Why did GR name Spock, "Spock"?

[plynch]

In light of how HUGELY popular (and human) Dr. Benjamin Spock was, when you're thinking up a sci-fi show, why name your repressed logician-alien, "Spock"?

I welcome actual knowledge (a la Cristopher) over goofy supposition, but little chance of that not happening . . . .

I am truly curious, though.

Peace and long life. (And go respond to them babies when they're crying, gol dang it!)

 

[Christopher]

Spock wasn't named after Dr. Benjamin. From The Making of Star Trek, p. 236:

Many people have wondered how Gene Roddenberry chose the name "Spock." It has no connection with the famed baby-book Dr. Spock, and in fact at the time Gene had not heard of him. What he wanted was a one-syllable name that sounded strong, implied strength. Spock sounded strong, so that's what he decided to use. It was not until later that someone told him about Dr. Spock.

So Roddenberry just wanted a made-up name with a strong sound, and words with P and K sounds tend to sound fairly strong, at least in Roddenberry's judgment (cf. Pike, Kirk, Picard, Riker).

 

[Nerys Myk]

Cant say I've ever read anything about Gene's reason. Might just be a name that struck his fancy. Of course I don't think Spock was conceived as a " repressed logician". That came later.

 

[plynch]

I know he wasn't named after the doctor.

Why - if you're a writer/producer arrive at a name choice that is the same as a hugely famous person?

Many names would fit his consonantal parameters. (And we wouldn't have to correct non-Trekers our WHOLE lives, "No, not DOCTOR Spock, MISTER . . . .")

EDIT: yeah, Myk - you're right - our Spock smiled at singing flowers, and yelled in 1964. Maybe GR was showing how whole - and in the Jungian sense, in-dividuated - aliens can turn out if reared a la DOCTOR Spock. I jest.

 

[Robert D. Robot]

If I remember correctly, the book "The Making of Star Trek" gives a list of all the names that GR was considering for the Vulcan science officer (although I think he was portrayed as a red-skinned 'Martian' at one point early on (I think Spork and Spelk were in there, too...). It also gives a few early choices for the captain, too (including April and Winter).

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I know he wasn't named after the doctor.

Why - if you're a writer/producer arrive at a name choice that is the same as a hugely famous person?

How would you expect anyone to be able to determine this?

If I had to use some goofy supposition I would say he subconsciously hit upon the name from hearing about the doctor who was famous at the time.

 

[Christopher]

Why - if you're a writer/producer arrive at a name choice that is the same as a hugely famous person?

Because, as The Making of Star Trek states in the passage I quoted above, he'd never heard of that person. Dr. Spock was famous, yes, but that doesn't mean everyone on the planet knew his name.

Many names would fit his consonantal parameters. (And we wouldn't have to correct non-Trekers our WHOLE lives, "No, not DOCTOR Spock, MISTER . . . .")

True, but that's the one he happened to choose, and it coincidentally resembled some other person's name. It happens. And it's not the only time it's happened in Trek. Miles O'Brien, anyone? (Although that character was named before the journalist with the same name joined CNN, so it's not quite the same thing.)

If I remember correctly, the book "The Making of Star Trek" gives a list of all the names that GR was considering for the Vulcan science officer...

No, that was a 1966 Bob Justman memo proposing possible names for other Vulcan characters, probably in jest, considering that the first four names on the list were Spook, Spuck, Spack, and Speek. That memo and a series of other humorous memos in response can be found on p. 274-9 of TMoST.

And yes, Spock was originally described as a red-skinned Martian. They went with greenish instead because the red makeup didn't look good on black & white TV.

 

[plynch]

How would you expect anyone to be able to determine this?

People know lots of things on this board.

We undersestimate how huge Dr. Spock was at the time. Baby and Child Care was a mega-best seller for years and years. Many people blamed him for the youth rebellion that began right around, uh, 1966.

It would be like if a new sci-fi show had a character coincidentally named Oprah. Huge name known by all. It just strikes me as weird, is all.

Thanks for the info. Peace.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

Another problem with Spock having red skin was that he apparently looked rather satanic and might offend Christian viewers. The same trouble came up with his ears, apparently.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I would guess that he borrowed Benjamin Spock's name and then feigned innocence, as he did about so much else that he lifted.

 

[scotpens]

If I remember correctly, the book “The Making of Star Trek” gives a list of all the names that GR was considering for the Vulcan science officer . . .(I think Spork and Spelk were in there, too...)

As Christopher pointed out, that was a joking memo by associate producer Bob Justman, suggesting that all Vulcans should have five-letter, one-syllalble names beginning with “Sp” and ending with “k.”

It also gives a few early choices for the captain, too (including April and Winter).

The captain's name was Robert T. April in G.R.’s early pitch materials for the series, and in the written outline for the pilot episode. When it came time to actually produce the pilot, suddenly “Robert April” didn't sound quite right for a starship captain. So Gene came up with a list of names including Winter, Raintree, Boone, North, Neville, Flagg, Drake -- good butch names. We ended up with Pike and later Kirk, but Robert T. April had the last laugh. A character by that name -- the aged Commodore Robert April, now retired -- showed up in an episode of the animated series.

BTW, personally I don't find anything at all “unmanly” about the name Robert April. I think it's a lovely name!

It would be like if a new sci-fi show had a character coincidentally named Oprah. Huge name known by all. It just strikes me as weird, is all.

Not the same thing at all. There are lots of Spocks. It's a fairly common name. AFAIK, there's only one Oprah.

Another problem with Spock having red skin was that he apparently looked rather satanic and might offend Christian viewers. The same trouble came up with his ears, apparently.

Whatever his skin tone, Spock's pointed ears and upswept eyebrows did give him a devilish appearance. That turned out to be a big part of his appeal.

 

[Robert D. Robot]

Thanks for the clarifications, Christopher and Crimson Executioner! My copy of The Making of Star Trek is a couple of states away from me right now, so I wasn't able to leaf through the book before I posted.....

 

[plynch]

Not the same thing at all. There are lots of Spocks. It's a fairly common name. AFAIK, there's only one Oprah.[/QUOTE]

"Spock" is a common name!?

I've lived 44 years and never come across a Spock.

BTAIM, my point in choosing Oprah was her hugeness (metaphorically speaking). Okay, let's use a huge science figure with a common name.

As Bulwinkle would say, OK, this time for sure . . . Presto: "It would be like a sci-fi show with an alien, a purple-blooded Hephaistan named "Hawking."

Better?

2. And as for the devlish looking Spock - is that GR deliberately toying with the conventionally religious folk? He wouldn't do that, would he?

 

[Nardpuncher]

I know he wasn't named after the doctor.

Why - if you're a writer/producer arrive at a name choice that is the same as a hugely famous person?

How would you expect anyone to be able to determine this?

If I had to use some goofy supposition I would say he subconsciously hit upon the name from hearing about the doctor who was famous at the time.

I agree. GR cold have heard about it the way you hear a few words from a song (like someone says"...we built this house in 1985.." and minutes later you're humming the Jefferson Starship song "We Built This City" and don't know why) and he didn't really know where'd he'd first heard it.

 

[JustKate]

The book was (eventually, at least) huge best-seller...but does that mean someone with no real interest in babies or childcare would have paid much attention to the author? There are people making millions on diet books right this minute, and I'm betting I would have heard of almost none of them because it's not a topic that interests me. I know enough to know that I might not want to name a scifi character "Atkins," but if you get even one degree more obscure than that, I'd be lost. It's not as though GR could have googled "Spock," right?

 

[scotpens]

“Spock” is a common name!?

I've lived 44 years and never come across a Spock.

Well, it looks like I was wrong. According to one website, there are 320 people with the last name Spock in the United States -- roughly one in ten thousand. It's ranked 55,199th in frequency.

For some reason, I thought the name Spock wasn't nearly that unusual.

The book was (eventually, at least) huge best-seller...but does that mean someone with no real interest in babies or childcare would have paid much attention to the author?

Remember that Dr. Benjamin Spock wasn't just the author of a hugely popular book on baby and child care -- he was a national celebrity known as much for his political and anti-war activism as for his advice on child-rearing. In the 1960s and ’70s, he was quite unfairly blamed for “permissive” parenting which supposedly led to the rebellious, spoiled youth of the hippie era. Everybody knew who Dr. Spock was -- even folks who didn't have kids and had no intention of having kids.

 

[JustKate]

^ I don't think he was active in the anti-war movement (or politics in general) before Trek - for one thing, I don't believe there was an anti-war movement until the very late 1960s or early 1970s (edit: not a widespread one anyway). So I really don't think he was quite as famous in the mid-1960s as some people seem to be assuming. He was famous, sure - but not, at the time Star Trek was under development, Oprah or even Johnny Carson famous.

 

[Nardpuncher]

For those that think maybe Gene Roddenberry had really never heard of Dr. Benjamin Spock then why does almost every second person ( at least back in the 70s and 80s) call our lovable Vulcan "Dr. Spock" by accident?!
It seems like kids I went to school with and aunts and uncles and other folk frequently seemed to call him that.
I think many of us have known people to call the show "Star Track" and to call Spock "Dr." Spock.

 

[ToddPence]

In Jack Vance's space opera novel "The Star King", which predates Star Trek, there is a villain called "Mr. Spock".

The movie "Free Enterprise", which is about Star Trek fans and stars William Shatner, credits a musical supervisor named "Scott Spock".

 

[plynch]

Dr. Spock was well known enough that they could joke of the similarity on Carol Burnett and have Nimoy appear (that famous black and white picture we've seen on the trekbbs).

The anti-war movement was only just cranking up at the same time Trek was. First teach-in was at Michigan (Go Blue) in '65.