Vale – Leonard Nimoy

It’s hard to sum up the impact Leonard Nimoy had on popular culture. The man most famous for portraying the “logical” Vulcan, Spock, who joins Captain Kirk on the Enterprise voyaging across the Galaxy, in the Star Trek franchise, has passed away. And frankly, the world will miss him dearly.

It’s testament to the enduring nature of Leonard Nimoy’s portrayal of Spock that even those who haven’t seen an episode of Star Trek are familiar with him. His split-fingered salute, coupled with that quizzically raised eyebrow, as well as his unique vocal intonation, cemented Nimoy as the definitive logic-driven alien within an entire generation of people, Trek fans or no. His iconic role is cemented in geek culture through additional references in The Big Bang Theory, as well as countless other media depictions (including comic books, radio and books), and even younger generations who are unfamiliar with his early work would know of Spock thanks to Sheldon Cooper’s use of him as a reference point for logic and perfection.

Although he was also a noted poet, singer, novelist and director (particularly of several of Trek’s feature films), most will remember him fondly for his work as Spock. It’s the way I will.

As a Trek fan, it’s equally hard to sum up the effect he had on me. His rapport with William Shatner’s Kirk, as well as DeForest Kelly’s Bones, in the original Trek series and films, is palpable, almost leaping from the screen. His reprise of the character in the more recent Trek “reboot” films, in which he played a time-displaced “old” Spock opposite Zachary Quinto’s younger version, was a nice tip of the hat to the role’s dominance in Trek lore, and a nice way of nodding approval to Nimoy for the fans.

Beloved actors leave us all the time; Nimoy’s passing is one most keenly felt, due to our association with him as an identifiable touchstone of our childhood, our generational expansion as a species, and simply as one of the coolest alien characters to grace our screens. I’ll close by appropriating Spock’s most identifiable line, representative of how Nimoy would ask us to approach life.

Live. Prosper.

Vale, Leonard Nimoy. You will be missed.

Leonard Nimoy passed away on February 27th, aged 83.

Who wrote this?

Rodney Twelftree

“Some people say I like films. Those people are wrong. I *love* films.” – Me. I said this.

Rodney has been writing about films for well over two decades, appreciates a good wine, the love of his wife and kids, and the affection of his dog and cats. He has a fondness of cheesy 90’s action and classic Hollywood, hates that physical media is disappearing, and wishes somebody would make a high-budget series of The Neverending Story.

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