A Tribute to Leonard Nimoy

by Mike Lunsford

 Originally written Feb 27, 2015

With the passing of Leonard Nimoy, there was something almost surreal about it all. He was not a young man, passing at the age of 83.  Mr. Nimoy was best known for his role as Spock in the television and film series Star Trek. That's how I knew him and held him in such high esteem. It seemed surreal because we had seen Spock die and then come back, miraculously, from the dead. 

In Star Trek II, it was crushing to see a character we had known so well die. He saved everyone on board the Enterprise to do so. He stop a madman bent on revenge against the Federation. He was truly a hero and it gave his death some meaning.

In  Star Trek III, Captain Kirk and crew managed to get back to Genesis and found that Spock's body had been resurrected. They lost the Enterprise to save it from the Klingons, but managed to save their comrade and took him back to Vulcan to get his "katra" back. 

We hate to admit it, but as humans we all know that death is inevitable, but Spock, and by proxy Mr. Nimoy, seemed to be immortal. He and Captain Kirk were the backbone of the series and his resurrection was welcomed by all. He transcended the Star Trek series; he made it onto Star Trek: The Next Generation and he was the ambassador of old school to new school with the recent films. That's what made this so surreal: "Spock can't die," my childhood self seemed to say. 

Leonard Nimoy was most famous for his portrayal of Mr. Spock but he had many other memorable roles. He was the host and narrator of In Search Of, a show about paranormal and unexplained phenomenon, he did guest roles on The Simpsons and Futurama and was hilarious, and he even did some experimental music about Bilbo Baggins in the 70's that is also hilarious (unintentionally, though).

Boldly going where his Captain went before...yikes

He even got his licks in later in life, too. After the first rebooted Star Trek came out, Leonard Nimoy was on Saturday Night Live during a Weekend Update sketch. He said that old Trekkies who didn't like the new reboot movie were "dickheads," I just about fell about of bed laughing. Something about seeing Mr. Spock call someone that was hilarious.  

When I heard that Leonard Nimoy passed away this morning, it was like part of my childhood died, too. To think that 3 of the main characters from my favorite movie series as a kid are now gone...James Doohan (Scotty), Deforest Kelly (Dr. McCoy), and now Leonard Nimoy, certainly makes me feel old. But as I've seen tributes pop up all day on Facebook I was reminded of Dr. McCoy's quote at the end of Wrath of Khan

 "He's not really dead. As long as we remember him." 

I just want to thank Leonard Nimoy for what he did. Thank you Mr. Nimoy for giving us one of the most iconic science fiction characters of all time. Thank you for being a role model to a young half-Jewish boy who was thrilled when he found out you were Jewish, too.   Thank you for being an ambassador for Star Trek across 2 TV series and 2 movie franchises. Rest well, Mr. Nimoy, enjoy your journey amongst the stars in the heavens. We will remember you.