Along with Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley), he is one of the three central characters in the original Star Trek series and its films.

After retiring from active duty in Starfleet, Spock served as a Federation ambassador, and later became involved in the ill-fated attempt to save Romulus from a supernova,[3] leading him to live out the rest of his life in a parallel universe.

His mixed heritage led to a troubled childhood; full-blooded Vulcan children repeatedly bullied him on their home world to incite the emotions of his human nature.

Spock and Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (James Doohan) work together to rejoin the good and evil versions of the Captain, which had been split following a transporter accident.

Pike had been promoted to Fleet Captain but suffered an accident, resulting in severe burns and confining him to a wheelchair and restricting his communication to yes/no answers via a device connected to his brainwaves.

[15] While the Enterprise is under threat in "Balance of Terror", Spock is accused by Lieutenant Stiles (Paul Comi) of knowing more about the Romulans than he admits when the alien's similar physical appearance is revealed.

After Scotty uses the power packs of the party's phasers to supply enough energy to get the damaged shuttle back into orbit, Spock decides to dump and ignite the remaining fuel to attract the attention of the Enterprise.

[24] Spock encounters old acquaintance Leila Kalomi (Jill Ireland) in "This Side of Paradise" after joining an away team to the planet Omicron Ceti III.

[26] Both Spock and Kirk undertake guerrilla warfare against the occupying Klingon forces on the planet Organia, prior to the establishment of the Organian Peace Treaty in "Errand of Mercy".

McCoy persuades T'Pau (Celia Lovsky) to let him inject Kirk with something to alleviate the issues with Vulcan's thinner atmosphere and make the fight fair.

No longer feeling the effects of the pon farr, Spock returns to the Enterprise where he discovers that McCoy had injected Kirk with a paralyzing agent which merely simulated death and that the Captain was still alive.

[30] At the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Spock is no longer serving in Starfleet, having resigned and returned home to pursue the Vulcan discipline of Kolinahr.

[5] At the film's end, he transfers his "katra" – the sum of his memories and experience – to McCoy, and then sacrifices himself to save the ship and its crew from Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán).

[5] Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) reunites the Enterprise crew on a mission to prevent war from erupting between the Federation and Klingon Empire.

Set 75 years after the events of The Undiscovered Country, the episode focuses on Federation Ambassador Spock's attempt to reunite the Romulans with their Vulcan brethren.

[33] During the film's flashback, set 19 years after the events of "Unification", and as depicted in the comic miniseries Star Trek: Countdown,[3] Ambassador Spock (Nimoy) promises the Romulans he will use Vulcan technology to save them from a rogue supernova that threatens to destroy their Empire.

The mission is only partially successful, and in the aftermath, Spock is pursued into the past by Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan driven mad by the loss of his homeworld and family, setting into motion the events of the film.

In the film's opening act, Nero's ship emerges in the year 2233, and through its interaction with the inhabitants, inadvertently creates an "alternate, parallel 'Star Trek' universe".

The film also features Jacob Kogan in several scenes depicting Spock's childhood, including his abuse at the hands of other Vulcan children due to his half-Human heritage, and his relationship with his parents (Ben Cross and Winona Ryder).

In May 2020, it was announced that Spock (Ethan Peck) would return in the series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds alongside Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Number One / Una (Rebecca Romijn).

[42] During an interview segment of TV Land's 40th anniversary Star Trek marathon on November 12, 2006, Leonard Nimoy stated that Gene Roddenberry's first choice to play Spock was George Lindsey.

[64] When this project was killed in favor of a new television series, Star Trek: Phase II, Nimoy was reportedly just offered only a recurring part by Roddenberry, so refused to appear at all.

[71][72] The following film of the series, the William Shatner-directed Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was initially unacceptable to Nimoy because it called for Spock to betray Kirk and side with his newly introduced half-brother Sybok.

[52] When he appeared as Spock as grand marshal of a Medford, Oregon, parade in April 1967, thousands gathered to receive autographs: "They surged forward so quickly that I was terrified someone would be crushed to death; and then they started pressing against the bandstand so hard it began to sway beneath my feet!"

[90] When a biracial girl wrote asking for advice on how to deal with persecution as "a half-breed", Nimoy responded that young Vulcans had treated Spock similarly and that she should, as he did, "realize the difference between popularity and true greatness".

[91] The actor believed that the character appealed to viewers, especially teenagers, because[52] Spock understands the trauma of human existence, for he is not home with earthmen or Vulcan; he can function only in the fabricated and neatly ordered society of the Enterprise.

The actor concluded from the warm and intense reception he received that astronauts like John Glenn and aerospace industry engineers, secretaries, and shareholders alike all regarded Star Trek, and especially the character of Spock, as a "dramatization of the future of their space program".

Film critic Roger Ebert lauded Spock's death: "He makes a choice in Star Trek II that would be made only by a hero, a fool, or a Vulcan.

"[106] Conversely, The Washington Post's Gary Arnold states that Spock's death "feels like an unnecessary twist, and the filmmakers are obviously well-prepared to fudge in case the public demands another sequel.

The fan-series' creators feel "Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest should be treated as 'classic' characters like Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman, Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings, or even Hamlet, Othello, or Romeo.