Development of Spock
The development of Spock, a fictional character first introduced in the American science fiction television series Star Trek, began prior to the start of the series. The first known mention of Spock was in a discussion between Gene Roddenberry and Gary Lockwood, where the latter suggested Leonard Nimoy for the role. Roddenberry agreed with the suggestion, and Nimoy became the first choice actor for the part. However, Roddenberry was required to audition other actors for the role. It was offered to both DeForest Kelley and Martin Landau before Nimoy. Nimoy disliked the prosthetic ears he was required to wear, and there were concerns from the studio that they made him appear satanic. Roddenberry fought to keep the character in the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" after the rest of the main cast was dropped from the initial pilot, "The Cage".
Soon after the series began broadcasting, "Spockmania" began. Both NBC and individual studios demanded a more prominent role for the character due to the fan response. Prior to the second season, Nimoy renegotiated his salary. During this time, both Mark Lenard and Lawrence Montaigne were seriously considered as replacement Vulcans. Nimoy was retained, and continued to develop the character through the season, creating the iconic Vulcan salute. Following the cancellation of the series, various projects were undertaken during the 1970s to re-launch Star Trek. Nimoy had dropped out of working on them after his likeness was used in a Heineken advertisement without his permission. The character of Xon, played by David Gautreaux, was created as a replacement for him in the series Star Trek: Phase II; however when the production became Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Nimoy was persuaded to return.
Nimoy agreed to return for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan with the promise of a death scene for the character. The fan response was overwhelmingly negative to the news, but after Nimoy enjoyed the production, he asked if there was a means in which the death could be ambiguous. Nimoy returned for the next film, and convinced studio chief Michael Eisner that he should direct it. Spock was revived in the film. The film was successful, and he was asked to direct the following film, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home as well. Due to delays in negotiating William Shatner's contract, consideration was given to re-booting the franchise and starting again with new, younger actors. This was abandoned; Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, directed by Shatner, introduced a previously unmentioned half brother of Spock, Sybok. Following the poor reception of the film, a re-boot was once again considered, but instead Nimoy was asked to organise the sixth film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. To promote the film, he agreed to appear in The Next Generation.
He refused to return for Star Trek Generations as the expected role was not significant enough, and the character did not return to the franchise again until 2009's Star Trek, where it was recast and portrayed by Zachary Quinto. Nimoy also agreed to return, playing the older version of the character. Quinto sought his advice about how to play the character, and the two became friends. Nimoy appeared one final time in a cameo within the 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness; he died in February 2015 prior to production on the 2016's Star Trek Beyond. Within that film, a scene was included to reference the in-universe death of the older version of the character.
''The Original Series''
Origins and "The Cage"
The earliest mention of Spock known was in a conversation Gene Roddenberry had with Gary Lockwood at Roddenberry's home. Lockwood had been the lead actor on Roddenberry's The Lieutenant which had just been cancelled after one season. Roddenberry explained in that conversation that he had created an alien with the name of Spock. Roddenberry wanted the alien to be very intelligent and possibly green. He asked Lockwood for his advice about who could play the character, and was reminded about Leonard Nimoy, who had made a guest appearance in The Lieutenant episode "In the Highest Tradition". Several days afterwards, Roddenberry's secretary Dorothy Fontana read his new Star Trek proposal, asking Roddenberry immediately if he had someone in mind to play Spock. She was handed a glossy photograph of Nimoy in response.Despite having Nimoy immediately in mind for the part, Roddenberry was required to audition other actors for the part. Actors who read for the part included Victor Lundin, and both Rex Holman and Michael Dunn were considered. The network, NBC, were pushing for a known actor to play the role, as was Robert Butler, who was to direct the Star Trek pilot, "The Cage". Butler opposed the casting of DeForest Kelley as the doctor character, but both he and the NBC executives thought he would be good as Spock. Roddenberry met with Kelley and offered him the job, but he did not want to play the alien character. Seeking to get a different star, Roddenberry offered the role to Martin Landau, but he did not want to play the same character on a weekly basis and found the character's lack of emotions limiting.
During an interview segment of TV Land's 40th Anniversary Star Trek Marathon on November 12, 2006 Leonard Nimoy revealed that Gene Roddenberry's first choice to play Spock was George Lindsey. Because of the flippant way Nimoy made the comment it has been suggested that he was joking. The claim that Lindsey was offered the role was given more credibility when Lindsey's close friend Ernest Borgnine wrote in his autobiography, "my hand to God - he turned down the part of Mr. Spock on TV's Star Trek, the role that made Leonard Nimoy famous."
When offered, Nimoy accepted the role. However, he was still apprehensive as he wanted to have a serious acting career and did not want to be made to look foolish by playing an alien with pointy ears and other as-then undetermined makeup. When the character was included in the original 1964 pitch, Roddenberry wrote that the character was "probably half Martian, he has a slightly reddish complexion and semi-pointed ears". Early versions had the character ingest energy through a plate in his stomach. Writer Samuel A. Peeples told Roddenberry these attributes made Spock too alien, and suggested "he should at least be half-human and have the problems of both sides", believing the human traits made the character more interesting and able to comment on the human condition more believably. Spock's home planet was changed because Roddenberry thought if the show was a success, humans might actually walk on Mars during the series' run. The eventual logical nature of Spock was originally written into the character Number One as portrayed by Majel Barrett. It was not until the second pilot that this was included as one of Spock's traits.
The first makeup tests for Spock were conducted as production began on the pilot. Lee Greenway, a makeup artist for Desilu Studios, applied papier-mâché and liquid latex directly to Nimoy's ears. A variety of tests were conducted over the course of four or five days. The actor was horrified at the results, saying the creations made him look like an "overgrown jackrabbit" or an "elf with a hyperactive thyroid". Fred Phillips was subsequently asked to make the ears, but he passed this task onto John Chambers so he could concentrate on achieving the right shade of red for Spock's skin.
The red hue was abandoned, as when viewed on television sets it made Nimoy look dark skinned. The makeup artists tried a yellow hue instead, which lightened Nimoy on television and it was agreed that this was an improvement. Meanwhile, Chambers re-created an ear mould as the ones created earlier for Nimoy were damaged. These new moulds would be the basis of the well known Spock ears. Each time Nimoy wore the ears, they were glued into place and could only be removed with solvent. But the ears were damaged in their removal, and so each pair could only be worn once.
Elf jokes from the crew were irritating Nimoy, and he complained to Roddenberry that the character could ruin his career and he no longer wanted to play Spock. Roddenberry talked him around, and Nimoy said to a journalist at the time that "Playing some monster or freak can be the kiss of death for an actor, and this emotionless guy with pointy ears from another planet just didn't appeal to me", but he and Roddenberry had "talked it over and agreed I wouldn't just be a walking computer who gives scientific data." Furthermore, Roddenberry pledged to Nimoy that if the actor remained unhappy with the ears by the 13th episode then he would find a means of removing them from the show. Fellow cast member Laurel Goodwin assured Nimoy that the character, including the ears, would make him a sex symbol. She also suggested the styling of Nimoy's sideburns into points.
Nimoy was not the only person concerned with Spock's ears. NBC executives were worried that it made him appear satanic, and were concerned that viewers would not wish to associate with an alien character. At the time, Roddenberry felt that the satanic issue might prove positive as he believed that female viewers would find a slightly dangerous and taboo character more attractive. This was supported by female visitors to the set who seemed to be immediately drawn to Nimoy.
"Where No Man Has Gone Before" and the first season
Following the failure of "The Cage" to launch Star Trek into series, and the unexpected ordering of a second pilot, NBC wanted the majority of the main cast dropped. They specifically stated that Spock should not appear in the new pilot. But Roddenberry was determined to keep the character, announcing to NBC that he would not do a new pilot without Spock. He said that the character acted as a constant and much needed reminder to the viewer that the series was set in space. NBC backed down, but insisted that he only be used as a background character in the new pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". During the course of the production, the logical manner previously seen in Number One in "The Cage" was written into the Spock character.Star Trek went to series on the basis of the second pilot, but still fearing backlash against Spock's ears, and issues with selling the show to stations in the Bible Belt, NBC airbrushed out the pointed tips in an advertising brochure about the series. Spock's role was used as audition material for new cast members. Nichelle Nichols was intrigued by the role when she read his lines, and asked why the character could not be female. The producers' response was that Nimoy would not like it. It was during the filming of the first non-pilot episode to be shot, "The Corbomite Maneuver", that under the direction of Joseph Sargent, Nimoy was directed to remain aloof during a tense moment and said the catchphrase "fascinating" for the first time. This moment was subsequently given by the writing staff as an example of how the character should act. Nimoy liked Spock's newly logical nature, observing that the character is "struggling to maintain a Vulcan attitude, a Vulcan philosophical posture and a Vulcan logic, opposing what was fighting him internally, which was human emotion". Nimoy stated that after "The Naked Time", in which a disease causes Spock to cry, "I knew that we were not playing a man with no emotions, but a man who had great pride, who had learned to control his emotions and who would deny that he knew what emotions were. In a way, he was more human than anyone else on the ship."
file:Leonard Nimoy William Shatner Star Trek 1968.JPG|thumb|right|Spock's popularity incensed William Shatner, who felt that Captain Kirk should have been the most popular.
The tendency to keep Spock as a background character continued for the first eight episodes of The Original Series, when the NBC executives called Roddenberry and producer Herbert Franklin Solow to their offices in Burbank. The executives complained that Spock was not appearing frequently in the show. They had received requests from local stations asking for Spock-centric episodes, which they referred to as "Spockmania". When told that it was NBC who requested he be a background character, they flatly denied it and said it was obvious how popular Spock had become. Roddenberry showed them the advertising brochure as evidence and only then did they apologise. It was decided to switch the romantic lead in "This Side of Paradise" from Hikaru Sulu to Spock, something that made Nimoy apprehensive. But he subsequently said he enjoyed being able to act out Spock's emotions, and praised writer D. C. Fontana for expanding Vulcan culture within the series.
The sudden increase in popularity of Spock caused William Shatner, who portrayed Captain James T. Kirk, to be dismayed that he was not portraying the favourite character. Although he was being paid $5,000 an episode, plus a percentage of profits, and Nimoy was being paid $1,250 an episode, it was the latter who was receiving several sacks of fan mail a week. The fan mail figures were leaked to the press, angering Shatner. This animosity from Shatner increased when reporters from Time arrived at the studio and set up for a photoshoot around Nimoy's makeup chair. Shatner and James Doohan were also in the makeup room, and Doohan later recalled that once Shatner realised he was being ignored, he jumped from his chair, shouted that he was the captain of the show and from then on he would have his makeup applied in his trailer. The popularity of Spock had built to the extent that gossip columnists in Hollywood spread rumours among agents that Shatner was going to be dropped from the series and replaced with Nimoy as the lead.
Following the end of the first season, producer Robert H. Justman decided to prank Nimoy. He had partially convinced Nimoy that it would have been preferable to have permanent plastic surgery to point the tips of his ears instead of requiring the hour and a half of makeup each day to apply them. It was only when Nimoy began to agree with Justman's suggestion that the producer let on that it was a joke, which Nimoy found amusing. Nimoy became unhappy with his pay during the course of the season, since Shatner was being paid more than he was. But he was asked by the producers to table the discussion until confirmation was received that the series was renewed.