Summary

• Walter Koenig praises Leonard Nimoy's performance in "Amok Time" as Spock, noting the character's evolution from "The Cage".
• Koenig commends Nimoy's internalized portrayal of Spock's conflict and distress in "Amok Time" on The 7th Rule podcast.
• Koenig also appreciates William Shatner's standout moments in "Amok Time," highlighting the depth of performances in Star Trek TOS.

Walter Koenig has high praise for Leonard Nimoy's performance as Spock in the classic Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "Amok Time." Koenig debuted in Star Trek: TOS season 2, with "Amok Time" also being his first episode as Ensign Pavel Chekov. "Amok Time" is a seminal hour of Star Trek as it showed the planet Vulcan for the first time as Mr. Spock was driven to the brink of madness by pon farr and forced the USS Enterprise to take him to his homeworld where Spock battled his best friend, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), 'to the death.'

On The 7th Rule podcast, Walter Koenig is now reviewing every episode of Star Trek: The Original Series season 2 with hosts Cirroc Lofton and Ryan T. Husk. The trio watched the original, unaired Star Trek pilot, "The Cage," in Koenig's first episode of The 7th Rule, and Walter compared the vast difference between Leonard Nimoy's early performance as the nascent Spock in "The Cage" to his "evolved" turn as the Vulcan in "Amok Time." Read Koenig's quote and watch The 7th Rule video below:

Just seeing “The Cage,” I saw the enormous difference in of the profundity of [Spock’s] character… On “The Cage,” he was the guy with the funny eyebrows. By the time we got to “Amok Time,” he was a deeply distressed person with a great deal of conflict, and played it very, very well. It was very internalized… The character had evolved in the [years] between “The Cage” and the second season of Star Trek. So I was very impressed with Leonard… My sense was, when I saw him walking the halls of the set, that this was an actor who was totally, deeply immersed in this character, and I was very, very impressed with his work.

This might be Leonard’s best opportunity to play Spock, because there was so much opportunity because there was so much internalized, so much going on… From his difficulty in expressing why he needed to go back to Vulcan to his anger… Very threatening and very convincing...

Walter Koenig also praised William Shatner's performance in Star Trek: The Original Series "Amok TIme", saying that "Bill had some really delightful moments."

The Difference Between Spock In Star Trek's "The Cage" Vs. "Amok Time"

Leonard Nimoy found the Spock character by Star Trek: The Original Series season 2

Mr. Spock was in his earliest stage in Star Trek's original, unaired pilot, "The Cage." Spock's function at that point was merely to be a visual reminder that he was an alien, and that Star Trek's USS Enterprise was exploring the galaxy in the future. The cool, logical, emotionless traits associated with Spock and Vulcans originally belonged to Number One (Majel Barrett), the Enterprise's female First Officer. When Star Trek underwent a creative overhaul to produce a second pilot episode, the entire cast was fired except for Leonard Nimoy, and Number One's logical personality was transferred to Spock.

As Walter Koenig pointed out on The 7th Rule, Spock was now a fully-formed character in Star Trek: The Original Series season 2, and "Amok Time" introduced key aspects of Vulcan culture like pon farr and the kal-if-fee ritual, as well as Spock's vengeful fiancée, T'Pring (Arlene Martel) and T'Pau (Celia Lovsky). Thanks to Nimoy's thorough embodiment of Spock, the Vulcan became Star Trek: The Original Series' most popular character and the most well-developed besides Captain Kirk himself. Nimoy, Spock, and "Amok Time" did their jobs in Star Trek: The Original Series so well that the backstory of Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) and T'Pring's (Gia Sandhu) doomed love affair is playing out on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Star Trek: The Original Series is available to stream on Paramount+.

Source: The 7th Rule