"The miracle is this: the more we share the more we have." —Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy went to hypersleep today after completing his 83-year-mission. He helped us explore our strange, new world; reminded us to always seek out new life, and be civil to each other. Only by doing that, could we ever truly go where no one has gone before.
In a perfect world, we would already have the technology that would afford Leonard Nimoy immortality as a witty, disembodied head. But unfortunately, we will have to settle for the plethora of pop culture ephemera he left behind. More than Spock, Nimoy was also a Mission: Impossible Spy, and more notably, not one, but two evil Transformers.
First, he played Megatron’s Unicron-rechristened form Galvatron in the 1986’s The Transformers The Movie, where the villain’s alternate form evolved from a diminutive laser pistol to a freaking cannon on a tripod. After Michael Bay’s live-action franchise began, Nimoy voiced the initially benevolent Sentinel Prime in 2011’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Spoiler alert: He’s a Decepticon in disguise as an Autobot in disguise as a Rosenbauer Panther Fire Engine. How’s that for meta-ness?
Nimoy’s other cultural contributions, like his photography, poetry, and two autobiographies (1995’s I Am Spock 1975’s and I Am Not Spock) will be remembered for sure, but his overall loss will continue to reverberate. Nerd culture has lost one of its pillars, a man who was self-aware enough to be in on the joke, yet not so self-serious that he couldn’t dish them out, either.
I like to think that, after successfully transferring his katra to Pharrell Williams, we’re just patiently waiting for the day Nimoy's mind and body are reunited in fal tor pan, so he can be whole again. But I already know that he will never really be gone in the first place. He is survived by an endless legion of fans, unforgettable cameos in series like The Simpsons, and the immortal character of Spock, who will live forever and always prosper.
