The son of Ukrainian immigrants who grew up in the Big Apple, Nimoy won the hearts of esnl’s generation for the role which will forever define him, the ever-logical voice of detachment that was Star Trek’s Mister Spock — the dispassionate voice of moderation to the hyperkinetic Capt. James Tiberius Kirk. The oddest of couples, to a generation they represented a hopeful possibility in a day when air raid sired tests happened monthly and the threats of nuclear war and racial violence dominated the news pages.

Star Trek was a world where black, white, Asian, Russian, Scot, and Midwesterners could engage in harmonious cooperation, even with a pointy eared alien as the second-in-command.

USA Today assembled a collection of archetypal Spock moments, the fitting acknowledgments of the role that Nimoy first fought to distinguish himself from, then embraced:

Classic Vulcan Moments

Program notes:

Watch classic scenes of Star…