Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Beaming Up My Chief Engineer


I saw in the news yesterday that the remains of James Doohan, the actor who played Chief Engineer Scott in Star Trek, are being shot into space in October.

The actor lived in Redmond, Washington, near a business acquaintance of mine who used to run into him on occasion. I never liked hearing that the actor was a regular guy who spoke with an American accent.

To me, he will always be Scotty.

Aye.

4 comments:

Chuck said...

Scotty was, like Dr. McCoy, the guy who actually seemed to do work. If Scotty was on the bridge, and something happened, he'd quickly head off to the engine room to work a miracle.

So, October eh?

High Power Rocketry said...

: )

Todd R. Vick said...

On the bridge, Scotty commanded respect. None of his shipmates ever resented him being left in charge while Kirk and party beamed down to employ diplomacy or chase women.

I loved the fact that James Doohan narrated many of the Star Trek books on tape that I used to keep with me in the car. He truly was a master of voices.

Patrick said...

I had the pleasure of meeting James Doohan at a Star Trek convention years ago. I was part of a news crew that got an interview with him before he made his grand entrance.

A very nice man, very cordial, smiling ear to ear about being around his fans.

He was very good at dialects, and actually auditioned for the role with several different accents before producers decided that his Scottish brogue was right for their engineer.

And what's more, when he walked into the hotel room where we had set up, he entered with a scotch glass in his hand. I don't know if it was alcohol or apple juice, but he just looked so true to Scotty's character at that moment that I didn't care.