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Nimoy’s Greatest Performance Had Nothing to Do With Star Trek

2 minute read

The world is eulogizing the great Leonard Nimoy after the 83-year-old actor passed away Friday. To be sure, the man best known as Spock in various incarnations of Star Trek had a long and varied career. People will be remember the ways in which he influenced, moved or made them laugh for weeks to come.

To me Nimoy’s greatest performance was in what, for most, will seem a minor footnote. In the late-1990s, he provided voice-over narration for one of the strangest, most wonderful experiments in video game history: Seaman. Released for Sega’s Dreamcast console, the Japanese game put a virtual pet in the care of players who were charged with feeding, nurturing and guiding its evolution from sea to land. You could talk to the creature through a microphone accessory plugged into the Dreamcast’s controller and, eventually, he would begin talking back. It was strange.

But also delightful. The game, which Nimoy welcomed you to every time you booted up with a joke or piece of advice, did what emerging (if flawed) technology does best, giving you a sense of what might be possible. A lot of the time it didn’t work correctly, or at all. (Voice-recognition was much less sophisticated, not to mention the lackluster processing power of Sega’s ill-fated console.) But the game was a kind of equation with wonder as the chief variable. And Nimoy’s voice lent the whole thing shape and credence, turning what might have been a trifling experiment into something pretty grand.

You can see gameplay and some of Nimoy’s work here.

See Leonard Nimoy's Long and Prosperous Life in Photos

LEONARD NIMOY;MARIANNA HILL
Leonard Nimoy in The Outer Limits in 1964.ABC/Getty Images
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy with wife Sandra Zober attend an event in Los Angeles,Calif. in 1966.Michael Ochs Archives—Getty Images
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy, circa 1968.Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Star Trek
Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock and William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk in season 3 of Star Trek in 1968.CBS/Getty Images
Mission: Impossible
Leonard Nimoy as Paris and Lee Meriwether as Tracey in Mission Impossible in 1969.CBS/Getty Images
Catlow
Leonard Nimoy in Catlow, 1971.Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
THE ALPHA CAPER, (from left): Henry Fonda, Leonard Nimoy, 1973.
Leonard Nimoy in The Alpha Caper in 1973Everett
NASA's space shuttle Enterprise rolled out of the Palmdale manufacturing facilities and was greeted by NASA officials and cast members from Star Trek in 1976. From left: NASA Administrator Dr. James D. Fletcher; DeForest Kelley, who portrayed Dr. "Bones" McCoy on the series; George Takei (Mr. Sulu); James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott); Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura); Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock); series creator Gene Roddenberry; an unnamed NASA official; and, Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov).NASA
THE UNEXPLAINED, (from left): host Leonard Nimoy, Travis Walter (who claims to have spent 5 days abo
Leonard Nimoy hosts The Unexplained in 1976.Everett
STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK, Leonard Nimoy, 1984, (c)Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection
Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock in 1984.Paramount/Everett
The Big Bang Theory
Leonard Nimoy guest stars in The Big Bang Theory.CBS/Getty Images
Leonard Nimoy guest stars on FringeFox
5th Annual TV Land Awards - Show
Leonard Nimoy and Luke Wilson, presenters during 5th Annual TV Land Awards - Show at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. in 2007.Chris Polk—FilmMagic/Getty Images
Leonard Nimoy guest stars as Mr. Spock in Star Trek in 2009.Paramount

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