alt title(s): Spock
"I realize this is a hard choice, Captain, but the needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few."
A character who has a supergenius-level intelligence, but from a culture, alien or otherwise unusual, of strict mental discipline based on pure logic, that prevents him from standard, normal emoting (contrasted with traditional emotionless aliens, who were either inferior or evil).
The Spock's relationship with his crewmates/
comrades is often tense, because this character type is willing and able to ruthlessly consider ethically troubling situations without batting an eye — especially situations where
people might be ordered to die. The Spock maintains audience sympathy by being willing to
Take A Third Option (sometimes with advice from
The McCoy and
The Kirk), and also by being as ruthless about his own life as the lives of his crewmates, if not more so. Even better, he is utterly unflappabile in the face of serious problems or danger; his friends know that no matter how terrifying or hopeless things get, he will never lose his cool and will not stop working on a solution to save everyone. When put in a
Power Trio with
The Kirk and
The McCoy, he becomes what in psychology is called the superego.
The Spock will at times become a
Tin Man, though this varies with the writing. When he has emotion, he may sometimes express it with a
Fascinating Eyebrow and nothing more. Since
Smart People Play Chess, if
The Spock plays a game, it will invariably be
an alien version of chess.
Closely related to
Agent Scully,
Emotionless Girl and
Little Miss Snarker. Often becomes a
Straw Vulcan, but ocasionally ends up on the winning side of
Emotions Vs Stoicism.
Well Intentioned Extremists often come across similarly when they believe they're working for the greater good. See also
Spock Speak.
Named (obviously) for Spock from
Star Trek. Compare with their eternal opposite,
The McCoy.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
Comic Books
- Brainiac 5 of DC's Legion Of Super Heroes.
- Dr. Manhattan of Watchmen.
- Prowl in the original Transformers series, more so in the comic (which is why it's here)
Film
- Reservoir Dogs - Mr Pink is the most logical of all the crew, especially when he acts as the foil to Mr White. The first scene shows him refusing to throw in money to tip the waitress, giving his (logical) reason as to why. He is later distrustful of everyone, and disgusted that Mr White gave Mr Orange his real name and hometown, considering anybody, even the dying Mr Orange, could be the rat. Not only is he right about everything, but he is the only character to survive the film.
Literature
- Ivan of The Brothers Karamazov.
- Death in the Discworld series. Is attempting to understand the human race, but is finding it...difficult.
- At times he seems to know a bit more about human nature than he lets on though, so maybe it's just an act.
- Voort "Piggy" saBinring from Wraith Squadron. He's a Pig Man from a species more known for violent aggression and stupidity, but brain tampering made him into a Genius Bruiser, Good With Numbers and tending to be logical and calm. We see a bestial side exactly once, and it takes getting gut-shot to bring it out.
- The Mentats in the Dune series.
- This trope might almost be named The Sherlock, which also makes it Older Than Radio.
Live Action TV
- Spock from the original Star Trek. Trope Namer, obviously. Also every other Vulcan of Star Trek, including Tuvok from Star Trek Voyager and T'Pol from Star Trek Enterprise.
- Data from Star Trek The Next Generation.
- Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager, though she tries to overcome this in later parts of the show.
- Cristina Yang from Greys Anatomy.
- Temperance "Bones" Brennan from Bones.
- This becomes funny given that "Bones" from Star Trek is the original McCoy.
- Teal'c of Stargate SG-1 is sometimes The Spock, in that he has the same unflappability and (usually) rational thinking, though he's more The Stoic than a person who actually doesn't experience emotion.
- But then, Vulcans also do experience emotions, they're just damn good at hiding and ignoring them.
- Ficus in Quark is a parody of The Spock taken to extremes. He's a sentient plant and has absolutely no emotions, taking everything logically and speaking only in Spock Speak.
- Aeryn Sun of Far Scape is a minor tactical genius and never loses her cool...perhaps to her detriment, as the path of her relationship with Crichton is rocky and convoluted.
- Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory.
- Lampshaded, as Sheldon considers his circle of friends one doctor short of a landing party, and has proclaimed himself the Spock.
- Sheldon might not be a full-fledged example of this trope - he's too self-centered to be detached from the situation, so to speak - but Leonard's mother, Beverly, fits this trope very well.
- Doctor Larry Fleinhart from NUMB3RS. Surprisingly, Doctor Charlie Epps doesn't qualify, as he emotes just fine.
- Castiel the doubting angel from Supernatural.
- Rupert Giles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
- House in House.
- Cameron in the Sarah Connor Chronicles.
- Jor-El in Smallville. He often cooks up options for Clark to beat the bad guy that involve sacrificing his friends. He is however, prone to getting royally pissed at Clark for refusing to listen to him.
Video Games
Webcomics
- Chou Yaru in Unicorn Jelly.
- Vaarsuvius from Order of the Stick tries to be this in order to become more effective and overcome a great obstacle, but seeing as how the elf is anything but emotionless and is in fact haunted by the memory of a great failure, the result is disastrous.
- I think deep down, V is more likely A Mc Coy, though one who is fairly useless in any social situation.
- Theo from Shape Quest
is like this...usually.
Western Animation
