I Am Spock

One of the biggest mistakes that Leonard Nimoy made in his career (he tells us), was twenty years ago, when he called his first autobiography I Am Not Spock. Because of that title, many people naturally assumed that he wanted to distance himself from the role, and in this new book, Nimoy furnishes us with several examples where that led to bad feelings, and in one or two cases even put his career in jeopardy. I can well believe that I Am Not Spock was badly received as a title. However, I think that Nimoy may have made a similar mistake in calling his new biography I Am Spock. I can hear it all now: "Oh, so now he's made his money, he doesn't mind being associated with Spock again."

This is a shame, because I Am Spock is an entertaining, if not demanding, read. You see, of all the characters from the original series, Nimoy has perhaps had the most interesting and varied career outside of Star Trek, including directing several famous films. This means that he covers material that will be new to even the most die-hard Trek fan, rather than going over the same old material again. In this book, Nimoy describes his experiences directing Three Men and A Baby and The Good Mother, his stint on the original Mission Impossible series, as well as hs extensive theatrical career in the Seventies: All very interesting stuff, and worth reading.

And, of course, Nimoy covers the Trek material too, and that's what you've got the book for, after all. This is all interesting, and certainly some of it is new, although having read both the Bill Shatner books, I found a lot of the stories very familiar. There seem to be one or two intriguing differences in accounts as well, though. For example, if I remember rightly, Bill Shatner, in Star Trek Film Memories describes how the scene at the end of Star Trek II (where Spock transfers his soul into McCoy with the single word "remember") was filmed after the fact; after a preview, Paramount decided that audiences would react to the death of Spock so badly that they got cold feet and decided to add the extra scene. But that's not the way Nimoy describes it; he implies that the "remember" scene was intended right from the beginning. Now, I confess that I haven't gone back and checked in the Shatner book to see if I was right -- I might be mistaken -- and even if I am right, it's hardly earth-shattering stuff, but the difference in the descriptions interested me.

As in Bill Shatner's books, Nimoy avoids tackling the issue of the relations between the Star Trek actors head-on; he makes it seem as if, most of the time at least, Star Trek was one big happy family. Other sources lead us to believe otherwise, but personally I was quite happy with Nimoy's approach, since I'm not a big fan of dishing the dirt on ex-colleagues.

At the beginning of each chapter, and very often at points within a chapter, Nimoy includes conversations between himself and Spock. I suppose he was trying to convince us of the inextricable links between himself and his on-screen persona; to show us just how much a part of himself Spock has become. Personally, I found these conversations distracting, and a bit pointless.

In summary, this was an interesting book, and well worth the read. However, don't expect any great Trek revelations, and don't expect a demanding read. Just enjoy the book for what it is.

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