Star Trek Fans Often Asked Leonard Nimoy This Same Question About Spock's Ears
With a franchise like "Star Trek," which arguably has one of the most dedicated fans in the history of sci-fi entertainment, the incredible amount of unearthed details about the making of the series and films should come as no surprise. Dedicated Trekkies have had ample time since the first episode of the original series aired in 1966 to come up with an endless list of questions for producers, writers, and the actors themselves. And most people involved in the production of the "Star Trek" world have been open and informative for fans throughout the years.
When discovering details about the cast on and off camera, most attention has been directed toward the original players. Of course, sharing the top of that list is Spock, played by the late Leonard Nimoy. For those who don't know, Spock is one of the original Starship Enterprise officers (along with the other official rankings he held throughout the series/movies) and a half-human/half-Vulcan member of Starfleet. Over the years, the character symbolizes the constant clashing of alien logic and human emotions.
As fascinating as Spock is within "Star Trek," fans also wanted to know about the actor behind the alien hybrid and what it took to play the iconic character. One category of interest was what went into Nimoy's physical transformation into Spock. For the character, this process came nowhere near other Star Trek races, such as Klingons, yet still involved one of the most iconic prosthetics in sci-fi history. These, of course, are Spock's prosthetic pointy ears, something Nimoy received the most questions about.
Fans were seriously concerned about Nimoy's comfort
A few years after the actor's death, an old interview from 1976 surfaced, revealing that before shooting the very first pilot episode of the original "Star Trek" series, Leonard Nimoy was fairly vocal about hating the idea of wearing pointy prosthetic ears. "They were making the ears for me, experimentally at first, and they really looked grotesque," he said about creating Spock's appearance. "I became more and more concerned about the look." Nevertheless, Nimoy was convinced to keep the ears, which became one of the franchise's most iconic symbols. And when it came to fans asking him about the character, it was those ears they wanted to know more about.
During an interview with NBC's Gene Shalit, Nimoy talked about the fan mail he would receive from "Star Trek" enthusiasts. When asked what the most common question that came from those letters was, Nimoy first answered with, "Pictures, they want pictures." As for informational inquiries, fans seemed to be very concerned with Nimoy's comfort. "They want to know, 'do the ears hurt,'" he continued. "You know, very important questions like that."
Shortly after revealing that information, Nimoy quickly said no pain was involved when wearing Spock's Vulcan ears. However, it's also been uncovered that if Nimoy felt any discomfort from the ears or was self-conscious about wearing them as an actor, a contingency plan was in place. Creator Gene Roddenberry assured Nimoy that if needed, a storyline would be written involving Spock having his ears changed to look human. Thankfully, that surgery never needed to occur in Sickbay.