Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Not Just Another Red Shirt


KnowsHeCan
Originally uploaded by lowereastside.
It is a sad day for Star Trek fans. Which is what I am. James Doohan, whom most of you know as the Starship Enterprise's Chief Engineer Scotty, has passed away at the ripe old age of 85. Successful, loved by millions, 85 years old and his wife by his side. All in all I'd say thats not bad.

Many will not see the irony that Scotty was a "red shirt" and therefor should have issued his last line just off camera a long time ago. He even beat out Bones (DeForest Kelley) a "blue shirt" who died in 99.

I don't know alot about Scotty except that he could drink a Klingon under the table. He was the only guy brave enough to work in a Jeffries Tube (see photo). And he was a master of the "pump and dump." The art of inflating the time and money needed for a task so that you can impress your boss by coming in ahead of schedule and under budget.

Here is a lesser known piece of information about James Doohan the man.

"He was wounded as an infantryman during the D-Day invasion of Normandy and returned to action later in the war as a fighter pilot."

No "beam me up" jokes here. You'll see enough of them soon enough.

UPDATE: He actually took 6 bullets and the one that hit his chest was deflected by his cigarette case - this was the point he considered taking up acting. Thanks Walking Spanish.

UPDATE: Arangements have been made for a portion of Doohan's ashes to be sent into space on a Falcon 1 rocket scheduled for launch in California in September of this year. Thanks Slip of a Girl

4 comments:

@DJNoRequest said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
@DJNoRequest said...

he actually took 6 bullets and the one that hit his chest was deflected by his cigarette case -
this was the point he considered taking up acting

Unknown said...

Great post.

Who's gonna stop Kirk from fiddling around, under the hood of The Enterprise now? I say that the Bluebook value on that little starship is going down way fast.

@DJNoRequest said...

one more amazing thing...
just read this AM on BBC online-
"Doohan became a father again at the age of 80, when his wife Wende gave birth to daughter Sarah."

that dude is truly a legend!