{"id":5694,"date":"2015-03-01T07:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-03-01T07:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=5694"},"modified":"2015-03-01T07:00:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-01T07:00:53","slug":"much-more-than-just-pointy-ears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/uncategorised\/much-more-than-just-pointy-ears\/","title":{"rendered":"Much more than just pointy ears"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_5695\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5695\" style=\"width: 290px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Leonard_Nimoy_by_Gage_Skidmore_2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5695\" src=\"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Leonard_Nimoy_by_Gage_Skidmore_2-290x300.jpg\" alt=\"Leonard Nimoy gave life to one of my favourite characters of all time.\" width=\"290\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5695\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leonard Nimoy gave life to one of my favourite characters of all time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I was going to blog this week about a big hole in the ground in Wales \u2013 but got diverted by the sad loss of Leonard Nimoy \u2013 universally known as Mr Spock.<\/p>\n<p>Spock was possibly my first great love \u2013 when I was about 11.<\/p>\n<p>Leonard Nimoy and the Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry developed a wonderful character in Spock. With the news this week of Nimoy\u2019s death, I started to wonder exactly what was it about Spock that was so very fascinating.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Spock was an alien \u2013 that in itself was interesting to a developing Sci Fi fan like my young self. But he was also mixed race \u2013 half Vulcan and half Human. That was inspired. The viewer was constantly looking for both the human and the alien in the character.<\/p>\n<p>His Vulcan side was supposedly devoid of emotion, but in reality, Spock was not devoid of emotion \u2013 he had simply learned to control and hide it. Throughout the series his character was a battleground between his Human and Vulcan halves \u2013 between emotion and logic.<\/p>\n<p>One of Spock\u2019s most famous lines was &#8211; The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. But then, Kirk goes in search of Spock and brings him back &#8211; because <em>the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>This was the dichotomy in a nutshell.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Spock was a handsome man made just that little bit strange by his pointed ears and raised eyebrows. But when taken by the Pon Farr (the Vulcan mating urge) \u2013 he becomes sexually driven to the point of danger and death. It occurs to me that this has been reflected in the passion for Vampire heroes (think Twilight and the Vampire Diaries). The danger inherent in falling for the hero adds to his appeal.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5700\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5700\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/spock.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5700\" src=\"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/spock.jpg\" alt=\"For a girl living in a small outback town, Spock was adventure and wonder, all rolled into one.\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5700\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">For a girl living in a small outback town, Spock was adventure and wonder, all rolled into one.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There were two other reasons I think Spock was a great character \u2013 and a hero. One of course was his amazing intellect. Very smart men are very sexy.<\/p>\n<p>And the other was his moral code. Even if his idea of right and wrong was different to ours, he acted on what he believed \u2013 and that is the sort of honesty and morality that I like to see in a hero.<\/p>\n<p>Jim Kirk was the Captain \u2013 but to me, Spock was the hero.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5698\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5698\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/kirk_spock01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5698\" src=\"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/kirk_spock01.jpg\" alt=\"It was a great pairing of characters - the macho and impulsive Captain against the cool-headed and brilliant science officer. \" width=\"450\" height=\"431\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5698\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It was a great pairing of characters &#8211; the macho and impulsive Captain against the cool-headed and brilliant science officer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>So \u2013 goodbye Leonard Nimoy \u2013 you gave me a character I still love.<\/p>\n<p>Live long and prosper Mr Spock\u2026 I have been and always shall be your friend.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5701\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5701\" style=\"width: 230px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/cutout.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5701\" src=\"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/cutout.jpg\" alt=\"This life-sized cardboard Spock was a birthday present - but like the character, he's stayed with me for many years. \" width=\"230\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5701\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This life-sized cardboard Spock was a birthday present &#8211; but like the character, he&#8217;s stayed with me for many years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; I was going to blog this week about a big hole in the ground in Wales \u2013 but got diverted by the sad loss of Leonard Nimoy \u2013 universally known as&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}