Spock - Reception

Reception

From early on, the public's reaction to Spock was strongly positive, even fanatical. Headshots of Spock became popular fan souvenirs, with the rare ones of the actor laughing the most valuable. To Nimoy's great surprise Spock became a sex symbol, and teenagers asked questions about current events such as the Vietnam War and LSD as if he were the Vulcan scientist. A fan even asked the actor to lay his hands on a friend's eyes to heal them. Nimoy recalled, more than a decade after the show's cancellation:

The "Star Trek" phenomenon continues to amaze and confound me. It was incredible, and it still is, although it is gentler now than it used to be. For a time, it was hysterical – it was so wild I had to be very careful where I went. If I went to a restaurant, I had to plan my entrances and my exits so I wouldn't be mobbed and hurt. Same thing in hotels and airports – any public place. It isn't that hysterical any more, but it is still a potent force.

NASA made Spock an informal mascot of the space agency. Nimoy was invited to be guest of honor at the March 1967 National Space Club dinner, and to take an extensive tour of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. The actor concluded from the warm and intense reception he received that astronauts like John Glenn and aerospace industry engineers, secretaries, and shareholders alike all regarded Star Trek, and especially the character of Spock, as a "dramatization of the future of their space program".

The character proved inspirational to many budding scientists and engineers. Nimoy has said that many of them, on meeting him, are eager to show him their work and discuss it with him as if he were a scientific peer, as opposed to an actor, photographer, and poet. His stock response in these situations is "it certainly looks like you're headed in the right direction".

UGO named Spock one of the 50 greatest TV characters. According to Shatner, much of Star Trek's acting praise and media interest went to Nimoy.