Friday, January 28, 2011

"Dr. Spock" Probes Unknown

This article, clipped by me sometime in 1977 from the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (I didn't preserve the date), was difficult to scan by virtue of the fact the the first column ran pretty much the length of the newspaper page, meaning I had to scan it in three parts and photoshop it back together. Poor layout, methinks. But the worst thing about it is that whoever added the headline made the tired old "Dr. Spock" mistake. Come ON, people! Poor Leonard must have been so very, very tired of this happening. I added the photos to take up the empty space left when I clipped the article from the paper.
(Click images to enlarge.)
Below is a funny comic panel from fanzine "Enterprise Incidents"(#6, September 1978) that illustrates the frustration that Nimoy (and Mr. Spock) must have felt over the mistake! Another thing that used to get under my skin, and was certain to elicit a quick (and snarky) correction from me, was someone calling the show "Star Track."


Too late the poor schlub learned that Vulcans can turn violent with little provocation under certain circumstances.

Bonus: Below, a nice publicity photo of Nimoy as "They Call Me MISTER Spock" from Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan."


"Did... you just call me... DR. Spock? Because unless my ears deceived me, you did. And these ears do not lie."

Bonus #2: A verra nize b&w publicity photo of Kirk and Spock from the glory days of the original series. This is one of my favorite shots of them together, for the memories it brings back to me. Scanned from the same issue of "Enterprise Incidents" as the cartoon above.


Kirk and Spock commemorated their friendship with a visit to their Sears photography department.

And, because I'm in a generous mood today, yet another bonus below, this time a great pen and ink by Ralph Fowler (see his tag link for more) from -again- the same issue of E.I. I love this guy's work, and wish I could hear from him!

I used to wonder occasionally, upon hearing an ignorant person use the "Dr." title for Spock, if the actual Dr. Spock ever got tired of dealing with kids asking him where his pointed ears were. One can only hope.

4 comments:

Rob Bignell said...

Thanks for sharing the article, Frederick; it's always fun to see what people were talking about in years past! "In Search Of" was a groundbreaking series that so many UFO and ghost cable series have copied since then. Perhaps most importantly, it made the notion of alien life and other strange phenomena less wierd to the general public. BTW, love the Sears photography department caption.

david_b said...

Like most Trekkers.., I could never stand the 'doctor spock' reference. Used to irritate me up the ol' yinyang.

Thanks much for the very cool scans..! Love the ST-TWOK Spock glossy, will have to pick that up someday if I find it..

Anonymous said...

Not only Dr.Spock,but he also was called Nimsy.Well,he annoyed people and media called him by wrong name and was bored ear jokes.Comic gag in this entry his picture is so angry but in real life he jokes it back in a show.Nimoy is a funny man.:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2G9p5QjL60

In my opinian,glitter bachground doesn't match Spock in red at all.:/

Frederick said...

ribbonrain,
Thanks for the comment, you are right, I have read it spelled "Nimsy!" And thanks for posting the Flip Wilson link, that's funny stuff!