Leonard Nimoy and the Force Continues

I'm not a die-hard Trekkie, like some people who grew up with Star Trek. I do love the Star Trek series and franchise. I was especially fond of the non-emotional, but very charismatic, Mr. Spock. He was so unique, and he had green blood and everything. And those pointy ears! What's not to like, a wise-cracking half alien. He was probably the first bi-species (Is that a word?) entity to grace our television screens.

I was having a hard time as a teen, sickly and quiet. I would spend a lot of time trying to make sense of the world. One day I was home with one of my frequent bad colds. I happened to be watching TV, laying on the couch, a noonday news show caught my eye.

I sat up, it was something about the personalities and charm of the guests, that intrigued me. These four guests were introduced as: "The crew of The Star ship Enterprise". It was 1966, what was The Enterprise, a new space shuttle or ship? A very personable young guy begin to explain the plot, he said it would be a new TV show, but not like the one's in the past. The announcer asked him how his new series differed. He and another charismatic young actor with black hair begin, to explain that their show was good science fiction.

The shows that had been presented before Star Trek, their series were bad. I learned later that the first actor was William Shatner and the second was Leonard Nimoy. I was finally intrigued and in awe of something, when the series started. It was fresh and new, and I imagined myself as Uhura the beautiful Black female crew member. When she talked to Mr.Spock or Captain Kirk, she was their equal, they all had me enthralled. The original series aired from, 1966-1969. It created a whole new phenomenon; a Start Trek society.

I learned of the passing of Leonard Nimoy, the original Mr. Spock, about a month ago. He passed February 27, 2015. He did however live out the creed of his most memorable character Mr. Spock: Live long and prosper". He was 84 when he passed away, a little over a month ago. It was then I wondered about his work prior to the Star Trek series and franchise. I discovered that before the role of the iconic Mr.Spock, Nimoy played numerous characters on several TV shows.

He had appeared in shows such as, Dragnet, The Twilight Zone, Bonanza and Rawhide. He actually played a killer on an episode of Perry Mason, my favorite court show from the 1960s.

In a role that seem to foreshadow his role as Spock, Leonard Nimoy played Narab, a martin invader. He was one of three martians in the movie series of 1952: Zombies of the Stratosphere. He was cast as an Army sergeant in the 1954 Science Fiction movie: Them! I had seen most of these movies not recognizing Nimoy. A 1958 scary movie that followed the trend for Sci-Fi, at the time, was the Brain Eaters. Leonard Nimoy also performed on Broadway. He performed in, Visit to a Small Planet in 1968. He and William Shatner first worked together in an episode of the 1964 series, The Man From U.N.C.LE. The episode was entitled, The Strigas affair.

Gene Roddenberry the creator of Star Trek reprises the role of Spock and all the rest of the crew in the first movie in the franchise,Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It opened in Nov. 1979. The next movie in the series, The Wrath of Khan, also featured the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy. In 1984 Nimoy directed The Search for Spock. It was a bigger box office hit than the first Star Trek movie. I have seen many of Nimoy's roles, and couldn't quite stop calling him, Mr. Spock.

In 2010 the new Star Trek featuring a young cast, that represented the crew prior to the the first TV series. Leonard Nimoy announced, he was going to retire from the character to give the new cast it's just dues. He had another character in the series, Fringe in 2011. In 2012 the TV show The Big Bang Theory featured his voice, on March 29, 2012, in a transporter malfunction. I was trying to figure out, which episode of Star Trek, was my favorite Spock moment. I'm not sure if it's the episode, where he goes through the Vulcan version of a mid-life crisis, or The trouble with Tribbles. I must say he'll be missed always. I being the spiritual person that I am hope he'll appear again in: Spock; The Afterlife.

For the Trekkies in All of Us,

Star Trek Books:

Star: Worlds in Collision by Judith Reeves-Stevens, 2003

Audiobook: Star Trek: Captain's Blood by William Shatner, 2003

Star Trek, Death Before Dishonor by Peter David 2005

A novel:

Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster, 2009