"He cannae take no more, Captain."
Heard on the first hour of NPR's All Things Considered today that James Doohan, the actor "who faked a Scottish burr to create one of television's most endearing characters, Chief Engineer Montgomery (Scotty) Scott of the U.S.S. Enterprise," to cite the obituary written by John Schwartz in today's New York Times, died today (Wednesday, 20 July) at the age of 85.
That's "Starship Enterprise" for the one or two people reading this who may not be instantly familiar with what I will always think of as the Star Trek series: the first one, the one that ran from 1966 to 1968.
NPR reported that Mr. Doohan died of pneumonia and Alzheimer's; the NYT says that he died of pneumonia but had Alzheimer's. Something of a semantic difference, that.
Scotty was easily one of the best things about the original Star Trek, particularly as he could usually be counted on to let some of the air out of Captain Kirk's massive ego. My hands-down favorite instance of this: when, in "The Trouble With Tribbles," Scotty matter-of-factly disabused Kirk of the notion that he'd gotten into a drunken brawl to defend his honor; no, see, the gits had bad-mouthed the Enterprise. The look on William Shatner's face was absolutely priceless: if Shatner wasn't Captain Kirk, then it must be admitted that he could act, under the right circumstances. (Bob Thomas of the Associated Press writes that Mr. Doohan "accused Shatner of hogging the camera, adding: 'I like Capt. Kirk, but I sure don't like Bill. He's so insecure that all he can think about is himself.'" Heh. Guess that's a pretty definitive vote for Shatner's primal scream-cum-mantra -- "I am Captain Kirk!!!" -- in "The Enemy Within" being a bit of paid, on-camera therapy for ol' Bill....)
Another favorite Scotty moment: in "By Any Other Name," when Scotty drinks one of the superhuman Kelvins under the table with Sorian brandy and, when they run out, with some of his private stash of (presumably single malt) Scotch. Outstanding. How much better would some of the comics I grew up on have been if some of the superheroes occasionally beat their opponents by out-boozing them rather than outsmarting them or kicking the snot out of them? (Oh, the Rat Packesque shenanigans that Tony Stark/Iron Man could've gotten up to with the mysterious Melter or the Titanium Man if only writers David Micheline and Dennis O'Neil would've just lightened up!)
While circumstances prevented me from ever getting into Star Trek: Next Generation (for the first few years of its run I lived in a house that barely received the station it was broadcast on; for the last couple of years of its run and during its syndicated re-runs, my "better half" wouldn't let me watch it...), I did manage to catch the Next Gen episode that Schwartz refers to in the obit that he wrote:
"He later appeared in seven Star Trek movies and in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a series set 75 years after the original Star Trek was to have taken place. (The time gap was explained by Mr. Scott's having jury-rigged a form of suspended animation by sending himself into a pattern buffer in the transporter and keeping his matter circulating in the unit through continuous diagnostic loop. Like all Star Trek explanations, it sounds good if you say it fast.)
"In that show, Mr. Scott expressed astonishment at the approach of that ship's engineer, Geordie LaForge [LeVar Burton], to telling his captain how long it would take to work through a particular problem. 'Oh, you didn't tell him how long it would really take, did you?' When Mr. LaForge said he had, Mr. Scott replied with exasperation, 'Oh, laddie, you've got a lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker!'"
That, my friends, is some of the most perspicacious career advice you'll ever get -- even if you'll never be chief engineer on a starship.
James Doohan was a captain in the Canadian army, led men into battle on D-Day and caught six bullets, one of which "blew off his middle right finger;" which meant that he couldn't tell Bill Shatner what he thought of him with his right hand.
Damn. Just like Desmond Llewelyn ("Q" of a bunch of the James Bond movies), I never knew about his war-time heroism until I heard his obituary. What a shame; what a great starship captain James Doohan could've played. I bet he wouldn't have begrudged his co-stars some camera time.
That's "Starship Enterprise" for the one or two people reading this who may not be instantly familiar with what I will always think of as the Star Trek series: the first one, the one that ran from 1966 to 1968.
NPR reported that Mr. Doohan died of pneumonia and Alzheimer's; the NYT says that he died of pneumonia but had Alzheimer's. Something of a semantic difference, that.
Scotty was easily one of the best things about the original Star Trek, particularly as he could usually be counted on to let some of the air out of Captain Kirk's massive ego. My hands-down favorite instance of this: when, in "The Trouble With Tribbles," Scotty matter-of-factly disabused Kirk of the notion that he'd gotten into a drunken brawl to defend his honor; no, see, the gits had bad-mouthed the Enterprise. The look on William Shatner's face was absolutely priceless: if Shatner wasn't Captain Kirk, then it must be admitted that he could act, under the right circumstances. (Bob Thomas of the Associated Press writes that Mr. Doohan "accused Shatner of hogging the camera, adding: 'I like Capt. Kirk, but I sure don't like Bill. He's so insecure that all he can think about is himself.'" Heh. Guess that's a pretty definitive vote for Shatner's primal scream-cum-mantra -- "I am Captain Kirk!!!" -- in "The Enemy Within" being a bit of paid, on-camera therapy for ol' Bill....)
Another favorite Scotty moment: in "By Any Other Name," when Scotty drinks one of the superhuman Kelvins under the table with Sorian brandy and, when they run out, with some of his private stash of (presumably single malt) Scotch. Outstanding. How much better would some of the comics I grew up on have been if some of the superheroes occasionally beat their opponents by out-boozing them rather than outsmarting them or kicking the snot out of them? (Oh, the Rat Packesque shenanigans that Tony Stark/Iron Man could've gotten up to with the mysterious Melter or the Titanium Man if only writers David Micheline and Dennis O'Neil would've just lightened up!)
While circumstances prevented me from ever getting into Star Trek: Next Generation (for the first few years of its run I lived in a house that barely received the station it was broadcast on; for the last couple of years of its run and during its syndicated re-runs, my "better half" wouldn't let me watch it...), I did manage to catch the Next Gen episode that Schwartz refers to in the obit that he wrote:
"He later appeared in seven Star Trek movies and in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a series set 75 years after the original Star Trek was to have taken place. (The time gap was explained by Mr. Scott's having jury-rigged a form of suspended animation by sending himself into a pattern buffer in the transporter and keeping his matter circulating in the unit through continuous diagnostic loop. Like all Star Trek explanations, it sounds good if you say it fast.)
"In that show, Mr. Scott expressed astonishment at the approach of that ship's engineer, Geordie LaForge [LeVar Burton], to telling his captain how long it would take to work through a particular problem. 'Oh, you didn't tell him how long it would really take, did you?' When Mr. LaForge said he had, Mr. Scott replied with exasperation, 'Oh, laddie, you've got a lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker!'"
That, my friends, is some of the most perspicacious career advice you'll ever get -- even if you'll never be chief engineer on a starship.
James Doohan was a captain in the Canadian army, led men into battle on D-Day and caught six bullets, one of which "blew off his middle right finger;" which meant that he couldn't tell Bill Shatner what he thought of him with his right hand.
Damn. Just like Desmond Llewelyn ("Q" of a bunch of the James Bond movies), I never knew about his war-time heroism until I heard his obituary. What a shame; what a great starship captain James Doohan could've played. I bet he wouldn't have begrudged his co-stars some camera time.