova. Just after the Jellyfish and the Narada were pulled through the black hole and into the alternate reality, the black hole finished collapsing and the Enterprise arrived in the area finding no indication anywhere that Spock managed to escape. Presuming Spock to be dead, Picard said that he hoped his friend's soul did indeed live long and prosper.

In the novelization of Star Trek , after Kirk told Spock that Dr. McCoy , Sulu , Chekov , and Uhura – all but one of the group of officers who had once been willing to throw away their careers to save him – were all serving on the USS Enterprise (taking McCoy's presence for granted when following the confirmation of the other three), Spock suggested to Kirk that their meeting, and the way the crew was already coming together, was the work of the timeline attempting to "fix" itself. As for the one person not yet aboard the ship, he had been well aware that Scotty was stationed at the outpost, which he had visited on occasion for supplies – though it wasn't clear whether they had actually met – but he had a made a point of keeping his distance. This self-imposed isolation was the only reason that he happened to be at the right place with a torch as the hengrauggi wrapped its tongue around Kirk's leg, which struck him as yet more evidence to support his theory – Kirk's arrival made it clear that the three had converged there for a reason, since he could give Scott the basics of his own invention, and therefore return Kirk to the Enterprise , with a way to take his rightful place in command (seeing that the young officer was obviously unaware of Regulation 619, he admitted to having forgotten how insignificant such things had been to the Kirk he knew so well), and hopefully be able to minimize the damage to the timeline.

In the comic series Star Trek: Spock: Reflections , the events leading up to Countdown were detailed. He traveled to Veridian III after Picard sent him a message following the events of Star Trek Generations explaining what really happened to Kirk regarding his "death" on the USS Enterprise -B to retrieve his body where he brought him back home to Earth to be reburied at the Kirk family farm in Iowa . Spock explained to Picard how Kirk did the same for him, at a terrible cost and that he needed to be equal to Kirk's sacrifice. Picard then tells Spock that he would be welcomed to return to Starfleet duty, in any capacity, but Spock planned to return to Romulus to continue his work. Picard asks whether arrangements can be made to make Spock's presence there official, but Spock declined, saying he has always led "a life of solitude and duty". As Spock remembers how he once worked with remarkable friends and comrades, he tells Picard to treasure those times in his own life, since they will someday end. They exchange the Vulcan salute and Picard walks away, but turned back to see Spock still standing quietly by his friend's grave.

Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto also lent their voices to Star Trek Online ; Nimoy reprised his role as Spock and narrated key events to players, while Quinto voices a Mark VI Emergency Medical Holographic program who helps the player though the tutorial level.

The 2013 virtual collectible card battle game Star Trek: Rivals was using Nimoy's picture for card #103 "Ambassador Spock".

The Star Trek: Ongoing story arc Legacy of Spock focuses on his place in the alternate reality 's new Vulcan settlement . Though initially blamed in part for the ultimate destruction of Vulcan, he is ultimately revered for his dedication to his people and receives a monument that is still standing 3,000 years later. Unlike the other monuments, which are massive, his is life-size, reportedly because he felt to make it any larger would not be "logical".

The Doctor offering Spock a jelly baby

In the third issue of the Doctor Who crossover comic Assimilation² , Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scott investigate a Federation archaeological team on the planet Aprilia III on stardate 3368.5, which had lost contact with Starfleet. Upon landing in the shuttlecraft Galileo , they are greeted by project manager Jefferson Whitmore, who assures them that all is well and gives them a tour of the facility, but Kirk finds the staff suspiciously calm, which Spock agrees with as by Human standards, the research team seemed remarkably placid and unemotional. The team later return to the facility after dark where they meet the Fourth Doctor , assuming he's a member of the research team and he helps them break the electronic lock with his sonic screwdriver and then offers Spock a jelly baby . Together, they infiltrated the facility. There, they find the researchers standing catatonically, with small cybernetic devices in their ears. It is discovered they were under the control of the Doctor's enemies, the Cybermen . A battle ensues and Spock and Scotty use their phasers on two Cybermen, while Kirk and the Doctor handle the Cyber-Controller . The Doctor then uses gold dust to clog up the Controller's respiration, allowing Spock to fire his phaser and destroying it. After the Cybermen are defeated and the Doctor slips quietly away, Spock assures Kirk there are no signs of anymore Cybermen on the planet, but Kirk arranges for a permanent garrison of Starfleet Security personnel to protect the researchers just in case.

In Star Trek Cats , Spock is depicted as an Oriental Shorthair cat .

In the Star Trek: Picard novel The Last Best Hope , Spock left Romulus in the early 2380s , believing there was nothing more he could achieve in the face of the predicted Supernova, but not without taking as many survivors as his small ship can carry with him. He was later contacted by now-Admiral Jean-Luc Picard when his journey brought him to an unplanned rendezvous with the USS Verity .

Spock appears in the video game Star Trek: Resurgence , where he comes aboard the USS Resolute to assist in stopping a crisis between the Hotari and the Alydians.

External links

• Spock at Wikipedia
• Spock at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Spock at the Star Trek Online Wiki
• 2 Bell Riots
• 3 Daniels (Crewman)

Screen Rant

Star trek: why spock's wrath of khan death was changed.

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After 57 Years, Star Trek Settles the Truth About Trelane's Godlike Species

I don't care if modern star trek breaks established canon, i’m glad voyager’s tom and b’elanna are no longer star trek's only successful romance.

Spock's death in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan was undone after only one movie, but the original plan was for Leonard Nimoy's iconic Vulcan to stay dead. Spock's death in  Wrath of Khan  is arguably one of  Stark Trek 's most iconic moments, despite the character being revived in the sequel. Spock went on to have a significant role in the franchise right up until Nimoy's death in 2015; however, the original plan would have gone in a totally different direction.

Unlike many of his other Star Trek: The Original Series cast members, Nimoy enjoyed a fairly healthy career in TV, movies, and on stage in the 1970s after Star Trek's cancellation . When the original idea was floated of getting the band back together to make a big-budget Star Trek film in the late '70s, Nimoy was largely uninterested due to fears of typecasting himself, as well as long-simmering financial disagreements he had with Paramount over the licensing of his likeness.

Related: Star Trek: All 9 Times The USS Enterprise Was Destroyed

After the financial disagreements were resolved, Nimoy signed on to Star Trek: The Motion Picture , though he reportedly hated the script and had a fairly miserable time making the movie. Despite the fact that The Motion Picture was massively expensive and was only a moderate box office hit, a leaner, meaner sequel was commissioned in the form of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan . Directed by Nicholas Meyer, many involved in the film's production believed The Wrath Of Khan would likely be the last Star Trek film; the notion that the franchise would burn out and be reborn over and over again for 55 years never occurred to them, even after the initial film revival.

Nimoy and the producers at the very least knew they wanted the film to be a sendoff for Spock, who dies in the Star Trek   film saving the Enterprise from sure destruction. His final scene where he and Kirk express what they mean to each other is one of the high watermarks in all of Star Trek , and would have been quite a somber end to such an iconic character had it stuck. But, of course, it didn't stick. Surprisingly, that was mostly down to Leonard Nimoy himself; the actor had such an enjoyable experience working with Meyer and the cast on The Wrath Of Khan , suddenly the notion of doing more Star Trek didn't seem so dire to him. A scene was added near the end of production where Spock transfers his katra — basically the Vulcan version of a soul — to an unconscious Dr. McCoy, setting up the events of the next film, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock .

This change — along with an added shot of Spock's coffin sitting on the Genesis planet at film's end — annoyed Nicholas Meyer, who thought those hints at resurrection undermined the impact of Spock's death. That ultimately led to Nimoy himself directing the next two Star Trek films when Meyer declined. Happily, there was no bad blood between Meyer and Nimoy, who collaborated closely on Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , and the final movie to star the full TOS cast, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . Ironically, it's a collaboration that ultimately saved Spock for future stories by giving him such an affecting death.

Next: Everything We Know About Star Trek 4

• SR Originals

William Shatner believes Leonard Nimoy ‘cooked up’ Spock’s ‘Star Trek’ death for leverage

William Shatner has developed a cynical view of Mr. Spock’s (Leonard Nimoy) dramatic death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Shatner believes his longtime friend Nimoy,  who died in 2015 , plotted to dramatically kill off his beloved character in 1982's Wrath of Khan , only to have the half-Vulcan return in the next movie, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

More: How William Shatner's famed 'Wrath of Khan' cry became 'Star Trek' legend

He suspects Nimoy schemed Spock's spectacular demise and return with producer Harve Bennett for leverage, allowing Nimoy to insist upon directing The Search for Spock.

“I believe it was all planned — I now believe (Nimoy) and Harve cooked this up,” says Shatner, who had this realization long after  Wrath of Khan , which Fathom Events is bringing back to theaters on  Sept. 10 and 13  for the movie's 35th anniversary.      

“I suddenly realized that I, as well as many other people, had been taken in by the death of Spock," the actor says. "Leonard was so marvelous at working the territory that he got a directing job out of it.”

Shatner says he was "genuinely moved" filming the famed  Wrath of Khan scene in which Spock, dying from radiation poisoning after saving the Enterprise from villain Khan (Ricardo Montalbán), says a final goodbye.

"I was thinking my good friend Nimoy is in essence saying goodbye to the whole part," Shatner says. "No one told me they were thinking otherwise."

The Captain Kirk actor, who himself later directed a Star Trek film (1989's  Star Trek V: The Final Frontier ), has no hard feelings about Nimoy's alleged maneuver.

“But I would have enjoyed being in on it,” he adds. “I get the secrecy. But it’s all great.”

Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer stands by the historical account that Nimoy asked to have Spock killed off because he truly intended to leave the franchise and the character.

“Here’s what happened," Meyer says. "Leonard was very ambivalent about doing another Star Trek movie. And Harve Bennett lured him with the promise of a terrific death scene, which (Shatner) and he played so touchingly.”

But as Wrath of Khan came together, it was clear that Paramount had a hit on its hands. “And Leonard was starting to feel really good (about the movie) and was thinking whether he was making some kind of a mistake,” says Meyer. So the studio insisted on leaving the door open for a Spock return.

“I fought it," Meyer says. “I thought it was unforgivable to take people who were so wrapped up in this character and sort of dry hustle them and then say, ‘Oh, we were just kidding.' But in the end, it was a battle that I lost."

Meyer added key scenes, including one of the Enterprise shooting Spock’s coffin onto the regenerated planet Genesis among flourishing plant life, pointing to a possible return.

“We left dangling the prospect of hope. And Star Trek is about hope," says Meyer. "That’s the truth. It was not always planned that (Spock) was going to come back.”

Ultimately, Meyer is happy with how everything played out. Nimoy agreed to come back to the franchise if he could direct the third film.

“In retrospect," says Meyer, “they were right, and I was wrong.”

Why Majel Barrett Was Known As 'The First Lady Of Star Trek'

If there's one person that's more important to the "Star Trek" universe than names like Kirk, Spock, Picard, and any other character that's graced the deck of an Enterprise ship, it's Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the now 58-year franchise . He molded a universe of brave heroes and explorers that sought out new life and new civilizations, changing science fiction forever in the process. It also left its mark on Majel Barrett, who would go on to marry Roddenberry and become what fans aptly dubbed The First Lady of Star Trek.

Though she and Roddenberry met prior to the show's creation, Barrett found her place among the stars when she was cast on the original "Star Trek" series as Nurse Christine Chapel after portraying Number One in the show's pilot episode. While not as prominent as some other characters, she remained a staple of "Trek" lore, appearing in all three seasons of the original series as well as "Star Trek: The Animated Series." The character of Chapel has regained greater prominence in the last few years as a key member of Captain Pike's (Anson Mount) team in "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," though this time  Jess Bush has brought the character to life . However, when it comes to the original cast member behind the crew member, Barrett is one of the few original "Star Trek" legends who had multiple roles throughout the franchise's history.

Majel Barrett returned as the mother of Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation

In 1979, Barrett reprised her role as Chapel (who had at this point become a doctor) in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and then again in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" in 1986. A year later, Barrett returned to space in a brand-new role that would become just as beloved.

Appearing in nine episodes beginning with "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season 1, Episode 11, she portrayed the legendary and incredibly flirtatious Lwaxana Troi, mother of Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis). The character, who would also go on to make multiple appearances in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," was a far cry from her previous role, which was exactly why Barrett had so much fun playing her.

In an interview for the show's official magazine in 1988 (via StarTrek.com ), Barrett said, "She's a much more fun character, and I can play her forever, because I'm at an age where that's totally believable. I would like to continue to do that." That being said, Barrett still held a special place in her heart for Chapel as well. "I could leave Chapel very easily. However, if somebody gave me the chance to do her again, of course I would." Lwaxana would be Barrett's last on-screen acting role in the "Star Trek" universe, but there was still an integral part of the franchise that she was responsible for since 1966. And through TV and movie magic, she was able to stick with it even after her passing in 2008.

Majel Barrett voiced the Starfleet computer

In addition to nursing injured members of the Enterprise's crew back to health, Majel Barrett was also the voice of the Starfleet Computer, a role she held since the original "Star Trek" series. If life signs needed to be read or food had to be ordered, it was Barrett's voice that responded to the crew's request. It's a detail that, once you know it, can't be unheard if you watch a lot of "Star Trek."

Thanks to Roddenberry's foresight of where technology was headed, and with his wife's voice guiding the way, major companies that would make these fantasies a reality got in touch with her years down the line. Before her death in 2008, Rod Roddenberry (son of Majel and Gene) revealed the big names in the world of smart devices that tried to beam Barrett in to work on their products. "​​Those companies actually reached out to her. Apple, I believe, and I know Google did before she passed," he told Cinema Blend . "Everyone had the same idea, which is still a great idea, 'We should have Majel Roddenberry, the voice of the Star Trek computer, be the voice of all our automated machinery out there.'"

While that didn't come to pass, Barrett's voice maintained its position in "Star Trek" right up until J.J. Abrams big screen reboot of the franchise in 2009, proving that, just like her husband, the First Lady of Star Trek and her legacy would echo through space even after she was gone.

‘I Loved It’: Christopher Lloyd Shares Why It Was So Enjoyable Playing Star Trek III: The Search For Spock’s Main Villain

Good ol' Kruge.

Before he played Doc Brown opposite Michael J. Fox ’s Marty McFly in the Back to the Future movies ( a role first offered to Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh ), Christopher Lloyd left his stamp on the science fiction genre on an established franchise. The Taxi star was cast to play Kruge, the main villain in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , which you can stream with a Paramount+ subscription . 40 years after its release in theaters, Lloyd reflected on why he enjoyed playing the Klingon baddie so much.

In an interview with Variety tied to him being nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his guest performance in Hacks (which those with a Max subscription can stream), Lloyd discussed other major milestones in his career, including taking part in the third Star Trek movie. Here’s what the actor had to say about his time on The Search for Spock , which was directed by Leonard Nimoy :

I’d come to the Paramount Studio at four in the morning to get that makeup put on — the way it built up my forehead — and then the costume. How can you not feel like you’re the character when you do all that? I loved it. I tried to find what is it about this guy that I could relate to an audience whereby they will feel something about themselves in this guy — even if it’s somebody you don’t want at your dinner table, you know? It doesn’t change his undesirable traits, but I want the audience to feel they’re not engaged with somebody off a different planet. They’re engaged with somebody they can talk to.

So in addition to feeling that Kruge was a compelling villain, Christopher Lloyd also had a blast getting to wear the makeup and prosthetics that transformed him into Kruge. Although Klingons with ridged foreheads were previously seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture , The Search for Spock made that aspect of their appearance less pronounced. Star Trek III is one of just two movies in this film series where a Klingon character is the chief antagonist, the other being Christopher Plummer’s Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country .

Of course, Kruge has gone down in Star Trek history as being responsible for the death of David Marcus, James Kirk’s son, and instigating the events that led to the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) being destroyed when its self-destruct sequence was activated. This all happened as a result of the Klingon looking to obtain Genesis, which was used at the end of The Wrath of Khan, and utilize the terraforming device as a weapon for the Klingon empire. Fortunately, he wasn’t successful in achieving this goal, and Kirk brought Kruge’s reign of terror to an end when he kicked him off a cliff while they were fighting.

Be sure to see where we placed The Search for Spock in our ranking of the Star Trek movies . Looking ahead, the Paramount+-exclusive movie Section 31 will arrive on the streaming platform in early 2025, and there’s also a Star Trek origins movie that’s expected to hit theaters later on the 2025 release schedule .

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Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

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