Leonard Nimoy Almost Quit Star Trek Over A Now-Iconic Spock Detail
It turns out that "Star Trek" legend Leonard Nimoy was once ready to quit the classic TV series because, ironically, his emotions over the character who lacked emotion almost got the best of him.
Nimoy, of course, played Mr. Spock in the classic series and the subsequent feature film series based on the TV show, as well as appearing in director J.J. Abrams' first two "Star Trek" reboot movies. However, Nimoy nearly walked away from the character during the first season of the "Star Trek" TV series in 1966. While shooting Episode 10 — titled "The Corbomite Maneuver" — the actor told director Joseph Sargent how unhappy he was with Spock's lack of emoting. "He said, 'How can I play a character without emotion? I don't know how to do that. I'm going to be on one note throughout the entire series,'" Sargent recalled in the book "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years," which was released in 2016.
Sargent said that he agreed with the venerable actor, and they worked on giving Spock some emotional context. "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, however, wasn't having any of it. "Gene said, 'No way, the very nature of this character's contribution is that he isn't an earthling. As a Vulcan, he is intellect over emotion,'" Sargent said in the "Star Trek" tome. "Leonard was ready to quit because he didn't know how he was going to do it."
Nimoy stayed on Star Trek and his career prospered
Luckily, Nimoy had a change of heart and stayed with "Star Trek," and as a result, he continued to create one of the most iconic characters in television history. While Nimoy couldn't give Spock emotion, he was able to imbue the character with parts of his personal history. Perhaps Nimoy's greatest contribution to the character was the Vulcan salute on "Star Trek," which came straight from Nimoy's childhood.
Nimoy, who was Jewish, told the National Yiddish Book Center in a 2013 interview that the salute was inspired by a visit to an orthodox synagogue in his youth. It's there where Nimoy witnessed the Kohanim raise their hands in the sign of a letter from the Hebrew alphabet — the "shin" — which he would eventually introduce as the Vulcan "V" sign on "Star Trek." Combined with his Vulcan greeting, "Live long and prosper," Spock's salute and saying forever became part of "Star Trek" lore.
Sadly, Nimoy died of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at age 83 on February 27, 2016. Fittingly for his iconic character, Nimoy's last words on social media would have made "Star Trek's" Spock proud, as the actor posted on Twitter (before it became X) — "A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP."
LLAP, of course, is the acronym for "Live long and prosper."