Remembering Mr. Spock and Leonard Nimoy

Live Long and Prosper, y'all!

"After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting."

--Mr. Spock, Star Trek (Amok Time episode)

Geez, leave it to a Vulcan to totally nail two complex emotional concepts.

I wanted to wait until the usual punditry suspects exhausted themselves writing about Leonard Nimoy, to gather my thoughts and make sure I wasn't just repeating stuff I read.

Two things struck me about Mr. Nimoy's passing.

One was how the Spock character obviously resonated with millions. Not just the Trek weirdoes who go to the conventions, wear the uniforms, learn Klingon, get Star Trek tattoos, and so forth. I was always a Kirk guy, because, obvi. So the huge Spock love took me a little by surprise.

The other was how that character's appeal crossed nearly all social boundaries. Black or white, rich or poor, educated or not, geek or cool, you get it. Everyone could identify with and felt some connection to the Spock character.

The web contained an enormous outpouring of love for Mr. Nimoy, and while most genuinely felt sympathy and sadness, nearly everyone was in reality connecting with Spock more than Mr. Nimoy. True, they occupied the same space (no pun intended), but if he'd never played Spock, you wouldn't have seen all those articles last week. That's not a slam; without Mr. Nimoy's incredible portrayal, people wouldn't have made the same connection with Spock that they did.

So I want to speak directly about that character, recognizing that it took Mr. Nimoy's remarkable acting to bring Spock to "life" and move so many. That cocked brow, for example, was a far more compelling reaction than a thousand words to the Enterprise craziness swirling around him.

Here's some guesses about why so many people identified with Spock.

Man vs. Machine

This is how we deal with illogic on Vulcan

Much of Star Trek concerned fears about machines replacing humans, or so dominating us as to take away our "humanity." Star Trek tapped into a real vein going all the way back to Metropolis and Modern Times, and extending on into the Matrix movies. Fear of the machines became evident throughout the Space Age, in which works like Fail Safe, Twilight Zone, and Day the Earth Stood Still all took on the perils of machines and computers. And so many Trek episodes featured the crew resisting and even fighting back against the impersonal and inhuman machines. Even as they otherwise comfortably used other technologies like the warp drive or the transporter (to be fair, McCoy did constantly complain about the transporter, but then again, McCoy pretty much complained about everything). But Spock's devotion to logic made him inherently sympathetic to and accepting of computer and mechanical advances. He did not fear these developments, but easily adapted to their advantages. Spock seemed able to cope with and master the new technology without sacrificing his essential character. Indeed, as McCoy frequently alleged, Spock in some ways was like a machine. He did not often let emotions and passions influence his judgment. Yet, as many episodes demonstrated, it wasn't as easy as that. Spock struggled to cope with his human emotions, and whether he wanted to admit it or not, could make non-logical, emotion-based decisions. Spock's best moments came when he allowed his human emotions to bubble up, however briefly, and override his calculating logic . Spock seemed the model of adapting to the progress machines bring without suffering their dehumanizing effects.

Embodiment of America in the 1960s

The 1960s saw probably this country's greatest social upheaval and change. In the span of what really amounted to just four years, a whole generation was questioning and changing nearly all of American society's bedrock principles, even including our basic appreciation of ourselves. The Love Generation (sidebar-gag! another name for a bunch of dirty, selfish hippies...who grew up to run the country of course) was all about "free your mind" and following your emotions. Spock, however, was not. Spock, in standing for logical and dispassionate decision-making, symbolized all those German rocket scientists helping America beat the Russians to the moon. He seldom gave in to those wacky humans, with all their caring and sharing and running around willy nilly without a plan. He regarded that way of thinking as unacceptable and dangerous. Yet, surrounded by it, he had to cope as best he could. Much like Establishment America had to cope with all the hippies, and ultimately, to have it change him.

Coping As An Outcast

Evil Spock

How often did McCoy or some other yayhoo point out that Spock was a "half breed" or some other racist epithet? Answer: like, all the time. In one episode, Spock's mother ("Mrs. Spock"?) told Kirk how the other Vulcan kids wouldn't play with Spock as a result (or those crazy Vulcan kids do for play, advanced calculus maybe?). Star Trek was all about the 1960s and the changing times. From the free and easy relationships between men and women (not another Kirk reference), and between people of different races and cultures, the Enterprise crew was one big happy, color-blind, non-sexist happy family. Except for Spock. And during all of American history even up today, who has it worse than the biracial kids? Jim Crow's most oppressive laws were those banning the "intermingling of the breeds" (miscegenation laws) and maybe the worst treatment was reserved for those kids. And even minorities could heap scorn on such mixed race children, thereby subjecting them to two different racial groups' prejudice and hatred. Children of cousins? Mighty fine. Children of two different race parents? Outcast.  I can even remember people telling me that if a black and a white person had a child it would look like a zebra (which, actually would be pretty cool). Spock symbolized and gave a face to millions of mixed-race people throughout the world. Coping with the inevitable insults by recognizing their illogical nature. Persevering against them and realizing his ambitions despite prejudice, by perfecting his skills and remaining true to his tasks. In succeeding, despite his mixed race heritage, Spock gave millions of such people their first real hero.

The Yin to Kirk's Yang

Kirk: "Let's go find some green women tonight!"

Spock: "That is illogical. The only green women on board are

             skeezes."



Before Felix and Oscar, before Butch and Sundance, before Starsky and Hutch, and before Riggs and Murtaugh, and before those Brokeback Mountain guys, there was Kirk and Spock. Star Trek was the original buddy show. In some ways, Star Trek was the story of Kirk and Spock, two men as different as can be, forming a closer bond than with anyone else in their lives. It's impossible to imagine Star Trek without those two as equals and friends. Maybe seven people would have watched "The Spock Show." Without Kirk to put Spock in awkward and challenging situations, Spock would comfortably spend every day working on equations and tsk tsking his fellow crew members' human foibles. And if Spock were in charge, they'd never get into the impossible, Certain Death situations in which Kirk was always putting them. Usually it took Spock to get them out of it, often with McCoy's or Scotty's technical help. Of course, if it were just Kirk, they'd have to flee every planet for their lives after Kirk made it with the Prime Minister's daughter or such. Spock clearly tempered Kirk's impulsive and irrational leanings and made him a more balanced, disciplined leader.  Just as Spock's best moments came when the human side slipped through, Kirk's best moments came when he followed his BFF's logical example. But in making Spock join the landing party every time, Kirk got Spock out of the Science Officer's chair and on the High Road of Adventure that a Logic-Driven Being would expect to find challenging. Spock responded, always providing creativity, perseverance, and mad skillz as needed to get out of another Kirk-inspired jam. Kirk would lord the Federation's moral superiority over the less worthy natives, but only after Spock applied his Vulcan Science Academy training to get them out of jail, or cure some hideous disease, or otherwise put them back on top. Together they created an extraordinarily compelling couple. Star Trek, both the series and especially the movies, were often guilty of soap opera level melodrama, cheesy dialogue, and unlikely plots. But the scene where Spock dies in The Wrath of Khan, with Kirk looking on helplessly as Spock utters his dying words "I have been and always shall be your friend," friends, that's supremely moving no matter who you are. That scene tells you everything about those two characters in the span of about two minutes, of things they'd never said to one another (and couldn't say to each other), mainly because they never needed to say them. And so, as a couple, or a team, of such different personalities, they pooled their strengths to succeed, rather than letting their differences consume them.

Farewell, Mr. Spock. And farewell, Mr. Nimoy. And of course...you know...live long and prosper.