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Leonard Nimoy to Play Spock in Next Star Trek Movie

Posted by Zonk on Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:47 PM
from the leonard-nimoy-must-be-rolling-in-his-grave dept.
Media Movies Sci-Fi
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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[+] Entertainment: Simon Pegg to Play Scotty 233 comments
In response to yesterday's casting news about Chris Pine possibly taking the captain's chair for the new Star Trek movie, apparently Simon Pegg will be playing the role of Scotty. Simon Pegg is known for his role as Shaun in Shaun of the Dead and more recently for his leading role in Hot Fuzz. "Pegg joins Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, John Cho as Sulu and Zachary Quinto as Spock in the film which reportedly, and logically, 'chronicles the early days of the Enterprise crew.' Leonard Nimoy will also put in an appearance, while Eric Bana signed up this week as the movie's villain, Nero."
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Leonard Nimoy to Play Spock in Next Star Trek Movie 50 Comments More /

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  • Illogical (Score:5, Funny)

    by nokilli (759129) on Friday July 27 2007, @12:48PM (#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]

  • His one scene. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2007, @12:49PM (#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.

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

    • Re:The need for money outweighs the need for digni (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2007, @12:56PM (#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!"

      • 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.

          • 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.

          • 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.
      • 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?

        • Re:wondering (Score:5, Insightful)

          by AKAImBatman (238306) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (namtabmiaka)> on Friday July 27 2007, @01:13PM (#20014021) Homepage Journal
          Depends. If you think that Darmok and/or Inner Light were great Star Trek episodes, then yes. Berman is to be held responsible (Especially for such atrocities as, "I can remember being in the womb. Really!") If you think that Picard was a wuss and wasn't fit to command, then you're just an elitist Original Series snob. :-P
              • Which is probably why the later seasons had a lot of Data episodes.

                It probably had more to do with having a lazy-writer-saving super-smart super-strong character laying around.

                WRITER #1: Fuck, I am officially out of ideas.
                WRITER #2: Easy. Shit happens, Data figures a way out with his super-brain.
                WRITER #1: Naw, we did that last week, remember?
                WRITER #2: Ok then. Shit happens, and Data saves the day because he's super-strong.
                WRITER #1: Excellent! Let's go get some hookers and blow!
        • 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.
    • That's been Shatner's motto for decades.

  • Bringing out my inner nerd... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lantastik (877247) on Friday July 27 2007, @12:51PM (#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.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by exley (221867)
      Just because something is "successful" doesn't mean it's good.

      • Re:Bringing out my inner nerd... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by shinma (106792) on Friday July 27 2007, @01:04PM (#20013869) Homepage
        And sometimes, just sometimes, something can be successful BECAUSE it's good.

        I wish it wasn't cool to be a curmudgeon.

        • Re:Bringing out my inner nerd... (Score:4, Funny)

          by Myopic (18616) on Friday July 27 2007, @01:48PM (#20014487)
          I wish it wasn't cool to be a curmudgeon.

          Oh yeah? Well I wish it *weren't* cool to misuse the subjunctive mood.

          • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

            by E++99 (880734)

            And sometimes, just sometimes, something can be successful BECAUSE it's good.

            That's true, but it doesn't hold for the instances highlighted (Lost and Alias, although your mileage may vary), so I don't get the relevance of your comment. ...
            Or is the meaning of "curmudgeon" in the 21st century "someone who doesn't share my tastes in pop culture, and must therefore be a sourpuss about said culture in general?"

            What??? Maybe most statements about art are matters of opinion, but Lost is mathematically provable

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by UrinalFresh (580973)
      don't forget Felicity and Mission: Impossible III! Those were brilliant productions as well!
  • The first was Gary Coleman.

    "Wha'chu livin' long and prospern' about, kirk?"

  • What about Scotty? (Score:4, Funny)

    by EveryNickIsTaken (1054794) on Friday July 27 2007, @12:59PM (#20013759)
    I'm certainly hoping he does not get replaced by Welshie.

  • Nimoy had better watch out (Score:5, Funny)

    by shrubya (570356) on Friday July 27 2007, @01:04PM (#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>

  • So, What's It Gonna Be? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Cpt_Kirks (37296) on Friday July 27 2007, @01:05PM (#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...

  • Quinto looks like Nimoy? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by amigabill (146897) on Friday July 27 2007, @01:22PM (#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.

    • Re:Quinto looks like Nimoy? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hey! (33014) on Friday July 27 2007, @02:16PM (#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.

  • Where *is* Spock these days? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fm6 (162816) on Friday July 27 2007, @01:28PM (#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.

  • JJ Abrams plotlines... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Notquitecajun (1073646) on Friday July 27 2007, @01:43PM (#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.)

  • That's a shame (Score:5, Funny)

    by niceone (992278) * on Friday July 27 2007, @01:43PM (#20014427) Journal
    That's a shame, because he's been wanting to play Kirk for quite a while now.

  • Prequel Book: Kobayashi Maru (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sampson7 (536545) on Friday July 27 2007, @03:13PM (#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?

  • Time travel... Berman... d'oh! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Cervantes (612861) on Friday July 27 2007, @04:16PM (#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..."

      • "Oh, right, we just saw his 80-year-old self. *sigh* "

        it's a prequel to a well know franchise, whether or not he dies is a given. Remember.
        True, but there's always the outside hope that he actually does die and is replaced by an alien doppleganger or changling or something, thusly fucking with the entire cannon. :D

        Now there's a movie I'd pay to see...

          • 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

      • Re:Let it Die Already (Score:4, Interesting)

        by jdigriz (676802) on Friday July 27 2007, @02:41PM (#20015265)
        Yeah, but notice the complete lack of other things the Federation had: Genetic Engineering -- Due to the Eugenics Wars, Khan Noonian Singh, ooh, scary Utility Robots -- Not one blinking robot walking around TOS Enterprise, why? Afraid of a Cylon revolt? Androids- Apparently only Dr. Noonian Soong and his progeny could build humanoid robots in the Federation (not counting all the hot androids we saw on alien worlds in TOS) Mind-Machine-Interface-- Spock's Brain and Reginald Barclay were flukes!!! The Borg can do it, why not the Feds? Strong AI-- Dr. Moriarity on the Holodeck was a fluke! They had to have a trial to even determine if Data was considered a person. Real Nanotech- Replicator technology kinda subsumed this one. When Intelligent Nanites took over the Enterprise-D it was, say it with me, A fluke! Not to mention a surprise. Cloning -- Sure, there are clone societies on strange new alien worlds, but in the Federation itself? Fuhggedaboutit! Mind duplication, transferrance and storage-- Yes, alien cultures can do it, Data's grandfather could do it, but the Feds? Nah. Money -- Ferengi have to trade using strips of latinum. Talk about hard currency. Massive Interplanetary Engineering-- Ringworlds, Dyson Spheres, Space Elevators. Admittedly a space elevator is obsolete assuming sufficiently large and powerful transporters, but when the Enterprise-D discovered the Dyson Sphere they were like "This thing has substantially more land area than all the worlds of the Federation put together" and then, because the star inside gave off powerful flares, they abandoned it! This from the culture which had metaphasic shielding which enabled them to hang out in the photosphere of a star. Conclusion: The Federation consisted of Interstellar luddites too afraid of the implications of their technology to do cool extropian things. So poor Chris Pike was stuck in his wheelchair beeping away instead of being transplanted into a cloned or android body, or at least being mentally transported into an awesome VR world and communicating in RL as an avatar.
      • So...young Spock was raised under the stairs, by a mean aunt and uncle, but one day got a message telling him he's been accepted to Star Fleet?

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