The Star Trek episode Space Fever (originally: Amok Time) from Season 2 is widely considered one of the best of the legendary sci-fi series. The fact that the famous Vulcan greeting from Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) premiered in it and has since become an integral part of pop culture certainly plays a not insignificant role in this assessment.
57 years later, Star Trek conventions or Enterprise costume parties appear without that spread double finger V as an official greeting practically unthinkable among themselves. And the popular use of the iconic gesture is thanks to none other than the Spock actor himself.
Spock’s Vulcan greeting: This childhood memory from Leonard Nimoy is behind it
The actor and director Leonard Nimoy, who died in 2015, has already revealed several times what was going on with the film Vulcan variant of the victory sign has on itself. Nimoy was inspired by a profound religious experience in his childhood, as he reported in a recorded interview.
The TV legend, who grew up Jewish-Orthodox, visited a synagogue with his family when he was eight years old, where he witnessed a service that was particularly impressive for him. Inside, a group of Jewish priests came forward to bless the congregation. According to Nimoy, the corresponding prayer was more like one “strange screaming” as “harmonic singing”.
Although his father instructed him to look away from the action, little Leonard still gave in to his curiosity:
It was scary! […] [Ich dachte]something big is happening here. So I looked it up. And I saw how [die Priester] stretched out their hands towards the congregation. I thought: Wow! Something about it really grabbed me. […] I had no idea what was going on, but the sound and appearance of it was magical.Live long and in peace? Vulcan salute originally had religious meaning
Of course, the prominent hand signal from Star Trek always comes with a benevolent blessing “Live long and prosper” (in the German dub usually “Live long and in peace”). However, that same saying comes from the pen of the sci-fi author Theodore Sturgeon, who wrote the script for the episode Space Fever. A product of the imagination.
But what does the special V greeting really mean? Nimoy himself provides the astonishing explanation in the interview mentioned above:
This is the shape of the letter Shin [aus dem] Hebrew alphabet. A very interesting letter in this language. It is the first letter of the words Shaddai [Deutsch: Allmächtiger Gott]Shalom [Deutsch: Frieden] and Shekinah, which is a name for the feminine aspect of God.
This form of blessing apparently left such an immense impression on Nimoy that he suggested the gesture as a Vulcan greeting ritual to episode director Joseph Pevney, which he approved. The rest is TV history. Days after it first aired in 1967, people greeted him like that on the street, says the Spock actor. He thought it was great that they “People don’t even know that they’re blessing each other with it.”
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The complete three seasons of Star Trek are currently available to all Netflix and Paramount+ subscribers in a flat rate. You can find the episode Space Fever as the first episode of the 2nd season. Amazon Prime Video users, on the other hand, have to resort to buying or renting.