You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
Spock Dead.
Set phasers to stun!
Shields up.
Warp Factor 8 Mr. Sulu.
Spock is dead. The preeminent 1st officer of all time.
The news was shocking to all Sci Fi fans.
If this was a movie, he’d survive or return in the next movie.
I remember Spock dyeing selflessly capping a radiation breach with no protective garb.
As he leans against the thick barrier of the engineering chamber, he says to his best friend, James T. Kirk “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
Then he closes his eyes and he dies.
He is jettisoned to a planet where he will be rejuvenated and come back to life in the opening sequence of the next film.
The audience will cheer. The goose bumps will bubble and the cinematic wonder that is Star Trek would commence.
At some point, Dr. McCoy would say “I’m a doctor damn it. Not a miracle worker.”
And then Spock would say “Hello Dr. McCoy.”
“It’s that green blood of yours, Spock,” he would gush.
It’s iconic cinematic lore.
Sadly, Leonard Nimoy cannot come back from the dead in a sequel.
Life’s reality only has a final curtain, and this long time actor has taken his last bow.
The man who brought Spock to iconic status is gone forever.
It is a sad day and the loss reminds us once again that we all will get beamed up at some celestial point on the universal calendar.
I have many fond memories of the Star Trek franchise.
I was a little boy when it began in the mid 60’s.
Even to a child it was bold, willing to go where no TV show had gone before.
Star Trek is responsible for a generation of thoughts, dreams, inventions and possibilities.
I am sitting at a table with a group of people in their 30’s when the news breaks.
There is relative indifference.
There’d be more excitement if Beyoncé put out a new selfie.
“Who?” they keep saying.
“Live long and prosper?”
What’s that?
I shake my head.
Really?
Star Trek.
It started it all. If not for Star Trek, there is no Star Wars, no next generation, No “Beam me up Scotty”
Star Trek was a prophetic ray of vision in a time when space travel was hardly routine.
It was as eye-opening in the turbulent 60’s as Albert Einstein visiting the mongrels of the Dark Ages explaining the time space continuum.
Star Trek dreamed up concepts like Warp Drive and time travel and phasers and tractor beams and transporting.
Many of these science fiction concepts are being developed in labs right now around the world.
The television program boldly went where no man had gone before.
It tackled social problems right here at home.
Racism and class warfare and good versus evil.
The Klingons were Russians. The Federation like the USA.
Diversity and tolerance were constantly endorsed as aliens of all shapes and colors moved about the universe in harmony.
Television’s 1st interracial kiss between Lt. Uhuru and Capt. Kirk took place on Star Trek.
The TV show was so prolific, NASA named one of the space shuttles,Enterprise.
Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.
They were the dynamic forces of the series.
Kirk was emotional and fiery. James Tiberius Kirk was a riverboat gambler making love and fighting all at Warp 8.
Spock was logical and stoic.
Spock was half Vulcan and half Human. He bled green and had pointy ears.
He invented the Vulcan Mind Meld and he had extraordinary strength and intelligence.
Now we learn that Leonard Nimoy, the man who brought Spock to life is dead at age 83.
Nimoy was an actor and a poet and a writer.
But for all intents and purposes, he was Spock.
He created a role that will last forever.
He has crossed over to the final neutral zone in life.
The needs of the many.
Live Long and Prosper.
Life’s Crazy™