Boldly Gone

Or

He Is Not Spock

 

Or

He's Dead Jim

 

Or

In Search of… My Pulse

 

Or

To Boldly Go

(Props to Patrick)

 

Or

For Whom William Bell Tolls

(Don, going the long way in the surrey for this one)

Leonard Nimoy, serenader of hobbits, photographer of fat naked women, driver of an unpaid-for-cab ride for JFK, has stopped living long and prospering, dying of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the age of 83. The 2012 honorary degree recipient from Boston University (60 years after having the good sense to drop out of Boston College) was a working actor with dozens of bit parts to his credit before donning silly pointed ears for a sci-fi pilot called The Cage. Original captain Jeffrey Hunter didn’t have the right stuff and got pon farred when the show went to series as Star Trek with William Shatner stepping into the starring role. (As an aside, Hunter died as a result of an accident on the set of a film in 1969. If not for that casting decision, he might still be alive, or he could have still done that film, and his death may have pre-empted the films and decades of reboots and thousands of dorks may have left their parents’ basements.) What didn’t change through 3 years on the original series, an animated series, 8 movies, several episodes of the sequel series, and 3 video game was Nimoy stealing the show as logical Vulcan First Officer Mr. Spock, raising an eyebrow at the antics of walking id James T. Kirk and handling confrontation with a nerve pinch rather than a classic Kirk disarm. In creating one of the most iconic characters in TV history, Nimoy scored 3 straight nominations for Best Supporting Actor, which given the Emmy voters’ attitude toward anything outside standard dramas and sitcoms is truly the stuff of science fiction. Later roles included master of disguise Paris on Mission: Impossible, the psychiatrist on the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, host of paranormal exploration series In Search Of…, a real-life Stonecutter in trying to make Steve Gutenberg a star as the director of Three Men and a Baby, Walter Bishop’s lab partner and brain curator Dr. William Bell on Fringe (though in the alternate timeline, Nimoy may still be alive), a cameo where he gets to share his enthusiasm for the Monorail on The Simpsons and as the voice of a vintage Mr. Spock action figure on The Big Bang Theory because every male role model in Sheldon’s life has to die.