When a prominent celebrity passes away, especially one that we grew up with, it’s a bit of a strange thing that occurs. What happens is that because we all spent so much time watching and enjoying, and appreciating this person’s work over the course of years, or even decades, that we feel like we knew them, when we had never met them in the first place. This has occurred in the recent past for myself and my fellow 411 staffers when first Roger Ebert and then Robin Williams left this world.

We find ourselves in this situation again as this past week the great Leonard Nimoy died at the age of eighty-three. He was a well-loved sci-fi icon, an actor, poet, photographer and director. It’s with a deep sadness that my fellow 411 staff members gather to remember him and his contributions to pop culture.

Mathew Sforcina: I’m not going to try to say that Leonard Nimoy was some giant influence on my life, I don’t base my life around his teachings or anything. I never met him, never saw him in person, I’m not going to insult you by trying to say that this is some giant, monumental incident. As all of us grow older and get on with our lives, more and more we will learn of people from our childhood and our teenage years passing on, it’s a fact of life.

But there is still grief, still loss, when you hear of it, when it occurs. I, like a lot of people, loved Star Trek, and I was a pretty solid Trekkie for a while, although I never dressed up or anything. And Nimoy was such an important part of that, not only in the overall Star Trek universe but the Kirk/Spock/McCoy trio, one of the most influential and important triple acts in media history, in my (biased as all hell) viewpoint.

All of which tends to overshadow his other work, obviously, which is a shame. His voiceover work for animation, his Alien Voices productions and video games are all pretty excellent, and his final speech in his appearance in Becker about teaching is actually one of the best statements about teaching I’ve ever heard… which is a weird thing to admit but there we go.

I’m rambling a little here, I guess. I’ve never been good trying to summarize people’s lives like this. A dry recap of his work and references to ‘influence on pop culture’ always seem so hollow and trite. Likewise going overboard the other way and laying on the emotion seems totally off base, given the situation.

But if I have to try, and clearly I do, it comes down to a simple fact.

Leonard Nimoy did a lot of wonderful things in his time, and played many roles. But the role he’s best known for, the logical green blooded alien? That character, that actor, he taught me a lot about being human. And logic.

Even when his brain got stolen.

Michael Weyer: Like many of my generation, Star Trek was my introduction to science fiction. The classic series introduced so many tropes we now take for granted but at its heart, it was the characters we enjoyed. And as much as William Shatner’s Kirk was the main star, Leonard Nimoy’s Spock was on equal, if not greater, standing. The idea of an alien shining a light on humanity had been done before but Spock brought new gravitas toward it, starting with his character so logical and cool, a walking computer in many ways. But as the series went on, we saw Spock’s inner struggle with his human half, logical but recognizing the connections to Kirk and McCoy as important. He brought a wry humor to their talks, a man of duty but willing to bend rules at times to help them out. We saw his conflict with his father and the times Spock showed emotion were fun. What made it work was Nimoy himself, amazing finding nuances to the character and creating one of the most important sci-fi characters ever.

Off-screen, he was a warm man, smart and while at first not liking his main role (even writing a book called I Am Not Spock), he would come to embrace it and its legacy for so many fans. He had many other roles, of course, from a spy on Mission Impossible to the warped genius William Bell on Fringe. Worth tracking down is an episode of T.J. Hooker where he plays an old friend who Hooker has to stop when he takes the law into his own hands against his daughter’s attacker. It showed no matter the role, he and Shatner had a great chemistry together and an obvious friendship.

His work as a director was good as well (especially Three Men and a Baby) as the man just came off so warm and human that he felt approachable despite his status as an “icon.” Whether an actor, writer or singer, Nimoy just had a gift of making you feel at ease and like a kindly uncle in many ways. That’s why his death hits so hard, not just the loss of an iconic character but the man who played him, a man we all felt like family. A man proud of his faith and his ability to help others, an amazing actor and wonderful human being, we will all miss Leonard Nimoy badly and yet remember the genius and joy he brought to us all.

Bryan Kristopowitz: When I found out that the great Leonard Nimoy had died I, like plenty of other people around the world, immediately flashed in my mind to the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, where Nimoy’s Spock died after sacrificing himself to save the crew of the Enterprise. And then Captain Kirk’s eulogy of his old friend, where Kirk talked about Spock’s humanity. Kirk’s little pause at the end of the speech, where he tries valiantly to hold back his emotions, still stings. I found myself mimicking that pause when thinking about Nimoy’s death the rest of the day because it was a big deal, in a pop culture sense. It still seems unbelievable that he’s gone.

We’ll never see Spock Prime again. We’ll never see another interview where Nimoy talks about his place in pop culture, what he’s working on now, what it means to be Spock (because, much like how Robert Englund is Freddy Krueger, Leonard Nimoy is Spock. Zachary Quinto just plays Spock in the new movies), and what it’s like to work with JJ Abrams. And we’ll never hear that voice in a new context. He won’t lend his voice to another episode of The Simpsons or The Big Bang Theory, he won’t voice some new CG character in some new show or movie. And we’ll never hear him narrate a space documentary or some new version of In Search Of….

In Search Of… was such a great show. The subject matter was almost always ridiculous, but he gave it all a sense of plausibility that the producers of Unsolved Mysteries ripped off when they hired Robert Stack (he had the same kind of voice). Hopefully Nimoy’s passing will generate new interest in that show and get it back on TV in some way. It’s dated, sure, but it’s still worth experiencing again.

And perhaps his other work, from his efforts as a director (Three Men and a Baby, two Star Trek sequels, Holy Matrimony, among others) and his guest spots on old TV shows will get some play. Perhaps his TV movie Never Forget will become a big deal (it’s a great movie), and that weird pilot he did in the 1970’s, Baffled!, will become widely available on DVD again. That’s what I hope for. He may have been Spock, but he did other things. We should look at them again. Maybe Fringe will get a better syndication deal.

Man, that scene in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, where Spock tells Kim Catrall about the painting in his quarters. It’s a reminder that all things end. It suddenly means more now.

Ben Piper: I first became aware of Mr. Nimoy because of In Search Of, a documentary series that aired in the mid to late 70’s that covered weird, unexplained phenomena such as ghosts, UFO’s, ESP, bigfoot and so on and so forth. My dad would watch it every weekend and as such, I would too. Often, the show would freak me the hell out and scare the living shit out of me. Again, I was in single digits in age so that was understandable. Looking back on it, it might be a good explanation why I’m into some of the weird stuff I’m into, with regards to pop culture in general.

I didn’t really know about or get into Star Trek until a few years later. I was still a pre-adolescent, but slightly older. One of the local stations started airing old re-runs of the original show in the afternoons after I had got out of school. I took right to it. What appealed to me were the ideas that the show presented, as well as the fact that in most episodes the resolution had to do not with personal or military might, but the notion of the way out of the situation they were in might just be an out of left field idea that may not work, but in light of their circumstances, it didn’t hurt to try. Given that it was a TV show, that bright idea pretty much always worked.

While the show made Shatner the household name with his space cowboy antics and overacting, it was Nimoy as the iconic and “emotionless” Spock that provided the heart to the series. While Bones often derided him as a “green-blooded gobin” when things got heated, he often made the most * ahem * logical and humanistic choices. And while Shatner went over the top and overacted, Nimoy kept things boiling underneath the surface. His facial expressions subtle, and nuanced. It is also interesting to point out that when Roddenberry brought forth The Next Generation he included a Spock proxy (Data) to provide the exact same element to the new show.

And while Mr. Nimoy kept himself busy outside of Trek lore, writing several books of poetry, voice-over work as well as directing. (Two Star Trek movies, as well as the highest grossing movie of that particular year, Three Men And A Baby, plus others.) He of course, continued to act as well. One of my favorite non-Trek things that he was involved with late in his life was a recurring role on one of my favorite shows Fringe. In it, he played the enigmatic William Bell. Whenever he would show up, it would promise things would get a lot weirder. (Including an episode where he, John Noble and Pacey dropped acid, resulting in an episode that was half- animated)

But he will forever be remembered for being and portraying Spock. At one point, He railed and chafed against this sort of typecasting, but later on, he came to love and embrace it. And why not? It was and is a truly iconic character that has not only withstood the test of time, but also shall live long and prosper in perpetuity.

I have no simple way of closing my missive here, other than to repeat a tweet from another one of my favorite TV actors.

“I have been, and always shall be, your fan.”

Godspeed, Mr. Nimoy. Your great talents and humanity shall be missed.