In the mid-60s, when Gene Roddenberry was trying to get Star Trek on the air, it may have been the early stages of the freaky-deeky psychedelic, free-love era, but much of America was still living under the super-conservative 1950s mindset. So it’s not too much of a surprise to know that NBC executives at first wanted to cut the Spock character from the show because he looked too Satanic, with his pointed ears and eyebrows. It was producer Oscar Katz who helped convince those execs to let the Vulcan’s freak flag fly, “evil” angular features and all, despite him saying those execs were afraid “the ‘guy with the ears’ would scare the sh*t out of every kid in America.” Still, in early publicity photos for the series, Spock just looked like another guy in a Federation shirt, albeit one with oddly high-cropped bangs – the points of his eyebrows and ears were airbrushed out.
It may be difficult to imagine anyone but Leonard Nimoy as the original Spock, but the original choice was Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy himself, DeForest Kelley. It certainly would’ve been a lesser world without McCoy’s hilarious jabs at Spock coming out of the mouth of Kelley, and without Spock jabbing right back with his fellow blue-shirt. Take this classic: Spock: “Random chance seems to have operated in our favor.” Bones: “In plain, non-Vulcan English, we’ve been lucky.” Spock: “I believe I have said that, Doctor.”
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was insistent that Spock would have pointy ears. He was an alien, after all, so he shouldn't look too human. So a number of concepts were created before the iconic, slightly curved ears were settled upon. Nimoy wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of wearing them – after all, they took about 45 minutes to apply in the early days. But a producer told him, “‘If, after episode 10 or 12, you’re still unhappy, we’ll have Bones do an ear-job operation.”
The now-ubiquitous Vulcan salute first appeared in the first episode of the second season of the original Star Trek series, way back in 1967 – that means it turns 50 years old next year. Made by spreading your fingers into a V, with the ring and pinky fingers together on one side and the middle and index on the other, it’s intended to be both a greeting and a gesture of farewell, sometimes accompanied by the words, "Live long and prosper." And it was created not by a writer, director, or anyone else behind the scenes. It was created by Nimoy himself, based on a gesture he learned as a child made by a Jewish Kohanim (priest) as part of a blessing. It means Almighty God. While the Vulcan salute uses just one hand, the original blessing uses both hands performing the same gesture and represents the Hebrew letter Shin. The salute, of course, became massively popular and was even done by astronauts to honor Nimoy upon his death in 2015, and President Obama gave Nimoy the salute when the two met.
After the first feature film, 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Leonard Nimoy was done with all the hand gestures, pointy ears, neck pinches and logic. He didn’t want to play Spock anymore. If he hadn’t, Star Trek history would be vastly different. And we wouldn’t have had one of its greatest scenes: the Spock death scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). But part of the reason that scene at the end of the movie is so great is because that’s how Nimoy was convinced to come back: he was promised a super dramatic death scene. The first film was expensive to make and didn't quite make as much as anticipated, plus critics were lukewarm on it, so Khan was originally going to be the final Star Trek movie and Nimoy felt the heroic death scene, sacrificing himself for his friends and crew, would be the perfect way to go out. And it sure was. It’s a touching scene of friendship and heroism amidst all the space adventure, ranked the best scene in Star Trek history by IGN.