Maybe it was those Vulcan ears. But news of Leonard Nimoys passing automatically triggered memories of the 83 year-old actors most celebrated role as Mr. Spock both the Starship Enterprises first officer and science officer.

Try as he might to break free of being typecast as the dispassionate half human/half Vulcan we all came to know and love, audiences never let Nimoy forget that it was his role as Mr. Spock that continually got under their skins.

How could such a cool customer like Spock capture the hearts and minds of so many over the last half century?

The short answer may be that Mr. Spock knew how to handle stress and pressure under fire in a decidedly non-human fashion. Spock was never so cold to resemble the Borg, but

Leonard Nimoy (Spock) at the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention 2011. Credit: Wikipedia

Yet something else about Spock had great appeal in Star Treks original 1960s-era television incarnation. Simply that in such a tumultuous era, when centuries of gender bias and misogyny were gradually being rectified by the feminist movement, both genders may have secretly found Spocks ability to function above the societal fray refreshing. After all, for a generation or more, a large part of the gender conversation has been about two things how men should handle the everyday stresses and whether they should publicly express their emotional vulnerabilities in ways that their great grandfathers would have never dreamed. Nimoy, as Mr. Spock, avoided all such societal noise.

Although some audiences may like real sweat on their action heroes, Spock evoked cool simply because he was so detached. And while, to my knowledge, the 1960s-era Spock never got the girl, he did teach us all a bit more about the virtues of logical thinking in a pinch a trait thats sorely missing for most of us.

Does this mean that space generations of the far future will need to become dispassionate Spocks to deal with the weeks and months of inevitable boredom inherent in long-duration space travel?

Thats a distinct possibility, particularly on years-long space missions even to and from Mars Mars, but certainly on missions to the outer solar system.

And unless we get a leg up on travel approaching light speed, then Trekkian dreams of missions to to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations will be moot anyway.

Link:

Leonard Nimoy And Why Space Needs Real Spocks