Illogical, Captain: was Spock really a police lieutenant?

I’ve been trying to get my son into Star Trek.

Not the new movies, but the original TV series, Kirk, Spock, Dr McCoy and all.

Now, I piqued his interest by telling him that Scotty, the engineer, was supposed to come from Scotland, but his favourite character is Spock.

I know he’s an alien, from the planet Vulcan, but can you tell me where the inspiration for the character originally came from? – G.

From the Los Angeles Police Department!

Of course, we all know the character of Spock was played by actor Leonard Nimoy in the TV series from 1966-69 and in several of the Star Trek movies. The character was invented by writer and producer, Gene Roddenberry.

Texan Rodenberry was raised in Los Angeles and was an airline pilot in the late 1940s but decided his future lay in writing for television.

The ideal training ground for that, he concluded, was the LAPD, the Los Angeles Police Department.

There he encountered chief of police William Parker. The pair enjoyed long philosophical talks, and Roddenberry remembers the legendary hard-line chief as being almost a liberal on some subjects.

“He played the right-wing autocrat, but there was another side to him,” Roddenberry recalled.

The future creator of Star Trek was impressed with Parker’s openness to new ideas and his diverse intellectual interests.

Years later, these became characteristics of Spock and his philosophy of “infinite diversity in infinite combinations”.

While throwing sticks into the sea for my dog, I wondered just how far away the horizon is? – A.That depends how tall you are.If you are at sea level, and are 5ft 7in tall (1.7m) the horizon is 2.9 miles (4.7km) distant.However, if you are really tall, say 6ft 7in (2m) then you can see a bit further, to 3.1 miles, or 5km.And if you were on top of Mount Everest (29,0029ft, 8,848m) admiring the view, you would be able to see for 209 miles or 336km. When Lonnie Donegan sang My Old Man’s A Dustman, he said his father wore a dustman’s hat – and cor blimey trousers. What on earth are they? – S.Donegan reached No 1 in March, 1961, with the song.Cor blimey trousers were workwear worn by dustmen and coal merchants. They were very baggy corduroy or moleskin trousers, often tied with string just below the knee. I’m a fan of The Velvet Underground, my pal likes the Grateful Dead. Both started out as The Warlocks, but which band was first to use the name? – R.I think it was the Velvets, a New Yorkbased band, in early 1964, before changing their name in 1966.The other Warlocks formed in early 1965, in San Francisco. They became The Grateful Dead in December, 1965.The Dead changed their name after hearing of a third band called The Warlocks. Which film has been the most successful at the box office in terms of, not to put too fine a point on it, bums on seats? – D.There are no exact figures for admissions since the earliest days of cinema, but the most viewed film is probably Gone With The Wind.Released in 1940, it may well have been seen by 35 million cinema goers.It won eight Oscars, including Best Picture.

LAPD chief William Parker was the inspiration behind Star Trek’s Spock