Leonard Nimoy: Star Trek Memories (1983) (TV)

Director:

Kevin Curtis

Writer:

Jim McGinn (teleplay)

Release Date:

1983 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Plot:

The Star Trek star, Leonard Nimoy, tells the behind the scenes stories of the legendary television series. |

Plot Keywords:

Television | Behind The Scenes | Voice Over Narration | Memory | Memoir

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Leonard Nimoy	...	Host / Lieutenant Spock / Commander Spock (also archive footage)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Majel Barrett	...	Number One (archive footage)
Joan Collins	...	Edith Keeler (archive footage)
James Doohan	...	Lt. Commander Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott (archive footage)
Peter Duryea	...	Lieutenant Jose Tyler (archive footage)
Marj Dusay	...	Kara (archive footage)
Laurel Goodwin	...	Yeoman J.M. Colt (archive footage)
John Hoyt	...	Dr. Phillip Boyce (archive footage)
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy (archive footage)
Walter Koenig	...	Ensign Pavel Chekov (archive footage)
Ricardo Montalban	...	Khan Noonien Singh (archive footage)
Nichelle Nichols	...	Lt. Uhura (archive footage)
Susan Oliver	...	Vina (archive footage)
William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk (archive footage)
George Takei	...	Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu (archive footage)

Runtime:

Germany:49 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Goofs:

Factual errors: When discussing the origin of the 'Vulcan Death Grip', Leonard Nimoy says that it was used on Dr. McCoy. In reality, it was only used once in "Star Trek: The Enterprise Incident (#3.2)" (1968) on Captain Kirk.

Locally made show goes bigtime!

This documentary was made in 1982/83 in Boston Mass, at the facilities of Channel 56, then "Boston's Star Trek Station". 56 used to be part of the old Kaiser Broadcasting Group and was partly owned by the Boston Globe(they had their building next door) and was a UHF station, they were sold to Field Communications by this time (and were eventually made into a WB affiliate, and recently,sold off to a smaller company which runs them currently as a low-cost CW affiliate and, "informercial" station). At the time, they had tremendous ratings success showing the original STAR TREK weeknights in the 70's, and, later in the 80's, on weekends for their "Star Trek Club" which local fans(inc myself once) were asked to "host" the showings. Boston was Nimoy's home so that provided a bit of charm as well. I'd heard privately that Nimoy in fact, came up with the idea, and Boston's Channel 56-which was doing so well in the Trek ratings-offered to produce it because he was due to be in town on other matters.It was an hour long(50 mins without ads) show on the history of Star Trek and how his character came to be, and how the movies came to be and basically done as a result of the enormous success of the 2nd Star Trek film, The Wrath of Khan which had the original series once again doing well in syndication, and fans clamoring for more-especially in light of Spock's "death" in the 2nd film. So this "TV special" was concocted, along with Paramount Pictures' blessing and use of many clips including from Star Trek:The Motion Picture and, the (then) recent Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan. I remember Nimoy was going to answer whether Spock would come back at the very end of the show. What he said as he smiled, was something like "I can't say for sure...only that...in science fiction anything can happen!"-basically a yes and we all knew they wouldn't leave a major franchise character dead for long, and he beamed out via a slightly cheesy video effect. Most of the show was him speaking,standing against a video star field,and he was wearing a sport jacket and jeans and was very casual. The show was aired in the Boston and RI area,once and then, again because it did so well in ratings and then it was syndicated to other stations and aired irregularly through the 1980's and then to other countries. Paramount put it out on VHS I recall, as well during the 80's. So it was a locally made show, with almost no budget-a great deal of the idea was apparently Nimoy's wish to re-connect with the fans after years of saying "I am not Spock" and such.