Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Farewell, Scotty

Today, we Star Trek fans say goodbye to James Doohan, who will be forever known as Scotty, the Chief Engineer of the Starship Enterprise. He died of complications from pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease at age 85. His ashes will be rocketed into orbit later this year. (That's not a joke, by the way; he will join Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, whose ashes were intered into space several years ago.) I guess we tend to forget that the characters of Star Trek are getting on up there in years. DeForest Kelly, who played Dr. McCoy, died in 1999 at age 79. Even Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) are in their early seventies now. I had the chance to spend 10 seconds in their presence last summer at the Star Trek convention (yes, I admit I went), while posing with my son for this photo. I call it three old Jewish guys and a kid.

Many say Jimmy Doohan was the most beloved of all the Star Trek actors. I think we can rest assured that he was beamed up and not down to his Final Frontier.

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