William Shatner would possibly’ve been the top-billed star of “Star Trek” for the reason that tv sequence premiered in 1966, however Nimoy’s half-human, half-Vulcan Spock was by far the fan favourite. The character’s logical, stoic demeanor was the proper complement to Captain James T. Kirk’s brash, generally hot-headed management. Nimoy liked the character and needed to be part of “Star Trek” going ahead; he simply did not need to foist substandard installments on the franchise’s fiercely loyal fanbase.
As Nimoy remarked in Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman’s “The Fifty 12 months Mission: The Full, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral Historical past of Star Trek: The First 25 Years,” “[At the time] I actually was adamant that I might not work on ‘Star Trek II’ as a result of I had been so pissed off with the opposite and I used to be feeling very destructive about the entire thing.”
This was disastrous information for producer Harve Bennett and screenwriter Jack B. Sowards. A “Star Trek” film fully devoid of Spock would positively upset the followers. So Sowards informed Bennett to telephone Nimoy and throw an improvised hail mary that will hopefully change the actor’s thoughts. They had been determined and keen to make big concessions to safe Nimoy’s involvement. As Soward recalled in Gross and Altman’s guide:
“[Bennett] picked up the telephone, dialed the quantity, and stated, ‘What do I say?’ I stated, ‘You say, ‘Leonard, how would you wish to play your dying scene?'” And Leonard’s comeback was, ‘The place does it come within the image?’ Harve checked out me and stated, ‘The place does it come within the image?’ And I stated, ‘Proper up entrance. Proper within the very starting.’ A minute or two later Harve hung up and stated, ‘Leonard will do it.'”