So long and thanks for all the Spock...

Sorry, it's a terrible title, I know, but today is a sad, sad day for sci-fi fans everywhere. Actor and nerd legend Leonard Nimoy has died at age 83.

I sure hope he put his katra someplace safe...

The real mystery of course, is why did he
ever shave off that handsome mustache?

Nimoy, as I'm sure you're aware, was an accomplished poet, musician, author, director and actor. He is probably most famous for his role in the television series Mission: Impossible as well as a reoccurring part on the more recent Fringe. Back in the 70's, Nimoy also hosted In Search Of, a documentary series in which he went looking for things like Atlantis and the Loch Ness Monster. Of course, these things are imaginary and he was totally wasting our time, but if anyone was going to solve the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, it would be Leonard goddamn Nimoy.

Nice try Leonard, but there is no escape.

In other, more obscure work, Nimoy played the half-alien Mr. Spock on Star Trek for three seasons before the series became popular and went on to consume his existence like V'Ger on Epsilon IX (nerd points!). Fearing that type-casting might damage his credibility as an actor, Nimoy for a time tried escape the affections of his legions of fans. He branched out into poetry and music and even wrote a book about how Spock he isn't. In the end however, he decided to embrace his position in the hierarchy of nerdom, writing I Am Spock and throwing himself back into the role.

Pictured: Spock nerve-pinching a
giant green panther because cartoons.

First, he voiced Spock on the Star Trek animated series (yup, it's a thing) and later revived the character again (figuratively and literally) for the first six Trek movies. Behind the scenes he directed Star Treks III and IV and produced part VI (part V of course, was all Shatner's fault). Spock returned to TV in a two-parter episode of the The Next Generation, in which he foiled the schemes of an alternate timeline version of Tasha Yar's half-romulan daughter (if you followed that, you're a nerd. Congrats). Nimoy was also the only original cast member to survive the J. J. Abrams reboot and appear in the new Trek movies.

For everyone who's ever felt like an outsider, or the lone voice of reason on a starship full of lunatics, Spock was a role model and for that we are forever in Leonard Nimoy's debt.

Leonard Nimoy showed us all that the future's so bright,
we've got to wear dorky plastic shades. He will be missed.

Oh, and incidentally, if you went on wikipedia this morning you may have gotten the impression that Leonard Nimoy also played John Munch on Law and Order. This is not true, and probably a good reason to lock the pages of famous people who have died.

Above: not Richard Belzer...although I can kind of see the resemblance.