The Most Emotional Star Trek Scene Was Written As A Joke

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 7 seconds ago

Many casual Star Trek fans think that Vulcans don’t feel any emotions. That’s actually not true at all: in reality, these aliens experience the same tempest of emotional torment as human beings. They simply choose to suppress these emotions, ordering their lives around logic instead of passion. Nonetheless, those feelings are always there, just waiting to bubble to the surface. This was clear as early as the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The Naked Time.” In this story, a trippy space virus makes everyone act drunk; for example, Sulu goes topless and starts carrying a sword around. Spock, meanwhile, has an emotional breakdown, crying over his inability to express how he feels. 

It’s arguably the most emotional scene in Star Trek history, all thanks to the one character that almost never expresses emotions. However, in a truly shocking twist, this emotional scene almost didn’t appear in the episode. Originally, this was just going to be a joke scene where somebody painted a mustache on Spock. The only reason it was changed is that Leonard Nimoy spoke up, demanding a deeper scene for his character. The result is an unforgettable moment with the franchise’s most (to use his preferred terminology) fascinating character!

Spock Loses His Cool

The plot of “The Naked Time” is that members of the Starship Enterprise keep getting infected with this weird virus. It basically simulates the effects of intoxication, causing the crew to act out in wildly unpredictable ways. The most memorable is Sulu showing off his hot moves and hotter pecs as he drunkenly slashes his sword throughout the ship. Oh, and Kirk babbles like a wife guy, only he’s married to the Enterprise. In the midst of all this, Spock has a more unconventional reaction: an emotional breakdown. When Kirk finds him, the Vulcan is crying and lamenting everything from his friendship with the captain to his relationship with his mother.

With Kirk’s help, Spock snaps out of it and helps to save the day. Still, the scene is a powerful example that still waters run quite deep with this pointy-eared alien. Sure, he may act cool and logical and badmouth everyone else’s emotional reactions, but Spock has feelings just as intense (if not more so) than his human colleagues. In Leonard Nimoy’s autobiography, I Am Spock, he revealed that “The Naked Time” writer John D. F. Black originally wrote a goofy scene where someone paints a mustache on Spock. The actor didn’t like this scene, preferring something that preserved Spock’s dignity.

He Knows Why The Caged ‘Stache Cries

According to Nimoy, when he went to speak with Black, the writer blew him off because he was already working on a different script. So, the actor went over the writer’s head and spoke to franchise creator Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry agreed with Nimoy and asked Black to write a new scene. When the writer asked what Nimoy wanted, the actor replied, “It’s about emotion versus logic, love versus mathematics, grief versus pi-r-squared.” While beautiful, this description is fairly vague. Fortunately, it was enough for Black, who went on to write the most emotional scene in Star Trek history. 

There was just one problem: given the tight production schedule of this Star Trek: The Original Series episode, there was only time for one take. Fortunately, Leonard Nimoy only needed one take to bring this scene to wrenching, heartbreaking life. It was a scene that forever changed our understanding of the character and the franchise as a whole, one that made us consider the relationship between our own emotions and our sense of humanity. Now, though, you know the hilarious secret behind Trek’s most emotional scene: it only exists because Nimoy didn’t want Spock to have a wacky little mustache, even for just one scene!