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Leonard Nimoy to Play Spock in Next Star Trek Movie 289

mcgrew writes "The AP is reporting that Leonard Nimoy will 'don his famous pointy ears again' in the next Star Trek movie, due out Christmas of next year. From the article: 'He greeted the crowd with a Vulcan salute. Nimoy was joined by the newly named young Spock, "Heroes" star Zachary Quinto [Sylar], who bears an uncanny resemblance to Nimoy. Both Spocks were introduced by the film's director and co-producer, J.J. Abrams.'"
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Leonard Nimoy to Play Spock in Next Star Trek Movie

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  • Illogical (Score:5, Funny)

    by nokilli ( 759129 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @01:48PM (#20013597)
    Sensors indicate the phenomena is a form of information reference, however, scanners are unable to ascertain just what that information may be.

    Spock, have you tried using Google News to find a link to the story that doesn't require registration? :::raises eyebrow not to convey fascination, but annoyance:::

    Doh! The message is coming on the viewscreen [guardian.co.uk] now Captain.

    --
    Censored by [blogspot.com] Technorati [blogspot.com] and now, Blogger too! [blogspot.com]
    • by Hatta ( 162192 )

      Spock, have you tried using Google News to find a link to the story that doesn't require registration? :::raises eyebrow not to convey fascination, but annoyance:::


      You are obviously projecting your primitive human emotions onto Spock. Vulcans do not experience "annoyance".
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Wolfrider ( 856 )
        --Actually they do _experience_ annoyance -- and other emotions -- but they have to master their passions. (To paraphrase Ambassador Sarek.)
         
        // Why yes, I am a Trek fa--NO CARRIER
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27, 2007 @01:49PM (#20013609)

    He'll be sitting in a rocking chair on his porch, playing his Vulcan lyre and stopping only to yell at kids for walking on his lawn.

  • by LWATCDR ( 28044 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @01:50PM (#20013629) Homepage Journal
    In my heart, I hope this movie doesn't suck...
    • by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27, 2007 @01:56PM (#20013713)
      Ain't gonna happen. It's Star-trek college days.

      It's gonna be animal house meet's star trek and it's gonna end with an interglactic kegger.

      Basically lots of green bare breasts, Spock will discover his date is really only 14, and Kirk will be screaming for a road trip while they talk scotty into letting them use his brothers shuttlecraft.

      It will all come together at the end when the group crashes the awards ceremony in the "death shuttle" with Kirk dressed as a pirate, sulu in buttless chaps hitting on all the men, and the ceremony ending in disaster.

    • In my heart, I hope this movie doesn't suck...

      Highly illogical. Star Trek has been headed by Rick Berman since the latter years of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In that time, Berman did everything possible to destroy the show. Logic dictates that a producer will actual talent could not perform worse than Berman.

      Of further note, well-known scifi producer J. Michael Straczynski pitched a similar "reboot [typepad.com]" of the Star Trek mythos, suggesting that a good portion of talented scifi producers are of the same line of thought: Berman has done irreparable damage to the franchise already.

      Bones: "I don't see any pointy ears on your head boy, but you sound like a Vulcan!"
      • by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @02:13PM (#20014025) Journal

        Highly illogical. Star Trek has been headed by Rick Berman since the latter years of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In that time, Berman did everything possible to destroy the show. Logic dictates that a producer will actual talent could not perform worse than Berman.
        Let's be fair here. Berman did a lot to get rid of the corny Roddenberryisms of ST:NG. The problem became evident when it was clear that he had nothing beyond what he had done for ST:NG, so just kept going down the same road, endlessly repeating the plot lines with ever-decreasing effectiveness. It was tolerable during the ST:DS9, mainly because the writing was reasonably good and the characters sufficiently interesting to hold our attention. He probably should have walked away, or been pushed out at that point, because Voyager was an absolute load of crap and Enterprise was just godawful.

        I still think it's too soon after the Enterprise debacle to be doing anything. I think a good decade ought to pass before anyone lights the fires again. Let some new talent in the door. But this idea in particular is just stupid. I know the underlying notion is to try to get old and new audiences to show up because it will have Kirk and Spock, but have it in their younger years, so as to be hip to the whole new scene, man...
        • The problem became evident when it was clear that he had nothing beyond what he had done for ST:NG, so just kept going down the same road, endlessly repeating the plot lines with ever-decreasing effectiveness. It was tolerable during the ST:DS9, mainly because the writing was reasonably good and the characters sufficiently interesting to hold our attention.

          Both the late-TNG and DS9 have heavy influence from Ronald D. Moore (who now does Battlestar Galactica). Berman and Moore had a falling out during the first season of Voyager. The fact that Star Trek went steeply downhill just then can't be a coincidence.

          Personally, I think Moore's gritty style makes for good stories, but ones that aren't necessarily appropriate for the utopian vision of Star Trek. This is particularly evident in DS9's Dominion War arc, with episodes like The Siege of AR-558. OTOH, the same style works really well for BSG.

          • by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @02:50PM (#20014535) Journal
            The utopian notions of Star Trek were dumped after ST:NG. There may have been a bit of lip-service paid to it, but by the time of Star Trek: Insurrection, the Federation as the goody-goody government had been ripped out of the plot line. In fact, I view that entire film as something of a requiem to the last vestiges of Gene Roddenberry's vision.

            Still, that might very well have been something that a new batch of writers could have worked with. The sketchy idea of Riker commanding a starship that has mutined against Star Fleet as the Federation plunges into some sort of vague, self-serving dictatorship or even civil war might have been very interesting. You could have kept the Roddenberry-esque ideals alive, kept a good chunk of the longest-running and arguably most popular Star Trek cast (I'm a huge TOS fan, but still, the fact is that more people probably identify with the NG cast now), had plenty of opportunities for battles, espionage, idealism and even exploration. I know we would have had to do without Spiner's Data, but I really do think the character had totally run out of steam anyways.

            Hell, barring that, I think there was a damn good argument for going with a movie with Captain Sulu. His all-too-brief glimpses in the Undiscovered Country make me think that at least a good action movie could have been found in there.

            So many missed opportunities while Berman was permitted to rotate tired time travel and Borg storylines until even many diehard fans just said "fuck it" and turned to more interest fare. The movies became repetitive and dull (just look at the last couple of movies to see how even the actors had clearly lost any enthusiasm, it was clearly "we're doing it for the money" situation). I think everyone knew the franchise was going down the tubes, and wanted to milk it for whatever was left.

            I dunno, maybe the movie will be really great, and won't be some sort of Animal House in Space like so many of us think it's going to be. It's difficult to judge something that isn't even in any kind of meaningful production yet. Still, there's many reasons to figure it will be a disaster, and damn few reasons to think it will revitalize what was once the most successful franchise out there.
            • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

              by hardburn ( 141468 )

              The writers still gave some support to the Federation Utopia in Enterprise, with Cogenitor [wikipedia.org]. They meet an alien species, and instead of charging weapons, they become friends and work together in exploring a nearby star. The episode would have worked without any conflict at all.

              Unfortunately, Trip had to do something stupid (why is the dumbest man on the ship also the chief engineer?) and cause a bunch of problems. Throw those bits out and you'll have a wonderful episode that brings back a sense of wonder t

              • I think Enterprise was a failed attempt to get Roddenberry's vision back up and running. That's the whole point behind the prequel series. Rather than have another series or movie that showed the Federation falling ever more short of Roddenberry's basic ideas, they thought they could get some mileage out of showing how that vision came into play.

                It probably would have worked, too, if they hadn't started sprinkling crap like the Borg, time travel and dumb-looking-like-last-week's-alien aliens into the mix.
          • by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @03:46PM (#20015319) Journal

            Personally, I think Moore's gritty style makes for good stories, but ones that aren't necessarily appropriate for the utopian vision of Star Trek. This is particularly evident in DS9's Dominion War arc, with episodes like The Siege of AR-558. OTOH, the same style works really well for BSG.
            I honestly thought the Dominion War arc made the Federation seem much more real. It was such a vague and idealized entity in TOS and NG that I can well appreciate the view that those series could have been propaganda meant to show the Federation as an enlightened state, while DS9 was how the Federation really was (in short, a reasonably well-intentioned but hardly angelic government that didn't just have phasers to attack giant space amoeabas).

            I know Roddenberry really hated the direction that Star Trek took once he had lost all meaningful control, but if you look at what he did have involvement in; ST:TOS in particular, you see that he had no problem displaying wars and violence, he simply made the Klingons, Romulans and other baddies the proxies, and always showed the Federation as *reacting* to them, or at least pre-emptively trying to get in their way.

            Roddenberry's ideas were noble, but hardly realistic. I think any government with a technologically advanced and well equipped military will always take part in adventurism. They were sending out diplomats on the Five Year Mission, they were sending out a heavily-armed interstellar vessel crewed and commanded by the military. This seems more like the "peaceful" exploration of guys like Admiral Perry.
      • by LWATCDR ( 28044 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @02:27PM (#20014209) Homepage Journal
        I hate to say it but I think Star Trek is a case of "Been done to death".
        I really liked DS9 because it was frankly so different from STNG. There are so many ways that they could have gone with new Star Trek shows that would have been interesting. What was it like to be a normal person at that time? What was happening on Earth? What would it be like to be a settler on a distant planet? Frankly in the original Star Trek Earth was portrayed as almost a Marxist eden where everybody could just sit around being fat dumb and happy while a few brave souls went out and explored the universe. I loved it as a kid but frankly as an adult I see how it could be very boring to live in a world like that.
        Oh well I think it is time for a new Space show. Why not one based on the works of Larry Niven?

        • Oh well I think it is time for a new Space show. Why not one based on the works of Larry Niven?
          A Ringworld movie would be verrrrrry kewl, but anything from the Known Space series would be pretty neat. I think Peerson's Puppeteers would be a kick-ass alien race.
      • Berman wasn't perfect but if Roddenberry had continued at the helm, STNG would have died in 2 or 3 seasons. It was mostly crap until "Yesterday's Enterprise".
        • Roddenberry wasn't stupid. He knew that the first season wasn't working. That's why they shook up the second season before finally falling into place with the third season. If you recall, the Borg were introduced in the second season. They were actually part of an overall story-arc (S1:The Neutral Zone & S2:Q-Who?) that was supposed to be completed as the season finale. The only problem was that production ran out of money, so we got the cliposode "Shades of Grey" instead.

          All in all, it was probably a good thing that the Borg assault was delayed. While "Best of Both Worlds" caused a few minor continuity problems with "The Neutral Zone" season 1 finale, it greatly benefited from Michael Piller's temporary departure at the end of Season 3. Knowing that BoBW would be the last episode he would ever pen, Piller created an impossible situation for other writers to get out of. It was partially brought about by his frustration with Star Trek production at the time, but the effect was pronounced. BoBW is still remembered as one of the best cliffhangers of all time.

          Of course, the story doesn't end there. During the summer months, Roddenberry managed to patch things up with Piller and brought him back on board. As a result, Piller was forced to find a solution to his own impossible plot! Whoops. :-P

          Another thing to keep in mind was that The Next Generation was originally launched on a tight schedule, reusing a lot of the work that had gone into the previous Star Trek: Phase II plans. (Phase II was the unproduced Star Trek show that became the Motion Picture.) As a result, all the characters had personalities that were not their own. Troi sat in for Illia, Riker sat in for Decker, Data sat in for Xon (they killed him in the first few minutes of the movie due to Nimoy signing back on), Crusher sat in for Doctor Chapel and McCoy, and Picard was Captain Pike revived. Worf was thrown in to show the resolution of the Klingon issues, Tasha Yar was a strong female character (originally auditioned for by Sirtis while Crosby auditioned for Troi!), and Wesley was intended to be a reflection of Gene as a child.

          It took a bit of time and effort for all the characters to finally fall into place. But such is the way of things when productions are pushed into being on a tight schedule. Gene departed this world during the fifth season of TNG. Which explains why TNG started to run out of momentum in Season 6.
    • by edwardpickman ( 965122 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @02:03PM (#20013843)
      That's been Shatner's motto for decades.
    • Of course it will suck. It's "Teenage Starfleet Cadets". Maybe they won't have exploding toilet seats, but I'm not even that hopeful.

      I know they're hoping this can resurrect the franchise, but it was a moronic idea when it was first floated in the early 90s, and it's still a moronic idea.
    • In my heart, I hope this movie doesn't suck...

      Using a super advanced statistical technique I like to call "mod 2", I'm afraid it's a statistical certainty that Star Trek XI is going to suck. Sorry, try again with XII.
      • Sure, "odd-numbered-Star-Treks-suck" is a good rule of thumb, but that doesn't mean they uniformly suck. For example, The Search for Spock (3), in my opinion the best of the odd-numbered films, was better than Nemesis (10) even though Nemesis was even-numbered.

        • by paitre ( 32242 )
          And yet, even the worst of the best is better than almost all of the worst.

          The rule still stands, despite the on oddity.
    • In my heart, I hope this movie doesn't suck...

            It certainly won't have any "teeth" to it. Of course it will suck. Or eat shoup.
    • In my heart, I too hope it will not suck. The reason being, I will end up watching it whether it sucks or not. I am still in therapy for having watched "Nemesis." This will be an odd numbered movie so it should suck in theory. However, "Nemesis" was the worst Star Trek movie I have ever seen so things can only go up from here.

      • I often hear how many consider the tenth movie, Nemesis, the worst of the Star Trek films. I've determined that this is because the ninth movie, Insurrection, was in fact so horrible and vapid that it was excised from the collective consciousness.
      • I don't know. Star Trek the Motion Picture was very long and very boring. Nemesis at least had some plot. The funny thing about STTMP is that they "fixed" it later by adding more scenes, thus making it even longer and even more boring.
    • So if this movie includes "young Spock" does this mean it takes place or at least flashes back to Captain Pike's time, or even the first Enterprise (though Spock didn't serve on that ship in any story I read). The founding of the Federation would make a good story, lots of characters and political views of the world, but few ships and an young federation means not much space battle, so they wouldn't be able to waste too much on special effects and can actually write a good story for once.

      Personally, I'm lo
    • Vulcan Nerve Pinch, say hello to Vulcan Craniotomy and Vulcan Encephaloextraction
  • by lantastik ( 877247 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @01:51PM (#20013643)
    I am really looking forward to this flick. J.J. Abrams pretty much has the midas touch when it comes to producing and directing on television. Love it or hate it, Lost and Alias is/was huge successes. Let's see if he can carry that over to this film.
  • by TrippTDF ( 513419 ) <{moc.liamg} {ta} {dnalih}> on Friday July 27, 2007 @01:53PM (#20013671)
    The first was Gary Coleman.

    "Wha'chu livin' long and prospern' about, kirk?"
  • by EveryNickIsTaken ( 1054794 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @01:59PM (#20013759)
    I'm certainly hoping he does not get replaced by Welshie.
  • by shrubya ( 570356 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @02:04PM (#20013871) Homepage Journal
    Quinto will come to the inescapably logical conclusion that the best way to enact his part with a truly Nimoy-esque Spock character is to go psycho hack saw on Nimoy and EAT HIS BRAIN.

    <homer> Mmm, brains... </homer>
  • by Cpt_Kirks ( 37296 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @02:05PM (#20013887)
    If young Kirk/Spock and old Kirk/Spock are in it, this movie will either be about flashbacks or time travel.

    AND, we all know which is more likely...

  • The fact that JJ Abrams is involved is good. I have enjoyed the 'Lost' tv show.

    But, the fact that this ST is going to be prequel is bad.

    Other than 'The Godfather', I can't think of one prequel that was good. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a movie version of Animal House set in the future.

    • I think the real problem with prequels is the tendency to make established characters important. The problem with this is that the first time we saw the characters doing exciting things it was a transition for them, from being run-of-the-mill individuals to being exciting.

      Even JMS fell into this trap with In the Beginning. He needed Sheridan to destroy the Black Star, but he didn't need him to meet Delen. He especially didn't need him to go on a mission with Dr Franklin, because when they met later on

      • A prequel that exists to tell a story from a character's past is hard to do because you have to make sure you don't contradict established continuity. A prequel that exists to tell of an important event will usually work better with new characters, but it's always tempting to bring in the names all the fans know and love.
        Hence the stupidity of C3PO, R2D2 and Chewbacca in the Star Wars prequels.
        • Hence the stupidity of C3PO, R2D2 and Chewbacca in the Star Wars prequels.

          C3PO I totally agree with. In Star Wars, he was just another droid, with no real connection to the resistance other than being owned by one of its members. By the end of Return of the Jedi, he was a full-fledged active participant, and friend of the other major characters. It takes something away from the character to make him go through the same transition in the past and then wipe his memory.

          Chewbacca is similar. There was nothing in the original to indicate he was ex-military, and he showed no men

          • Let's be honest. The only reason they put them in the prequels is because they had warehouses full of their action figures. :-)

            I know there are some explanations, but in reality the characters played such insignificant parts in the prequels that they didn't really have to be there at all. Lucas has a real problem with pointless and outright annoying and pointless characters. The droids played an important part in Episodes IV to VI, but it was overstrung cameos for the prequels.

            Of course, these thre
          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by bckrispi ( 725257 )

            Chewbacca is similar. There was nothing in the original to indicate he was ex-military, and he showed no mention of recognising the name 'Yoda.' His appearance didn't do much damage, but it was pointless.

            Ehh? Chewbacca never heard the name 'Yoda' in the OT.

            C3PO I totally agree with. In Star Wars, he was just another droid, with no real connection to the resistance other than being owned by one of its members. By the end of Return of the Jedi, he was a full-fledged active participant, and friend of the oth

  • it is a time travel story! NOOOOooooooo.....
    Or spock is telling the story from the academy days.
  • by amigabill ( 146897 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @02:22PM (#20014145)
    An uncanny resemblance between Nimoy and the Sylar guy? I don't see it.
    • I didn't see it either. Although there's another guy on Heroes I thought looked like a Romulan. And then there was another one who looked an awful lot like Sulu. Then I realized ... he WAS Sulu. And his license plate said NCC-1701. Gotta love a show made by Trekkies.
    • by Duncan3 ( 10537 )
      They look NOTHING alike, at all. Maybe with enough special effects?

      .
    • by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @03:16PM (#20014881) Homepage Journal
      You don't want to cast too much or physical resemblance. You want to cast for the ability to carry the role off. The job of the director is to tell the story. I he tells the story well, you will believe.

      Even if the director isn't up to snuff, a good actor can still get inside your head and switch off the disbelief circuits.

      Ewan McGregor [wikipedia.org] didn't a think like a young Alec Guinness [wikipedia.org], but the young Scotsman did a rather remarkable job of vocally channeling his ghost. Not exactly an impression mind you, but somehow you could hear in his performance an echo of Sir Alec saying things like "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

      We've reached a point of diminishing returns in CGI when it comes to adding credibility. It's up to direction and performances now to put a movie over the top. My favorite of the Harry Potter movies is Cuaron's Azkhaban. The big "magic" effect at the end was just a bright light. There was literally nothing they could have put up on the screen that by itself would convince you that Harry was doing awesome magic. But by treating magic with restraint through the movie, the director sold the finale.

      If this Quinto guy plays Spock in a way that is recognizably Spock, he'll be Spock.

      I wonder though.

      At the risk of sounding a bit of a lunatic, something about Nimoy's portrayal of Spock seems Jewish to me. The reticent Vulcan savant trying, not so much to fit in but coexist with the human majority reminded me of the Jewish scholar or physician in gentile society. So I looked up the other actor who played an Vulcan in an utterly credible Spock mold. Mark Lenard was also the son of immigrant Russian Jews. I can even convince myself, if I try, that there is a microscopic echo of Yiddish in Nimoy and Lenard's "Vulcan" accent.

      I'm not saying of course a gentile actor can't do it. Kirstie Alley was a credible Vulcan. I thought Tim Rus' Tuvok was one of the best parts of the spotty Voyager series. But it is a curious coincidence that the two actors identified with the most famous Vulcan characters are children of Russian Jews.
  • by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @02:28PM (#20014217) Homepage Journal
    The last time we heard from him, he was going underground on Romulus [memory-alpha.org]. No update since then. Like a lot of minor TNG, characters the writers just forgot about him.
  • Does happy dance!
  • This only adds to the tons and tons of proof that Spock rocks!
  • by Notquitecajun ( 1073646 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @02:43PM (#20014411)
    There's a high probability that the movie will start somewhere in the middle, like most of the episodes of ALIAS and MI:III. A "cliffhanger" beginning...or something like that. Personally, I'm a little interested to see the monster film that Abrams is cooking up (trailer was just before Transformers...and the movie doesn't have a real name yet.)
    • by ajs ( 35943 )

      There's a high probability that the movie will start somewhere in the middle, like most of the episodes of ALIAS

      I think you can generalize that and be a bit more likely to be correct: Abrams likes to play with continuity, and tells stories out of order. Given that we already know of one character that's show at two very different ages, we can assume that he will be telling this one significantly out of order.

      I would not expect this sort of thing:

      EXTERIOR: Enterprise. We SEE the ship leaving a space station. We HEAR the VOICE OVER:

      Kirk: Captain's Log. Stardate...

      There is a tremendous EXPLOSION. The ship is blown apart. TEXT appears at the bottom of the screen as we FADE TO BLACK:

      "Six months earlier..."

      Instead, I would expect slightly subtler re-ordering of events, possibly narrated by older Spock to different people or something of the sort.

  • by niceone ( 992278 ) * on Friday July 27, 2007 @02:43PM (#20014427) Journal
    That's a shame, because he's been wanting to play Kirk for quite a while now.
  • by sampson7 ( 536545 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @04:13PM (#20015675)
    I actually think this could be quite good. All the original Trek characters had really interesting back-stories that have not been thoroughly explored. There's Mr. Spock and Captain Pike. Kirk as the youngest captain ever in Starfleet. Scotty's being drummed out of the command corps.

    In fact, one of my favorite Star Trek books growing up was one entitled Kobayashi Maru, where each of the senior staff takes turns recalling their experiences in Star Fleet academy. It primarily focuses on each of their experiences with the Kobayashi Maru simulation at the academy, but also delves into some personal stories about these folks as young officers about to become Starfleet officers. Sulu's story was extremely moving (at least from my teenage recollections) and well-written. Scotty's was hilarious, and Chekov's was quite good too.

    Anyway, if you're looking for a blast-from-the ... er, future, check it out:

    http://www.amazon.com/Kobayashi-Maru-Star-Trek-Boo k/dp/0671658174/ref=sr_1_2/103-9039922-7888637?ie= UTF8&s=books&qid=1185566723&sr=8-2 [amazon.com]

    Then again, I also remember Wesley's time at the academy. Ug, those were horrible TNG episodes! Yes, I know, I have the never-ending human capacity for self-delusion. What is it they say about second marriages? The triumph of hope over experience?
  • by Cervantes ( 612861 ) on Friday July 27, 2007 @05:16PM (#20016599) Journal
    I really hope Berman isn't involved in this movie. I've been a Trekk(ie)/(er) all my life, but, come on, Time Traveling Nazi Aliens? That's when I threw up my hands and gave up hope.

    If Berman is involved, I'm sure his next brilliant move will be having that old Asian guy from Heros show up.

    On another note... Nimoy is 76? Wow, the heros of the old days get old quick. Of course, this pretty much sets up the movie as "Old guys sitting around the old captains home, thinking about the old days... queue movie-length flashback ... oh no, young doppleganger is in trouble! Will he survive?? Oh, right, we just saw his 80-year-old self. *sigh* .... start Trek drinking game..."

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