Spock Meets Batman

Adam West, Yvonne Craig, and Leonard Nimoy.

This is another in my continuing "Worlds in Collision" series, which also features Spock meeting Dr. Smith from "Lost in Space."

You're probably saying to yourself, "So what? It's just a photo." Ah, yes it is. But I can find a way to extract something out of it!

Here, we have our favorite green-blooded Vulcan from "Star Trek" as he meets Batman. Yes, that's the original Batman standing there with Leonard Nimoy. For good measure, that is also the original Batgirl, Yvonne Craig, standing with them.

Just as in our photo of Nimoy standing casually with Jonathan Harris, there is something equally fascinating about this photo, which undoubtedly was shot on some studio back lot:

notice that Leonard has his Spock hairdo!

I just find that endlessly fascinating. Nimoy must have spent days or even weeks at a time looking exactly like Spock, on camera and off.

One other oddity about this shot:

Nimoy is wearing the same clothing as when he met Dr. Smith.

The same day and event? Perhaps, though the setting looks a lot different. Maybe there was a "fan appreciation day" or something like that, where they assembled the stars of leading television series of the day. "Star Trek" was made by Desilu for Paramount Television, "Batman" was a 20th Century Fox Television program, and "Lost in Space" also was a 20th Century Fox Television production, so perhaps Nimoy simply was paying the Fox sets a one-day visit.

If you're really good, you realize without my mentioning it that Spock has another connection to Yvonne Craig. Yes, she appeared in one of the classic "Star Trek" episodes, "Whom Gods Destroy." She was Marta, the sexy little mental patient who pointed a phaser at Spock and asked Captain Garth if she could blast off one of his ears. So, she is a member of a very exclusive club, an actress who appeared in both "Batman" and "Star Trek" (and she also dated Elvis and was in his movies, but that's another story). No wonder she's standing between them.

Spock in that episode had this to say about Yvonne's character, who had first seduced Captain Kirk, then tried to kill him:

“She seems to have worked out an infallible method for ensuring permanent male fidelity.  Interesting.”

"Star Trek" had a thing for sexy green girls.

One final thought: this was just a photo of a few Hollywood B-actors enjoying their fifteen minutes while appearing in '60s tv shows, right? Well, if you looked them up, you would find that all three of them have credits relatively recently, though all now have passed away (Nimoy in 2015, West in 2017, Craig in 2015).

Leonard Nimoy, active 1954-2014
Adam West, active 1951-2018
Yvonne Craig, active 1957-2011

They have worked in tv and film for well over 50 years, each one of them (Yvonne took a long break to work in real estate, but she's back). Yes, a simple snapshot - of three of the most successful working actors in the business early in their careers.

Fascinating!

2019