It's The Most Logical Meal Of The Day

Check out this vintage advertisement! Spock seems uncharacteristically surprised to find out his agent's roped him into this publicity stunt featuring "Breakfast With Eight Lucky Ladies."

According to the ad, this festive occasion took place at the Three Crowns Restaurant in the Hilton Hotel, which is presumably in New York City. Here's what the Three Crowns looked like— we;;, decades ago, at least. Tres chic! Or is it? It just looks like a crowded, noisy cafeteria to me. 

I wonder if Nimoy wore his Spock makeup to this shindig? After all, that's what the Eight Lucky Ladies fell in love with, right? They'd likely have been disappointed if plain old round-eared, horizontal-eyebrowed Leonard Nimoy strolled in.

I can only imagine how awkward this breakfast must have been. Poor Nimoy had to sit there and try to think of something to talk about with eight strangers for an entire breakfast. Sounds like he— and the bevy of ladies— had to ride in a parade float as well.

The ad says the big day was on February 1, 1969. That was the final year of the series! The last episode aired just a few months later, on June 3. I wonder if the cast had gotten the cancelation notice yet? If so, that would have made this get-together DOUBLY awkward!

In Seach Of... Spock?

After playing Spock for three seasons on Star Trek, Leonard Nimoy hosted the series In Search Of in 1977.

After playing Spock in three recent Star Trek movies, Zachary Quinto is hosting a reboot of In Search Of in 2018.

I see what you did there, History Channel.

Scraping The Bottom Of The Star Trek Barrel

Each year the San Diego Comic Con features a series of overpriced, limited edition "exclusive" action figures and toys for sale.

This year Mattel's getting in on the act, offering an exclusive Hot Wheels 1964 Buick Riviera. Oddly enough, the toy car comes with a tiny Mr. Spock figure, casually leaning against the hood. It sells for a whopping $20, which is quite a markup from Hot Wheel's usual $1.50.

Apparently this is from that little-seen Star Trek episode in which the Enterprise is captured by a race of alien hot rod enthusiasts, and Spock saves the day by showing off his awesome cherry ride, which shames them into releasing the ship.

Actually the exclusive is based on this publicity photo of actor Leonard Nimoy in full Spock regalia, leaning against the car he purchased during the first season with his Star Trek paycheck.

OK, so it's kind of an amusing photo (in that "Spock faintly smiles while slightly raising one eyebrow" way), but does it really deserve to have a toy based on it? It definitely feels like they're reaching here. 

What's next, an action figure of James Doohan polishing the five hundred piece Craftsman toolset he bought during Season 2?

As unnecessary as the Spock figure is, it's still not as silly as the Ice Cream Guy action figure from the Star Wars line.

Happy 7th… Annual TalkLike… William Shatner… DAY!

Happy Seventh Annual Talk Like William Shatner Day! The day citizens all over the Federation speak… haltingly while placing… pauses and emPHAsis… in un…usual places! 

Coincidentally today (March 22nd) is also William Shatner's birthday. He's 85 years young.

Honestly I'm not quite sure how the whole "excessive pausing" thing got started. If you go back and watch the original Star Trek series, he rarely if ever injects any pauses into his dialogue. 

I think what's happening is that the public hears comedians like Kevin Pollak do impressions of Shatner that are filled with exaggerated, over the top pauses. After a while the impression becomes the real thing in the public's mind. A copy of a copy, if you will.

Before I go, let me repost one of my all time favorite Shatner WTF images for your viewing enjoyment.

Spock Model Kit Illustration

It's been a while since I've posted any actual art here on my alleged art blog, so here goes— a recreation of the box art for the Mr. Spock model kit, in my own style. I know, I've been drawing Spock a lot lately. I guess it's due to Leonard Nimoy's death earlier this year.

The Spock model kit was originally released internationally by Aurora in 1972, and was sold in the U.S. by AMT in 1973. It's been rereleased many, many times since over the years. I remember buying all the other Star Trek kits as a kid— the Enterprise, the Shuttlecraft, the Klingon Battle Cruiser, and the Romulan Bird Of Prey— but for some reason I never got the Spock kit. I guess I was more interested in the ships than the characters.

Even though I didn't own the kit, I was always fascinated by the box art, and thought I'd try to recreate it here.

As for the illustration, it took forever! Way longer than I expected. I was trying to be more painterly than I usually am, to match the style of the box art. I bet I spent a lot longer on it that the artist who originally painted it— they probably had to knock it out in a day or two!

The background in particular was problematic and took a long time to draw, as you might expect. It's pretty complicated, and every time I thought I was done I'd spot something I forgot to add. I finally had to push myself away from the computer and say no more, or I'd still be picking away at it come Xmas.

This illustration was drawn in Photoshop of course, on a ton of layers— 54 of them to be exact. That's a lot, but still not a personal record.

You may notice that Spock's not holding the usual phaser and communicator that we all know and love. I agonized over that for a while. Should I draw him holding the actual props from the show, or the inaccurate versions that are seen on the box? In the end I decided that since I was trying to recreate the box art, I might as well stick with what's on it.

I had to do some jostling and repositioning of the various elements to get it to all fit together, since my Spock and three headed snake have very different proportions than the originals.

I always wondered about Spock so aggressively shooting the snake in this artwork. In the TV series he was always the voice of logic and reason; a man of science who was fascinated by alien life. Here he's shootin' first and not even bothering with the questions later. Maybe he just doesn't like snakes.

Here's the original version of the box art for comparison. That mysterious elbow at the lower left is an image of the actual model kit.

I stuck my recreation on an angled image of the box that I found. Looks real! I should go back and draw the sides of the box and print it up

Here's the digital sketch I did for the box art. The snakes didn't change much from the sketch, but Spock went through some minor alterations, mostly in the length and angles of his limbs.

Stay tuned for a step-by-step post on the box art recreation.

Amok Spock

In honor of the late Leonard Nimoy, it's time for yet another Spock drawing. 

This time I thought it'd be fun to draw him like one of my French girls, er, draw a page from a fictional Little Golden Book starring Spock. And what better episode to use than Amok Time, aka The One Where Spock Goes Upstream To Spawn?

If I had the time, it might be fun to adapt the entire episode as a kid's book. Maybe I should Kickstarter that project. I'm sure CBS won't mind.

Amok Time gave us our first ever look at Spock's home planet Vulcan. It was also the first time we ever saw a female member of his race. Above is Spock's wife T'Pring, played by the lovely Arlene Martel. Note that T'Pring looks stunningly sultry and exotic, what with her elaborate, up-swept Vulcan hairstyle.

Now flash forward a couple of decades. This is Dr. Selar, a Vulcan female who made a guest appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Oy gevalt! The actress' face is pretty, but why in the name of Shatner's Toupee did they give her Spock's Moe-haircut? Were they afraid the arched eyebrows and pointed ears weren't enough to clue us in that she was a Vulcan, so they had to turn her into a She-Spock as well?

Unfortunately after this episode aired, EVERY Vulcan who appeared in any of the modern Trek series all wore this exact same Spock mop-top. Pity.

Spock was drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

The Needs Of The Many...

In honor of the late Leonard Nimoy, here's my vector rendition of Mr. Spock.

The Spock we all know and love could have been a very, very different character. When producer Gene Roddenberry first made his pitch for Star Trek in 1964, he described Spock as "probably half Martian," with "a slightly reddish complexion and semi-pointed ears." He also thought it would be a good idea if rather than eating, Spock would ingest energy through a plate in his stomach (!). 

Fortunately, writer Samuel A. Peeples convinced Roddenberry that these traits would make Spock a little too alien, and suggested he be half-human in order to make him more relatable to audiences. Roddenberry agreed, and toned down Spock's alien-ness a bit. He also changed his home planet to the fictional Vulcan, because he worried that if Star Trek was a success, man might actually make it to Mars during the show's run (!!!).

Roddenberry was looking for an otherworldly name for the character, and eventually came up with the suitably alien-sounding "Spock." He claimed that at the time he hadn't heard of celebrity child expert Dr. Benjamin Spock. If he had, he no doubt would have chosen a different name, and we'd now be talking about Mr. Spork.

When it came to casting, Roddenberry inexplicably wanted DeForest Kelly for the role. Thankfully Kelly turned it down, and went on to play Dr. McCoy. Phew! Roddenberry's second choice was Adam West, but he was busy working on the film Robinson Crusoe On Mars. Phew again! The idea of Batman as Mr. Spock boggles the mind! Martin Landau was also considered for the role. 

Around that time Nimoy made a guest appearance on the Roddenberry-produced series The Lieutenant. The minute Roddenberry saw Nimoy's thin, gaunt features, he knew he'd found his Spock. He approached him for the role, Nimoy agreed, and the rest is TV history.

When NBC saw the first pilot, they were less than pleased with Spock. They worried that his "satanic" appearance would offend viewers in the South. They even went so far as to airbrush out his slanted eyebrows and pointed ears in publicity shots. Once the pilot was picked up, NBC demanded Spock be dropped from the series, which just goes to prove that network executives have never known what the hell they're doing. Luckily for us, Roddenberry persevered and the network eventually allowed Spock to stay.

Spock went on to become the most popular character on the show, receiving up to ten thousand fan letters a week.

Many of Spock's characteristics were invented by Nimoy himself. The split-fingered Vulcan salute for example, was actually a Jewish ceremonial gesture Nimoy witnessed as a child during church, and utilized it for the show. Nimoy came up with the Vulcan neck pinch as well, saying that Spock wouldn't stoop to simply punching a bad guy in the nose, and would find a more efficient and logical way to incapacitate an enemy.

Nimoy was surprised when Spock became a sex symbol, reporting, "I've never had more female attention on a set before. And get this— they all want to touch the ears!" He believed Spock appealed to women because he was "tall, dark, thoughtful, alien and exotic."

Spock has been an inspiration to many scientists and engineers, especially at NASA. Nimoy said that when many scientists met him, they would breathlessly tell him about the projects they were working on as if he were their intellectual peer (and could understand the concepts they were going on about). He said that in these situations he had a standard response: "It certainly looks like you're headed in the right direction."

After Star Trek was canceled, Nimoy tried to distance himself from the character for many years, but eventually made his peace with Spock and embraced him. In a recent interview, Nimoy said, "Given the choice, if I had to be someone else, I would be Spock."

As for the drawing, Spock's "Live long and prosper" salute gave me a lot of trouble. I just couldn't get it to look right, and finally had to (gasp) trace over a photo of him making the gesture.

Most of the characters I draw have only three fingers, which is a tradition in the world of cartoon illustration. You may note that Spock here has four. He had to— the gesture wouldn't have worked with any less.

Please forgive the ugly watermark on the illustration. I swore I would never add one to my art, because I know that 99.99% of my readers would never even think of stealing it. However, it was recently brought to my attention that a particular person out there was not only stealing my art, but selling it as her own (!). Hence the watermark, in an attempt to foil this art thief. This is why we can't have nice things.

I'm toying with the idea of selling this image as a print, if there's any interest.

Mr. Spock is a vector drawing, done all in InDesign.

Never Tell Me The Odds

This week actor Harrison Ford was injured after crash-landing his WWII-era plane onto a Los Angeles golf course.

The seventy two year old Ford suffered multiple gashes to his head, as well as a broken pelvis and ankle. Though extensive, his injuries are not considered life-threatening, and he's expected to make a full recovery.

That's good, because This I Vow: If we lose both Mr. Spock and Han Solo in the same freakin' week, I'm going to track down this "God" person and kick his ass.

This Is Not Logical

Damn, Daamn, DAAAMN!

I stopped posting celebrity obituaries on my blog a few years ago, but I'm making an exception in this case. 

By now you've all heard the news that Leonard Nimoy, TV's Mr. Spock, has died at age 83.

We all knew this day was coming, as Nimoy's health began failing in recent months. Of course that doesn't make the news any easier when if inevitably arrives. This one cuts particularly deep though. I've been watching Leonard Nimoy on TV for pretty much my entire life-- since I was six years old in fact. It seemed like he'd always be around. Losing him is quite a blow, and makes me want to find Adam West and Stan Lee and give them both a big hug.

Over the years I've been within ten feet of William Shatner and the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, minus Patrick Stewart. And I've talked with both Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar) and Robin Curtis (Saavk II). Sadly I never got the chance to meet Leonard Nimoy. Now I wish I had.

Nimoy was much more than an actor. He was a writer, poet, singer (!), photographer and a very successful film director, whose films grossed hundreds of millions of dollars. Sometimes I wonder if he racked up all those other achievements just to prove to people that he was more than just a pair of pointed ears.

When I was younger I thought Spock was the coolest person imaginable, and did my best to emulate him. Hey, there are worse role models for a kid. Some would say I copied his cold, emotionless demeanor a little too well.

His Star Trek co-stars all have nothing but praise for him, citing him as a professional and a gentleman, and as far as I know he was never embroiled in any tabloid scandals, which is more than most in Hollywood can say.

If nothing else, props to him for patiently enduring the hundreds of thousand of fans who over the years ran up to him, gave him the Vulcan salute and said, "Live long and prosper."