Last year was definitely a sad time for Trekkies as Leonard Nimoy announced he was retiring from acting.
While it’s great that William Shatner’s still out there, seizing the day with all he’s got, there’s also something to be said for knowing when to get off the stage, as much as we’d be more than happy to see Nimoy continue to perform.
So now the news comes down that Nimoy will have one more turn in the spotlight, this time on The Big Bang, and it’s sure to be a big geek event, except we won’t actually be seeing him.
As TVLine reports, Nimoy will lend his voice to the March 29 episode of the CBS show, but his voice will come to the character Sheldon in a dream.
The Sheldon character is obsessed with Spock, and as TVLine notes, his Spock obsession has been a running joke on Big Bang, where he gets an autographed napkin from Nimoy, and he also orders a cardboard standee of Spock, but gets the Zachary Quinto version instead.
Nimoy apparently will still do voice over work, which he also did for Fringe, and years before he retired he did a great cameo on the Simpsons as well, the Marge Vs The Monorail episode, written by none other than Conan O’Brien.
As Entertainment Weekly points out, other Trek alumni have appeared on Big Bang including Will Wheaton, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton from Next Generation, and OG Trekker George Takei.
It’s great to have Nimoy lend his distinctive voice to the show, always good to have him back, but this also begs the question about when Shatner will bring his unintentional hilarity to the show? Personally, I will not rest until he’s back in a tux doing “Rock It Man” on television again. (Maybe he can do an animated duet with Stewie on Family Guy?)
