May

6

…And Prosper.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 6, 2008 |

Twenty years, six movies, and a two-part Star Trek: The Next Generation story later, Leonard Nimoy revisited his Vulcan friend in I Am Spock. Perhaps “revisited” is the wrong word, though, since, as he made clear even in I Am Not Spock, he never really separated himself from the character, or from Star Trek. Some fans, however, did take the earlier book as an insult; looking for someone to blame for the lack of new Star Trek material, they blamed Nimoy. He would, in fact, not only return but play a central role in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and while fans may have seen Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan as the end of the line, both for Spock and Star Trek, in fact it provided provided impetus for two additional films. Nimoy says the first book was “a mistake”; in fact only the title seems to be a mistake, since I Am Not Spock wasn’t meant to alienate fans of the show any more than William Shatner’s “Get a life!” sketch on Saturday Night Live.

I Am Spock, more than twice the length of Nimoy’s previous book is, in its early chapters, a more intimate re-treading of the same ground; he even quotes extensively from the previous book, using it to make points about how he viewed the character then and now. Nimoy also takes himself to task for, on occasion, “emoting all over the place”, before he had a firm grasp on the character. He also speaks more frankly about the dangers of fame, how his hotel room was robbed, how he and his family had concerns about their privacy, how a simple evening out would require extensive planning. He goes on, though, to describe his initial reluctance to appear in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and his excitement (and concern) about dying in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, and the fulfillment of his long-time ambition to direct with Star Trek: The Search For Spock, which led to other directing projects. In a poignant moment, in the sixth film, Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, Spock asks Kirk, “Is it possible that we two, you and I, have grown so old and inflexible that we have outlived our usefulness?” For Nimoy it was a moment when the actor’s mask slipped away. The moment was significant in another way, though. One of the surprises of I Am Spock is that Harve Bennett, who’d worked as a producer on several of the films, had an idea for a Star Trek prequel, a film that would, using younger actors, follow the main characters in the Starfleet Academy. Although it doesn’t go quite so far back, the Star Trek prequel is an idea whose time has finally come.


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