Why did Spock show emotion around Pike?

Why did Spock show emotion around Pike? Did Pike tell Spock to "knock-off the act" or something?

 

Originally, Number One was going to be the cold logical one. When the network insisted they get rid of her and Spock, Roddenberry knew he could only fight to keep one of them, so he got rid of Number One and fought to keep Spock. In doing so, he basically put Number One's personality onto Spock, making him the logical and emotionless one. And he also married Number One. His logic was that he couldn't have done it the other way around.

Then he slapped a blonde wig on the actress that played Number One and brought her back as Nurse Chapel, and no one realised it was the same person.

That's the real world reason, anyway. There was never an in-universe reason given.

 

No one realized it was her!?!? I did!

I think spocks character was constantly changing, nimoy was always working on developing him. In the original pilot He speaks very loud and demanding tone, later on in the series he tells someone there is no need to raise his voice in the corbomite maneuver!?!?

He ses much more alien in the original pilot to me... He almost smiles saying..." Ahhh an earth emotion"

--- point is Spock seemed to change episode to episode from my point of view

 

Absolutely. Even after the cold and unemotional aspects of Number One were transfered to the Spock character in the second pilot, it took probably six or seven episodes for that to really drip down into Nimoy's performance.

I think it's a bit of a stretch to claim nobody noticed Majel came back just because of a blond wig. 'Inside Star Trek' tells of an amusing anecdote where one of the NBC suits (who was present at the beginning during the production of the pilots) was talking to Herb Solow, and they made the comment "Well, look who came back..." They could have made Roddenberry fire her again, but they decided to let it slide.

 

Nurse chapel is hot, I'm glad she stuck around... Heck she even ended up "secretly" loving the one who replaced her lol

 

In the Pike novel "Burning Dreams", they make mention that being earlier in his interactions with humans, Spock was experimenting with how to fit in with them. So he tended to exaggerate things.

Later, he decided humans would be okay with him using a more standard Vulcan way of interacting with them.

 

Well, in This Side of Paradise didn't Spock and Liela have a past relationship of sorts, that Spock couldn't fully exppress, but definitely was conflicted? Maybe younger Spock didn't have a grip on his emotions fully until well into his service with Pike?

Quinto-Spock definitely doesn't have control over his emotions the way Nimoy-Spock traditionally did, and Quinto-Spock is right around the same age Nimoy-Spock was when he was serving under Pike.

 

In an interview with Leonard, he said he was emotional since Jeffery Hunter was so stern and cold, Leonard lightened things up as Spock.

 

With Pike AND Number One both so "unemotional", that acting choices seems logical to me.

 

When it comes to Majel, that's Roddenberry's explanation, but it doesn't line up with the version Solow and Justman tell in their book. Personally, I think their version is more credible.

 

And In the end we got Shatner and Kelley so Destiny fell well into place.

 

What is the story they tell?

 

The execs in New York didn't want to get rid of the character of Number One, they wanted Roddenberry to recast the role.

The network executives loved the idea of a female first officer. This was the mid-sixties, the beginning of woman's lib, women in the workplace, women controlling more decisions about the spending of money. Having a high ranking woman in the cast made excellent business sense.

However they really didn't want Majel Barrett.

While her acting in the pilot was good, they didn't feel that she possessed the professional credentials for what would be second or third billing on the show. And more than a few of the network executives had a problem with the fact that Gene Roddenberry (a married man) was putting his girl friend up for the role. Roddenberry was told to keep the female first officer character, but to recast the role with a different actress.

Obviously in the second pilot, James Kirk didn't have a female first officer.

 

I find it fascinating how fans and professional writers turned Spock's early behaviour into part of his character. D.C. Fontana wrote a more emotional Spock in her Pike-era novel Vulcan's Glory (Casual sex? Logical) and Peter David had the younger Spock idolizing Number One and envying her emotional control (The Rift, I think?). The new movies have taken the younger, more volatile Spock and pushed him past the breaking point.

 

I love Nimoy-Spock. Although he some times shows emotion in the series. It's pointed out quite often that he is also human. And his father, although unwilling to admit it, does seem proud of his son. It's not that they don't have emotions, but they control them and set them aside (which is mentioned a few times, i beleive). I'll accept the explanation that Spock has greater difficulty controlling his emotions than vulcans usually do. (the new Spock is going a bit overboard on that though)

In any case, i would excuse Spock anything because I'm blinded by love, I gues. :P

 

That was the brilliance of having Spock as a human/Vulcan hybrid. From a story telling perspective it allowed (and still allows writers) the opportunity to give him so much depth.

 

Well, Spock's always had issues when it came to controlling his emotions. No wonder he sought the Kholinar.

 

And, in addition to the detail provided above, when the character of Chapel was created and cast, NBC people immediately recognized Majel...but didn't want to rock the boat with Roddenberry, so they let her play in a minor role.

 

Possible In-universe explanation: when we see Spock serving with Pike, he is younger and more inexperienced than when we see the more reserved Spock of the Kirk era. The younger Spock was perhaps overcompanstating a bit, trying to find a way to fit in better with all the emotional humans he was stuck hanging around with. We see much the same sort of behavior with Saavik in STII later on (though by the time we see her in STIII, she's apparantly decided to exercise a lot more self-control in public).

 

Spock as a hybrid: hmm. The suppression of emotion is a cultural thing on Vulcan, a practice learned over time (see the kids in "Yesteryear" and Trek '09). So being half-Vulcan would not biologically make him less prone to emotion. If anything, with what they say about their planet's past, they are, in their genes, MORE "barbaric" (read impulsive/emotional) than Terrans. So being half-biologically Vulcan doesn't should not naturally produce a more stoic being.

2. Unrelated . . .
So: In 1964 GR writes his main female character without a personal name, referring to her with a numerical code that implies superiority. She is all cold and unfeeling. THEN he marries the actress he hired to portray her and casts her as nurse: the nurturing, mothering profession of all time -- and gives her a religious name. Then writes her a part as a domineering mother (stereotypical mother-in-law) twenty years later; and uses her as the voice of ultra-reason and intelligence, the computer.

Dude needed the analyst's couch more than the casting couch he is said to have used.