Nimoy's Final Frontier.


I’m going to watch Leonard Nimoy’s episode of Columbo today to mark his passing.

It’s a fitting tribute as it’s a good one. It’s far better than William Shatner’s two appearances, which are only enjoyable for the wrong reasons. In the first of the two, ‘Fade in to Murder’, he plays a TV actor who knocks off his blackmailing producer. He does it in the most ineffectual disguise of all time.

If I were in the midst of the Gobi Desert and he accosted me in that outfit, I’d know it was Shatner in an instant. Even without prior knowledge or expectation of him being in the vicinity. No-one else leaves that many pauses in their dialogue, save Harold Pinter.

I’ve been aware of Nimoy since early childhood, when I used to sit in the conservatory of my parents’ house (I wasn’t on the mortgage) watching episodes of the original series of Star Trek. I was a huge fan of the show; so much so that I borrowed my friend Stephen’s dad’s copy of the ‘Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual’ and never gave it back. Steve must have forgiven me, as he was my Best Man last year, though I’ve no idea what his father thinks.

I owned 'Star Trek III: The Search for Spock' on VHS. The main reason the Enterprise’s crew struggled to find their pointy-eared colleague was because he was on the other side of the camera: Nimoy directed it. He also directed Three Men and a Baby. His main note for Danson, Guttenberg and Selleck was 'show no emotion'.

He’s featured in Doggett & Ephgrave’s material on more than one occasion. We handed out Spock masks to every audience member at the second Mostly Comedy, to the tune of Nimoy’s version of If I Had a Hammer. The masks came in two variations: bearded and beardless. What the sketch lacked in humour, it made up for in memorability. 


He is also name-checked in our signature routine, The Star Trek Porn Letter. We performed it on the day his passing was announced, as a salute.

Saying that he lived long and prospered may be twee, but he did. Now forgive me: the time has come to watch him be taunted by my favourite ruffled detective. Maybe this time, he’ll catch him out.

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