Tuesday's looking like it's going to be a quiet day on ye old comicsblog - and the fact that most of the Springfield Home Office is catching a Sherlock Holmes matinée has nothing to do with it. Okay, maybe it does. But before those lucky bastards left for the day, my neighbor Raley passed me this great photo from our friends over at the Hero Complex. Recognize this guy? We had to look twice before we did. Yes, Robert Downey, Jr may become the Holmes of  the next generation, but Leonard Nimoy's approach will always be classic in our book. 

Star Trek's Mr. Spock has left his mark in almost every field of entertainment, including several years post-Trek as a stage actor. At the same time Nimoy lent his trademark tones to the 1970's X-Files predecessor, In Search Of..., he also won acclaim for his roles in several different stage performances, including Oliver!, Caligula, and Sherlock Holmes. Shortly before this photo was taken, Nimoy refused to reprise his role as the Enterprise's Vulcan Science Officer when Gene Roddenberry approached him for a new Star Trek Phase II television series. Not long after this photo was taken,  Nimoy accepted Roddenberry's offer to once again become Spock when Paramount Pictures scrapped their TV plans and instead set their sights on Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

That movie, by the way, debuted December 6th, 1979, and paved the way for the three decades of new Star Trek that have since followed.  Photo via [link]