1979 - Conversation Piece

Leonard Nimoy: I remember it very well. I don't know if you knew who I was. I certainly knew who you were. I told you I played the character 'Mr. Spock' in Star Trek and you said, 'I know - have you been indicted yet?'

Dr. Spock: I don't remember that but I do remember asking you where you got your name.

Leonard Nimoy: Oh, it's Russian.

Dr. Spock: I don't mean Nimoy, I mean Spock. And you said 'I don't know'. I was curious because it's an absolutely unknown name before my book 'Baby and Child Care' came out. ...

Leonard Nimoy: Do people connect you with the television show?

Dr. Spock: Children do. This is a complaint I have against you. ... science fiction has never beckoned to me.

Leonard Nimoy: ... By translating Earth problems into another time and place you can draw an analogy that makes their reality striking.

...

Leonard Nimoy: How do you feel about space exploration?

Dr. Spock: Here I get sort of anti-space. The United States is the richest and most technologically advanced country the world has ever known and we aren't using our technology to solve our own problems. We're pouring ore and more money into more and more nuclear arms. It's sickening.

...

Dr Spock: ... Americans are marvelous, but also spoiled.

Leonard Nimoy: What I am feeling when I visit campuses today is that there used to be a tremendous pool of human energy available to deal with the ideas of the time. Now what I sense is each individuals deep concern only for his own future. I sense that they don't want to talk about politics with anybody – they don't care about it.

Dr. Spock: I try to tell them that the problem is that they expect an immediate result. Thousands of young people I talk to have said: 'I have participated in two demonstrations and it didn't stop the war.' And I have said: 'Listen, it took 70 years for women to get the vote and half a century to get rid of child labor.'

Leonard Nimoy: I think you have very successfully and very positively used your image to try to move us in direction that are worthwhile. In my particular case I have a little bit of a split identity because I'm know for a character that's fictional.

Dr. Spock: That must be strange.

Leonard Nimoy: It is a little bit. I have found that for the most part the public will tend to ascribe to me characteristics that are not neccessarily mine. They tend to think for example that I am intelligent.

Dr. Spock: (Laughing)

Leonard Nimoy: that I have got some magic or non-earthly powers, and they suspect that I know some things that perhaps I don't because Mr. Spock would know them. But I've been successful using public recognition as a means of advancing a career and advancing ideas. For me the theatre is a very important art form that's come down through the ages. It gives us a sense of community and of identification and of the universal aspects of our lives. I am very proud to be part of the profession and I think my children have an appreciation of what I do. They were raised on your book, doctor.

Dr. Spock: Are you satisfied with them?

Leonard Nimoy: Yes, and so is my wife. They're terrific kids.

Dr. Spock: I like to hear that.

Leonard Nimoy: How do you feel about the criticisms that were raised about children brought up on your book?

Dr. Spock: .... I was never called a 'permissive' for the first 22 years after my 'Baby and Child Care' came out. And if you ask my sons what I was like as a parent they both sober up I was a stern father.

Leonard Nimoy: As your children were growing up were you concerned about what television is saying to them?

Dr Spock: I wasn't smart enough to know how corruptive TV on the violent type was. ... But we have scientific research now showing that everybody id brutalized to at least a slight degree by watching violence and I strongly believe now that parents shouldn't allow their children to watch violence and brutality – whether it's Westerns, crimes sexual violence.

Leonard Nimoy: We've turned off our TV set for years now, except for special events and the news if we can find a good program. But the general run of programming I think is pretty irresponsible. It's supposedly what the American public wants to see. But I think that's a fallacy, because the numbers have shown us in recent years that fewer people are watching television. I don't think there's much opportunity in the present TV climate to do meaningful work.

Dr. Spock: I'd like to go back to the question of using your influence. People used to say to me 'You ought to be ashamed of yourself using your reputation...' (Dr. Spock goes on telling about the Johnson Administration. Before the election they promised that no Americans would be sent to the Asian war, after election they did the total opposite. He tried to throw Dr. Spock in jail for trying to tell the truth.) ... it changed my personality.

Leonard Nimoy: How did it change your personality?

Dr Spock: I used to be a terrible cautious person with exaggerated respect for authority of all kinds. But I have become more outspoken. I'm aware of my feelings and other people's feelings, much more than before. My family hardly recognized me.

Leonard Nimoy: Actors are going through changes all the time. I think that my family understands and accepts it. It might be difficult for them at times. They might wonder why I am behaving the way I am – for example when I played Mr. Spock who is very formal logical, precise a true alien. The character doesn't get angry, doesn't get emotional and excited in discussions, and when I behaved that way around the house it simply wasn't me.

Dr. Spock: This has been a lot better than those cocktail parties. It's been lots of fun hobnobbing with another Spock.