Lame Cherry: The anti Spock

As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.

I was reading about the comedian George Lindsey and while I waste too much time on Star Trek as it failed miserably after the first series saved by Desilu brought about an epic unfulfilled.

I did not think much of Leonard Nimoy not taking George Lindsey serious as the first choice as Spock. Did Nimoy define the roll of a Vulcan? Yes, but he also was untalented, without appeal and wincingly horrid as Spock in the Roddenberry pilot, which was Leonard Nimoy playing an Englishman, as Roddenberry had this really bad idea to model Star Trek after the British admiralty on a ship.

After NBC saved Roddenberry's foolishness, he returned to it in Next Generation with that awful cast and the absolutely contaminated Parrick Stewart.

Do I believe that Lindsey could have created the roll that Nimoy did? No, because he would not have been able to have provided the same affinity with William Shatner that Nimoy did. This is not anything which was a failure of Lindsey, but he never was sidekick material .He always was a defining character

Star Trek, cast as "Spock"
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. Because of the flippant way Nimoy makes the comment it has been suggested that he was joking. The claim Lindsey was offered the role is given more credibility when Lindsey's close friend Ernest Borgnine wrote in his autobiography, "my hand to God – he turned down the part of Mr. Spock on TV's Star Trek, the role that made Leonard Nimoy famous.

If one examines the Vulcans of Star Trek, one discovers that Leonard Nimoy did not define the roll, as others expanded the roll of a Vulcan. The amazing Mark Lenard brought something to the roll which only his strength could. He was not a sidekick, but a defining actor, much like in Amok Time, two women in Celia Lovsky and Arlene Martel produced a Vulcan female that Nimoy could never conceive in his character.

Both women were amazing in both were powerful in one being honorable and one conniving

Another Vulcan to not be overlooked was Jolene Blaylock, mastering the roll, but she could do nothing with it as the writing was so horrid as all has been on Star Trek.

There have been others who were not suited in the accomplished Kim Cattrail in no fault of her own, and the lesser impression of Zachary Quinto, thinking that looking like Spock makes an actor Spock.

In this, the problem with Star Trek is the casting was often substandard and it was the Directors who transformed mediocre talent into very good performances to match the writing in the first series. That is why Star Trek fails in the subsequent series in it is just Roddenberry vomit served up on different trays to make low IQ viewers think they are a part of something.

The Lame Cherry would suggest that two actors would have defined Spock perhaps better than Nimoy. The first is Jimmy Stewart who may have been a bit too aged and another talent in my favorite Jose Ferrer who was always a remarkable and talented actor. Both of these talents could have made a William Shatner sidekick, but made it stand alone, they way Leonard Nimoy never was able.

The fact is Leonard Nimoy without William Shater was boring. I do give Nimoy and the Director Herb Wallerstein, actually brought a lilt to Spock's character which never repeated in this 70th episode.

Leonard Nimoy was never a great actor. He was boring in all of his other work. Directors do make a difference.

I would have enjoyed watching what Milton Selzer could have done with Spock.

For that matter, perhaps the biggest mistake Gene Roddenberry made was not being intelligent enough to cast a then unknown television actor who is still making powerful performances. That actor is

Scott Glenn. He was suited to Spock and would have performed as well as Nimoy and has proven time and again that he can actually act where Nimoy could not.