Leonard Nimoy/Star Trek/Return

In 1973 Nimoy reprised the role of Spock for the first time since 1969, voicing the character in Star Trek: The Animated Series for Filmation. He only agreed to reprise the role after his demand that George Takei and Nichelle Nichols be hired back on the series were met.Koenig: Leonard Nimoy Fought to get Nichelle Nichols Pay Equity for 'Star Trek' + Nimoy confirms
Although this series ended in after only 22 episodes, a new live-action series, Star Trek: Phase II, began production shortly thereafter. Nimoy, however, opted out of this series after learning that his role would be essentially a part-time one, and his character was replaced by a young Vulcan named Xon, who would have been played by David Gautreaux.
While Paramount was busy bringing Phase II to fruition, Nimoy moved on, continuing to host In Search Of…, appearing in the Broadway production of Equus, and starring in the 1978 remake of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, earning a Saturn Award nomination from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for his work on the latter. By this time, production on Phase II had ceased and the pilot for that series was being turned into the first Star Trek film, . Nimoy was ultimately persuaded to reprise Spock for The Motion Picture, after Robert Wise, on the urgings of his wife Millicent, had made it a prerogative for him to accept the director's position on that movie. (Star Trek Movie Memories, 1995, pp. 87-88) As a consequence, Nimoy in turn replaced Gautreaux as the principal Vulcan character for the movie. The Movie debuted in the United States on and marked the beginning of a new era for Star Trek and for Nimoy.
Nimoy received a Saturn Award nomination for his portrayal of Spock in The Motion Picture. He went on to play Spock in , although he was at first reluctant to do so. Spock seemingly perished at the end of Wrath of Khan, but Nimoy returned to the role for four more films: , , , and . He also directed and co-wrote the stories for The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home and executive produced and co-wrote the story for The Undiscovered Country. He earned Saturn Award nominations for directing The Search for Spock and for his performance in and direction of The Voyage Home.
In late-, Nimoy was asked by Paramount Pictures chairman of the board to produce , planned to be launched by the studio the following year, however Nimoy refused the offer.Leonard Nimoy Interview Part 7 of 8
In Nimoy reprised his role as Spock for the TNG episodes and . Due to his schedule, the second part was filmed prior to the first part as most of his appearance were in the second part. A few additional scenes of the first part were filmed during principal photography of the second part. Nimoy filmed his scenes for both episodes between Monday and Friday on Paramount Stage 8, 9, and 16. The call sheet for Tuesday advised the transportation department to pick up Nimoy at his hotel at 5:10 am because of his makeup call at 5:40 am.
In , Nimoy was asked to appear as Spock in , the seventh Star Trek feature and the first to feature the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The film's script originally had a role for Nimoy, but it was not to Nimoy's satisfaction and he declined the offer. Explaining his reason for turning down the film, Nimoy remarked:
:"There was no Spock role in that script… there were five or six lines attributed to Spock […] but it had nothing to do with Spock… I said to [co-writer] Rick Berman, 'You could distribute these lines to any one of the other characters and it wouldn't make any difference.' And that is exactly what he did. There was no Spock function in the script. I have always tried to make a contribution to these movies. There was no contribution to be made in that movie."
Several costumes and costume pieces worn by Nimoy were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including his headband from .Star Trek IV: "Spock's Headband"