As I had hoped, my Christmas this year was filled with lots of Star Trek and Sherlock Holmes. Along with a viewing this weekend of the new Sherlock Holmes film, which opened Christmas Day, there was also a massive family gathering on Christmas night to watch the new Star Trek movie on Blu-ray.

And Santa brought me a bunch of Star Trek audiobooks, Blu-rays, and games (you can see a picture of my Trek haul over in TrekMovie‘s reader gift roundup post), as well as The Complete 2-Volume Annotated Sherlock Holmes, which I have had my eye on for the last five years and spent Christmas Eve night drooling over. Oh, and on Christmas we launched our The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Contest, where we have three sets of four all-new Sherlock Holmes novels to give away to our readers!

And what’s better than Star Trek and Sherlock Holmes? A combination of the two, that’s what! Hero Complex found a photo of Leonard Nimoy — everyone’s favorite Vulcan — portraying Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous literary detective during a national stage tour in the 1970s. (That’s the photo here at right; click for larger full view.)

Great find, Hero Complex!

Now that’s a production I would have LOVED to see (which I believe it was for the Royal Shakespeare Company). I’m sure there probably isn’t any footage of Nimoy in the play, but if there is, someone please point me to it!

Nimoy’s stage role as Holmes isn’t the only link between the Trek and Holmes worlds. Nimoy’s Spock in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country cited Holmsian logic (although attributing it to his Vulcan ancestors): “…if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” In the latest Star Trek film, Zachary Quinto’s Spock postulated the same thing. Also, in the Star Trek: The New Generation episode “Elementary, Dear Data” the android Data plays the role of Sherlock Holmes, complete with trench coat, deerstalker hat, and calabash pipe, in a holographic story.