For the Love of Spock Page #2

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of the characters on the show?

Did you create them with

certain actors in mind?

[Gene Roddenberry] Leonard

Nimoy was the one actor

I definitely had in mind.

And I thought to myself,

"if I ever do this science

fiction that I want to do,

"he'd make a great alien.

And with those cheekbones, some sort

of a pointed ear might go well."

I simply made one

phone call to Leonard,

and he came in,

and that was it.

So I went to this meeting

expecting to be auditioned,

or to read for him,

or... whatever.

He was very congenial

and said, "Let's take a walk."

And he walked me over to

the scenic design department.

He showed me the plans of the

sets that were being built,

introduced me to

the scenic designer.

Walked me over to

the prop department.

Showed me some of the props

that were being made.

Wardrobe department, same thing.

"Here's some sketches

of the clothes."

lthoughL

"This is interesting.

"It's like he's telling me

I'm doing this job.

If I keep my mouth shut, I might

have a job here," you know?

Prior to "Star Trek," I never had a

job that lasted longer than two weeks

in any television show

or movie, never. Two weeks.

Mr. Spock here.

We're intercepting...

I didn't have a cool look

in mind at first.

I had this jagged haircut

and bushy eyebrows,

and We went through

a struggle with the ears.

The studio had contracted

with a company

to do special effects

for the show.

Not film special effects,

but items like

suits for creatures,

creature outfits,

and that kind of thing.

And included in the

contract was the ears.

They were supposed

to do the ears.

Now, they were very good

at creating creatures,

and we used them throughout the

series, this particular company.

But they were not

really specialists

in the very fine, delicate

kind of appliance work

that's necessary to add something

to a person's features

and make it really look like

it's part of that person.

We came right down within about three

or four days of shooting the series,

and I said to Gene Roddenberry,

"This is not going to work, and maybe

we'd just better forget about the ears."

Well, he insisted he wanted the

ears to be part of the character.

And he said, "You try it, and let's

work it out. Let's solve the problem.

"And at the end of 13 shows if

you're not satisfied with the ears,

I'll write a script where Spock

gets an ear job." [chuckles]

So we went ahead

and worked on the problem,

and Fred Phillips, who was

the actual makeup man

who was going to do my makeup

each day on the series,

knew what the problem was.

And a couple of days

before we started shooting,

he called in

an appliance specialist,

and we very quickly went to him.

Got the ears done

in about 24 hours.

And they were ready, and they were

perfect, and that solved the problem.

[Adam Nimoy]

Freddie Phillips always said

that Leonard Nimoy

reported for work at 6:30 a.m.,

and Mr. Spock could always be counted

on to arrive somewhere around 7:15.

Definitely something out there,

Captain, headed this way.

Our tests indicate

the planet's surface

without considerably more

vegetation or some animals,

simply too barren

to support life.

[Gene Roddenberry] The first

time, it did not sell.

But, uh, NBC...

NBC thought it was too "cerebral"

was the term they used.

The network found the first pilot

too "cerebral," they said.

Not a straight

lined story enough.

And unusual in that they

decided to try a second pilot.

[Leonard Nimoy]

NBC told Gene to fire

almost the entire cast,

including me.

Well, Gene felt very strongly that the bulk

of the character that I was to portray,

that every time I was on screen

you'd be reminded

that we have a mixed crew.

So he stuck to his guns

fortunately for me.

The original pilot even

had a different captain,

Jeff Hunter.

The only actor

that stayed over

was Leonard Nimoy.

[Leonard Nimoy]

And then, I had a shock.

I opened up my mail, and here

was a, here was a pamphlet

from the NBC Sales

and Promotion Department.

And it was a pamphlet

about "Star Trek,"

this new series that was

going to be on the air

coming in the fall,

I saw this photograph

of myself as Spock,

and it didn't look right.

Something struck me as strange.

And the closer I looked,

the more I realized that

they had straightened out my

eyebrows, made them look normal,

and they had taken off

the tips off the ears.

The network said,

"We are very dependent on

the numbers in the Bible Belt,

"and they will not accept

in their homes a character

who looks devilish

with these pointed ears."

Are you casting me

in the role of Satan?

Not at all, Captain.

Is there anyone on this ship

who even remotely...

looks like Satan?

I am not aware of anyone who

fits that description, Captain.

No, Mr. Spock,

I didn't think you Were.

Dr. Dehner feels

he isn't that dangerous.

What makes you right, and a

trained psychiatrist wrong?

Because she feels. I don't.

All I know is logic.

In my opinion, we'd be lucky if we can

repair this ship and get away in time.

One of the reasons for the shift

in the Spock character

when you came on-board

was because when I was

working with Jeffrey Hunter-

Jeffrey Hunter was

a very internalized actor.

Very fine actor.

This was his style of work.

There's an old joke about two

actors preparing to play a soene.

And one says to the other, "What are

you going to play in this scene?"

And the one says,

"I'm playing nothing."

The other one says,

"No, no, no,

-you can't play nothing. I'm

playing nothing." -[laughing]

So here's Jeffrey Hunter playing this

quiet, internalized performance,

[William Shatner]

Ah!

[Leonard Nimoy] And I felt the need to

help drive something in opposition to it.

[William Shatner] Right, right.

-[Leonard Nimoy] Otherwise, we're both

playing nothing. -[Shatner] Right.

[Leonard Nimoy] And when you

came on-board with your energy,

and a sense of humor,

and a twinkle in the eye,

I was able to then become

the cooler Spock.

Has it occurred to you that

there's a certain... inefficiency

in constantly questioning rne on things

you've already made up your mind about?

It gives me emotional security.

Leonard bouncing off of rne could

now dramatically be internal

allowing me to be external,

and the two forces made

an interesting combination.

I prefer the concrete,

the graspable, the provable.

You'd make a splendid computer,

Mr. Spock.

That is very kind

of you, Captain.

You know, I don't know

if I had played Kirk

that it would have dawned on me to

have a sense of humor with Spock.

I don't know that I would

have thought of that,

but Shatnefls take on it was, "I

can f*** with Spock." flaughs]

I mean, you know...

Without being offensive

to the character.

"I can play with him."

Certain you don't know

what irritation is?

The fact one of my ancestors

married a human female...

Terrible having

bad blood like that.

Those two characters

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