Leonard Nimoy tells us why he came back to Star Trek

Monday, April 27, 2009

Leonard Nimoy tells us why he came back to Star Trek

Leonard Nimoy, who reprises his most famous role in J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek, told SCI FI Wire that he's pleased to return to the franchise that at one point seemed to be done with him. (Possible spoilers ahead!)

"I don't think I ever said that I was done with Star Trek," Nimoy said in an exclusive interview a few weeks ago. "I think that Star Trek was kind of done with me for a while. I acted in the first six films. I directed two of them. I wrote story for two of them. I produced one of them. I was very, very active in the first six films. When the next film came [Star Trek: Generations] along, there was no role for Spock. And they killed Kirk. So one would have to ask the makers of those films, and the next few, why I was not involved. I was never offered anything that was like a Spock role. I was asked to direct the seventh film. I didn't think much of the script, and I passed."

But Abrams came to Nimoy with more than a cameo role, and it was enough to entice Nimoy out of semi-retirement. "In this particular case, they came to me with an idea that really valued the Spock character, valued my presence, gave me a role to play that I felt was worth coming back for, and I came back," he said. "So I don't think I ever turned my back on Star Trek. I think I was just allowed to drift away."

In Star Trek, Nimoy plays an older version of the character—dubbed "Spock Prime" in the script by Transformers writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman—that goes back to the first meeting of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), young Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the rest of the crew of the starship Enterprise.

We spoke to Nimoy exclusively about Star Trek. Following is the first part of our two-part interview. The second part posts tomorrow. Star Trek opens May 8.

J.J.'s been talking about the movie lately, and we wanted to know from your perspective what makes his movie a Star Trek movie, and how is it going to be different from what's come before?
Nimoy: Well, we haven't seen this bringing together of the original crew before. It's a story that's never been told. And I think it's told very, very well. ... I'm talking about the original crew members—Kirk and Spock and McCoy and Uhura and Sulu and Scotty—all coming together for the first time, coming out of Starfleet Academy and being assigned in various ways to various ships and ending up together on the Enterprise is a story that's never been told. How they all came together, how they came to be the crew of the Enterprise. And I think it's very well told, and I think the actors are doing a wonderful job, and I think the script really captures the essence of those characters and brings them together in a very entertaining, very exciting way. So I think that's all very new.

What specifically do you feel are essential elements to make Star Trek feel like Star Trek?
Nimoy: The crew is a wonderful mix of chemistries, and I think that's been captured in this movie. The relationships, the way these relationships are established, the different kinds of people that they are and the different functions that they serve and the way that they come together to become a unit. I think really captures the essence of what the original crew was all about when we saw Star Trek in the original series.

Roberto Orci, as well as J.J., have been quoted as saying that the new film will be a little bit more rock and roll. Do you know what they mean by that?

Nimoy: Well, it certainly is a larger production than any Star Trek movie we've seen before. More adventure than we've seen before, and on a larger scale. I don't know how else to describe it. It's a big adventure, a very big adventure. Very ambitious in its size. And I think that some of the previous films have had a certain amount of size, but this picture has a budget that allows it to go much further than any other previous film.

I think also they were speaking kind of about the pace of the film.
Nimoy: Yeah, that too, yeah. No question about it. Look, when you're on a smaller budget, you tend to stay on certain scenes longer, you tend to stay on dialogue scenes longer with the actors. You tend to stay in less sets. This picture has more sets, more action, larger [more] ships, larger experiences, larger adventures, because the appetite of the filmmakers is larger and they were given a larger budget to do it with. I think it's a wonderful movie. ... It's a very exciting film. ...
What was it specifically about the reappearance of Spock that brought you back?

Nimoy: The role is a functional role in the show. It's not a cameo. It's a role that's specifically written for Spock and for Spock's place in the Star Trek story. So that makes it attractive and worthwhile to me. I had not been offered a role like that since the first six Star Trek movies.
What do you think of Zachary Quinto, who plays the younger version of your character?
Nimoy: I think very highly of Zack Quinto. I think he's a very good actor. What I've seen of the movie, I think he does a wonderful job, as does the rest of the crew. I think they're all very, very good in their roles.

Do you see some of your performance in Zachary's performance? Or is it a different kind of interpretation of the same character?

Nimoy: Well, you know, it's the same character in name, but you must remember that the Spock that he's playing is a Spock that existed before the Spock that I played. He was younger, not quite so experienced, and therefore somewhat different. He's the Spock that arrives off of his home planet of Vulcan and goes to the Federation for the first time. And that's ... a somewhat different character than what you saw me play in the Star Trek original series. By the time we get into the series, my Spock was a little bit more mature, a little bit different. ...
One of the things that struck me about Zach's performance was that he is more volatile a character than we were used to seeing.

Nimoy: Well, that's interesting, that's interesting. I think you may be right, and I think that points to what I said before: that it hasn't quite arrived as the Spock that I was playing in the original series. He's younger than that, and not quite as seasoned.

Tomorrow: Nimoy speaks about putting the pointed ears back on and slipping back into the character of Spock.

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Enjoy The Prologue From My Upcoming Book.. "Strolok"............by R.Goldberg

"WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOUR RACE WAS TARGETED FOR EXTINCTION?"

The Sun is a powerful force in our Universe. It brings us light, warmth and a promise of a galaxy beyond the stars. Often we associate massive flashes of light with the reflection of our Sun's light bouncing off of another surface.

This is not always the case though, especially if you believe that we are truly not alone in the Universe. When we witness things that we can't readily explain we sometimes turn our heads and shrug our shoulders in a display of apathy.

A display such as this occurred on Friday January 29, 1982 at the Crater Lake National Park just outside of Chemult, Oregon. The snow had been falling steadily for a period of four days. The winds had been whisking about at 40 miles per hour.
Then there was one of those unnatural flashes of light. This created an eerie silence as a lanky boy, just nine years old, seemed to appear from out of that flash. If he had walked to this point there would have been a distinct trail in the newly fallen snow.
There was no trail and as a matter of fact the only tracks in the snow were the ones that outlined his feet where he was standing.

He began to trudge through the snow wearing what could only be described as dark brown long johns. He seemed dazed yet, at the same time, very clear about the direction that he was travelling. This boy with no identity or name seemed to be on a mission that would take him to places he had never been before.
His main goal was to reach Chemult, Oregon and he had no intention of stopping until he accomplished this. As strange as it seems the extreme cold seemed to have little or no effect on him at all.

Why Chemult? What was so special about this town located at an elevation of 4,758 feet above sea level in a frozen winter wilderness in Oregon?

The town of Chemult was first opened to the local traffic in 1926 and here in 1982, with its population of only 241, offered little in the way of comfort for a nine year old boy who was all alone. This journey, although prompted by something deep inside of him, did not provide a feeling of comfort and yet he had hoped that he would at least experience a feeling of accomplishment once he reached the town.

The wind was getting stronger and he noticed a small piece of yellow paper tattered and torn from whipping about in the snow. He only stopped long enough to
pick up this paper..........it read:

.....With the winter season here there was a lot of fun to have. Travelling miles of open trails on snow mobiles skiing or simply hiking, but there are dangers of doing so. Please remember safety first. Do not travel alone and be sure someone knows where you are and where you are going before travelling our trails, and please read the safety rules and codes of ethics before hiking the trails...

Nightfall was near and he had already walked 38 of the 40 miles needed to reach Chemult. He was just off of Route 97 when he spotted an old barn just about 200 feet NE of his present location. Making his way to the barn he went in and found it to be totally deserted, it was a perfect place to rest for the night.

Morning had arrived and once awake the boy started to look around the barn in the daylight light to see if there was anything that was lying in the barn that he could use to assist him on his trek.

Over in the far corner of the barn he found an old metal locked box that had long been forgotten. It was all rusted out and the key was nowhere to be found. After several failed attempts to open the box the young boy closed his eyes, sat back on his tired limbs and placed the palm of his right hand on top of the box. All of a sudden a dull red glow appeared from his right palm and the box lid flew open. Strangely enough once the red glow disappeared all that remained was a faint thin black outline where the outside of the red mark had appeared on his palm. Inside of the box he found several items all of which were unfamiliar to him and it was obvious that they had been there
for a very long time.

The contents included a tattered passport with the picture missing, a pocket knife, a compass, an antique pocket watch with a broken crystal, a time-worn souvenir porcelain coffee mug with the words; "Atlanta, Georgia, The Peach State, A Perfect Place to Live", on it and a frayed map of the Metro Atlanta Area It was difficult to make out the name on the passport but with a couple of light brushes with his fingers he saw the name Jason Tredmore. This is now who this boy would become.

Sci-Fi Blast

Monday, April 27, 2009