Happy Birthday Leonard Nimoy
If you read this site with any regularity, you know I’m a big science-fiction fan. Specifically, I’m a big Star Trek fan. I wasn’t alive when the original series came out (obvs) but I remember seeing The Animated Series on Nickelodeon as a kid, in the days before Nick Tunes or Nick At Nite or Hannah Montana. Yeah, I’m old. But back then, Nick didn’t have much in the way of original programming, save Pinhweel (Pinwheel, pinwheel, spin me around…no? Ah forget it), You Can’t Do That On Television (before Alanis hated Dave Coulier) and Standby: Lights, Camera, Action, which coincidentally, was hosted by one Leonard Nimoy. Ahhh, full circle.
At any rate, I always felt like Star Trek had something special that few shows before or since had. And sure, William Shatner’s Kirk got all the ladies and was the flashy one, and McCoy had all the funny zingers, and Scotty was always going on about his ‘wee bairns’, but for me, Star Trek’s heart was none other than the emotionally suppressed Mr. Spock played by Leonard Nimoy. He was the alien observer commenting on humanity as well as reflecting it. No one has played a Vulcan quite so well since Mr. Nimoy decided to hang up his ears, and he’ll always be the most recognizable icon of Star Trek, for me.
Plus, the guy was just so dang cool. Ballads about Bilbo Baggins aside, he seemed almost as smart as his TV character. Does anyone remember ‘In Search Of’? It was a ridiculous 70s show where they talked about crystal skulls, the curse of the Hope diamond and points of harmonic convergence as though they had any validity at all. Of course, in the 70s you could pull that stuff off, but I guarantee you it wouldn’t have carried quite the same weight without Nimoy’s narration.
Nimoy will be putting the ears on one last time in this summer’s Star Trek prequel by JJ Abrams. In fact, Abrams said that Nimoy was so important to the story that if he’d said no they wouldn’t have made the movie. So apparently I’m not the only one that thought Spock was a pretty cool cat. Leonard has kept himself busy in the meantime, however, with his photography endeavors. He turns 78 today, if you can believe it. Happy birthday Mr. Nimoy!
And just so this stays music-related:
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Information Society – What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy)
feat Mr Spock AND Dr McCoy! Take that Shatner! ;)
The Bangles – Going Down To Liverpool (Video feat and dir by Leonard Nimoy)
Tags: nerd related, star trek
