nicksmith May 20, 2009 Features 303 views Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

Star Trek fever is in full swing with the recent theatrical release of the J.J. Abrams franchise reboot (sadly this is the only video game we get to go with it). Much of the hype is centered around the young cast and their fresh take on familiar characters. One of the favorite performances seems to be that of Heroes star Zachary Quinto as Spock.

The Vulcan race has identifiable traits including the pointed eyebrows, distinct ears, and the Moe haircut. It is not surprising that with modern makeup Quinto resembles the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy. What is surprising is really how similar they really look when photos are compared side by side. Sorry, no William Shatner for this experiment.

We found a classic photo of Nimoy as Spock and placed it next to the publicity shot for Quinto in the new film. Immediately you see the similar Vulcan traits but the older photo is in color and rotated so the resemblence does not scream perfect match.

If you place the right side of Nimoy’s face and the left side of Quinto’s together, you will start to see that they match up fairly well. Maybe even more than expected.

Taking the color away from the classic photo, making a few adjustments, and adding the U.S.S. Enterprise in the background via Photoshop tells a whole different story. The whole reason for showing the steps in this blog is because the few people we showed this to did not even recognize they were looking at two people. They aren’t a perfect match, but they sure do resemble one another quite a bit.

If you are not seeing it from looking at the merged image, look at these two below where you can see the two “halves” separately.

Do you think any of the other cast members would fit this experiment? What did you think of the movie itself? Let us know here or on Twitter @PWN_or_DIE.

Click on the images themselves for larger versions. Once you do that, you can click again for an even larger size if one is available.