Leonard Nimoy passed away February 27, 2015. His career is indelibly linked with the character Spock of the original Star Trek television series and movies. Creating a character like Spock made for some very interesting possibilities. It allowed the Star Trek stories to explore the role of emotions in the human condition, including relationship dynamics.
There are many Star Trek episodes that do just that. Emotions and relationships are a huge topic for the human race. How many songs are written and played on our airwaves day after day after day, with the theme of telling stories of relationships and of our emotions, and we never tire of them? How many hockey (or any other sport for that matter) games do we watch time after time, get emotionally involved, get emotionally engaged when there is a fight (relationship dynamic), and question the referee’s relationship with favouring one team over another (another relationship dynamic)?
But in Spock’s case, we could explore what happens when an individual has or tries not to have emotion, and explore what happens when this same individual gets the opportunity to experience emotion. I believe this is one reason for the popularity of the original Star Trek episodes. There are many effects to us experiencing a character like Spock, not limited to the following:
- If a person agrees that emotions are irrational, they have Spock as a model to take emotion out of the picture and try to live life without emotion, with the idea being that it is the rational way to live, that rationality is only possible without emotion.
- A person may come to an understanding of what emotions are about, and become comfortable with experiencing them. It is a way of finding the logic of emotion, and discovering that seeking to live life without emotion is what is illogical; that to understand emotion constructively brings the meaning and fullness to a logically emotional existence.
Certainly there are many episodes in which the characters Bones (especially) and Captain Kirk challenge Spock regarding emotion, almost ridiculing him in what he is missing by not having the freedom to experience them (Bones does not necessarily challenge Spock in a constructive way). Regardless, Spock is accepted and loved by his fellow crew and by his audiences.
The character Spock will live on in the stories we tell. He will live long and prosper, and we will prosper by knowing him, struggling with him as he faces his challenges and the role of emotion in them, and also as we experience him and struggle with his friends as they are exploring ways to relate with him. We thank you, Leonard Nimoy, for how you have challenged us to explore this rich emotional domain of our humanity in the character Spock you developed for us. May your legacy live long and prosper.
New York Times story