Star Trek: Karl Urban Shares a Memory of Leonard Nimoy

Star Trek movie star Karl Urban has plenty of fond memories from his time playing Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, but his favorite involves the late Leonard Nimoy,

ComicBook.com attended Dallas Fan Days 2018, where Urban was a guest. During a panel, Urban considered how lucky he has been to become a part of the Star Trek family.

“It’s difficult to say but I have so many amazing memories of and I feel so blessed to be a part of that Star Trek universe,” Urban said. “Fantastic fans for a start. You couldn’t ask for better fans. If it wasn’t for the fans, there would be no Star Trek. They’re the ones that championed sort of coming back for its third season. And the dedication and longevity of that fandom made sure that we got a whole lot of movies out of it as well, and then multiple Star Trek television shows.”

Looking back on his favorite memories, he picked out one from when Nimoy returned to his iconic role as Spock in the 2009 Star Trek movie.

“So, yeah, for me, I guess one of my most cherished memories of working on Star Trek was watching Leonard Nimoy don the ears and become Spock for the first time in I think something like 15 or 16 years, and to be on set for his first scene,” Urban said. “And I remember watching him do his first take, and I was at the monitor with JJ [Abrams] and was watching, and I was like, ‘Oh! This is incredible.’

“At the end of the first take, JJ got up and went to go and give Leonard Nimoy direction on how to play Spock. And it went like this: he got up and he started walking over, and then at some point, as he was walking he looks up and he sees Leonard Nimoy and goes – and JJ’s never lost for words, ever – but I literally clocked the moment he looked up and realized, ‘Holy $#!+, I’m about to give direction to Spock.’ And I asked him about it, he goes, ‘Yeah, I freaked out. I got halfway over there and thought, ‘Oh my God, what can I tell this guy about playing this character that he doesn’t already know?””. So he really had to think about it. It was kind of hilarious.”

Nimoy returned again for a cameo appearance as Spock in the film’s sequel, 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness. This turned out to be Nimoy’s final time playing Spock as the actor died in February 2015. In 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, Zachary Quinto’s Spock of the Kelvin timeline learned that Nimoy’s Prime Spock had died. In going through Prime Spock’s belongings, Kelvin Spock discovers a photograph of Nimoy’s Spock and the rest of the Star Trek: The Original Series crew. Nimoy was also remembered in the film’s credits.