time Leonard returned to the set, his agent was on the phone telling him he was being suspended. As he remembered the incident, âI knew it couldnât possibly lead to them telling me not to come to work anymore, because this was a machine, and if you pull a cog out, the machine stops. So in my arrogance, I said to my agent, âAsk them do I have to finish the day, or can I leave now?ââ
The next call came from Roddenberry, who quickly dismissed the suspension and brought everybody into his office. Leonard had great respect for Coonâwe all didâbut protecting Spock was far more important to him. Coon made the requested changes, and Leonard went back to work.
Leonard remained adamant that the mythology we were creating had to be consistent and accurate throughout all our explorations. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, for example, included a scene in which Kirk and Spock were having dinner with the Klingons. In writer and director Nick Meyerâs script, Spock had a line that stated the Federation and the Klingons had been at war for a period of time. He wasnât sure that was accurate and checked with our resident expert Richard Arnold, who confirmed that there had not been a war in that timeframe, and the line was changed to reflect that. Details mattered to Leonard. Once, when he was working on the western series The Tall Man, just before they started filming he took off his wedding ring and put it in a locked valuables box. When asked about that, he explained that men didnât wear wedding rings during that period. Who would know that? Who would take the time to find out? Leonard, thatâs who. He invested completely in the creation of a character, and all the work he had done all those years finally paid off when he got the opportunity to truly create a character.
He explained that to me once, âNo one else is going to provide that consistency and continuity. If the writers gave me the line, âLetâs make hay under the Vulcan moon,â it was up to me to remind them that three episodes earlier Spock had mentioned that Vulcan had no moons.â
Most of the hallmarks that became associated with Spock, in particular the Vulcan neck pinch and the Vulcan salute, were entirely his creation. In one of our first episodes, Kirkâs personality was split into good and evil, and evil Kirk was about to kill good Kirk. In the script, Spock was supposed to sneak up behind evil Kirk and knock him out by hitting him over the head with the butt of his phaser. It was the kind of bad-guy move that Leonard had been doing for a long time. But while our scripts regularly required me to always be punching, rolling, jumping, swinging, butting heads, and getting hit in the face, this was the first time Spock actually participated in a physically violent action. Leonard wasnât comfortable with that; brawling, banging someone in the head somehow seemed below Spockâs evolved personality. It was too twentieth century. So he suggested to the director that Spock had a special capability that allowed him to put enemies out of action without little physical exertion. The director was open to the concept. Leonard and I sat down, and he told me what he had in mind: he would pinch my trapezius muscle, and I would collapse in a heap. I have no idea where that concept came from, but I was a professional actor; I knew how to fall down. Of course, it fit Spock perfectly: an advanced civilization would know where the vital nerves are located and have the physical strength to take advantage of that knowledge to incapacitate their enemy. We did the scene: Spock came up behind evil Kirk and pinched his trapezius, I dropped to the floor, and the Vulcan nerve pinch was born.
For those people counting at home, fans of the show saw the Vulcan nerve pinch being used thirty-four different times. I wonder how many kids since then have had to suffer through the real pain of a Vulcan neck
The next call came from Roddenberry, who quickly dismissed the suspension and brought everybody into his office. Leonard had great respect for Coonâwe all didâbut protecting Spock was far more important to him. Coon made the requested changes, and Leonard went back to work.
Leonard remained adamant that the mythology we were creating had to be consistent and accurate throughout all our explorations. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, for example, included a scene in which Kirk and Spock were having dinner with the Klingons. In writer and director Nick Meyerâs script, Spock had a line that stated the Federation and the Klingons had been at war for a period of time. He wasnât sure that was accurate and checked with our resident expert Richard Arnold, who confirmed that there had not been a war in that timeframe, and the line was changed to reflect that. Details mattered to Leonard. Once, when he was working on the western series The Tall Man, just before they started filming he took off his wedding ring and put it in a locked valuables box. When asked about that, he explained that men didnât wear wedding rings during that period. Who would know that? Who would take the time to find out? Leonard, thatâs who. He invested completely in the creation of a character, and all the work he had done all those years finally paid off when he got the opportunity to truly create a character.
He explained that to me once, âNo one else is going to provide that consistency and continuity. If the writers gave me the line, âLetâs make hay under the Vulcan moon,â it was up to me to remind them that three episodes earlier Spock had mentioned that Vulcan had no moons.â
Most of the hallmarks that became associated with Spock, in particular the Vulcan neck pinch and the Vulcan salute, were entirely his creation. In one of our first episodes, Kirkâs personality was split into good and evil, and evil Kirk was about to kill good Kirk. In the script, Spock was supposed to sneak up behind evil Kirk and knock him out by hitting him over the head with the butt of his phaser. It was the kind of bad-guy move that Leonard had been doing for a long time. But while our scripts regularly required me to always be punching, rolling, jumping, swinging, butting heads, and getting hit in the face, this was the first time Spock actually participated in a physically violent action. Leonard wasnât comfortable with that; brawling, banging someone in the head somehow seemed below Spockâs evolved personality. It was too twentieth century. So he suggested to the director that Spock had a special capability that allowed him to put enemies out of action without little physical exertion. The director was open to the concept. Leonard and I sat down, and he told me what he had in mind: he would pinch my trapezius muscle, and I would collapse in a heap. I have no idea where that concept came from, but I was a professional actor; I knew how to fall down. Of course, it fit Spock perfectly: an advanced civilization would know where the vital nerves are located and have the physical strength to take advantage of that knowledge to incapacitate their enemy. We did the scene: Spock came up behind evil Kirk and pinched his trapezius, I dropped to the floor, and the Vulcan nerve pinch was born.
For those people counting at home, fans of the show saw the Vulcan nerve pinch being used thirty-four different times. I wonder how many kids since then have had to suffer through the real pain of a Vulcan neck
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