Please indulge a life-long Star Trek and Leonard Nimoy fan with this impromptu tribute, which I wrote this morning minutes after learning of the actor's passing. As the hoped on-screen reunion between Nimoy's Spock and Shatner's Kirk in the upcoming 50th Anniversary Star Trek 2016 film will now most likely no longer occur, I hope this may serve as a glimpse of the final reunion between best friends in fiction and reality:
Star Trek Into Brightness
New Vulcan, Star Date 2260.227
INT: Ambassador Spock's Personal Chamber
Close Up and ZOOM OUT: Spock, aged 160, kneels in meditation. All is silent.
FX: a bright flash of light and a chime of sound.
XCU: Spock opens his eyes.
Spock: Fascinating.
Wide Shot: Q, dressed in the Into Darkness Starfleet Admiral Uniform, stands before Spock.
Q: Ah, Spock. My favorite time-displaced Vulcan.
Spock: Q. Greetings. Clearly the bounds of timelines do not contain you.
Q: How can you expect anything less? But what, I only get a greetings from you? No mention or our debates, our sparing sessions? You're lucky I don't hurl another asteroid at the Earth, or here! I mean, really, I don't even get a Peace and Long Life, Live Long and Prosper? Or is that only for saying goodbye amongst Vulcans?
Spock: I shall admit that it is an endurable experience to meet you again, Q. On Vulcan, as well as this time plane's New Vulcan, we prefer not to ponder the past and the beginnings but rather contemplate the future and the ending of things.
Q: You mean you don't miss your old life at all? Your friends and colleagues back in the old timeline? Being in the past, even an alternate one, can only remind of your own - even the fashions are back in fashion!
Spock: My past is my own and my friends remain there. My being a visitor in a mirror of that past ought not to constrain my thoughts to what came before.
Q: Then if you enjoy endings so much you'll love what's coming next, at least as much as a Vulcan can. You see, the end is here, at least for you living here on this New Vulcan as well as this new, old time. You're about to go on a very special journey, one last Trek.
Spock: All existence is a...trek of some purpose, an endless journey -
Q: Oh, for once just don't pontificate! Next thing you know you'll write an ode to your pointed ears. To put it plainly, Spock, you have friends coming, from your timeline. They've come to take you home.
Spock: Were I human this would be a comforting anticipation, but I am a Vulcan, and even I acknowledge the limits of science. My friends of my time plane do not know of this dimension, nor of my survival here.
Q: Well, thankfully for you, your friends are my...best subjects...and I told them where and how to find you. There are perks to being an omnipotent being, after all.
Spock: Your actions are illogical. As you claim to be an omnipotent being why should you care to facilitate such a mortal reunion?
Q: Logic has nothing to do with it, Spock. Your friends want to see you again. And I felt I owed Jean-Luc and the Android a little...courtesy for proving me right so many times. So stop meditating and take to the stars. Your friends are...out there. Literally! Hmmm...I like this uniform better than the jumpsuits.
Q raises his hands and waves the Vulcan greeting.
Q: Peace and Long Life, Live and Long and Prosper. And just keep being Spock.
FX: Q disappears in his light and sound.
Medium Close Up as Spock stands and turns to peer out a nearby window.
Wide Shot as a vortex of fire and energy rips open the New Vulcan night sky. From out of the storm emerges the Enterprise-E.
Wide Shot within the meditation chamber as Spock turns about to the sound of transportation. Inside the chamber eight transporter columns churn the air and dissipate to reveal Captain Saavik, Sela, General Worf, Captain Data, Ambassador Picard, Admiral Scott, Admiral McCoy, and James T. Kirk.
Kirk sees his oldest friend and blinks back tears.
Kirk: Spock!
Spock's jaw clenches, ever so slightly. Then he lifts his hand and forms the Vulcan greeting.
Spock: Jim. You have been, and always shall be, my friend.
McCoy; That's it, Spock? Just Jim gets the friendship? Nothing else to say to me, the country doctor who carried your katra? Well, I couldn't this time. We thought you were gone, again!
Saavik: Certainly, Ambassador Spock is alive still, Admiral McCoy. And for this I am grateful.
Saavik walks over to Spock and the two touch forefingers.
Saavik: Husband.
Spock: Wife.
A moment passes and then Spock turns to McCoy.
Spock: Forgive me, Admiral McCoy. You are also, and shall ever be, my friend, and my iconoclast. But I must admit I am at a loss to understand the presence of Sela.
Sela: It's a long story, Ambassador, and a rather intriguing tale.
Picard: Yes, but it must be one for a later occasion. Ambassador Spock, our time here is short and we must depart immediately.
Data: The Ambassador is correct. By my calculations we have only one minute and thirty seconds until the quantum reality barriers close permanently between the timelines. I have ordered the transporter crew to retrieve us in exactly thirty seconds.
Scott: Aye, and not a moment sooner. One mirror universe was enough for me.
McCoy: Then what are we waiting for? Come on, Spock, pack your bags, or whatever you carry these days. You'd think having green-blood would make a Vulcan move quickly, at least faster than an old codger like me.
Kirk: Well, as the wise say, Time waits for no man, or Vulcan.
Spock: But you forget, my friend. I am both Human and Vulcan, and seeing you all again brings both sides of my nature peace. And now I have all that I need to depart.
Kirk: Except one thing, even if it is in front of the Klingons.
Worf: I beg your pardon?
Close up as Kirk smiles and rushed to embrace Spock.
McCoy: Ah, to blazes, don't leave me out!
McCoy shuffles forward to add to the embrace. Scotty beams and joins then To their surprise, Spock lifts his arms and encircles them all.
Picard looks and nods with joy.
Picard: I think the Vulcans just might celebrate this one upon our return.
Worf: Hopefully without Romulan Ale.
Sela: I can guarantee that.
Data watches, smiles, and sheds a tear. Then he speaks into his com-badge.
Data: Data to Enterprise. Nine to beam up.
Nine columns of transporter light flare as their chime sounds for the final time upon New Vulcan.
The image moves up and out into the night sky as the Enterprise-E turns about and warps into the reality vortex and back into the Prime Time.
Fade Out to Brightness.
Spock (Voice Over): I have boldly gone where others have not before. I have known peace and a long life. I have lived long and prospered. Now I return to the garden of my childhood, where I shall preserve the memories of my life, always. Of my sojourn in the past, I shall never Forget. Of my future in the Undiscovered Country, I shall always Remember. And my Final Frontier will be nothing less than Fascinating.
Farewell.
Rest In Peace, Leonard Simon Nimoy, 1931-2015
Star Trek Into Brightness
New Vulcan, Star Date 2260.227
INT: Ambassador Spock's Personal Chamber
Close Up and ZOOM OUT: Spock, aged 160, kneels in meditation. All is silent.
FX: a bright flash of light and a chime of sound.
XCU: Spock opens his eyes.
Spock: Fascinating.
Wide Shot: Q, dressed in the Into Darkness Starfleet Admiral Uniform, stands before Spock.
Q: Ah, Spock. My favorite time-displaced Vulcan.
Spock: Q. Greetings. Clearly the bounds of timelines do not contain you.
Q: How can you expect anything less? But what, I only get a greetings from you? No mention or our debates, our sparing sessions? You're lucky I don't hurl another asteroid at the Earth, or here! I mean, really, I don't even get a Peace and Long Life, Live Long and Prosper? Or is that only for saying goodbye amongst Vulcans?
Spock: I shall admit that it is an endurable experience to meet you again, Q. On Vulcan, as well as this time plane's New Vulcan, we prefer not to ponder the past and the beginnings but rather contemplate the future and the ending of things.
Q: You mean you don't miss your old life at all? Your friends and colleagues back in the old timeline? Being in the past, even an alternate one, can only remind of your own - even the fashions are back in fashion!
Spock: My past is my own and my friends remain there. My being a visitor in a mirror of that past ought not to constrain my thoughts to what came before.
Q: Then if you enjoy endings so much you'll love what's coming next, at least as much as a Vulcan can. You see, the end is here, at least for you living here on this New Vulcan as well as this new, old time. You're about to go on a very special journey, one last Trek.
Spock: All existence is a...trek of some purpose, an endless journey -
Q: Oh, for once just don't pontificate! Next thing you know you'll write an ode to your pointed ears. To put it plainly, Spock, you have friends coming, from your timeline. They've come to take you home.
Spock: Were I human this would be a comforting anticipation, but I am a Vulcan, and even I acknowledge the limits of science. My friends of my time plane do not know of this dimension, nor of my survival here.
Q: Well, thankfully for you, your friends are my...best subjects...and I told them where and how to find you. There are perks to being an omnipotent being, after all.
Spock: Your actions are illogical. As you claim to be an omnipotent being why should you care to facilitate such a mortal reunion?
Q: Logic has nothing to do with it, Spock. Your friends want to see you again. And I felt I owed Jean-Luc and the Android a little...courtesy for proving me right so many times. So stop meditating and take to the stars. Your friends are...out there. Literally! Hmmm...I like this uniform better than the jumpsuits.
Q raises his hands and waves the Vulcan greeting.
Q: Peace and Long Life, Live and Long and Prosper. And just keep being Spock.
FX: Q disappears in his light and sound.
Medium Close Up as Spock stands and turns to peer out a nearby window.
Wide Shot as a vortex of fire and energy rips open the New Vulcan night sky. From out of the storm emerges the Enterprise-E.
Wide Shot within the meditation chamber as Spock turns about to the sound of transportation. Inside the chamber eight transporter columns churn the air and dissipate to reveal Captain Saavik, Sela, General Worf, Captain Data, Ambassador Picard, Admiral Scott, Admiral McCoy, and James T. Kirk.
Kirk sees his oldest friend and blinks back tears.
Kirk: Spock!
Spock's jaw clenches, ever so slightly. Then he lifts his hand and forms the Vulcan greeting.
Spock: Jim. You have been, and always shall be, my friend.
McCoy; That's it, Spock? Just Jim gets the friendship? Nothing else to say to me, the country doctor who carried your katra? Well, I couldn't this time. We thought you were gone, again!
Saavik: Certainly, Ambassador Spock is alive still, Admiral McCoy. And for this I am grateful.
Saavik walks over to Spock and the two touch forefingers.
Saavik: Husband.
Spock: Wife.
A moment passes and then Spock turns to McCoy.
Spock: Forgive me, Admiral McCoy. You are also, and shall ever be, my friend, and my iconoclast. But I must admit I am at a loss to understand the presence of Sela.
Sela: It's a long story, Ambassador, and a rather intriguing tale.
Picard: Yes, but it must be one for a later occasion. Ambassador Spock, our time here is short and we must depart immediately.
Data: The Ambassador is correct. By my calculations we have only one minute and thirty seconds until the quantum reality barriers close permanently between the timelines. I have ordered the transporter crew to retrieve us in exactly thirty seconds.
Scott: Aye, and not a moment sooner. One mirror universe was enough for me.
McCoy: Then what are we waiting for? Come on, Spock, pack your bags, or whatever you carry these days. You'd think having green-blood would make a Vulcan move quickly, at least faster than an old codger like me.
Kirk: Well, as the wise say, Time waits for no man, or Vulcan.
Spock: But you forget, my friend. I am both Human and Vulcan, and seeing you all again brings both sides of my nature peace. And now I have all that I need to depart.
Kirk: Except one thing, even if it is in front of the Klingons.
Worf: I beg your pardon?
Close up as Kirk smiles and rushed to embrace Spock.
McCoy: Ah, to blazes, don't leave me out!
McCoy shuffles forward to add to the embrace. Scotty beams and joins then To their surprise, Spock lifts his arms and encircles them all.
Picard looks and nods with joy.
Picard: I think the Vulcans just might celebrate this one upon our return.
Worf: Hopefully without Romulan Ale.
Sela: I can guarantee that.
Data watches, smiles, and sheds a tear. Then he speaks into his com-badge.
Data: Data to Enterprise. Nine to beam up.
Nine columns of transporter light flare as their chime sounds for the final time upon New Vulcan.
The image moves up and out into the night sky as the Enterprise-E turns about and warps into the reality vortex and back into the Prime Time.
Fade Out to Brightness.
Spock (Voice Over): I have boldly gone where others have not before. I have known peace and a long life. I have lived long and prospered. Now I return to the garden of my childhood, where I shall preserve the memories of my life, always. Of my sojourn in the past, I shall never Forget. Of my future in the Undiscovered Country, I shall always Remember. And my Final Frontier will be nothing less than Fascinating.
Farewell.
Rest In Peace, Leonard Simon Nimoy, 1931-2015
but very sweet; well done.
