The Two Faces of Spock
2 min readGoing back to the beginning means seeing a more emotional side of Spock, as the half-Vulcan struggles to figure out the right balance of emotion and logic.
As reported by Suicidegirls, not only is Spock more emotional in Star Trek XI, but he gets the girl. “I’ll tell you, I was bemused by it when I read it in the script,” said Leonard Nimoy. I thought it was incredible.”
Spock’s emotions are seen, says Zachary Quinto, because Spock is at an earlier point in his life, where he hasn’t figured out the proper balance that works best for him. “I think there’s a duality and an internal conflict because he’s really split between those two halves of himself but I just don’t think he’s gained the kind of control over that duality that Leonard had when he played the character. That’s the journey of this character. It’s not that he won’t arrive there. It’s not that he possesses more humanity than Vulcanity, it’s just he’s juggling to define it.”
As for the relationship between Spock and Uhura and the claims that there were never hints of it in the original series, Karl Urban (McCoy) would tend to disagree with that, pointing out one instance where one might see the hint of something between the two characters. “If I may just express some of my Star Trek knowledge here,” he said, “there was, I do remember, one particular episode where Spock was playing, what was that instrument? … And Uhura was singing and caressing his ears, and it was one of the most hypnotic scenes in the original series. So I think, while that relationship wasn’t developed, it certainly was there in subtext.”
According to Quinto, “…for me the relationship really provided a great source of levity in the film between Kirk and Spock, between Kirk and Uhura. But between Spock and Uhura I think it provides a really interesting depth in that Uhura ultimately represents a canvas on to which Spock projects the emotions that he can’t otherwise express.”
But Spock feels those emotions. “I think he experiences deeply run emotions and I think that especially in the context of the relationship with his mother,” explained Quinto. “I think there’s a real depth of feeling. The only thing I feel I had to strip myself of was the ability to express it in a conventional way. I think that’s really the dilemma of Spock ultimately, because if he doesn’t feel emotion, then there’s no conflict within him. So the conflict exists in the feeling, the deeply rooted and sublimated feeling of emotion without the opportunity to do much with it other than hold it, which is really challenging and can be painful.”
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