For the Love of Spock

For the Love of Spock (2016) is a documentary you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Adam Nimoy — Leonard Nimoy's son — about the character his father inhabited for nearly fifty years and the complicated relationship between them. Spock is one of the most enduring figures in television history; this film is the closest thing to an inside account of what that cost.

Adam Nimoy draws on archival footage, home recordings and new interviews with William Shatner, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, J.J. Abrams, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, among others. The film was completed in the year after Leonard Nimoy died, and that timing shapes everything about its tone.

What sets it apart from the standard Star Trek tribute is the tension underneath: a son trying to understand a father who gave so much of himself to a fictional Vulcan. Stream For the Love of Spock (2016) online on iFILM.