Leonard Nimoy, I Still Miss You

Nimoy’s legacy lies in the millions of people who he empathised with and inspired. That legacy is now more important than ever.

“My folks came to the United States as immigrants, aliens, and they became citizens. I was born in Boston a citizen; I went to Hollywood, and I became an alien.”

Leonard Nimoy spoke these words to Radio Boston in 2012. They were intended to be in jest, but it is hard to argue that they aren’t also true. Right up until his death, that alien — Star Trek’s half-human, half-Vulcan “Mr Spock” — was the character with whom the whole world most associated Leonard Nimoy, who died four years ago now at the age of 83.

It also hides the internal battles that Nimoy himself had with the character. Nimoy’s first autobiography, I Am Not Spock, published in 1975, was an effort by the actor to try and explain the complex emotional relationship that he had built up with Spock, whose approach to life was (at least at the time) very different from Nimoy’s own. Spock was a man driven by logic, thanks to his Vulcan side and upbringing, but also constantly struggling to find a balance with the emotions that came from both his human side and those around him. By contrast, the real life Nimoy was, if anything, the opposite — an immensely creative human…