Friday, February 27, 2015

Set a Course for Eternity

It's not often that the death of a celebrity hits me hard (the death of Joey Ramone being one of those occasions), but the death of Leonard Nimoy is genuinely saddening. Mr Nimoy's alter ego was a guest in our house at 6PM Eastern Time almost every Saturday, when one of the local TV stations broadcast episodes of the syndicated Star Trek original series. Even though he played the stoic, unemotional Vulcan science officer, Mr Nimoy was able to convey a wry sense of humor with the mere lift of an eyebrow, and his terse responses to the emotional DeForest Kelley formed much of the appeal of the show (as puberty raised it's hairy, hormonal head, the usual parade of hawt space chix was also an undeniable part of the show's appeal).

Leonard Nimoy was one of those exceptional actors who was as noble as the hero he portrayed on television. He insisted on supporting actor's pay equity for Nichelle Nichols and used his clout to ensure that Ms Nichols and George Takei were included in the vocal cast of the "Star Trek" animated series (tip of the hat to Alicublog commenter FMGuru). Mr Nimoy was every bit the activist that castmates Nichelle Nichols and George Takei have been. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry likened Mr Nimoy to the "Conscience of Star Trek".

I'll forgive Mr Nimoy for his rare lapses in taste, such as lending his gravitas to the pseudoscience extravaganza In Search Of... and whatever you wish to call this. Besides his acting career, he was a film director, a photographer, and a poet. His last tweet, as reported by Tengrain was a perfectly lovely example of Mr Nimoy's grace and wit:

A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP

Speaking of tweets, perhaps my favorite "Spock" moment from the original Star Trek series was his straight faced delivery of the line Logic is a little tweeting bird chirping in meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad."





And what other actor could emote like a ham while interacting with a pulsating pool of plastic puke without looking utterly ridiculous?





Cutting through the patina of cheesy Sci-Fi, that scene represents a plea for tolerance, mutual understanding, and the need to break out of a cycle of violence and vengeance... man, it's hard not to get a little misty-eyed even despite the cheese factor.

Also in the comments at Roy's place, Megalon clued me in to a Spocksploitation movie that Leonard starred in in 1973... guess what I'll be watching this weekend:





For many of us, losing Leonard Nimoy was like losing a friend, and to cerebral, cool-headed guys, a role model. The universe is a little sadder, and a little less logical, with his passing.

7 comments:

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

After being treated as a pariah for being a Star Trek fan for so long, it is kind of perversely heartwarming to see how he is being more-or-less universally mourned...

How long, though, before his decidedly liberal leanings, and Hollywood lifestyle, become a new target for crazy-shit Twitchy skree-hordes? I give it 4 days.

On a related note, I had the sad task to advise Wife Sublime of the passing, of which she had not heard, while we were watching a batch of sets from some great musicians....

mikey said...

The thing that occurred to me is that it will, sometime soon, come Wild Bill Shatner's turn to shuffle off his mortal coil. And despite the fact that it was he, more than the rest of the cast and follow on spin-offs and reboots combined that was the heartbeat and the superstar lead vocalist of all things Trek, his passing will be remember quite...differently from that of Mr. Spock. When that time comes I'll post a link to his cover of Pulp's "Common People", which in its own way can be considered one of those rare covers that is actually superior to the original.

Also, too, in reflecting on the original decisions made for ST Season 1, it is interesting that Spock's essential alien-ness was expressed by nothing more than a pair of plastic elf-ears. The idea of many, even most aliens being bi-laterally symmetric bipedal mammals strikes me as less than plausible...

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

After being treated as a pariah for being a Star Trek fan for so long, it is kind of perversely heartwarming to see how he is being more-or-less universally mourned...

I guess I was a bit too young for this, everybody loved "Trek", even if we all thought that it was a ridiculous as it was awesome. "PAIN!!!"

The thing that occurred to me is that it will, sometime soon, come Wild Bill Shatner's turn to shuffle off his mortal coil. And despite the fact that it was he, more than the rest of the cast and follow on spin-offs and reboots combined that was the heartbeat and the superstar lead vocalist of all things Trek, his passing will be remember quite...differently from that of Mr. Spock.

I think a lot of it is because he was seen as a bit of an egotistical ass, stealing the best lines from other actors and hogging the spotlight. Leonard was a prince, Nichelle is a secular saint because she received death threats for the mere fact of being brilliant, beautiful, and black, and George is an improbably joker as well as being a saint- the kind of guy who got out of the internment camps and made sure that other Japanese-Americans didn't cheat Mexican migrant laborers out of their wages. Bill? He's a ham and a blowhard, as much as I love the guy.

The idea of many, even most aliens being bi-laterally symmetric bipedal mammals strikes me as less than plausible...

I chalk that up to low budgets and bad special effects. For some really alien aliens, the go-to guy is HPL- gotta love those squamous, rugose cones!

mikey said...

One of the key factors I think is missing from artistic or cinematic renderings of potential alien beings is the gravitational impact on evolution. As rocky planets go, earth is fairly small, and it seems likely that most intelligence will evolve as much sturdier, perhaps lower to the ground structure, with the corresponding impact on legs (both size and number), eyes (absent a vertical body plan, more eyes proving a better 360 degree view would be beneficial to survival) and perhaps even something as fundamental as an exoskeleton.

Although, to be fair, I suspect the vast majority of the intelligent species that evolve in the universe will be aquatic in nature, which will prevent them from developing any kind of useful technology. And since, even after all these millenia, we have not figured out how to communicate with our fellow intelligent species in the oceans, it seems that the largest share of intelligence will remain out of reach forever...

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

They had no seat belts on the Enterprise, yet still lived long and prospered.

Take that, Ralph Nader!
~

zencomix said...

Did you see him on an episode of Columbo?

Sirius Lunacy said...

You might need to see this...

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/03/03/star-trek-fans-told-to-stop-spocking-5-bill