Summary

• Tuvok from Star Trek: Voyager was the first Vulcan main character since Spock from The Original Series, making his role challenging.
• Actor Tim Russ, who played Tuvok, credited his knowledge of Spock and TOS for helping him secure the role.
• While both Spock and Tuvok were logical characters, Spock's humanity and struggle with emotions made him more relatable and popular.

Star Trek: Voyager's Tim Russ explained why Spock (Leonard Nimoy) from Star Trek: The Original Series was the key to winning his role as Tuvok. Although Vulcans are a popular Star Trek species, Spock and Tuvok are the only two Vulcan main characters to date in any franchise show. Nimoy originated Spock and many traits and customs of the logical alien race on TOS, but Voyager ended up being the first show since TOS to include a Vulcan as part of its main cast, leaving Tuvok with big shoes to fill. Luckily, Tuvok became a compelling character in his own right and was brought to life beautifully by Tim Russ.

Although Russ was a regular Star Trek player, having appeared in other projects before Voyager, he still needed to audition for the role of Tuvok before being cast. In an interview for The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Russ discussed landing the part of Tuvok and how he prepared for the audition. Interestingly, Russ credited his knowledge of TOS and Spock in particular in helping him land the role. Read Russ' full quote below:

"I had the edge over most people reading for the part, because I know that character. Tuvok is definitely based on Spock. Why does everybody like Spock? Why was he genuinely — over Captain Kirk, even — the most popular character on that show? It’s because he was what we all want to be. We want to be perfect, we want to be able to overcome all the trials we have to deal with. The character is so interesting to watch, because every situation that came up you’d want to see what Spock would do, you wanted to see how he reacted — and you enjoyed watching him just completely confused and baffled by human beings. You could forget that he was part human. So, coming into the reading I was armed to the teeth with this character. And casting is generally 80 percent personality and 20 percent talent. I’m not saying I’m able to do the things the way Tuvok does, it’s just that I do like to approach things from an analytical or logical standpoint. If you are 100 percent Vulcan, obviously there’s no choice between being human or Vulcan. Spock had to make a choice. Tuvok never had to make that choice. It’s like an athlete who trains to do the decathlon and an athlete who’s born to do the decathlon. The person who comes into this world destined by nature to do it, has the edge."

Spock's Key Difference From Tuvok Gave Him A Popular Advantage

Interestingly, Russ' discussion of the similarities between Spock and Tuvok also hit upon the key difference between them: the full scope of their heritage. Unlike Spock, Tuvok was completely Vulcan and therefore much less prone to emotional difficulties or any true displays of vulnerability. If Tuvok did become emotional, it was because some outside force was influencing him and forcing him to act out of character. Otherwise, Tuvok was completely logical, with no human side of his personality to fall back on. This meant that Tuvok was the unintentional villain of some Voyager episodes when his rigidity came into conflict with his human crewmates.

In contrast, Spock was half-human, making the struggle between the opposing sides of his personality even more fascinating. Russ is correct that watching an unemotional character make decisions is interesting, but what made Spock particularly compelling were his attempts to balance his logic and emotion and how difficult it was sometimes for him to maintain the two. Tuvok's similarly emotionally challenging moments were much rarer on Star Trek: Voyager, making him just a little harder to relate to. Spock's frequent loss of control over his emotions humanized him and, along with Nimoy originating much of the Vulcan culture, ended up giving Spock a popular advantage over Tuvok as a character.

Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: The Original Series are both available to stream on Paramount+.

Source: The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross