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Zachary Quinto’s performance as Spock has been hailed both by longtime fans and newcomers to Star Trek, and is the more impressive because there are so many things an actor can’t do with the character. Spock can’t lounge casually or put his arms behind his head, he can’t sigh audibly or make “tchah” sounds, he can’t wave his hands around or roll his eyes. Every actor has to know not just how to register, for example, concern, but also to consider how their would character register concern. With a character like Spock, paragon of logic and emotional restraint, the interpretation has to be extremely subtle. The part demands enormous effort on the part of the actor, because otherwise all you would have is a nice-looking guy standing around in Spock makeup, trying not to register emotion. Quinto is such a convincing Spock that you could take off his makeup, and Spock would still be there, disguised as Zach Quinto.

One extraordinary development in this Star Trek alternate universe is that this time, Spock “gets the girl”. So Quinto has the challenge of performing romantic scenes in the Vulcan manner–and very appealing it is as he rises to that challenge, to see the young Starfleet officer’s shyness and reticence intact, even with a woman who knows him so well. Fortunately director J.J. Abrams showed restraint in not providing a full-on “amok time” between Spock and Uhura; their relationship is sketched briefly. There is a telling moment between cadet and instructor as the shuttlecraft are boarded; the touching scene in the Enterprise turbolift as Zoe Saldana as Uhura comforts Spock after the loss of mother and home planet, which is intimate but in no sense provocative; and finally the public display of affection on the transporter pad, something that in real life would occur in private but happens for the audience (and for Kirk), in case anybody was still wondering what was going on with those two. Spock is established as–well, not fully human, but fully functional, and open to love from the sensitive and patient Uhura.