Five Great Leonard Nimoy Roles (That Weren't Spock)

In 1975, when the late Leonard Nimoy released his first autobiography, I Am Not Spock, there was, among his fans, a "firestorm" (his word) of negative reaction.

You see, devotees of the celebrated actor's work as half-alien, half-human first officer Mr Spock on short-lived but culturally iconic sci-fi Star Trek — on which he had served for three years from 1966-69 as a key weapon in the show's writers arsenal for conveying its crucial element of social criticism and commentary — felt that maybe he was attempting to too cruelly and publicly distance himself from the character; that he was outwardly shunning the very role that had, at that stage, made him who he was.

It wasn't his intention — the title had apparently been inspired by an incident in an airport in which a woman introduced him as "Spock" to her daughter — but the damage was done; so much so that, 20 years later for autobiography #2, he'd drop the "not" to release the more-self-accepting I Am Spock to quell the lasting controversy.

Nimoy's relationship with Spock was a complex one; he inhabited the character through three seasons on live-action television, one animated season, eight feature films (including his cameo roles in the 21st century's reboot universe), and attended innumerable events at which he would have to talk about (or like) the character, all the while posing for countless photographs flashing the Vulcan gang sign that he had come up with himself but probably started to wish he hadn't.

Famously, he almost didn't even appear in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan — the film that would incontrovertibly immortalise Spock in nerd culture forevermore — due to increasing typecasting concerns (an issue that had obviously cleared up by the time he returned for Star Treks III through VI) among other things but, at the end of the day, Spock was a part of Nimoy as much as Nimoy was a part of Spock, and it makes sense that his ongoing legacy should lie with the Vulcan science officer who devoted himself to understanding humanity.

Still, that doesn't mean we should forget about the rest of his voluminous body of acting work…

the great paris, mission: impossible (1969-71)

Pretty much immediately after his (and his castmates') release from Star Trek following its cancellation in 1969, Nimoy went to work for a show that he had very nearly signed onto before accepting his commission aboard the Enterprise — CBS spy-fi series Mission: Impossible.

Long before it was sullied by Tom Cruise and his insistence on wrecking good things, Mission: Impossible — as any keen viewer of TV1 in the '90s knows — was actually a pretty serviceable series, and an excellent place for Nimoy to make his first attempt to step out of Spock's shadow as The Great Paris, a brilliant magician-turned-secret agent whose greatest functional advantage over his Vulcan predecessor was that he was actually allowed to smile more than once every three years.

Paris didn't get much of a backstory — he entered the show mid-piece and only appeared in its fourth and fifth seasons — but what time he did get, Nimoy clearly had a ball with. Paris was, after all, the complete antithesis of Spock. A frequently sarcastic master of disguise, role play, and occasionally racist impersonations, Paris was a particularly invaluable member of the Impossible Missions Force (yes, that is what the organisation is really called) — especially the time he had to go undercover as a magician. 

galvatron, the transformers: the movie (1986)

Despite his foray into organised espionage, Nimoy couldn't escape the grips of sci-fi for long, going behind a microphone for 1986's The Transformers: The Movie. Nimoy was there to bring life to the intimidating Galvatron, a reincarnation, if you will, of Megatron (Frank Welker), the leader of the evil Decepticons, who had been damaged in battle and consequently cast out by his ruthlessly ambitious lieutenant, Starscream, because above all else, Starscream is a huge dick.

Naturally, upon being found and upgraded by the sentient Unicron (long story short: evil robot god, sort of), the first thing Galvatron does is track Starscream down and disintegrate him, because Galvatron does not operate even remotely in the vicinity of fucking around.

"All hail Galvatron" is right, man. The character outlasted his debut in the movie, with Welker taking over the reins for regular animated series duties after the fact, but this was hardly Nimoy's only brush with off-screen acting; in fact, he had something of an underappreciated talent for animated voice work...

king kashekim nedakh, atlantis: the lost empire (2001)

This (in my opinion) underrated Disney flick was, along with an episode of forgettable Ted Danson sitcom vehicle Becker, Nimoy's last on-screen work for eight years, and it was a fittingly sage-like role for a man who, by now, had long come to terms with the indelible connection he shared with his venerated Star Trek character, who in canon had long progressed from a ship's first officer to an Ambassador of the Federation. Nimoy himself was freshly septuagenarian when he lent his voice to the aged king of Atlantis, giving his performance a weight and authenticity in a role that often goes unnoticed, mostly because nobody ever watched this movie.

They should, though. Michael J Fox was in it, too, which is pretty much worth the price of admission for anything. 

dr william bell, fringe (2009-2012)

When Nimoy returned to on-screen work, ostensibly to take up the mantle of Spock Prime once more for JJ Abrams' Star Trek reboot, he was, at the same time, acting the shit out of Fringe, also a JJ Abrams property, and one of the best, least-noticed science-fiction series of the late 2000s.

Nimoy played a character called Dr William Bell, a former friend and lab partner of central character Walter Bishop (the simply wonderful John Noble, who you might remember as Denethor, the seedy steward of Gondor and father of Boromir/Faramir, in The Lord Of The Rings films) and founder of giant super-science company Massive Dynamic. Without delving too far into detail, and thus risking spoiling the series for you if you haven't seen it, let's just say that parallel dimensions play a large part in Fringe's overall arc, and given that Nimoy practically helped pioneer that kind of shit with goatee Spock in the Mirror, Mirror universe in Trek, suffice to say, he smashed it out of the park, nabbing a Saturn Award for Best Guest Starring Role in Television for his efforts.

Like Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Fringe is worth your time if you haven't gone through it, and not just for Nimoy — as I said, Noble is fantastic, and a post-Dawson's Creek Joshua Jackson does well against Aussie Anna Torv's main protagonist to complete the core line-up, plus it — like the also-often-forgotten Eureka — has some of the more original and consistently better-executed ideas in the sci-fi TV realm of the past decade or so.

himself, the simpsons (1993, 1997)

For the final entry on this list, we're going to jump back about 20 or so years, because Leonard Nimoy's animated appearances on The Simpsons in classic episodes Marge Vs The Monorail (1993) and The Springfield Files (1997) are, quite simply, legend. If you're the kind of nerd that ever repeatedly sat through the first 10 seasons of The Simpsons on DVD with the directors' commentary on, then you'll know that even among the rank and file of the show's creatives, Nimoy rates as one of the most beloved guest stars to ever enter their recording studio.

In his first appearance, he is a guest of Springfield, visiting to herald the opening of its hotly touted but ultimately shamtastic Monorail, and one of its passengers on its ill-fated maiden run around the tracks. When Krusty, trapped on the speeding train, makes a desperate attempt to jump out of the car, Nimoy grabs him and exclaims, "No! The world needs laughter."

It's a simple line, but Nimoy's delivery of it is beautiful. It is so deliciously deadpan yet earnestly concerned for the welfare of this apparently suicidal clown as to border on the absurd. But, then, all of Nimoy's lines come out this way. It's a wonderful, self-deprecating, very funny portrayal — even that "cosmic ballet" bit before Krusty's failed leap is a tremendous piece of comedy. As is pretty much everything in this video:

The way Nimoy spits out, "...Do you even know who I am?" when Quimby mistakenly throws a Star Wars reference his way is, honest to God, one of my favourite-ever deliveries on The Simpsons, second only, probably, to the inimitable Sideshow Raheem's single line (angry, angry young man that he is), and his pained, insincere, "Heh, heh - I'd say this vessel could do at least Warp 5!" is brilliantly evocative of the sort of tone that every convention-goer has heard at least once in their life from a jaded celebrity on a panel.

His second appearance, as the narrator in The Simpsons' homage to The X-Files, is a similarly hilarious affair, from his opening pseudo-philosophical spiel to his panicked yet dignified early exit ("Let me just get, uh, something out of my car").

Rest in peace, Leonard Nimoy, and go boldly onward. Your work is done here.