“ | I intend to assist in the effort to reestablish communication with Starfleet. However, if crew morale is better served by my roaming the halls weeping, I will gladly defer to your medical expertise. Excuse me. | „ |
~ Spock to McCoy |
Spock is the deuteragonist of the science fiction film series Star Trek. He is a half Vulcan, half Human Starfleet science officer and second-in-command board the USS Enterprise in an alternate reality. He is also one of 10'000 surviving members of the Vulcan species after the planet Vulcan was destroyed by Nero.
He is portrayed by Zachary Quinto, who also portrayed Sylar in Heroes.
History[]
Spock was born in 2222 to Sarek and Amanda Grayson. Prior to Nero's incursion into the 23rd century, which caused the Kelvin timeline to diverge from the prime reality, his history matches that of his prime reality counterpart.
Relationships[]
James T. Kirk[]
Spock and Kirk had a complicated and troubled relationship from the start. As an instructor at Starfleet Academy and the creator of the Kobayashi Maru scenario, Spock did not appreciate that Kirk had altered the program so he could beat it. In fact, he openly accused him of having cheated and as a result, Kirk had to answer before an inquiry board at the Academy for his actions. Kirk was subsequently suspended and only with the help of Doctor Leonard McCoy was he able to come on board the Enterprise. Spock and Kirk continued to clash with one another over vastly different viewpoints and philosophies they held. Spock was highly disciplined, always honoring regulations and adhering to a strict code of conduct, whereas Kirk was self-assured, overconfident and had an unconventional way of approaching matters. However, despite having initially dismissed Kirk's theory about an attack on Vulcan, Spock heard him out and proceeded to support the hypothesis as logical. Spock's lack of tolerance for Kirk's ways resulted in Spock just throwing Kirk off the ship altogether, the first opportunity he got. When Kirk later provoked him by referencing his mother, Spock lost all control and was more than eager to hurt Kirk. After speaking with his father about the loss both had shared, Spock returned to his duties as first officer and teamed up with Kirk to stop Nero.
Unlike the other members of the crew who mostly followed Kirk at first as he was the next in line for captain, Spock followed his leadership without hesitation and called him "captain", which only Chekov, Scotty and Uhura (sarcastically) did besides him. He also displayed an understanding and somewhat acceptance of Kirk's unusual methods, commenting – when Kirk decided to join him in attacking Nero – that he himself could state the regulations against it but that he wouldn't do so, as he knew Kirk would ignore them. Besides saying that, Spock didn't object.
Nyota Uhura[]
Spock and Nyota Uhura had a relationship that was established prior to the start of their careers on board the Enterprise. Spock was openly confronted by Uhura regarding her getting assigned to the USS Farragut even though she was qualified to serve aboard the USS Enterprise, to which Spock replied that his decision had been just "an attempt to avoid the appearance of favoritism." By Uhura insisting he change her posting to the Enterprise, he was indeed persuaded to do so.
While on duty aboard the Enterprise, Spock and Uhura maintained a formal professional relationship – Spock usually addressing her by her rank and surname – with the exception of some moments where the nature of their feelings for one another was displayed or hinted by their actions. Shortly after they arrived on the ship, Spock supported and extolled Uhura's abilities before Captain Pike.
One moment of affection between them was just after Spock realized Nero had created a black hole in the planet Vulcan. This incident impacted on Spock's relationship with Uhura, especially since he decided to beam down to the Vulcan surface himself, in an attempt to save his parents and the Vulcan High Council. When a concerned Uhura called him by name and not by rank, he paused, in the midst of a crisis, to explain to her what he was about to do and offered further explanation.
After Vulcan was destroyed by Nero, Spock was at one point pursued by Uhura off the bridge and into a turbolift, where she comforted him, the two lovers kissing and embracing each other.
After Spock lost control and attacked Kirk, he looked to Uhura, ashamed of what he'd done. He shared another look with her as he walked off the bridge after giving up command. Later, their relationship revealed itself to Kirk and Scott when they witnessed Spock and Uhura kissing in the transporter room. There, Spock also called her by her first name, "Nyota".
A year later, Uhura accompanied Spock to Nibiru before he was rappelled from a shuttle into a volcano, to prevent it from wiping out the Nibirans. The ash damaged the shuttle and snapped the wire, forcing Uhura and Sulu to leave him. Uhura swam back to the Enterprise, which was hidden underwater. She was distraught to learn ash from the volcano would prevent the Enterprise from transporting Spock back aboard, and to hear Spock explain he would prefer to die activating the cold fusion device than violate the Prime Directive.
Later, when the Enterprise was tasked with hunting down terrorist John Harrison, Uhura hinted to Kirk in the turbolift that she and Spock were having relationship troubles. While on a shuttle to Qo'noS where Harrison was hiding, Uhura and Spock got into an argument, where she accused of him of being too ready to sacrifice himself for a mission and not caring how she would feel if he died. Spock acknowledged that since his mother's death, he had been closing himself to such thoughts about how she would feel since he had experienced those feelings, specifically because he did care. Later, after getting back to the Enterprise, the two shared a reconciliatory kiss.
After Harrison revealed he was Khan Noonien Singh, Spock asked Uhura to contact his older parallel universe counterpart on New Vulcan for information. Uhura managed to make contact although the ship was outside of normal range of communication with his location.
When Kirk died in attempt to save the ship and his crew, Uhura encouraged Spock to beam down to go after and capture Khan, who had crashed the Vengeance into San Francisco. However, when McCoy discovered that a blood transfusion from Khan could heal Kirk, Uhura volunteered to beam down saving Spock from having his head crushed by Khan in the same manner in which he had killed admiral Marcus. As Spock took the opportunity to gain the advantage in the fight and kill him, Uhura stopped Spock by informing him they need Khan alive to save Kirk.
Almost 3 years into their five years mission, Spock and Uhura were still a couple but they experienced a brief time-out in their relationship as a consequence of him starting to doubt his purpose in Starfleet, and wondering if he maybe owed a debt of duty to his species, and he should have therefore left the ship to join the rest of the vulcans on New Vulcan helping them rebuild their race.
When the crew got to Starbase Yorktown, Uhura tried to give him back his mother's vokaya necklace that he had gifted her, but a visibly sad Spock declined the offer insisting her to keep it.
Shortly after leaving Yorktown, the Enterprise was destroyed by Krall's attack leaving Spock stranded on planet Altamid with Leonard McCoy while Nyota Uhura, and the rest of the enterprise crew minus the Captain, Pavel Chekov and Montgomery Scott, got captured by Krall and held prisoner at his base.
While talking with McCoy, an injured Spock regretfully confessed that before their ship got destroyed and they lost the crew, he had wanted to discuss things more with Uhura but was interrupted by news about Ambassador Spock dying that affected him unexpectedly, and further persuaded him to leave Starfleet in spite of his feelings for her.
Later on after he was beamed aboard the USS Franklin by Kirk and Scotty, Spock realized that if Uhura was still wearing his Vokaya amulet, Chekov could track the unique Vulcan mineral (that emitted a harmless radiation) and find her (and thus the rest of the crew held prisoner by Krall). When the group made a plan to free the crew, a still injured Spock insisted to participate to the mission because Uhura was in the base too. In spite of his condition, both Kirk and McCoy allowed him to go with them aknovelenging their friend's need to be there due to his relationship with the Lieutenant.
Once him, McCoy and Jaylah got to the base as planned and the two men freed the crew, Hikaru Sulu informed Spock that Uhura unfortunately wasn't with them anymore because she had been taken by Krall shortly before him and McCoy got there.
Spock then went looking for her alone but he got attacked by two Swarm soldiers and fell to the ground in pain, only to get saved by Uhura who helped him stand up and asked what he was doing there. When Spock answered that he clearly was there to rescue her (noticing the irony of the situation), Uhura smiled pleased by his care for her and his efforts.
Later, when Spock volunteered to pilot one of the swarms ships to try to stop Krall from destroying Yorktown, Uhura expressed concerns over him being still hurt for his injury to which Spock replied he respected and appreciated her concerns.
After the events on Altamid put his life into perspective, Spock realized that his place was with his friends just like the other Spock (who had a picture of his crew mates still with him when he died). Having decided to stay, him and Uhura, whose feelings for one another had not changed, reprised their relationship.
At the party for Jim's birthday, Uhura, who openly wore his Vokaya necklace again, teased Spock saying that she thought he had a mission report to make to which he replied that he did, but he thought that being with her would be more pleasing (implying he changed his original evening plans, putting work aside, and went to the party to spend time with her).
Leonard McCoy[]
In 2263, after working aboard the same ship for some years, Leonard McCoy and Spock weren't exactly best friends yet. When the ship got to Starbase Yorktown for a break, McCoy accidentally witnessed a sad moment between Spock and Nyota Uhura as the man sadly looked after the woman walking away from him. Knowing about their romantic relationship, he ironically asked Spock if they were breaking up and promptly assumed it surely was because of something the Vulcan had done.
During the dramatic moments aboard the Enterprise following Krall's swarm ships attack, Spock and McCoy teamed up and got to the damaged ship sectors so that McCoy could check on the injured crew. During this time, they both got trapped into a turbolift that was subsequently expelled from the ship into space, and intercepted by one of the swarm ships. Not without effort, the two men successfully defeated the swarm drones aboard the vessel with McCoy taking control of the ship, and both of them looking in disblelief and fear as the enemy ships captured crew members that were leaving the hopeless ship in escape pods.
As a consequence of their harsh landing on the planet Altamid's surface, Spock got severely injured on his lower abdomen and McCoy pointed out that with the Vulcan heart being placed where the human liver is, he was lucky the injury was located some centimenters away from it or he would have been dead. With no medical equipment available to him, the doctor was forced to cauterize and seal Spock's injury the best he could using the heat produced by a phaser.
Later, when two of them reached a cave where to rest for a while, Mccoy got concerned about Spock when the latter looked unconscious, and he tried to wake him up. Spock replied that he had closed his eyes to simply contemplate mortality. After a moment, in visible distress both physical and psychological, Spock confided to the doctor that the reason for the tension he had witnessed between him and Lieutenant Uhura before was the fact that he had started to be unsure about his place in Starfleet and wondering about whether he still owed a debt of duty to his endangered species, and the recent news about the death of Ambassador Spock had further persuaded him that he needed to leave Starfleet to help his people on New Vulcan. McCoy wondered about what Captain Kirk would have thought about it, to which Spock answered he had not told him about his decision yet. McCoy joked that if Spock left, he'd throw a party and, to his surprise Spock smiles, a detail that made him realize that the man was indeed delirious because of his injury.
Having understood that they needed to get out of their refuge to attempt to contact the surviving crew, the two men left the cave, which exposed them to the drones. Spock asked the doctor to leave him behind because it was important for him to find the rest of the crew, but McCoy refused to leave him there and sarcastically commented that for a moment he thought Spock cared about his well being too, to which Spock replied, as the swarm ship were getting close to them, that he thought his respect for him had always been clear in spite of their not always friendly dialog through the years.
After getting beamed to safety aboard the USS Franklin on time, McCoy finally tried to medicate Spock's injury using some of the old, albeit less effective, medical equipment they found on the ship. Later on, after Spock realized that they could track the Vokaya mineral of the necklace he had given to Uhura and find her and the rest of the crew still held captive by Krall, McCoy teased the vulcan about the fact that he had not only gifted radioactive jewelry to his girlfriend, but it also was a tracking device, much to Spock's chargin and disbelief because that had not been his intention.
McCoy was understanding and supportive of Spock's decision to join the rescue team because of Uhura's presence in the base among the ones in danger, in spite of the Vulcan's physical condition still being impacted by his injury thus requiring him to stay behind and rest. After successfully saving the rest of the crew and finally leaving the planet aboard the Franklin, Spock volunteered to pilot one of the swarm ships in order to find the signal that made them move in sync and give the rest of the crew the required information to disrupt it and defeat the the swarm before they could destroy Yorktown. When both Uhura and Kirk expressed concerns over his condition, Spock proposed that he could be helped by doctor McCoy because he, too, was more familiar with those ships after their shared experience on one of them. This much to the Doctor's horror and annoyance over the prospect of piloting one of those vessels again. Despite his protests, the two men are able to accomplish their mission and ultimately save Captain Kirk in time before he's sucked into space after defeating Krall.
The experience on Altamid no doubt gave to both Spock and McCoy a new mutual understanding and respect of each other. However, the doctor still maintained some of his old mocking habits when he saw Spock chatting with Uhura at the party he had organized for Kirk's birthday, and he eyed her necklace in a manner that suggested he was still judging the Vulcan for giving to his girlfriend a 'tracking device'.
Ultimately, Uhura and McCoy were the only people who knew about Spock's personal conflict.