Mr. Spock

Half-human, half-Vulcan, he self-identifies as Vulcan, and suppresses his human side. Since Vulcans' philosophy is to prize the rational over the emotional, that means suppressing the human emotions he inherited from his mother. Vulcans often claim that they have no emotions, being creatures of pure rationality, but that is, of course, impossible, rational thought being an evolutionary offshoot of emotions, which underlie thought.

In Star Trek: the Original Series, Spock formed a third of the triumverate of main characters with Kirk and the Doctor, and offset and counterbalanced the Doctor's emotional response to situations.

Vulcanity

Played by actor Leonard Nimoy, Spock possesses the Vulcan characteristics of pointed ears and upward-pointing eyebrows. When the series was originally being promoted, 'suits' at NBC thought the character looked too 'Satanic', and early posters and promotional materials show Spock's ears and eyebrows airbrushed to human roundness. These materials are highly collectible today.

Early in the series, Spock was used as a odd-man-out character, the stranger in a strange land who didn't understand human frivolity. He was often used as a target for human bigotry, as in Balance of Terror and Galileo Seven, with the human distrust, of course, always discovered to have been in error. This theme vanished after the earlier episodes, and it was left for the Doctor to continually harp on Spock's Vulcanity as the series progressed - everyone else, apparently, had Gotten Over It.

Mr. Spock: Talents and Abilities

As a Vulcan, Mr. Spock has a few abilities that his human colleagues lack. Paralyzing an opponent with a Vulcan nerve pinch is only one physical trick in his arsenal. Vulcans have three times the strength of humans, thought to be a result of their evolution on a planet with higher gravity which doesn't explain why they then are the same physical shape as humans. (A higher gravity world would more logically produce shorter, squatter bipeds, but no matter.)

An ability to form a mental link with another sentient being proves useful time and again. Spock not only can 'mind-meld' with his human shipmates, but with alien lifeforms as well. The horta, a dangerous silicon-based lifeform similar to a sentient rock, was learned to only be protecting its nest using this valuable interrogation technique.

Dramatic Possibilities

Few of Star Trek's characters had as many indignities heaped on them as the unfortunate Mr. Spock. In the first show of the final season, he is brain-napped by evil yet glamorous women who need a new CPU for their world's computer. He is attacked by spores and forced to fall in love with Jill Ireland, and is subjected to the ignominious ritual pon farr as Gene Roddenberry tries to invent a reason why purely rational beings might be forced to have sex. He's even killed in one of the movies, but even then, he's not left alone - no, his 'spirit' was left behind in Dr. McCoy's keeping and his body resuscitated by the planet Genesis, requiring a lengthy rescue mission to reunite spirit and body.

Nurse Chapel spends the original Star Trek suffering an unrequited crush on Spock, which is played mainly for pathos, although some laughs are had. And the character's main nemesis is Dr. McCoy, with whom he enjoys frequent snark-battles. Being better equipped mentally, Spock usually wins these.