Before Star Trek, Leonard Nimoy And William Shatner Appeared In This Classic Series

In the "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." episode "The Project Strigas Affair" (November 24, 1964), it's explained that Laslo Kurasov (Werner Klemperer from "Hogan's Heroes"), a Khrushchev-like diplomat from an unnamed Balkan state, is aiming to disrupt arms talks between the United States and nations behind the Iron Curtain. Agents Napoleon Solo (Robert Wagner) and Illya (David McCallum) are tasked with removing Laslo from his position without assassinating him (which would make him into a martyr). They instead concoct a very, very elaborate plan to embarrass Laslo and discredit him in the public eye. 

The plan begins with an agent from U.N.C.L.E. playacting his own death-by-stabbing in front of Laslo, yelling the cryptic (and made-up) phrase "Strigas YL893." This startles Laslo and causes him to assign his aide, a man named Vladeck (Leonard Nimoy), to investigate what that codeword might mean. U.N.C.L.E. secretly feeds Vladeck some fake information, explaining that "Strigas" is actually the code name for an American chemical engineer named Michael Donfield (William Shatner), who is not yet savvy to the U.N.C.L.E. scheme. Only then do Illya and Napoleon recruit Donfield into helping them. 

The plot also involves Illya disguising himself and infiltrating Laslo's inner circles. Plus, there's a scene wherein Donfield pretends to get drunk at a fancy cocktail party, leading Laslo to believe he's reckless enough to sell (fake) state secrets. Then there's an attempted sale to Russian agents ... look, the plot of the episode is way too complicated, and synopsizing the whole thing would take far too long. There's a blackmail plot, and a few new characters who serve as intermediaries. The point is that "Strigas" is fake, and U.N.C.L.E. wants to see if they can oust a buyer, as well as plant incriminating evidence on Laslo, hence finally discrediting him as they originally wanted. 

The most striking thing about "The Project Strigas Affair" is that it features a few scenes with both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, two years before they would become co-stars on "Star Trek."

Shatner and Nimoy had weirdly parallel career paths, and it seemed almost inevitable that they should eventually act together. Both of them began their professional screen careers in 1951, with Shatner appearing in "The Butler's Night Off," and Nimoy appearing in "Queen for a Day." Shatner would skew classical, acting in film adaptations of "Oedipus the King" and "The Brothers Karamozov," while Nimoy would take the B-movies route, appearing in "Zombies of the Stratosphere" and "Francis at West Point," one of the ultra-successful Francis the Talking Mule pictures. The two actors also starred in their first TV shows in 1954, with Shatner playing Cowboy Bob on the Canadian version of "The Howdy Doody Show," and Nimoy appearing on "Dragnet." 

Both actors appeared on different episodes of "Gunsmoke," "The Twilight Zone," and "The Outer Limits." They were each hard-working actors working their way through the same system, often getting the same jobs. In 1964, though, their paths finally crossed in earnest when they were cast in the same episode of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." The two actors only have a few scenes together, and they don't interact a lot within those scenes, but they did indeed appear on camera at the same time. There's a great moment when Nimoy points a gun at Shatner and takes a suitcase from him by force. 

In 1966, of course, Shatner and Nimoy would become lead actors on "Star Trek," playing Captain Kirk and Commander Spock. Their relationship on "Star Trek," as has been reported on endlessly, wasn't very rosy, as they constantly tried to steal each other's lines. It took an angry letter from "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry to get them back into line. 

Shatner and Nimoy have written extensively about their relationship in individual biographies and autobiographies. In the book "Shatner" by Michael Seth Starr, Nimoy said that he and Shatner had great acting chemistry on "Star Trek" because Shatner was playing a very passionate character in Kirk, and Nimoy had to be very cool as Spock. He also said that they butted heads a lot, mostly for reasons of ego. Spock became a breakout character, which angered Shatner, ostensibly hired to be the lead of "Star Trek." Nimoy said: 

"[We were] very competitive, with a sibling rivalry up to here, and after the show had been on the air a few weeks and they started to get a lot of mail about Spock, then the dictum came down from NBC: "Oh, give us more of that guy! They love that guy!" Well, that can be a problem for a leading man who's hired as the star of the show." 

Their "Star Trek" co-star George Takei related in his own autobiography, "To the Stars," that Nimoy and Shatner fought all the time on set, and that both of them — Shatner in particular — were prima donnas of the highest order. Shatner said at a live event recently (that this author attended) that he and Nimoy didn't really become friends until after "Star Trek" had ended, and they began seeing each other at live fan events and "Star Trek" conventions. By the time Nimoy died in 2015, he and Shatner had become very close. Shatner recently celebrated his 94th birthday. 

On the set of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," way back in 1964, neither actor could have likely predicted their future, but it's a fascinating instance of crossed paths before they were launched into the pop culture firmament.