Leonard Nimoy discusses the Star Trek pilot - TelevisionAcademy.com/Interviews

yeah I did this job in in an episode of the lieutenant series for gene Roddenberry a few weeks after I finished the job my agent called me and said Gene Roddenberry producer of the lieutenant's show saw the footage was interested in you like what you did and said that he has in mind for you a role in a pilot that he's developing for a science fiction series period I really didn't give it a lot of thought you hear that kind of thing and you're a long way from getting a job he's developing a show of pilots that may never be shot he has a room that he has in mind for you which you may never get the studio or network or somebody might say we don't like him we want somebody have somebody else in mind if you did get the job and the pilot was shot the odds are against that ever going to series a lot of pilots Pachulia those years many many pilots were made that never became a series so the chances of this becoming anything meaningful were slim but it was flattering you know that he had noticed my work and found it interesting and then a couple more months went by and my agent called again on this subject and said Gene Roddenberry would like to see some other work that you've done so they can get a sense of your range ok this was interesting so we sent him as I mentioned before in the lieutenant I played the flamboyant actor character celebrity kind of guy very cocky ego we send him a videotape of a TV show that I've done it a performance that I've given on a dr. Kildare show which had been directed by a friend of mine Elliot silverstein and in which I played a very quiet shy guy who befriended a blind girl and quoted poetry to her very sensitive nice character so we scented that word came back that he had seen that show but had not connected me with that performance because it was so different from what I did for him in the lieutenant so he was impressed that I had this range and the next call came in not long after that the gene roddenberry wanted to meet so I went to this meeting expecting to be auditioned or to read for him or whatever I went to the meeting and he was very congenial and so let's take a walk and he walked me over to the scenic design department he showed me the plans of the the sets that were being built introduced me to the scenic designer walked me over the prop Department showed me some of the props that were being made a wardrobe department same thing here's some sketches of the clothes this is interesting it's like he's selling me on doing this job after if I keep my mouth shut I might have a job here yeah and and that was essentially what I was about he was he started talking about this character that he had mind he told me a little bit about the character that he would be from another planet but half-human interesting we did the first pilot and and two cerebral and then we did the second pilot my character started to chill out gradually it was clearer in the writing and clearer to us in the makeup department that he should be cooler more controlled more logical more intellectual rather than a hot character and and then I had a shock we made the second pilot and the decision was made to go ahead with the show and they started doing the process of selling at the various sponsors and because I was in the show I got on a mailing list at NBC somehow and one day I opened up my mail and he was a it was a pamphlet from the NBC sales and promotion department and it was a pamphlet about Star Trek this new series is going to be on the air coming in the fall and this is what it's about going to take place in the 20th century great space ship the USS enterprise and here's the crew photographs of various people Bill Shatner as Captain Kirk and myself as Spock and so forth and maybe Kelly as dr. McCoy I don't remember else was in there but I I saw this photograph of myself as spot and it didn't look right something struck me strange and the closer I looked the more I realized that they had straightened out my eyebrows made him look normal and they had taken off the tips off the years always left was the haircut I didn't know I have a clue what this was all about so I called Jean and I said I just got this brochure for the show what's going on yeah I've seen it we'll what's happening I feel threatened I thought there may be going to cut me out or something oh this is going to be my first steady job as an actor ever Oh so yeah I have to understand that prior to Star Trek I never had a job that lasted longer than two weeks in any television show a movie never two weeks max and here I was looking at a season of work so he said well the feeling that the sales department is that they would have a tough time selling your character as being a running character featured character in this series because of a number of things but specifically for example they said that the ears look devilish and they would have trouble selling to sponsors in the south because the people in the Bible Belt might be offended that it celibate in a show that had a devilish character was coming into their home's I see that's an interesting problem they thought the character would be offensive the people at NBC at least in the sales department calculate be offensive to people and we'd want to take a chance there was a formulaic thinking it still is in certain quarters about what is acceptable in a television show and here's a character that that is like no other in this country who is going to relate to this character the guys watching TV are going to relate to the captain the women are going to to his ladyfriend roots in his Chapel whoever is a lady on the show the older guys are going to relate to the crusty uncle Terra uncle like character dr. McCoy is a crusty uncle you know we're going to have better have some kids on the show but there's nobody going to relate to this guy who has plenty of years out there who's from Vulcan so why have him we don't you know what does that tell us well gene was very adamant about it he felt very strongly that the Vulcan character that I was to portray would be a constant reminder that interplanetary travel was normal now in the 20th century and the crew of the enterprise was not made up totally of people from the United States it was the USS Enterprise but that's not the United States ship enterprise it's the United spaceship enterprise part of the Federation not not a United States ship and that was his concept at every time I was on screen you would be reminded that we have a mixed crew people from other planets are part of this crew so he stuck to his guns fortunately for me and we got past that hurdle and the showing on the air and within a very short time was pretty clear that spot they're going to be okay you

Channel: FoundationINTERVIEWS

Views: 452,213

Rating: 4.953609 out of 5

Keywords: Leonard, Nimoy, interview, Star, Trek, Spock, Television, show

Id: Y8M8FK-CE6k

Length: 8min 5sec (485 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 22 2010

Reddit Comments

[u/JMCrown]

There's something about how Leonard speaks that makes him seem like a storyteller. I'm not sure why but I just want to hear more. Not just his insights into Star Trek, but his insights into making it in Hollywood and how to approach acting...he just sounds sagacious and interesting.

I don't remember where I saw it but Majel Barrett was interviewed about the Star Trek pilot as well and her perspective is absolutely fascinating. She describes how when the pilot aired, even other women were taken aback by the idea of a woman 2nd in command and felt that the character was uppity.

[u/scorpiousdelectus]

It's remarkable to think that Star Trek was Nimoy's first steady gig

[u/bvanevery]

Thanks Leonard.