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into the final frontier

Today brought the sad news that actor James Doohan, best known as “miracle worker” engineer Scotty on Star Trek, died this morning at the age of 85. His death was attributed to pnemonia and Alzheimer’s disease. (AP: “‘Star Trek’ Star James Doohan Dies” - 07/20/05)

When the series ended in 1969, Doohan found himself typecast as Montgomery Scott, the canny engineer with a burr in his voice. In 1973, he complained to his dentist, who advised him: “Jimmy, you’re going to be Scotty long after you’re dead. If I were you, I’d go with the flow.”

“I took his advice,” said Doohan, “and since then everything’s been just lovely.” …

In a 1998 interview, Doohan was asked if he ever got tired of hearing the line “Beam me up, Scotty.”

“I’m not tired of it at all,” he replied. “Good gracious, it’s been said to me for just about 31 years. It’s been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It’s been fun.”

Wil Wheaton, famously Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation, offered a sweet, heartfelt tribute to Doohan last summer at Jimmy Doohan’s Farewell Convention, a star-studded appreciation dinner / Alzheimer’s research fundraiser.

I don’t remember if he was in a costume or street clothes, speaking with that wonderful brogue, or without … but the first time I saw him, he was Scotty. And he patiently listened to me geek out at him about realigning the warp core, and how excited I was to be part of Star Trek, and to work in Engineering — just like him. I babbled on about the mater / anti-matter intermix chamber and of course, the transporter. I imagine it wasn’t anything he hadn’t heard from thousands of Star Trek fans a thousand times before — well, except for the also-working-on-Star-Trek part — but he smiled, and listened, and when I finally calmed down enough for him to actually talk to me, Jimmy made me feel like he’d known me his entire life, and he was never just “Scotty” to me again. He was Jimmy, and he was my friend. Over the years, our paths often crossed on Star Trek cruises or whenever Paramount was celebrating yet another Star Trek milestone, and I gradualy became aware of something: the way Jimmy made me feel wasn’t unique to our relationship. He truly made everyone he met feel like he was their best friend.