Development of Spock
This was abandoned; Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, directed by Shatner, introduced a previously unmentioned half brother of Spock, Sybok.
[3]) Roddenberry wanted the alien to be very intelligent and possibly green, asked Lockwood for his advice about who could play the character, and was reminded about Leonard Nimoy, who had made a guest appearance in The Lieutenant episode "In the Highest Tradition".
[6][n 1] During an interview segment of TV Land's 40th Anniversary Star Trek Marathon on November 12, 2006 Leonard Nimoy reveals that Gene Roddenberry's first choice to play Spock was George Lindsey.
Fred Phillips was subsequently asked to make the ears, but he passed this task onto John Chambers so he could concentrate on achieving the right shade of red for Spock's skin.
[17] Elf jokes from the crew were irritating Nimoy, and he complained to Roddenberry that the character could ruin his career and he no longer wanted to play Spock.
At the time, Roddenberry felt that the satanic issue might prove positive as he believed that female viewers would find a slightly dangerous and taboo character more attractive.
[21] Following the failure of "The Cage" to launch Star Trek into series, and the unexpected ordering of a second pilot, NBC wanted the majority of the main cast dropped.
"[27] The tendency to keep Spock as a background character continued for the first eight episodes of The Original Series, when the NBC executives called Roddenberry and producer Herbert Franklin Solow to their offices in Burbank.
[31] The popularity of Spock had built to the extent that gossip columnists in Hollywood spread rumours among agents that Shatner was going to be dropped from the series and replaced with Nimoy as the lead.
He had partially convinced Nimoy that it would have been preferable to have permanent plastic surgery to point the tips of his ears instead of requiring the hour and a half of makeup each day to apply them.
Although only Lenard and Montaigne were seriously considered, several other actors were initially listed including David Carradine, William Smithers, Liam Sullivan and Stewart Moss.
[36] With the Star Trek producers threatening to sue his client if he did not attend the production of episodes, Nimoy's agent went directly to the executives at NBC.
[43] Their working relationship was exacerbated by the number of times Nimoy asked for changes to the scripts under his new contract, as he was unhappy when Spock was only featured in the background while saying catchphrases.
Roddenberry said Spock was difficult to write properly, and encouraged the writers to revisit some of the character's more colorful aspects, such as his music-playing and ongoing chess game with Kirk.
[46] Producer Gene L. Coon also left the series prior to the third season, and Nimoy subsequently found it more difficult to ensure that Spock was written in a manner that he preferred.
However, after his likeness as Spock was used in Heineken adverts without his permission and without any royalties, he dropped out of the production which by this point had been relaunched as Star Trek: Planet of the Titans.
[50] These issues were resolved, and one version of the script by director Philip Kaufman would have featured Spock as the main character, facing off against a Klingon nemesis played by Toshiro Mifune.
Nimoy had not intended to join the cast of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but was enticed back with the promise that his character would be given a dramatic death scene.
[62] Nimoy reasoned that since The Wrath of Khan would be the final Star Trek film, having Spock "go out in a blaze of glory" seemed like a good way to resolve the character's fate.
[74] Eisner immediately joked that the title could be "Leonard Nimoy directs The Search for Spock", and although other story ideas were considered, the general premise remained.
[73] One idea which was ruled out, was to have Spock appear in a ghost-like form, similar to Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
[76] This resulted in Bennett considering replacing the entire main cast, and filming a prequel instead, with the idea that it would cut down on both Shatner and Nimoy's increasing wage costs and be far more profitable.
[78] William Shatner directed Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and the film introduced Spock's previously unmentioned half-brother, Sybok.
Nimoy had issues with some parts of the early scripts, as they called for Spock to betray Kirk because Sybok helps him to understand his human side.
[79] Following the lackluster reception of The Final Frontier at the box office, Bennett once again proposed a Starfleet Academy style film with an all new main cast to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the franchise.
"[80] On the basis of the negative fan reaction, and a limited time-frame before the anniversary, Paramount CEO Frank Mancuso Sr. gave the organisational duties for the sixth film to Nimoy, asking him to appoint producers, writers and a director.
Together Meyer and Denny Martin Flinn wrote new directions for some of the characters, including the attachment of Spock to his protege, Valeris, played by Kim Cattrall.
The actor was sold on the idea that Spock would be a central figure in an attempt to reunite the Vulcan and Romulan people in a peaceful manner, which Nimoy liked.
[82][83] Piller later suggested in hindsight that he could have done a great deal more with Spock but the reunification of the Vulcan and Romulan people was of sufficient "cosmic significance" to warrant the return of the character to television.
[71] Quinto, who previously had appeared as Sylar in the television series Heroes, had heard about the production on the new film and expressed his interest in a December 2006 interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
