The Spock

The most logical image for this page.

"Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule."

— Mr. Jaggers, Great Expectations

"Captain, the logical course of action in this situation is to let the inhabitants of Pupolon fend for themselves. We need the device keeping the planet's orbit stable, or risk endangering the very existence of The Federation. I am aware of the consequences for the local population, Doctor, but simply rushing in to 'save the high priestess' will leave us open to a Klingon ambush with a 78.52% probability of outright destruction.

I realize this is a hard choice, Captain, but the needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few."

The Spock is an archetype that can be loosely summed up as the tendency to apply rules, reason and the greater good to all of their decisions — in other words, a character who will always think before acting. This character can exist by themselves, but more often, they will have a more emotional and humanistic counterpart to contrast their decisions. The main difference between the two archetypes is that while The McCoy will leap before looking, The Spock's solution to problems will have a balanced and well-thought out approach. When put in a Power Trio (or Freudian Trio) with The Kirk and The McCoy, this character becomes the Superego.

The Spock's relationship with their crewmates/comrades is often tense, because this character type is willing and able to ruthlessly consider ethically troubling situations without batting an eye — especially situations where people might be ordered to die. While their counterpart The McCoy is interested in doing the right thing regardless of cost, The Spock is more interested in the end result. For them, everyone, (including themself) is expendable if it is necessary to complete the mission, and they have no problem treating people as such.

The Spock maintains audience sympathy by being willing to Take a Third Option and also by being as ruthless about their own life as the lives of their crewmates, if not more so. Even better, they are utterly unflappable in the face of serious problems or danger; their friends know that no matter how terrifying or hopeless things get, they will never lose their cool and will not stop working on a solution to save everyone (which The McCoy does respect about them). And finally, they are perfectly willing to hear out The McCoy.

The Spock will at times become a Tin Man, though this varies with the writing, and will often have No Sense of Humor. When they have emotion, they may sometimes express it with a Fascinating Eyebrow and nothing more. Since Smart People Play Chess, if The Spock plays a game, it will invariably be a variant of chess.

Closely related to The Stoic, Agent Scully, Emotionless Girl, and Little Miss Snarker. Often becomes a Straw Vulcan, but occasionally ends up on the winning side of Emotions vs. Stoicism. Probably sides with the Enlightenment in Romanticism Versus Enlightenment. Well Intentioned Extremists often come across similarly when they believe they're working for the greater good. See also Spock Speak.

This character type is Shoot the Dog personified.

Named (obviously) for Spock from Star Trek. Compare their eternal opposite, The McCoy.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• All Contractors in Darker than Black are said to be like this; part of their condition is that they always act rationally and with their own best interests in mind, dismissing emotional attachments. Throughout the series several counter-examples are shown, to the degree that whether the statement is actually true is up for discussion.
• Inspector Lunge from Monster is a subversion. He is an unemotional workaholic, but he makes most of his decisions based on his Pride, and, because of it, he disregards mounting evidence of Johan's existence until it becomes overwhelming. A true Spock would have impartially re-evaluated evidence and circumstances as they changed and based his judgements purely on logic. Also, his big fight with Roberto shows that he does have an emotional Berserk Button, and while his handcuffing himself to Tenma after being badly wounded is admirably badass, it could hardly be called a rational decision.
• Hyouka: Houtarou Oreki. He's an intelligent, clever, stoic young man.
• Death Note: L is a surprisingly good one. There's a minor deviation in that he sometimes informs people of his emotions, even though he doesn't display them unless the situation's truly dire. Near also qualifies. Mello? Not at all...
• Ulquiorra Cifer from Bleach appears to be a villainous example of this trope- while his comrades generally act like children, he openly describes himself as an emotionless tool for Aizen to use as he pleases. The closest he ever comes to showing emotion are several cases where his eyes slightly widen and a single instance where he raises his voice.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has Kakyoin, the cool-headed strategist who uses his Stand (Hierophant Green) to make complex plans to get out of situations.
• Sai from Naruto. He was raised in ROOT, which means he has no emotions whatsoever. Although he gets better at understanding them later when he joins team 7.
  • Tobirama Senju, aka the 2nd Hokage, is also this, especially compared to his older brother the 1st. He always advocates taking the most logical action in the face of a conflict, even if said action is callous and/or ethically questionable. Whether the story is sympathetic to this varies and can be anywhere between Jerkass Has a Point and Unwitting Instigator of Doom.
• Kyoya from Ouran High School Host Club. He deliberately crafts a hardened, purely logical exterior, and gets pretty annoyed/confused when people (Tamaki, Haruhi) see through it. He's the one really running the club and making all the real decisions - slightly subverted, though, in that nobody fights him on his decisions since he never has to make life or death choices.
• C. C. from Code Geass is a particularly snarky variant, at least while the cold side of her Sugar-and-Ice Personality is the one being shown. Far from being emotionless, she has very strong feelings, she is just able to keep them under control most of the time.
• Rossiu of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is this, at least later post-timeskip. He often performs reasonable actions that end up not working in a universe where fighting spirit can warp the laws of physics. makes him Wrong Genre Savvy and thus totally obsolete.
• Rei Ayanami and scientist Ritsuko Akagi of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
  • In Rei's case, she's a clone who's been raised her entire life by Gendo, and never had any friends until Shinji. She did go to school with other kids, but she seems to have been a loner there. When explaining her actions she always points out that she took the most logical course of action.
  • Ritsuko is much more logical and cynical than her friend Misato, possibly because she feels the best way to deal with her morally questionable actions is suppressing emotion.
• Piccolo of Dragon Ball Z became this after Character Development. He first appears as a raving, cackling lunatic hell-bent on killing Goku (justified, as he has all his father's memories, and is only a few years old). Despite that, he was intelligent enough to ally with Goku and kill Raditz. However, when he did kill Goku, the circumstances made him realize that he had no goal afterwards, though he ends up training Gohan. Gohan's large heart helps Piccolo discover his conscience and he ends up becoming The Strategist of the Z-Fighters though he is still often puzzled by the emotions of his friends and he often decides the smart and pragmatic decision among his comrades. Sometimes, though, he gets angry. Like if Gohan gets hurt. Then he goes from being The Spock to a Papa Wolf.
• Fuu Hououji of Magic Knight Rayearth is an unusual example. She is much more calm, observant, and thoughtful than Hikaru and Umi , but she also applies her logic to a strong sense of compassion and attempts to comfort her friends.
• Senku from Dr. STONE ends up being a subversion. He's a brilliant scientist who frequently talks about logic, but he usually rejects the most logical course of action because he wants to save everyone and refuses to even entertain the idea of sacrificing someone for "the greater good".
• In Tamagotchi, Mametchi fits this trope, given the fact he's the most intelligent of the group and he makes inventions.
• Dai'chi Muroto in Kotoura-san is unfeeling but highly analytical of everything around him and speaks with precision that often "stings" people, and on top of it he never gets emotional, although he makes it clear that he has them; he's just not expressive at all.
• The premise of Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove it is two Spocks (Yukimura and Himuro) falling in love, and attempting to answer the question What Is This Thing You Call "Love"? through science and statistics.
• Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Exsedol, as the strategist, plays this role quite well. Even later in the series, when he's become more cultured, he tends to be logical and stoic.
• Death Parade has Decim, a cold, stoic Tin Man whose job requires him to analyze human beings in the afterlife. Unfortunately, since people are generally not very logical by nature, he’s slips up often, but maintains the aesthetics required of him until his assistant helps him see the system in a different light.
  Decim: ”Love? […] That is incomprehensible.”
• The titular character in Goblin Slayer is basically emotionless with a practical and ruthless approach to slaying all goblins (which are Always Chaotic Evil) and any other monsters associated with them. He's willing to do some fairly dark things like killing goblin children, causing floods and trapping goblins inside burning ruins to get this done. Nevertheless, townspeople and other adventurers come to appreciate him since he basically takes out the extremely dangerous pests plaguing them.
• Although Shouta Aizawa from My Hero Academia isn't as immune to acting on emotion as he wants everyone to think, he displays shades of his. He prioritizes logic and reason and rational thinking. He's fond of "logical ruses" with the students and even when he was shot with a quirk-erasing bullet, his reaction was completely logic-driven: Self-amputate the leg to try and save his quirk.

Comic Books

• Batman mostly comes across as this. He's willing to make tough but rational choices if it means protecting innocent people and stopping supervillains. He once put aside his "No guns, no killing" rule to kill Darkseid, got blasted across space-time and just said "Gotcha".
• Cyclops of the X-Men is mostly this as the team's field commander. He's an experienced leader who makes reasonable decisions in a fight. As time has passed though, he's gradually become more ruthless and has his moments where his stoic facade cracks to show the traumatized man benetah.
• The Vision of The Avengers. He's a robot after all. Depending on the Writer, he may show human emotions to a high or low extension, or lack them completely.
• Dr. Manhattan of Watchmen, who is referred to as "goddamn Mr Spock there" by a minor character at a cocktail party.
• Taken to epic levels in Final Crisis: Superman Beyond with the Composite Character Captain Allen Adam, A.K.A. the Quantum Superman of Earth 4, who is a meshing of the Good Doctor with the original Captain Atom. Even when on heavy drugs to keep his quantum senses in check he's capable of feats of extreme mental prowess, and after his drugs fade off he attains a state of nigh-omniscience and arranges the activation of the Cosmic Armor that saves all of reality from an Eldritch Abomination that eats stories. Only The Spock can stay calm and babble about the organic nature of The Multiverse while the universe-destroying evil emerges.
• Transformers: Generation 1:
  • Prowl, more so in The Transformers (Marvel) comics. IDW's take deconstructs this- Prowl's lack of empathy and I Did What I Had to Do attitude alienate him from the rest of the Autobots, even those who were previously his friends. During The Transformers: Robots in Disguise and The Transformers: Combiner Wars, it's show that his "logical" behavior isn't even that logical — he's motivated as much by a desire for revenge and lingering mental instability over his torture by the Decepticons and being made a part of Devastator.
  • Shockwave, though he's a villain. Typically it's considered his strength, as he can remain emotionally detached and not get distracted like Megatron or Starscream are prone to doing. Subverted in IDW's Spotlight: Shockwave, when he's unable to figure out a logical reason for why the Dinobots attacked him and begins losing the fight, only to realize that their reason is illogical: they're after revenge and he's only able to turn the fight around by deliberately activating an illogical rage mode.
• Skalman in Bamse is almost an example, but he is usually even less likely to suggest a course of action that seems unethical — in fact, it is sometimes shown that being logical and thinking things through allows him to do the opposite.
• James-Michael of Omega the Unknown, due to his being raised by robot protectors.
• Fantastic Four: While he's the team's leader, Reed Richards is most comfortable as the thinker of the group.

Comic Strips

• Dan Dare: The Treen are completely emotionless and driven by logic. Sondar, a good Treen, is capable of feeling emotion, but still approaches problems logically.

Fan Works

• Advice and Trust: Rei always tries to be logical and rational. Her mindset is: logic makes things clearer and simpler. And thanks to that mindset she starts out to break Gendo's control upon her. She was being ordered to take a bunch of pills whose purpose was turning her into an emotionless doll. Asuka and Shinji warned her that her medication regimen was hazardous to her health. She researched, and her research proved Asuka was right. Ergo, Rei stopped taking her medication.
• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: Harry is too young and emotional to be this, but he sees it as an ideal, and always tries to ignore his emotions and make decisions based on pure logic. Occasionally a bit of a deconstruction, as his "purely rational" decisions often come across as cold or even cruel, and may be leading him to become a dark lord. For Example, when he rationalizes that killing a unicorn to extend Quirrel's life is no worse than killing a cow to eat, even though his gut instinct tells him not to.
• The Night Unfurls: Kyril isn't some robot whose pet phrase is "logic this, logic that", but the decisions he makes in both versions of the story evokes the image of the pragmatist who prefers cold reason, commits to a task and does what he has to do without batting an eye.
  • Original version: During the war against the Black Dogs, Kyril always chooses to take as few prisoners as possible (i.e., killing those who surrendered) rather than adhering to "battlefield courtesy". Faced with a rebellion in Ken, he chooses to quell it with force rather than to discuss terms with the rebels (it doesn't help that they are supporters of an Army of Thieves and Whores). When playing the role of flag officer, he puts emphasis on mapping out plans large and small, maintaining discipline and achieving results. Not glory or "fighting with your heart and soul".
  • Remastered version: After finding a den in Chapter 1, Kyril is more interested in dispassionately reporting the amount of orcs to kill as well as how the killing will proceed, in contrast to Alicia's concern for the orc victims. After dealing with an ambush in Chapter 2, Kyril's decision is to tell the others to stop grieving for their dead^note his reasoning being that i) the orcs will return soon, so if they keep staying, they all die, and ii) the dead are dead anyway and nothing will change that, take the reins, and continue on heading to the desired destination. In later chapters, he emphasises the importance of getting the job done, rather than saying things like "I believe in my heart" or "I don't want these people to suffer" or "it's the right thing to do". Even though he gains allies due to a lingering Good Samaritan instinct that he thought he had lost, he has not forgotten about weighing his options^note For example, he believes his allies may have a part to play in the uncertain times ahead, so he sees the act of abandoning them a wasteful action. This differs from something like "I won't leave them no matter what! It's wrong / They are my friends!".
• Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Leon Gilbertson is the scholarly and knowledgeable, yet also rather emotionally guarded, resident animal expert of the titular park's rescue team.
• The Naruto Fanfic Team 8 puts Shino (along with the rest of the Aburame clan) into this role, in contrast to Naruto and Hinata. However, Shino himself is actually noted to be relatively emotional and expressive compared to the rest of his clan.

Films — Live-Action

• Reservoir Dogs: Mr Pink is the most logical of all the crew, especially when he acts as the foil to Mr White. The first scene shows him refusing to throw in money to tip the waitress, giving his reason as to why. He is later distrustful of everyone, and disgusted that Mr White gave Mr Orange his real name and hometown, considering anybody, even the dying Mr Orange, could be the rat. Not only is he right about everything, but he is the only character to survive the film. Subverted in that Mr. Pink is anything but cool—he's both logical and wildly neurotic.
• Dr. Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters (1984). In the sequel, he says that his parents did not believe in toys and he seems to be nigh-immune to the mood slime which makes the two most "positive" Ghostbusters try to kill each other. In the commentary for the original film, Harold Ramis notes that he deliberately played Egon as a Spock-like character. He also notes that there is only one scene where he actually shows emotion, when Walter Peck tries to have the Ghostbusters arrested for an explosion that he caused himself.
  • For the record, Egon was affected by the mood slime in the novelization and script of the movie. He was, however, the first to overcome its effects.
• Juror #4 (the stockbroker with wire rim glasses) from 12 Angry Men. He's one of the longest holdouts against Juror #8, but unlike #10, who is motivated by bigotry, or #3, who is projecting his family issues onto the case, #4 is simply not convinced by the circumstantial logic that #8 offers as reasonable doubt and sticks to the defendant's inability to remember the movies he claimed to see. He only changes his vote when #8 quizzes him on the last double-feature he saw and he's unable to remember basic details himself, proving that the defendant's claim is plausible after all.
• Sunshine. When the crew out to save the sun (and the world) are down to five members and their oxygen supply is cut, they realize they only have enough oxygen for four people to make a return trip. Corazon doesn't bat an eyelid in suggesting they murder one of their own (whom happened to be already wracked with guilt for a mistake that led them into this predicament in the first place) instead of all five of them dying from lack of oxygen, and it didn't take much convincing for two other crew members to accept the idea.
• The Avengers: Iron Man fits The Kirk, and Captain America fits The McCoy. Black Widow being the most calculating and logical of the group would fit this.
  • Although in terms of Iron Man and Captain America alone, these two show a different dynamic with Steve being this. He is the tactician of the team and less of an ideological hero than he was in his own movie, while Tony is clearly dismayed at how calm he is following Coulson's death and has a moment where he wins Bruce over through sheer compassion.
• Abe Sapien in Hellboy; very logical and curious, abide to the rules and always thinks in the greater good if not in love with a Elven Princess that is. He also seems fascinated by the things he study.
• CLU from TRON: Legacy was programmed by Flynn to work as a Superego for the Grid: his creator's lack of foresight, however, has made him grow into a dysfunctional one, obsessed with perfection at the expense of flexibility.
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: Nelson has little time for humor and makes his decisions based on data and which option seems safer to him, regardless of whether they put people in danger or make him him seem unfeeling. He rarely, if ever, takes the time to apologize or reflect on his actions. However, he's usually right, and occasionally he'll compromise with people who oppose him if he thinks it won't ruin his plans.
• In Galaxy Quest, Sir Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman), is more an Expy of Leonard Nimoy. His in-universe character Dr. Lazarus is an Expy of Mr. Spock. As the story unfolds and the situation is dire, Alexander Dane takes on the role of Dr. Lazarus for real, and in doing so becomes The Spock.

Literature

• All-American Girl (Meg Cabot): Rebecca is very reserved and matter-of-fact (save for her belief that aliens are real). She isn't worried by news that her sister has been at the scene of a shooting due to the statistical probabilities making it more likely that Sam is fine.
• Elinor Dashwood, the protagonist of Sense and Sensibility, in contrast to her sister Marianne. Possibly the Trope Maker, considering this is one of the first known intentional uses of it (Austen intended the sisters' Emotions Versus Stoicism to be a metaphor for Romanticism Versus Enlightenment). Also one of the few examples where The Spock is right, and The McCoy has to learn to be more reserved rather than the other way around.
• Death in the Discworld series. Is attempting to understand the human race, but is finding it...difficult. At times he seems to know a bit more about human nature than he lets on though, so maybe it's just an act.
• Voort "Piggy" saBinring from Wraith Squadron. He's a Pig Man from a species more known for violent aggression and stupidity, but brain tampering made him into a Genius Bruiser, Good with Numbers and tending to be logical and calm. We see a bestial side exactly once, and it takes getting gut-shot to bring it out. Sort of similar to Vulcans, who practice emotional suppression precisely because their emotions are so violent and difficult to control compared with other species.
• Michael Valentine Smith from Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. He is capable of feeling overwhelming emotion, but when he does, he simply slips into a coma until he's found a way to logically respond to the situation. As a human raised on Mars, it takes him quite a while to understand laughter, grief, fear and loss - his only emotions at the start of the book are curiosity and love.
• The Dresden Files:
  • Mab to the extreme, in contrast with her sister Titania, who is The McCoy. Mab is utterly ruthless and pragmatic in pursuit of her goals of protecting reality from the Outsiders.
  • However, Mab is also The McCoy to her mother, Mother Winter, the ultimate pragmatist. Mother Winter calls Mab a softy because Mab won't kill Mab's own daughter Maeve when Maeve has become a traitor. Mab has just enough emotion and humanity left to find herself incapable of acting as she knows she should.
• Bean of the Ender's Game series. The International Fleet is looking for the best student to command their entire navy, and the two runners-up are Bean and Ender. Eventually it becomes clear that though Bean is as smart as Ender and more ruthlessly logical (due to having been genetically altered for greater intelligence), Ender is the more effective commander because he empathizes and associates with his sub-commanders and troops. As a result, Ender's soldiers have greater morale and willingness to follow their leader into deep battle than Bean's, turning the advantage in Ender's direction even with identical commands.
• Stannis Baratheon from A Song of Ice and Fire is a stern, pragmatic Determinator in contrast with his lazy, drunken elder brother Robert and his ambitious younger brother Renly.
• In the Fortunes of War books, Sarda ends up in this role in comparison to Piper, Scanner, and Merete, who become analogues to Kirk, Scotty, and Bones respectively in their interactions and their roles in the overall story. As a Vulcan, he looks at things from a logical standpoint and counters the more emotional arguments and actions of his comrades, but he slightly subverts the trope by being more emotional himself than normal Vulcans due to not having the necessary training in fine emotional control.
• In almost all books by Julius Evola, this is considered as the prime ideal of masculinity (above strength, warrior virtues and other things). According to him, men should strive to be detached from everything temporal and finite, and being able to control their emotions, be as calm as possible and sacrifice their way of life to eternal laws of the universe.
• Flawed: Celestine prides herself on how she can live based on flawless logic, which dictates that The Guild is good, the Flawed deserve what they get, and everything is perfect. When she herself becomes Flawed, this trait of hers gets thrown on it's head, as she no longer knows what is logical, and starts to think emotionally instead.
• Isaac Asimov's "C-Chute": Randolph Mullen acts like a stereotypical bookkeeper; small, nebbish, and neat. When involved in discussion, he only makes logical arguments, resisting the impulse to express an emotional reaction. After the climax, he explains to Stuart that it was because short people look ridiculous when emotional, so the only way he could be respected was to be logical.
• The Tower, one of the two books which inspired The Towering Inferno, has many of the leaders among the survivors adapting this mindset (most of whom were Adapted Out of the film). Most notably is Senator Peters and Ben Wilson, who are philosophical about their own poor chances or survival while struggling to keep things efficient enough to save others, and reflecting on past accomplishments respectively. Wilson in particular delivers bad news about the building (which he helped make) somewhat matter-of-factly and with a feeling of calm self-deprecation.
• Ascendance of a Bookworm: Ferdinand is very result-oriented and coldly rational to the point of caring more about the results than other people's feelings. He sacrificed the taste of his Mana-regenerating potions for efficiency to the point that others shudder at the thought of drinking them, while his idea of teaching others about the protagonist's poor health is having them spend time with her until she collapses in front of them. The two childhood companions with whom Ferdinand still spends a decent amount of time grew into a Manchild with a soft-to-a-fault side to him, and someone comparatively well-balanced in regards to the two other members of the group.
• Star Wars: Lost Stars: Jude tends to analyze things in a calm and rational manner, always with a scientific bent. It gets very odd sometimes, like her commenting while Kendy and Ciena are remarking about Thane looking cuter that yes, his physiology has progressed nicely.
• The Irregularat Magic High School has protagonist Tatsuya Shiba as a stoic master of battle tactics, magic, martial arts and engineering. He was designed to be this even before he was born as the result of a very large scale eugenics program conducted by his family. This is necessary considering his magic can literally disassemble and reassemble matter, leading to his emotions getting neutered and his relegation to serving as a bodyguard for his genetically altered sister, Miyuki.

Live-Action TV

• Star Trek:
  • Spock from Star Trek: The Original Series. Gene Roddenberry went on record saying that Spock is an idealized version of himself, as he'd always bemoaned his own passionate and hot-tempered nature.
    Spock: I realize this is a hard choice, Captain, but the needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few.
  • Almost every other Vulcan also falls into this trope, including Tuvok from Star Trek: Voyager and T'Pol from Star Trek: Enterprise. In fact, among Vulcans the half-human Spock ends up being The Kirk or even The McCoy by comparison. Tuvok especially is much more cold and humorless, being this by Vulcan standards.
  • Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Subverted, though, in that Data is actually aspiring to become more human, and makes significant strides toward that throughout the show and its films. Still, as Spock himself put it:
    Spock: Fascinating. You have an efficient intellect, superior physical skills, no emotional impediments... there are Vulcans who aspire all their lives to achieve what you've been given, by design.
    Data: Hm. - You are half Human?
    Spock: Yes.
    Data: Yet you have chosen a Vulcan way of life?
    Spock: I have.
    Data: In effect, you have abandoned what I have sought all my life.
  • Dax originally had shades of this in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (this is lampshaded in a time travel episode where she unknowingly parrots Spock's statistical readings), but grew organically into a party girl and textbook case of Immortal Immaturity. The acerbic security chief, Odo, is much closer to this.
  • Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager, though she tries to overcome this in later parts of the show.
  • T'Pol fills out this role on Star Trek: Enterprise, being a Vulcan officer assigned to serve aboard Earth's first Warp 5 starship, mainly to keep the humans out of trouble.
  • Michael Burnham tries to be this in Star Trek: Discovery, but is The McCoy at heart. Saru, meanwhile, tends to be far more calculating, with the explicit goal (at least early on, of avoiding unnecessary risks.)
• Game of Thrones: Jorah's pragmatism makes him this to Barristan's McCoy and Dany's Kirk.
• Sherlock: Sherlock, Moriarty, Magnussen and Mycroft are this, definitely. The only way to get Sherlock pissed is to hurt Mrs. Hudson or threaten John's life, though.
• Cristina Yang from Grey's Anatomy.
• Lilith Sternin-Crane from Cheers, complete with Spock Speak.
• Strangely enough, for all the jokes of his lack of intelligence, this is usually the role Jayne Cobb plays in Firefly. Ruthlessly pragmatic, Jayne will always be the first one to suggest that the smartest course of action when in a bind would be to betray this person or abandon that cause. Rarely is his logic on these matters ever called into question, but no one else is willing to be that cut-throat.
• Temperance "Bones" Brennan from Bones. This becomes funny given that another character called "Bones" from Star Trek is the original McCoy. Also, Zack Addy.
• Teal'c of Stargate SG-1 is sometimes The Spock, in that he has the same unflappability and (usually) rational thinking, though he's more The Stoic than a person who actually doesn't experience emotion (several episodes demonstrate he experiences emotions quite intensely, especially in relation to his family and in relation to his cause of freeing his people).
• Ficus in Quark is a parody of The Spock taken to extremes. He's a sentient plant and has absolutely no emotions, taking everything logically and speaking only in Spock Speak.
• Farscape:
  • Aeryn Sun is a minor tactical genius and never loses her cool...perhaps to her detriment, as the path of her relationship with Crichton is rocky and convoluted. She becomes more The Kirk as she goes along.
  • Sikozu and, after his Heel–Face Turn, Scorpius are perhaps the purest Spock members of the crew, having a tendency to be coldly pragmatic about problems.
  • Rygel is a slight subversion, as he has a tendency to on occasion claim his actions are for the best of the crew as a whole, but more often than not he's just being a greedy self-interested Jerkass. He has his moments, however.
• Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory. Lampshaded, as Sheldon considers his circle of friends one doctor short of a landing party, and has proclaimed himself the Spock. Sheldon might not be a full-fledged example of this trope, though. He's too self-centered to be detached from the situation, so to speak - but Leonard's mother, Beverly, fits this trope very well.
• Freddie on iCarly, opposite to Carly (The Kirk) and Sam (The McCoy).
• Moze on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, with Cookie as The McCoy and Ned as The Kirk.
• Doctor Larry Fleinhart from NUMB3RS. Surprisingly, Doctor Charlie Epps doesn't qualify, as he emotes just fine. More surprising as Larry is the Romantic one and Charlie is the Enlightened one.
• Castiel the doubting angel from Supernatural.
• Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Subverted, as he is often flustered or baffled, but forces himself to adhere to the cold-headed British persona he was raised to believe was most proper for any occasion.
• House in House. Deconstructed, as all he thinks he's worth is his brain, and he's more human than he wants to be. He'll always at least try to couch things in logical terms though, even his disability.
• Cameron in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. While she can emulate emotion, she usually goes the most coldly pragmatic route.
• Jor-El in Smallville. He often cooks up options for Clark to beat the bad guy that involve sacrificing his friends. He is however, prone to getting royally pissed at Clark for refusing to listen to him.
• Dr. Moira Isles from Rizzoli & Isles.
  Rizzoli: You'd tell me if you were a cyborg, right?
• Hauser in Alcatraz is a rather unpleasant version of this trope.
• Jack Harkness from Torchwood. Interesting, in that he was The Kirk to the Doctor, originally.
• Clayton Webb, but even more so Sturgis Turner, fills this role in JAG.
• Scandal: Olivia.
• Kerr Avon from Blake's 7 is a rather cynical version.
• Robert McCall, The Equalizer, is very much this but has tempered it some on his own by choosing to stick to ideals he had put away for the greater good when he was part of The Agency. He always prefers logic, rationalism, and hard facts to intuition, and never lets his emotions rule instead of his head, always calculating and manipulating the odds, and willing to pay the cost himself to save someone's life.
  • Also, Control from the same series, the only person in the series to out-Spock McCall and to whom McCall could look like a McCoy next to.
• Kane is this on The 100, always putting the rules of the Ark and The Needs of the Many ahead of everything else. However, he seems to recognize that sometimes a more warm-hearted approach is needed; he just can't provide it himself, and so prefers acting as second-in-command rather than The Leader.
  • Lexa is another example. She believes that love (and emotions in general) are a weakness, and is ruthless about sacrificing anyone, even herself or those close to her, if she believes it's what's best for her people.
• The Robot in Lost in Space, of course it helps that is a robot, yet in the series has artificial intelligence and is capable of having emotions, so the cold logic he uses most of the time is a choice.
• In Babylon 5:
  • Ivanova among the crew, especially to Sheridan's The Kirk, Ivanova is very logical and detached and follows the rules strictly most of the time, though she does have some private outbursts. Contrast with much more emotional and intuitive Garibaldi as The McCoy.
  • Kosh among the ambassadors, a cold, cryptic super-advance alien worried only for the big scheme of things and coming from an entire race based on cold discipline and order. He can be very frustrating for Sheridan because of this, and he’s imply to be the most emotional of his specie.
  • The Spin-Off show Crusade has the techno-mage Galen as this. Galen is cold and logical and can be very ruthless. He can act irrationally though as when he kidnaps the ship in order to fulfill his dead wife's last wish.
• Professor Arturo in Sliders is clearly The Spock of the group. Arturo is cold, logical and always put first the ethical action (especially regarding the alteration of the universe they visit) over the well being of the other characters and himself. When John Rhys-Davies left the show his Replacement Scrappy Maggie Beckett kept more or less the same role as a cold-hearted military-trained character that often thinks in survival than anything else.
• Taken: In "Jacob and Jesse", Jacob Clarke is a quiet and withdrawn boy who seldom expresses any real emotion regardless of the circumstances or the stimuli. However, he proves to be Not So Stoic when he is forced to leave his mother Sally after his family fake his death. He cries profusely since he knows that he may never see her again. These qualities diminish by the time that he becomes an adult. In "Maintenance" and "Charlie and Lisa", he is much more open about expressing his emotions, particularly his love for his daughter Lisa.

Myths & Religion

• Hades is usually portrayed as the unemotional ruler who wouldn't allow exceptions to the rules of the Underworld.

Radio

• Journey into Space: In The Red Planet, James Edward Whitaker is cold, emotionless and never makes small talk due to his conditioning by the Martians. His shipmate Frank Rogers finds him creepy and off-putting and can hardly even stand to be in his presence after only two days. This presents a problem considering that the two of them must share Freighter No. 2 during the fleet's six month journey to Mars. Lemmy has much the same reaction to Whitaker as Rogers does. Several members of the Martian expedition, including Rogers, Grimshaw, McLean, Dobson and Harding, are later conditioned and display the same characteristics as Whitaker.

Tabletop Games

• Alchemical Exalted have a trait called "Clarity" that tracks how much of this personality they accumulate; as they grow in Clarity, they become increasingly focused on pragmatic and efficient solutions and will place lower priority on compassionate activity, at the cost of becoming increasingly less emotional and having difficulty relating to other people (they also have some Charms that can harness Clarity to grant increased cognitive ability). Clarity is reduced by prolonged meaningful interaction with normal human beings (or, in the case of some Alchemicals, immersion in memories from their past lives).
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Among the Primarchs, there was Ferrus Manus on the Imperial side and Perturabo among the traitors. Both tended to be the most dispassionate and calculating Primarchs, and their Legions followed suit - although Perturabo's claim is a little weakened by his towering resentment and susceptibility to brief spasms of uncontrollable fury. Ferrus' downfall was also caused by his emotions getting the better of him, leading to him charging to his death. Rogal Dorn and his Imperial Fists also fall under here as stoic, disciplined masters of siege tactics and defensive fighting. Still, some of his actions post-Heresy were very much emotionally motivated and colored by his deep seated idealism.
  • Adeptus Mechanicus supporting character tends to be this to whatever Inquisitor, Space Marine or Imperial Guard protagonist they follow around, especially if they have had the cybernetic surgical procedures of Clear Thoughts, excising the parts of their brains capable of emotions.
• In Magic The Gathering, White and Blue often play this role, with White focusing on social structures and Blue on logic and reason.

Theatre

• A rare main character example: Brutus from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, with either Cassius or Antony as The McCoy. A quiet, (literally) stoic, cool-headed intellectual who is a friend of Caesar's but is willing to do him in since, to quote the Trope Namer, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. ("Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more!")
• In Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida: Ulysses on the Greek side, with Agamemnon as The Kirk and Ajax as a fairly thickheaded variation on The McCoy. On the Trojan side, Hector fills this role, to Priam as Kirk and Troilus as The McCoy
• In Romeo and Juliet, Benvolio is this to Romeo, with Mercutio as The McCoy.

Toys

• Kopaka, the resident Stoic in BIONICLE.
• Transformers: Almost all versions of Shockwave are what you get when this type of character is a villain. Cold, calculating, and unflinching. The original comic version even decided to overthrow Megatron, because it was the logical thing to do. And later on, he handed back power to Megatron, again because it was perfectly logical for him to do so. Best encapsulated by this quote from another Shockwave:
  Shockwave: Ultimately, I serve only one master: Pure logic.

Video Games

• Danganronpa:
  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc has Kyoko Kirigiri, who is coldly aloof, calculating, and emotionless. Celestia Ludenberg is one as well, saying they should abandon all attachment to the outside world and just accept their fate living in Hope's Peak, though ultimately subverted when it's revealed that she's so desperate to get out that she orchestrates a double murder. Byakuya Togami is a milder, crueler version.
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair introduces Izuru Kamukura, who makes all of the above look hotheaded. He used to be a perfectly ordinary guy, until he accepted to subject himself to an operation in order to become as talented as the other Ultimates. The end result: he acquired every talent, but his memories and emotions are completely gone and he has no drive other than acquiring other talents.
  • K1-B0, the Ultimate Robot in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, supports logical courses of actions completely during trials, like checking all avenues of possibility just to be safe.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Squall of Final Fantasy VIII is a rare main character version. Raised as a mercenary, he's cynical about how the world works and tries to act solely according to duty rather than emotion. For the first portion of the game he seems like a lone Spock in a team of McCoys, but much of his Character Development is him learning how to healthily feel and express his emotions rather than acting like an automaton until he blows a gasket over, say, the execution of someone he knew from childhood.
  • Jusqua of Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light thinks that he's this. When Horne is petrified, he doesn't go with Brandt and Yunita because they can find a way to lift the curse. Later, he faces up to the fact that he was actually being immature by snarking at them when he himself was unwilling to try anything he thought he'd fail at.
  • Final Fantasy XIV deconstructs this with Urianger, who at first seems to fulfill the role perfectly; over time, however, he finds the emotional toll of repeated Shoot the Dog choices too much to bear, and laments his own failure to seek a third option to take.
• Galaxy Angel: The Valfask, the main antagonists of the second and third games, are actually a subversion. They certainly believe they are this trope, as they consider that emotions are worthless, but constantly display arrogance, cruelty and triumphalism.
• Master Li from Jade Empire is a Deconstruction of this trope. An extremely composed, patient, polite, and logical man who never displays much emotion, even when praising his greatest student. The deconstruction? That same description can also fit The Sociopath, which is what Master Li actually is. He's the sort of man who can raise a child from birth as a weapon against his enemies, try to kill the same child once they have outlived their usefulness, and admit to only caring about his family for the practical value they offered him, all without once breaking his reasonable and kindly demeanor. Even when describing his Evil Plan to become a God-Emperor and turn the Empire into a dystopian realm of pure order where everyone worships him, he does so in an intelligent manner that somehow almost manages to make what he's suggesting sound perfectly sane and rational.
• Stern, the Material of Wisdom in the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable games. Funnily enough, this made her the kindest one amongst the Materials and the first one to make a Heel–Face Turn away from their Omnicidal Maniac side since she came to the logical conclusion that mindlessly destroying everything is stupid.
• Mass Effect 2:
  • Mordin Solus, though Hidden Depths reveal that he's way more compassionate than he lets on and feels incredible regret for his Well-Intentioned Extremist moment (though he feels it's still the right choice).
  • The Ruthless background Shepard also qualifies, doing whatever it takes to get the job done, no matter how horrific, and usually in the middle of the action himself—the military's go-to guy for the most vital and most morally compromising missions. The Renegade morality path also comes off as this in all the major decisions and in many of the conversations (with the rest of the time consisting of being a hardass, and in some instances in the first game, a bit of a xenophobe as well)
• In Potion Permit, Xiao is the rational treasurer of Moonbury who mainly uses logic to solve problems.
• In Shinrai: Broken Beyond Despair, Raiko is the Spock to Rie's The McCoy and Taiko's The Kirk. She's stone-faced and unemotional, resulting in Mika repeatedly trying to scare her, and keeps a cool head no matter how bad things get. She ends up being the Only Sane Man in the climax, in which she is the only survivor who doesn't accuse Kamen of the crime, so getting the right ending depends on her solving the mystery and convincing the others of her theories.
• Jade Curtiss of Tales of the Abyss, despite his Stepford Smiler outward persona, fits this trope when it comes down to actual decision-making. The one time that he does admit he'd rather not do the most coldly logical thing, would be to ask Luke to sacrifice himself rather than Asch.
• The Orpheans in Xenoblade Chronicles X are an entire race of these. While they can feel emotions, they mostly keep them in check in favor of finding the most efficient solution to their problems through pure logic.
  • Maurice Chausson always puts the needs of NLA above the needs of any individual person even to the point of leaving his own son on Earth. The only reason he shows Team Elma preferential treatment is that they're just so damn good at their jobs that losing any of them would be equivalent to losing 20 other BLADEs.
• ADA in Zone of the Enders. Why waste time and put yourself at risk saving innocent civilians when you could just hurry up and get the war-changing mech Jehuty to its destination?

Web Animation

• The AI Delta from Red vs. Blue is logic personified. Literally. Ironically, Delta is probably the most humane of the various Freelancer AIs, despite his noticeably incomplete understanding of human nature.
• Dreamscape: Kai is this, Eleenin is The McCoy, and Drake is The Kirk. They're the three stoic human protectors of the planet. Kai is this because he is a stickler for taking the most logical approach to things, and pushes those who are reluctant to follow through to do so anyway.

Webcomics

• Vaarsuvius from The Order of the Stick tries to be this in order to become more effective and overcome a great obstacle, but seeing as how the elf is anything but emotionless and is in fact haunted by the memory of a great failure, the result is disastrous.
• Zombie/Narrator/.../whatever you want to call him plays this pretty straight in Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name
• Quinn-Tain in Harkovast bases his decision only on what he thinks is necessary to win the war. Emotional concerns are always secondary.
• Mr. Raven in El Goonish Shive.
  • Susan as well. Her Good Angel, Bad Angel Imagine Spot's even take the form of herself as a Star Trek Vulcan when she's trying to think logically.
• Missy in Klunscomic comes from a dimension where everything is flat, and she prefers doing things based on logic compared to the B siblings.

Web Original

• Lady Ink from The Book of Stories OCT. Of course, she is a personification of order and structure, so it makes sense.
• Flame Warriors: Android, who is emotionless and only notes illogic in other flame warriors' arguments.

Western Animation

• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Twilight Sparkle takes this role in the first two episodes, not caring about "pointless" things like friends or fun. She ends up coming around at the end of the second episode, and the rest of the season documents her learning about just how kick ass friends are. She occasionally lapses into this when academic subjects are mentioned, especially magic. She has a very logical, scientific view of the world and though her excellent education means that she's often right, it does leave her rather inflexible. Her tendency to dismiss information that she finds illogical in particular has been called on more than once.
  • Celestia, the Big Good of the series, more than once put the main cast (whom she is said to treasure) in a dangerous position with a gentle smile, sometimes without telling them so. Of course, given her position and age it is somewhat expected...
  • Wind Whistler filled the role in My Little Pony 'n Friends. Her use of logic over emotion leads the other ponies to joke that she has no feelings, which does hurt said feelings.
  • Among the Cutie Mark Crusaders, this is usually Apple Bloom's position. She is a well-grounded hardworking filly like her big sister Applejack and has little problem with emotional matters (though there are exceptions; in which case this role likely falls to Sweetie Belle).
• Bojack Horseman has Sebastian St. Claire, an eccentric billionaire who's something of a sociopath despite being a major philanthropist and hero to the orphans of war-torn Cordovia. After suffering a major loss in a bombing attack, all he's concerned about is building more facilities to replace the ones he'd lost.
• Eska in The Legend of Korra was rather subdued, unemotional and ruthless in this fashion, and had a habit of using Spock Speak. The one exception was when she suffered a breakdown over her boyfriend running out on her.
• Dr. Egon Spengler continues to be as Spock-like in The Real Ghostbusters cartoon as he was in the films, going so far as to remind a space station full of Star Fleet Expies of an old colleague.
  Egon: (after delivering a stream of Techno Babble) Fascinating.
  McTavish: Are you sure you've never served as a science officer?
• Batman in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, often portrayed as emotionless, cold, logical and ruthless to some extend. Of course, is in many ways part of the image that he himself wants to present.
• X-5 from Atomic Betty who, as a robot, is naturally cold, logical, and stoic. He has a sardonic sense of humour, a natural talent for science and engineering, and a rational-skeptical outlook. Naturally, he's Vitriolic Best Buds with Sparky.
• In the Christmas cartoon 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, the mouse Albert plays this role and proves to be the main antagonistic force, even if it's very unwittingly — the mouse kicks off the short by writing a letter proclaiming Santa isn't real, signs it "All of Us" and has his entire hometown removed from Santa's delivery since it was published in a newspaper.
• In Rainbow Rangers Bonnie Blueberry is smart like a computer, and doesn't understand silliness or practical jokes.
• An episode of The Fairly Oddparents had Timmy wish he had no emotions, turning himself into this. He realizes he has nothing to do but think and answers famous questions, like why they couldn't build a boat on Gilligan's Island because it would end the series.
• Ready Jet Go!:
  • Sean is studious and smart, and wants to grow up to be a great scientist and lead the first human mission to Mars. Sean is also concerned about his grades most of the time and uses the Scientific Method, as well as logical reasoning, to solve problems. Due to this, he has a terrible imagination.
  • Mitchell fills in this role in the Freudian Trio with Mindy and Lillian. Mitchell is socially awkward, a Perpetual Frowner, highly intelligent, and doesn't easily believe in the supernatural.
  • Dr. Rafferty serves this role in the Freudian Trio with Skelley and Bergs. While Rafferty is more open and friendly than most examples of the trope, she's the most intellectual of three and even though she's a Nervous Wreck at times, at least she has more self-composure than Bergs.

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