Author, speaker, and film scholar Kevin C. Neece recently invited me to contribute a post to his blog The Undiscovered Country Project, which focuses specifically on the intersections of Star Trek and Christian faith. TUCP just wrapped up their second annual “Spocktober,” a month-long celebration of all things Spock and Leonard Nimoy; you can read my contribution, “The Works of Spock’s Hands… and Ours,” here.
An excerpt:
What’s Mister Spock’s most distinctive physical feature? His pointed ears? Not a chance. It’s his hands. No, I’m not joking. Think about it. Have you ever stopped to consider just how much the character of Spock is defined by how he uses his hands? The Vulcan salute almost makes my entire case for me. Has any other fictional character’s hand gesture so thoroughly permeated popular culture? The only other possible contender I could name would be Fonzie from “Happy Days,” but Henry Winkler’s heyday was a long time ago, and I bet his thumbs-up and accompanying “Aaaay!” would draw blank stares from a lot of folks today. But the hand sign Leonard Nimoy introduced persists in the general public’s consciousness…
If Spock’s hands deserve our attention, how much more so do the hands of Christ!
If you’re interested, I encourage you to visit TUCP itself. Spend some time checking out all the great stuff Kevin and his contributors have pulled together, including a rich series of original audio commentaries on Star Trek II, III, and IV, exploring ways in which the “Genesis Trilogy” mirrors biblical salvation history.
Many thanks to Kevin for the invitation to participate–and we hope we’ll keep seeing you around our SFC community, too!
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