Story behind Spock
In an interview with the Yiddish Book Center, Nimoy explains the origins of the famous hand gesture used by his character Spock on Star Trek.
AAT interview
In part seven of this interview, Nimoy discusses “Vulcanisms”: the mind meld, the Vulcan nerve pinch, the Vulcan salute; his favorite and least favorite Star Trek episodes. He also talks about the legacy of Star Trek and about becoming a director; on feeling typecast as a heavy while at Universal in the early 1970s. On the Vulcan nerve pinch:
That was my way of avoiding fistfights. I had gotten very tired of all the years of playing heavies and being involved in fistfights or gunfights, or whatever kind of fights, with adversaries in television shows and movies. Here was a chance to cleverly avoid all of that…I suggested to the director that I had this special ability of putting some energy into the human anatomy that would render the guy unconscious.
Opie and Anthony interview
Nimoy calls into the Opie & Anthony Show to discuss his upcoming appearance in Star Trek and to promote a photography book. Prior to the 2009 movie, Star Trek, eighteen years had passed since his last involvement with a Star Trek television show or movie. Nimoy says the movie awakened his passion for the series that he had had many years ago. On Zachary Quinto’s portrayal:
He’s showing the character of Spock in the condition that he was in before I started playing him in the series. So you really see how this emotional aspect of his character has to come under control. It’s very,very well done. Zachary’s terrific.
Shatner, Nimoy interview
Shatner & Nimoy are interviewed by Hall on The Arsenio Hall Show. They talk about how Trekkies prefer to be called Trekkers, and about the 25th anniversary tour. Nimoy:
We did three cities it went extremely well, and it was videotaped, and we’re doing six more cities.
Interview
In this interview, Nimoy talks about the character, Spock.
Just before we started shooting the show we had to experiment with four or five different types of ears, and we were not happy with any of them. And I felt a little nervous about it. I though it’ll be awful funny if these ears don’t look right. And I went to Gene and I asked him to give the up the idea of the pointed ears. And he said no he wouldn’t, we’re gonna keep working on this, and we’ll get it right eventually. I promise you if you do the show with the ears, at the end of 13 episodes, if you’re not happy I’ll write you a script where you get an ear job.
