On Spock

I don't like Zachary Quinto's portrayal of Spock. That's not all on Zachary Quinto; I don't like the Vulcans in Voyager or Enterprise either. I suspect it has to do with the way American actors are trained now -- Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, the Actors' Studio, and all that trickles down -- a way that emphasizes emotional honesty and being in the moment. Try to approach a Vulcan this way, and you wind up going either perplexed/earnest or angry/withholding, and both are wrong. Both make you look like a constipated guy in makeup.

Vulcans are Brechtian. They require ironic distance.

A classical background works too, but not as well.

Nimoy was really lightning in a bottle, wasn't he?