http://www.ottawasun.com/Showbiz/Television/2006/08/29/1783291-sun.html
New spark in Spock
Once again Star Trek comes calling for the man with the pointy ears
By JIM SLOTEK
THREE DECADES ago, as the craze over a long-cancelled show called Star
Trek became feverish, Leonard Nimoy wrote a book called I Am Not Spock.
A little over 10 years ago, noticing that when people called out "Spock!"
on the street he'd turn around, Nimoy bowed to the inevitable and wrote a
book called I Am Spock.
Now J.J. Abrams is coming up with the next Star Trek movie, in which a
young Kirk and Spock meet at Starfleet Academy. That means somebody else
will be cast as Spock.
Which means, we tell Nimoy, you are not Spock again.
The Vulcan laughs. Nimoy lets go a loud guffaw over the phone from his
Lake Tahoe home and says "I never thought of that. My next title should be
'I Am Not Necessarily Spock.' "
PHOTOGRAPHY BUFF
Retired, and devoted to his family and his photography hobby, Nimoy
doesn't much care about doings in Hollywood. But the actor/director -
who'll be appearing this weekend alongside William Shatner at the Canadian
Expo at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto - could be coerced to
boldly go back for the right set of pointy ears.
"The head of production at Paramount called my agency to tell them about
this project and they are aware of Bill's and my contribution to the
franchise, and they'd like us to know they might want some involvement. It
was all very, very general
"They might possibly want Bill and I to set up the story as a flashback.
But that's just conjecture on my part."
Whether it brings him back to the screen, Star Trek has brought Nimoy out
of the house quite a bit more this year - the occasion being the 40th
anniversary of the launch of the USS Enterprise's five-year mission on
NBC, Sept. 8, 1966 (the episode, for trivia buffs out there, was The Man
Trap, about a salt-eating vampire creature let loose on the Enterprise).
"It is a long time ago," Nimoy says, "yet some of it is extremely fresh in
my mind. I vividly remember some of the earliest makeup tests and wardrobe
fittings, the first days of shooting. I remember shooting with Jeffrey
Hunter on the first pilot (1965). And then the phone call I got from the
studio saying they wanted to make a new pilot and they wanted me back."
Well, sort of wanted him. The most common studio memo that greeted the
original Star Trek pilot (with Hunter as Capt. Pike) was "get rid of the
guy with the ears."
And even 40 years ago last August, Nimoy recalls, "I opened up my mail one
day and found a brochure from NBC's sales department which they were
sending to potential sponsors. And in the photographs of me in that
brochure, the pointy ears had been removed.
"I called Gene (Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry) and he said he
explained that somebody in sales had become concerned that the religious
Bible Belt might be offended by the idea of a devilish looking character
coming into their homes. So to play it safe they got rid of the ears."
ALMOST KILLED OFF
Instead, he became Trek's most popular character, surviving even his own
death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. "I really thought I was finished
when I saw that script, it's over."
Nimoy likens today's appetite for Star Trek to the '70s, "when there was
this great demand and no product" (the last Trek series, Enterprise, ended
its run in 2005).
In fact, though much is made of a rivalry between Trekkies and Star Wars
fans, Nimoy credits George Lucas for giving Trek life.
"In '77 I was in Equus on Broadway and I kept hearing about the phenomenal
success of Star Wars. I went to a theatre in Times Square and the place
was packed with screaming, shouting, cheering people. And I thought 'Wow.
I think we're going to be getting a call from Paramount. And sure enough,
three weeks later, they announced their Star Trek movie."
Along with Shatner, Nimoy had the active non-Trek career, his as a
director, including Star Trek IV and Three Men and a Baby.
As for attending Trek conferences, "That's like taking a victory lap,"
Nimoy says. "They say wonderful things and stroke your ego. They tell you
how you've affected their lives in a positive way, and thanks for all the
years of entertainment."
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