by Particia Holt

Monday, October 30, 1995

Still reeling from the "firestorm" of angry mail he received 20 years ago about his first memoir, "I Am Not Spock" -- how dar he, fans argued, reject the character that made him famous? -- Leonard Nimoy changes his mind and delves ever deeper into "Star Trek" lore in this, his "real" (Spock isn't so sure) autobiography, "I Am Spock."

We know Spock has misgivings because Nimoy keeps telling us about conversations he has in his head with the Vulcan, who insists on his own identity.

"SPOCK: I was Born in the year 2230 on the planet Vulcan, to Sarek of Vulcan and Amanda of Earth.

"NIMOY: Wrong again! You were born in the year 1966, on a Desilu soundstage in Hollywood, California...

"SPOCK: I suggest you recheck your data.

"NIMOY: I don't have to, Spock. I was there."

Dual Identity
The two don't bicker as much as complement and extend each other's sense of identity here as Nimoy describes their crude beginnings during the "Star Trek" pilot. We learn that the first Spock ears were an "embarrassing" amalgam of glue and rubber, and that Spock's face was painted red, which was too dark on camera. Only when producer Gene Roddenberry spent an extra $600 to bring in his own expert did Spock's famous foam rubber ears, yak eyebrow ("yes, yak hair) and yellowish-green skin tint turn Nimoy positively Vulcanesque.

It's not news that Nimoy and Roddenberry didn't get along (Nimoy says their ideas about humor were incompatable, but clearly the clash went deeper) and that Nimoy and William Shatner, though rumored to be feuding by the press, got along with the love-hate relationship of rival siblings. But it's painful to hear Shatner manufacture puns in one- upmanship encounters with Nimoy during early-morning makeup sessions, the two sounding like desperate adolescents tyring to compete without violence.

Soon we like the way Nimoy remains in the Spock frame of mind off-camera so that he won't find himself "fumbling into character" in mid-scene. But never expressing his feelings took its toll: I soon became prone to occassional eruptions of emotion. Once, one came over me while I was discussing a script with Roddenberry in his office... and I found myself struggling to hold back tears." Astonished, Roddenberry turned away as Nimoy "hurried out."

As fan mail soars from a few dozen letters after the pilot to 10,000 a month, Nimoy becomes Spock's most ardent supporter in matters of motivation and continuity. With relish he develops the many aspects of Vulcanalia that so identify Spock -- the neck pinch, mind meld, open-handed salute and blessing -- but rails against the "erosion" of Spock's character when Roddenberry's replacement, Freddy Freiberger, brings in new ideas that are out of character, making Spock fall in love, eat meat, bray like a donkey, dance the flamenco "and openly discuss the Vulcan seven-year- mating cycle (which, in 'Amok Time,' a mortified Spock had at first refused to discuss even with his closest friend, Kirk)."

The book does give us a sense of Nimoy's acting skill as he makes his own way in starring roles as Vincent van Gogh's brother Theo, the mad emperor Caligula, Golda Meir's husband, Morris, and the tormented psychiatrist in "Equus," to name a few. His direction of such movies as "Three Men and a Baby" astonished critics, he says, who thought that he, like Spock, didn't have an earthly sense of humor.

No Death Wish
But every time Nimoy thinks he's past the "I Am Not Spock" debacle, he's accused (by then-Paramount head Michael Eisner, for one) of hating Spock, or insisting in his contract that Spock die in a "Star Trek" movie (not true, he insists), or holding up the studio for money by being the last of the "Star Trek" crew to sign on for the next movie, and so forth.

To watch Nimoy not only convince the world of his regard for Spock but direct two excellent "Star Trek" movies (the third and fourth) is to cheer Nimoy's vindication at last. He even has fun filming on-the-street episodes in San Francisco with a fully uniformed "Star Trek" crew. There, "pedestrians treated us like run-of-the-mill weirdos and ignored us." What a compliment.