Spock's backstory has been explained during the course of several episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, the 2009 film Star Trek and the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "Yesteryear" . Spock was born to the Vulcan Sarek (Mark Lenard) and the human Amanda Grayson (Jane Wyatt).
Spock had a troubled childhood due to his mixed heritage. Full-blooded Vulcan children repeatedly bullied Spock on their home world to incite the emotions of his human nature.[6][7] For a time, he grew up alongside his older half-brother Sybok, until the older brother was cast out for rejecting logic.[8] In Star Trek: Discovery, it is revealed that Spock has a human, adopted sister, Michael Burnham. According to the episode "Amok Time", Spock was betrothed to T'Pring (Arlene Martel) during his childhood.[9]
Sarek supported Spock's scientific learning and application to the Vulcan Science Academy, as mentioned in "Journey to Babel".[10] In the 2009 film Star Trek, Spock rejects his acceptance into the Vulcan Science Academy on the basis that they would never fully accept someone who was only half-Vulcan. Although this film set the Kelvin timeline scene in this and later films, writer Roberto Orci stated that he felt that the actions were unaffected by the changes in this timeline and so would have occurred in the same manner prior to The Original Series.[6][7] Because Spock did not enter the VSA and sought to join Starfleet instead, he did not speak to his father for the following 18 years.[10]
"The Cage" and the first season
Spock appeared as the science officer on the USS Enterprise in the first pilot for the series, "The Cage". This was not shown on television at the time, but the events of the episode were shown in the two-part episode "The Menagerie" of the first season, and Spock's previous 11 years of service on the Enterprise were described.[11] Spock was one of the members of the away team who joined Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) on a mission to Talos IV in order to investigate a distress call.[12] Spock did appear in the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", but this was broadcast initially as the third episode.[13] During the events of that pilot, Spock became concerned at the risk to the ship posed by Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood) and suggested possible solutions to Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner).[14]
The earliest appearance of Spock in the series as broadcast was "The Man Trap", the first such episode.[15] When he needs to knock out an evil version of Kirk in "The Enemy Within", he uses a Vulcan nerve pinch. Spock and Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (James Doohan) work together to rejoin the good and evil versions of the Captain, which had been split following a transporter accident.[16] During "Miri", he finds himself to be the only member of the landing party to be immune to the physical effects of the disease affecting human adults on the planet. However, he realises that he is probably a carrier and could infect the Enterprise if he were to return. Doctor Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) manages to devise a cure, allowing the team to return to the ship.[17]
When Simon van Gelder enters the bridge armed with a phaser in "Dagger of the Mind", Spock subdues him with a nerve pinch. He later conducts a mind meld with van Gelder as part of the investigation into the activities of the nearby colony. After the power to the colony is shut down, and a protective force field drops, Spock leads an away team to rescue Kirk.[18] Spock is reunited with Christopher Pike (Sean Kenney) in "The Menagerie". Pike had been promoted to Fleet Captain but suffered an accident, resulting in severe burns and confining him to a wheelchair and restricting his communication to yes/no answers via a device connected to his brainwaves. Spock commits mutiny and directs the ship to travel to Talos IV, a banned planet. He recounts the events of "The Cage" under a tribunal to Kirk, Pike and Commodore Jose I. Mendez (Malachi Throne). As the Enterprise arrives at the planet, Mendez is revealed to be a Talosian illusion. At the same time, the real Mendez communicates from Starfleet, giving permission for Pike to be transported to the planet, and all charges against Spock are dropped.[11]
While the Enterprise is under threat in "Balance of Terror", Spock is accused by Lieutenant Stiles (Paul Comi) of knowing more about the Romulans than he admits when the alien's similar physical appearance is revealed. Spock hypothesises that they are an offshoot of the Vulcan race. He saves the Enterprise, manning the phaser station and saves the life of Stiles in the process.[19] Spock leads a landing party on the shuttlecraft Galileo in "The Galileo Seven", which is damaged and pulled off course and lands on the planet Taurus II. Lieutenant Boma (Don Marshall) criticises Spock's fascination with the weaponry of the natives after the death of Lieutenant Latimer (Rees Vaughn) at their hands. After Scotty uses the power packs of the party's phasers to supply enough energy to get the damaged shuttle back into orbit, Spock decides to dump and ignite the remaining fuel to attract the attention of the Enterprise. The procedure is successful and the crew on the shuttle are rescued.[20]
Spock is reunited with Leila Kalomi (Jill Ireland) in "This Side of Paradise"; after joining an away team to the planet Omicron Ceti III. After being affected by planet spores, Spock begins showing emotion and re-initiates his romantic liaison with Kalomi. The impact of the spores on him is cured after Kirk goads him into anger, and once freed of the effects, Spock is able to initiate a solution which cures the rest of the crew.[21] Spock attempts to mind meld with a non-humanoid Horta in "The Devil in the Dark", having initially suggested that Kirk should kill the creature. Following a second mind meld, Spock relays the history of the Horta and is able to create peace between the aliens and a nearby colony.[22] Both Spock and Kirk undertake guerrilla warfare against the occupying Klingon forces on the planet Organia, prior to the establishment of the Organian Peace Treaty in "Errand of Mercy".[23] To restore the timeline, he travels with Kirk back to 1930's New York City in "The City on the Edge of Forever". He uses technology of that period to interface with his tricorder over the course of the weeks they spend in the period before witnessing Edith Keeler's (Joan Collins) death.[24]
In the premiere episode of the second season, "Amok Time", Spock begins to undergo pon farr, the Vulcan blood fever, and must undergo a ritual mating in the next eight days or die. Kirk disobeys Starfleet orders and takes the Enterprise to the planet Vulcan so that Spock can undergo the mating ritual. When they arrive, he is reunited with T'Pring (Arlene Martel). She rather wishes to be with Stonn (Lawrence Montaigne), a full-blooded Vulcan. She demands the ritual kal-if-fee fight instead, and selects Kirk as her champion, who unknowingly agrees to a fight to the death with Spock. McCoy persuades T'Pau (Celia Lovsky) to let him inject Kirk with something to alleviate the issues with Vulcan's thinner atmosphere and make the fight fair. The fight begins, and Spock gains the upper hand, garroting Kirk and killing him. McCoy orders an emergency transport directly to sickbay, while Spock is told by T'Pring that it was all a game of logic which would let her be with Stonn no matter the outcome. No longer feeling the effects of the pon farr, Spock returns to the Enterprise where he discovers that McCoy had injected Kirk with a paralyzing agent which merely simulated death and that the Captain was still alive.[9]
During the course of the encounter with the Nomad space probe in "The Changeling", Spock undertakes a mind meld with the machine. Kirk stops the meld when he realises that Spock's personality starts to be changed by the contact.[25] Following a transporter accident which transports Kirk, McCoy, Uhura and Scotty to a Mirror Universe and swaps them with their counterparts in the episode "Mirror, Mirror", they encounter a different version of Spock. Sporting a beard, he grows suspicious of the activities of the suddenly changed personnel and under Starfleet orders, attempts to kill Kirk. Mirror-Spock is knocked unconscious, and is treated by McCoy while the others head to the transporter to attempt to return to their universe. Spock awakes and mind melds with McCoy to discover why Kirk did not have him killed. Discovering what took place, he agrees to help them return and as he mans the transporter controls, Kirk implores him to take control and save not only the ship but his Terran Empire from implosion at the hands of tyrants. The switch is once again successful, and the crew members return to their relevant universes.[26]
The Motion Picture and the film series
At the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Spock is no longer in Starfleet, having resigned and returned home to pursue the Vulcan discipline of Kolinahr. Spock is unable to complete the Kolinahr ritual after he senses the coming of V'ger, and rejoins Starfleet to aid the Enterprise crew in their mission.[5] Spock, promoted to captain, is commanding officer of the Enterprise at the beginning of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).[5] At the film's end, he transfers his "katra" – the sum of his memories and experience – to McCoy, and then sacrifices himself to save the ship and its crew from Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán).[5] The sequel, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), focuses on his crewmates' quest to recover Spock's body, learning upon arrival that he has been resurrected by the Genesis matrix after landing on the planet at the end of the previous film. At the film's conclusion, Spock's revived body is reunited with his katra.[5] Spock is next seen in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), which depicts his recovery from the after-effects of his resurrection. In the film's final scene, he joins the crew of the newly commissioned USS Enterprise-A under Kirk's command.[5] In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Spock and the Enterprise crew confront the renegade Sybok, Spock's half-brother.[5] Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) reunites the Enterprise crew on a mission to prevent war from erupting between the Federation and Klingon Empire. Spock serves as a special envoy to broker peace with the Klingons after a natural disaster devastates their homeworld.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
After a period in which the production team avoided mentioning some aspects of The Original Series,[27] Spock was mentioned by name in Star Trek: The Next Generation in the episode "Sarek" (1990).[28] Executive producer Michael Piller later described this one act as "the breakthrough which allowed us to open the doors, that allowed us to begin to embrace our past".[27]
Spock appears in "Unification" (1991), a two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Set 75 years after the events of The Undiscovered Country, the episode focuses on Federation Ambassador Spock's attempt to reunite the Romulans with their Vulcan brethren. Filming of The Undiscovered Country overlapped with production of this episode, and the episode references Spock's role in the film.
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