Those are words I hoped I would not have to write for many years. Perhaps they would be here or perhaps they would've been on another blogging site. Who knows? The question is mute now anyway. After a short hospital stay, at the age of 83, Leonard Nimoy passed away today. As many fans around the world have and are no doubt doing, I thought I would take a few minutes of my time to write down my feelings on the matter.
Growing up, I was always an outsider. I never really liked or played sports. I had a few but not many friends. In school, I tended to be the quiet child and later, teenager who kept to himself and did his work. Outside of school, I rarely had friends over at home. There wasn't any particular reason for that. I always just enjoyed my own company.
But growing up, there was always Star Trek. Being born in 1988, I missed The Original Series on its first run. I grew up with Jean-Luc Picard, William Riker, Mr Data and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise-D. Naturally, since the series was called "The Next Generation", I figured there was a series before but my knowledge of it was limited to what my parents talked about and the trailers I saw whenever we bought a new Star Trek VHS.
Then one day, we bought an Original Series VHS. The one containing the first episodes, in fact. And I was widely unimpressed. While I enjoyed knowing more about the characters who had paved the way for my favourites, I didn't especially care about them.
Until the Balance of Terror.
Then I saw Spock being singled out by Lt Stiles because he happened to resemble the Romulans. Suddenly, I felt the starts of a connection to Spock. I had been bullied at my primary school, to the extent I was taken out and home schooled, and here it was, happening to someone on Star Trek?
That began my love of Spock, which over the years evolved and expanded to include a love of Leonard Nimoy himself. When he joined Twitter and started asking if anyone wanted to be an honorary grandchild, I was one of the ones who immediately *screamed* "Yes!". When I first heard his voice on Fringe, I practically squealed with delight and when he saved Chris Pine's Kirk from that giant lobster monster in JJ Abrams' reboot of Star Trek, I slapped my brother's arm with delight so many times I think he still has the bruise.
So it is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to another of my childhood heroes. He lived long and he truly prospered, and that is all we can hope for. Here is his final tweet, posted just days before his death.
And to close, even though it is incredibly cheesy, I will leave with the catchphrase most associated with him.
Live long and prosper
