It’s one of my earliest clear memories: Sitting on a brown couch in a little wooden house in Century, Florida, eating popcorn from a big green bowl, and watching “Star Trek” with my mother. The screen of our color television fills with white fog, and men in Technicolor shirts slowly advance out of the mist: two in gold, two in blue and one in red. Weird ambient sounds promise frightening things in the mist, just out of sight, and then the skull-like alien appears, pronouncing a death sentence upon our heroes. The screen zooms in and out, and suddenly the crewmen find themselves standing in a weird Wild West town.
I know now that the episode was “Spectre of the Gun.” (Click for Video.) It first broadcast on NBC in October 1968 and repeated in April 1969, and one of those evenings was the one in my memory. As a child, I found the episode frightening and exhilarating; watching it last weekend on DVD to mark the passing of actor Leonard Nimoy, I found so many beautiful nuances in the production (such as the reactions of actors in the background of scenes) that it’s really no surprise the series stood the test of time.
Like so many others last Friday, I was saddened by Nimoy’s death. The actor best known for his portrayal of Mr. Spock died at his Los Angeles home at age 83 of endstage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A friend of my son, knowing I was a Trekker of old, asked which original series episodes would be best for Spock-watching that weekend; I told him just about any episode that was good for Spock was good for the whole series. However, these immediately came to mind:
• In a Season 1 episode, The Naked Time, Spock is infected by the same germ that has affected the rest of the crew and begins to lose his inhibitions, releasing emotions pent up throughout his life. He breaks down and cries, confessing to Kirk how he never even told his mother (a human living on a world where emotions were considered “bad taste”) how much he loved her — our first real glimpse behind his Vulcan facade.
• Later that season, Galileo Seven gives us a “lifeboat episode,” with a small number of crew under Spock’s command trying to repair their crashed shuttle while under attack on an uncharted, inhospitable planet. The crew soon turns on Spock, whose lack of emotional reaction to the stresses makes him a target of their fear and anger. However, it is Spock’s illogical “hail Mary” at the end that saves them all.
• Another outstanding first-season episode, This Side of Paradise, again allows Spock a chance to lose his self-control, this time under the influence of alien spores. Nimoy obviously relishes embracing his most naturalistic acting of the entire series as we see the first officer experience true bliss and true love, finally expressing himself freely. He then puts the mask back on, his “self-imposed purgatory,” to help Kirk save his ship and crew.
• Amok Time kicked off season two with Spock going into his mating season, which required him to return home or die trying. His visible struggle to maintain dignity, his sadness when he believes he has killed his captain, and the brilliant smile that escapes from under his mask when the truth is revealed — these are truly great Nimoy moments that made Spock so much more real to fans.
Other good Spock moments: Journey to Babel, which introduces Spock’s mother and father; The Devil in the Dark, in which Spock mind-melds with a dangerous creature and experiences its physical and emotional pain; The City on the Edge of Forever, in which Spock must build a computer using “stone knives and bearskins” while Kirk falls into a doomed love; Mirror, Mirror, which proves that even the Spock of a parallel “darker” timeline is subject to the demands of logic; and All Our Yesterdays, which has Spock cast back in time on a frozen world and falling in love with Mariette Hartley, who is wearing little more than a stone knife and bearskins.
I’m even fond of the two most-ridiculed episodes of the series because of their very fine Nimoy moments, which have to be seen to be believed. The Enterprise intercepts space-hippies in The Way to Eden, and we learn Spock “reaches”; he is not Herbert. And in the Season 3 premiere, Spock’s Brain, Kirk and Co. track Spock’s stolen brain across the galaxy with a remote-controlled Spock body along for the ride.
Nimoy, of course, was much more than Spock. Fans knew he was a photographer, poet, playwright, author, producer, director — and even singer. (Google The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins for a lark.) He voiced cartoon characters, produced photographic essays on the female body and the female aspect of God, and readily poked fun at himself in numerous commercials and music videos. He even ended most of his tweets (@RealLeonardNimoy) with “LLAP,” referring to the traditional Vulcan farewell, “Live long and prosper.”
His final tweet: “Life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP”
Thanks for the memories, Mr. Nimoy.
Peace.