For the Love of Spock Page #8

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I mean... need I say more?

I mean, you know...

It was just

not a good time for us.

I In the middle of the earth

in the land of the shire I

I Lives a brave little hobbit

whom we all admire I

I With his long wooden pipe

Fuzzy, Woolly toes I

I He lives in a hobbit hole

And everybody knows him I

I -Bilbo

- Bilbo I

I Bilbo Baggins .P

I He's only three feet tall I

I -Bilbo

- Bilbo I

I Bilbo Baggins .P

I The bravest little hobbit

of them all .P

Captain?

I One day,

Bilbo was asked to go... I

What in the name of...

I To the caves below I

I To help some dwarfs

get back their gold I

Am I... seeing things?

Not unless I am too.

I -Bilbo

- Bilbo I

I Bilbo Baggins .P

I He's only three feet tall I

What is it, Mr. Spock?

I Bilbo Baggins .P

I The bravest little hobbit

of them all .P

[Leonard Nimoy] Having had only marginal

success on NBC for three years,

the show took on

new life in syndication.

Gradually, the show and its

audience found each other.

By the mid '70s, it was

becoming a media event.

Thousands and thousands

of new devotees

sat in front of their TV sets

memorizing each episode's

dialogue word for word.

Risk... risk is our business.

[Jason Alexander] "That's what

this starship is all about.

"That's why we're aboard her.

"Dr. McCoy is right to point out

the enormous risk involved

"with interaction between

any two alien species,

but the potential--"

[laughing]

There's something that I became aware

of in doing my research very recently

called The Slash Fantasy,

the Kirk-Spock slash fantasy.

And there's a phenomenal

edited video on YouTube.

And some fan, somebody's

taken a lot of footage

of Kirk and Spock out of context

from "The Original Series"

to show this homo-erotic

relationship between them,

and it's pretty damn compelling.

At conventions,

I saw slash zines

with illustrations done

by very good artists

and they were much, much more

explicit between Kirk and Spock.

It's a matter

of who is looking at it,

from what perspective,

and from the perspective of gay

people seeing that is eye opening.

They see the gay passion,

the gay attraction,

and the gay anguish

depicted in those scenes.

[Leonard Nimoy]

At my first convention in 1972,

I walked into a hall so crowded

the thunderous wall of

noise that greeted me

took me completely by surprise.

For several seconds, I literally could

not speak because of the emotion.

One of the things that I really

respect about your dad was,

I guess, his love

and affection for the fans

and how he always

had time and energy.

You know, going to conventions

and meeting people...

You know, I'm blown away

by how much love

there is for your father.

[Leonard Nimoy]

It was an entirely new concept,

this gathering of fans to

celebrate "Trek" for a weekend.

The organizers crossed

their fingers

and hoped for 500 attendees.

They got 3,000.

We went

to one "Star Trek" convention.

I think it was in LA,

but I'm not sure.

I think you're right.

Yeah, it was a wild place.

I remember them having

to get us out the back door.

Right.

[Adam Nimoy] Oh, okay.

What was that like?

Wild.

[Pegs] I think "Star Trek"

fans have sort of pioneered

the whole cos-play culture

which now exists

where, you know, you go

to any convention,

and people are dressed up

as a multitude of things

from the most obscure

to the most popular.

I've been blown away going to now these

conventions for a number of years,

seeing what people are able,

and willing, and, you know,

what they commit

to dress up as and do,

and it's unbelievable.

We thought they were crazy.

[laughing]

I'm here. I'm really here.

I can't believe it.

My first "Star Trek" convention.

Watch your back. Here we go.

So much stuff.

Really cool.

Whoa.

Wow.

Spock, status report?

Pollux IV, class M type planet,

oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere.

Sensors indicate no life forms.

In all respects,

quite ordinary, Captain.

Bobak, I want you to tell me a little bit

about your history with "Star Trek",

how it's affected your life.

I would say it's probably one of the

biggest reasons why I work at NASA.

I mean, honestly, like, you

know, seeing this "Star Trek,"

you know, this vision

of the future

is one of the reasons

why I work there today.

Seeing a future where people from all

different cultures and backgrounds

were working together.

You know,

the betterment of humanity.

I think that was a vision of the

future that I wanted to help create.

If "Star Trek" was the vision of the

future that I wanted to create,

Spock was the internalization of the

kind of person that I felt like I was.

You know, as someone

who was from two cultures,

you know, Iranian father,

an American mother,

I saw in Spock, you know,

that same conflict, I guess,

of, "Which one am I?

Am I both?

Is there a happy

medium of the two?"

But also at the same time,

I saw that he was accepted

by his, you know, colleagues.

Spock stood for a lot

of different things.

He stood for

intelligence, integrity.

He stood for the idea of

really searching for truth,

for figuring out

how things really work.

That is the underpinning

of science, really.

So I think for a lot of people, Spock

was representative of soienoe itself,

of using the human mind to overcome

kind of the forces of chaos

and make sense of things.

That really resonates with a lot

of people here, I would say.

It certainly did with me.

And I knew the minute

I read "Star Trek" books,

that was the character I most

wanted to emulate with my career.

[deGrasse Tyson]

Spock was a scientist.

Now, for me, I knew I liked

science before "Star Trek."

So Spock and I resonated,

I think, uh...

in a way that surely helped,

but didn't initiate my interest.

But I Wonder if the slow

but real appreciation

for what science is

and why it matters

that I see manifesting today,

whether it owes its origin

to that series,

to that character.

- Are you a "Star Trek" fan?

- Yes.

- How long have you been a fan?

- A hundred years.

A hundred years

"Star Trek" fan, okay.

[Interviewer] You've had your

own connection to "Star Trek."

You've directed

"Star Trek" episodes.

But before that, you were

an entertainment attorney.

What was that all about? What got

you into that in the first place?

You know, it's very difficult when

you are the son of a celebrity

and somebody who becomes

a pop culture icon,

to try to create

your own identity,

to find out who you

are in essence.

And so, this was my way of

really creating my own path.

He was very proud of the fact

that I went to law school,

and I started practicing law.

But after seven years

of practicing,

it became very clear to me

that this was not something

I wanted to do

for the rest of my life.

I didn't have the passion for it

that I thought was important.

That was really Dad's

whole philosophy was

you have to have a passion

for what you do.

Otherwise, it's just work,

and it's not fulfilling.

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