The Unauthorized History of Trek. James Hise van

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СКАЧАТЬ popularity continued to manifest itself in a bewildering variety of ways. Spock was the only Star Trek character to merit solo reproduction as a model kit. While Kirk and Sulu did join Spock as small figures in AMT’s Enterprise Bridge model, a six-inch-tall Spock was featured in a larger diorama kit that featured him facing off against a three-headed alien serpent. (In 1975, Spock and other Star Trek characters would have the dubious honor of being reproduced as ice pop molds!)

      His face also appeared on a variety of series-related toy packages over the years, including original show style phaser rifles and the ever-popular Star Trek disc gun. “I Grok Spock” buttons, alluding to Robert Heinlein’s classic 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land, began to crop up as well.

      By this point, the NBC executives who had wanted to give Spock the axe were now acting as if they’d been for the character all along. Leonard’s place in the public consciousness was rock-solid, and the first season wasn’t even over yet!

      “The Conscience of the King” involves Kirk in efforts to determine whether a well-known Shakespearian actor is actually the man responsible for a massacre some years earlier; Kirk is one of the few survivors. An intriguing study of guilt and self-punishment, with an intriguing plot twist or two, it is ably supported by actor Arnold Moss in a very demanding role.

      “Balance of Terror” introduces the Romulans, who have returned after a century to harass the Federation with the assistance of their new cloaking devices. This story, essentially a submarine movie set in space, featured Mark Lenard as the Romulan commander. Lenard would, of course, play Spock’s father Sarek in a future episode.

      “Shore Leave,” written by Theodore Sturgeon, prefigures the movie Westworld by some years, as the crew beams down for R&R on a planet that seems to be deadly but is actually an artifact programmed to custom-tailor amusements for each individual. This marks the first time a leading Star Trek character dies, only to return intact. (This time around it’s McCoy.)

      “The Galileo Seven” brings Spock to the forefront as he commands a shuttlecraft which crashes, leaving him, Scotty, and Dr. McCoy stranded on a hostile planet. Is his logic sufficient to save the castaways, or must he learn to look at things from an irrational perspective?

      “The Squire of Gothos” is Trelane, who traps the Enterprise and her crew to be his playthings; he is a powerful, godlike being, but also a child, ultimately answerable to his parents … though not before shaking up the resolute Captain Kirk a bit.

      “Arena” adapts the classic science fiction story by Fredric L. Brown and casts Kirk in the lead, as the captain and the lizardlike Gorn are chosen as champions of their respective races by the meddlesome superior Metrons.

      “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” is the first solid time-travel story for Star Trek, in which the Enterprise is hurled back to the twentieth century by the gravitational field of a black hole. Matters are complicated when an air force jet spots the Enterprise and Kirk must decide what to do with pilot John Christopher.

      In “Court Martial,” Captain Kirk is tried for criminal negligence which resulted in the death of an officer; the redoubtable Mr. Spock applies his logic to the case and ultimately proves that the officer is really alive, having staged his own death in order to satisfy a personal grudge against Kirk.

      Sulu gets to go nuts on-screen in “The Return of the Archons,” in which the Enterprise investigates the planet Beta III, which is ruled by a mysterious computer. (The last Federation ship to visit, a century earlier, was called the Archon; hence the returning Archons of the title are Kirk and his crew.) The outsiders are threatened with absorption, but Kirk ultimately talks the ancient computer into destroying itself. Spock actually hits someone in this episode.

      “Space Seed” introduces Ricardo Montalban as Khan, a late-twentieth-century fanatic who, with his followers, has been adrift in a “sleeper ship” for hundreds of years. The Enterprise revives the sleepers only to be taken over by Khan, who uses the infatuation of Marla McGivers, a young woman officer, to gain control by cutting off the air to the bridge. At the end he is defeated (Kirk retaliates with knockout gas in the ventilation system) and chooses exile on an unexplored planet for himself and his people. McGivers chooses to join him.

      “A Taste of Armageddon” draws Kirk into a peculiar war between the planets Eminiar Seven and Vendikar: battles are no longer fought, but computers do the fighting and determine the casualties. Victims in the affected areas then willingly report for euthanasia.

      Kirk is appalled by this, of course—and all the more so when the Enterprise is decreed a casualty of war. Kirk and crew destroy the computers and leave the two worlds faced with the options of real war on the one hand and peaceful negotiations on the other.

      “This Side of Paradise” takes the Enterprise to a colony that should have died of radiation poisoning years earlier, but survived because of spores on the planet Omicron Ceti III that also provide a constant sense of euphoria. The crew all fall prey to this, rendering them unfit for (and uninterested in) their duties. Foremost among these is Spock, who once again has his emotions liberated, as in “The Naked Time.” He falls in love with a young botanist whom he had known before. Kirk must discover a way to get his crew back; Spock’s happy romance is unfortunately short-lived. (He is also referred to as a Vulcanian on the show for the first and last time, since the terminology still hadn’t been standardized!)

      About this time, in its issue of March 4, 1967, TV Guide featured a profile of Leonard Nimoy.

      It could only happen in America: where else could a son of Russian immigrants become a television star with pointed ears?

      The article then describes the picture of the “Spock Cut” in Max Nimoy’s Boston barber shop, where he would proudly point out his son to all customers; Nimoy’s mother, Dora, was sometimes interrupted at her job in a department store by people wanting to look at Spock’s mother.

      According to TV Guide, much of Leonard Nimoy’s fan mail was from younger viewers, who thought Spock was “cool.” Roddenberry had a more philosophical idea: “We’re all imprisoned within ourselves. We’re all aliens on this strange planet, so people find identification with Spock.” Since it was the 1960s, it’s no surprise that so many young people felt they had more in common with a Vulcan than with their own parents!

      Some fans had other ideas, and to many Spock became a sex symbol. A drama school colleague, actress Evelyn Ward, believed Nimoy’s own “great animal magnetism” was the reason for Spock’s popularity. Hidden for years under the heavy makeup of his Native American and Mexican roles, Nimoy’s charm was lying in wait for Gene Roddenberry’s genius—and a pair of pointed ears—to bring it out.

      Hero for youth or sex symbol, Leonard Nimoy attempted to give Spock more depth and character. Spock was more than ears and eyebrows, largely because of Nimoy’s attitude: “I don’t want to play a creature or a computer. Spock gives me a chance to say something about the human race.” From the start, Nimoy hoped that the Spock role would bring him bigger projects: “I have all sorts of things I want to do. Perhaps this show will give me the wherewithal to do some of them.” But for now, he said, “I’m having a ball. It’s the first steady job I’ve had in seventeen years.”

      Offscreen, Nimoy looked pretty much like an ordinary guy, if you overlook the “Spock Cut.” Quiet and serious, he even insisted that people call him Leonard, not “Lenny.” Though nicknames are almost required on a set, Nimoy managed to preserve a truly Vulcan dignity, regardless of whether he was being Spock or just plain Leonard Nimoy.

      “The СКАЧАТЬ