Before William Shatner suited up as Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy appeared as Mr. Spock, boldly going where no man has gone before in “Star Trek,” the pair actually debuted in an iconic spy series. Two years earlier, in 1964, Shatner and Nimoy played roles in “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” spy thriller series, in an episode titled “The Project Strigas Affair.”
Both actors play minor characters in the episode, which features an almost ridiculously complex plotline. As a political diplomat attempts to heighten tensions between the East and West — a fairly common trope — U.N.C.L.E. is to put a stop to it and neutralize the diplomat without making him a martyr. The agents come up with a wild con by creating a fake project, Project Strigas, to recruit the engineer and complete their mission.
The IMDb rating for the episode is 8.6 out of 10, with over 330 reviews total, which is the second highest episode rating of the series — the first being an 8.7 out of 10 for “The Mad, Mad Tea Party Affair,” which is also quite the chaotic and bonkers episode. Still, “The Project Strigas Affair,” looks to be one of the most reviewed episodes of the series, many of which have garnered about 200 total reviews or less. The involvement of Shatner and Nimoy presumably plays a part in that figure.
Is it possible to watch the Shatner/Nimoy episode?
Today, Shatner can be found narrating episodes of “The UnXplained,” a great choice for something to watch after sci-fi and alien-related documentaries. But if you want to catch his old shows, especially on streaming platforms, you might be out of luck, including with this episode of “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” The physical DVD series is available for purchase at retailers like Amazon. Nothing is currently streaming, however.
Leonard Nimoy reprised his role as Spock Prime in “Star Trek Into Darkness” from 2013, which is available for streaming across several platforms, like Netflix, Paramount+, and more. Both actors starred in episodes of “Gunsmoke,” “The Twilight Zone,” and “The Outer Limits,” albeit each in different episodes.
Shatner and Nimoy showing up in relatively obscure media before they made it big is reminiscent of many other actors. For example, Tom Hardy and Kelly Reilly starred in an obscure sci-fi movie for BBC Four back in the 2000s. While not a sci-fi, but definitely an espionage thriller like “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” Val Kilmer was also in a relatively unknown and underrated movie from 2004 called “Spartan.” It’s interesting looking back to see where they were before they made it big.
