An adaptation of the song, named " Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Earth ", was written by Charles Randolph Grean, Fred Hertz and Leonard Nimoy ( Nimoy recites the text as Spock explaining how the star-people wish upon an earth and so forth ).

Nimoy explained this to the episode's director and, according to Nimoy, the director had no idea what he was talking about.

Nimoy approached Beverly Hills Cop writer Daniel Petrie, Jr. to write the screenplay when a concept that executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg described as " either the best or worst idea in the world " arose — Star Trek fan Eddie Murphy wanted a starring role.

The idea of a parallel universe and the concept of deja vu was a major plot line of the first season finale of Fringe, guest-starring Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek.

The idea and name of the Vulcan " katra " came from Bennett's discussions with Nimoy.

Negative fan reaction to the title gave Nimoy the idea for the title of the second volume.

In his second autobiography, Nimoy explains that the title of the first book had been his idea, over the objections of his publishers.

From approximately 1968 to 1973, several Nimoy and Star Trek fanzine writers and editors ( notably contributors to Regina Marvinny's Nimoyan Federation and members of the Leonard Nimoy Association of Fans ) discussed the idea of a live-action The Lord of the Rings film, with Nimoy playing Aragorn, and there was a brief letter-writing campaign.

As reported by editor Ruth Berman ( issue # 1, Inside Star Trek, July 1968, pp. 15 – 16 ), " ardent rock hound and amateur lapidary " Roddenberry came up with the Vulcan philosophy after he presented Leonard Nimoy with a unique " hand-crafted piece of jewelry ," a " pendent " ( sic ) of polished yellow gold ( circle ) and florentined white gold ( triangle ), with a stone of brilliant white fabulite — an artificial gem " developed by the laser industry and used in space mechanisms for its optical qualities ," and thus well-suited as a gift for an actor in a science fiction show.

Nimoy would go on to direct the second most successful film ( critically and financially ) in the franchise after the 2009 Star Trek film, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ( 1986 ), and Three Men and a Baby, the highest grossing film of 1987, made him a star director.

His photography studies at UCLA occurred after Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, when Nimoy seriously considered changing careers.

An honor Nimoy did not receive, however, was the naming of asteroid 2309 Mr. Spock after his character, at least not directly.

In the film's prologue ( set 19 years after the events of Unification, and as depicted in the graphic novel Star Trek: Countdown ), Ambassador Spock ( Nimoy ) promises the Romulans he will use Vulcan technology to save them from a rogue supernova that threatens to destroy their Empire.

After DeForest Kelley in 1964 stated his non-interest in playing the role, Roddenberry cast Nimoy because he knew him from a guest appearance in his pilot The Lieutenant ; after Roddenberry saw Nimoy's thin face and sharp features, no other actors were considered-Kelley, on the other hand, would later be cast as Dr. McCoy, the highly emotional human who became Spock's frequent foil.

However, the process of ungluing the ears was painful for Nimoy, and meant that he had to come in an hour and a half early before filming, and stay behind for a half hour each day after filming, to apply and remove the glued pieces.

Nimoy recalled, more than a decade after the show's cancellation:

When Leonard Nimoy finally agreed to reprise Spock, his Vulcan replacement as Science Officer became Commander Sonak, and appeared briefly in the film ; after only a few lines of dialogue, he was killed in a transporter accident.

As Kelley's role grew in importance during the first season he received a pay raise to about $ 2, 500 per episode, and received third billing starting in the second season after Nimoy.

Nimoy chose Hicks after inviting her to lunch with Shatner and witnessing a chemistry between the two.

Nimoy debated whether the crew should change costumes, but after seeing how people in San Francisco are dressed, he decided they would still fit in.

Nimoy and the other producers were unhappy with Mangini's attempts to create the probe's droning operating noise ; after 18 attempts, the sound designer finally asked Nimoy what he thought the probe should sound like, and recorded Nimoy's response.

Bennett claimed that after he rewrote the script to include Shatner and Nimoy, Paramount had still rejected it and that he decided it was time he left the franchise.

Nimoy's hiring of Meyer was not only beneficial because Meyer knew the material and could write fast ( having produced The Wrath of Khans screenplay in twelve days ), but if Meyer was to direct it would offset any acrimony from Shatner, whose ire would have been aroused if Nimoy returned to direct his third Star Trek feature after The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home.

The script was finished by October 1990, five months after Nimoy was approached to write the story.

In contrast, Nimoy and Shatner's memoirs report that after the screening he called his lawyer and demanded a quarter of the scenes be cut ; the producers refused, and within 48 hours he was dead.

Nimoy was given the job after he persuaded Eisner that this was not the case.

At the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Leonard Nimoy reads a version of the quotation that adds the word " continuing " between " the " and " voyages ", replaces the words " its five-year " with " her on-going ", and adds the word " forms " after " life ": Space ... the Final Frontier.

When Gene Roddenberry was planning his new series Star Trek: Phase II in the 1970s, and after it was learned that Leonard Nimoy would not return as Spock, Roddenberry created a new male Vulcan character to take Spock's place.

The press predicted that Nimoy would be a star after the show ended, however, and James Doohan expected that appearing on an NBC series would help his post-Star Trek career.

The film's main visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, based most of Sentinel Prime's features on actor Sean Connery, and after Leonard Nimoy was cast to voice the role, the effects were altered to incorporate Nimoy's acting as well.

Eugene Myers ranked this as a superior example of " several bodyswap / alien possession episodes of the series " in terms of acting: Shatner has a " nuanced performance, walking jerkily as though unaccustomed to legs after eons without a body ," while " Nimoy, of course, clearly enjoyed the opportunity to stretch his acting — and facial — muscles, playing out of character ... to smirk, smile, and scheme his way through his scenes.

Alexander's background recalls the association of both Nimoy and Patrick Stewart with Shakespeare roles, as well as the film turn by Shakespearean Christopher Plummer as a Klingon.

For Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ( 1984 ) director Leonard Nimoy and writer-producer Harve Bennett wanted the Klingons to speak a proper language instead of made-up gibberish and so commissioned Okrand to develop the phrases Doohan had come up with into a full language.

A very abridged spoken word reading of " There Will Come Soft Rains " and " Usher II " was made in 1975 with Leonard Nimoy as narrator.

According to Shatner, early Star Trek reviews called his performance " wooden ", with most of the show's acting praise and media interest going to Nimoy.

According to the DVD commentary of the film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, actors Leonard Nimoy and Kirstie Alley, portraying Spock and Saavik respectively, spoke their lines in English, and later dubbed in alien dialogue ( at least partially designed by linguist Marc Okrand ) that corresponded with the movements of their mouths in the scene.

The gesture actually emulates the initial Shin of the Shema ( Nimoy has also commented that the " sh " could also indicate Shaddai, or the Almighty ; more recently, on William Shatner's Raw Nerve, he associated it with Shekhinah.

) On numerous occasions, for example in the 1983 TV special Star Trek Memories ( which is often syndicated along with The Original Series ), Nimoy recounts how as a child, he peeked during the blessing and witnessed the gesture, although the congregation are supposed to put hands over eyes or turn away at this moment in acknowledgement of the presence of the Almighty.

Together with Vic Morrow, he produced a 1966 version of Deathwatch, an English language film version of Genet's play Haute Surveillance, adapted and directed by Morrow and starring Nimoy.

Nimoy as Spock with William Shatner as Kirk, 1968.

Their characters were from opposite sides of the Iron Curtain, though with his saturnine looks, Nimoy was predictably the villain, with Shatner playing a reluctant U. N. C. L. E.

Nimoy first worked with DeForest Kelley in " Man of Violence ", a season two episode of The Virginian.

After directing a few television show episodes, Nimoy started film directing in 1984 with the third installment of the film series.

In 1991, Nimoy teamed up with Robert B. Radnitz to produce a movie for TNT about a pro bono publico lawsuit brought by public interest attorney William John Cox on behalf of Mel Mermelstein, an Auschwitz survivor, against a group of organizations engaged in Holocaust denial.

Together with John De Lancie, another ex-actor from the Star Trek series, Nimoy created Alien Voices, an audio-production venture that specializes in audio dramatizations.

Nimoy was honored by Symphony Space with the renaming of the Thalia Theater as the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater.

In April 2010, Leonard Nimoy announced that he was retiring from playing the signature character of Star Trek's Spock, citing both his advanced age and the desire to give Zachary Quinto the opportunity to enjoy full media attention with the Spock character.

On August 30, 2012, Mr. Nimoy narrated a satirical segment about Mitt Romney's life on Comedy Central's " The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

As such, in this autobiography Nimoy maintains that in some meaningful sense he has merged with Spock while at the same time maintaining the distance between fact and fiction.

Nimoy has also written several volumes of poetry, some published along with a number of his photographs.

In 1995, Nimoy was involved in the production of Primortals, a comic book series published by Tekno Comix about first contact with aliens, which had arisen from a discussion he had with Isaac Asimov.