Spock the celebrity (magazine pictures from zacharyquinto.com)
If this year’s “Star Trek” can be responsible for anything, it is for ushering in the new age of the intellectual. Although many people look back on Spock from the original “Star Trek” with fond memories, he-even with all of his cool Vulcan mojo-gets pushed to the side to make way for “Did you see Kirk shag that green girl?” talk. But now Kirk’s green-girl shagging is the sideshow instead of the main event. This year, Spock is in the forefront.
Spock the character and real-life “Spock 2.0″ Zachary Quinto have been featured on the covers of Esquire U.K., SFX, Total Film, Entertainment Weekly, SciFi, Star Trek Magazine, Empire Magazine, iCinema and many others. In quite a few of those magazines, Spock is the sole featured character. (Empire U.K. called their May issue “The Genius Issue” and revolved the whole magazine around Spock.)
Spock's past helped set him on a course to awesomeness
Spock’s character has always spoken to the nerd, dork, outcast and loner in all of us, but now it seems that nerdom is a way of life. Everywhere you look, there’s some form of entertainment-be it a movie (“Superbad”), tv show (“Ugly Betty”, “Aliens in America”, “Freaks and Geeks”) or book (the “Harry Potter” series) that reiterates how being different is as much of a gift as it is a curse. Nowadays, everyone is in love with the inherent coolness that comes with being different. The arrival of Spock for the ’09 is only the icing on the nerdy cake.
In essence, Spock’s revamped storyline is the ultimate geek rags-to-riches story: Spock was teased as a kid, ostracized as an outsider, and rose through the ranks to become commander-and, for a brief time, captain-of the Enterprise. (Like all nerds, myself included, Spock’s ambition comes from wanting to be powerful enough to force people to accept you.) Just by acting as himself, he manages to get a girlfriend who is smart, sassy, stalwart, and sensuously beautiful (Kirk, using oily charms and smirks, fails miserably and humorously). Even though Kirk’s story arc is important-he lives up to his late heroic father’s memory-it’s Spock’s who is pushed to the forefront of the movie. It’s Spock’s story that you ultimately remember the most.
Total Film is one of the magazines that featured Spock as the face of "Star Trek" (picture from zacharyquinto.com)
No disrespect to original Kirk and Kirk 2.0-Chris Pine’s Kirk is awesome, funny, and endearing. But it is so refreshing to see an intelligent, mysterious, and cool character like Spock finally have the spotlight focused squarely on him.
[...] Spock gets his due [...]