Being the devoted fanboy that I am, I’ve been monitoring the InterWeb Thingie over the past week to see what people have been saying about James “Scotty” Doohan. For anyone who may be interested, here are the highlights:
First, I’d like to frighten a lot of my readers by showing off the depths of my geekiness. I’m going to do this by correcting the AP obituary that ran in many news sources the day of Jimmy’s death, specifically the statement that “[Doohan’s] only other TV series besides Star Trek was another space adventure, Space Command, in 1953.”
That’s untrue. In fact, Jimmy appeared in a third space adventure called Jason of Star Command, which ran on in the late ’70s just before the Star Trek franchise really started rolling again. JOSC was a live-action, Saturday-morning program spun-off from another kidvid series, Space Academy (which, interestingly enough, also starred a has-been from a 1960s primetime sci-fi series, Johnathan Harris of Lost in Space).
It’s no big deal that Jason didn’t get mentioned in the obit — Jimmy himself probably didn’t care too much about this particular credit — but it annoys me that the writer couldn’t spend thirty seconds on the Internet Movie Database before he started banging out the prose. If you’re going to make a blanket statement about how many TV series an actor worked in, you really should have your facts straight.
[Ed. note: I was just verifying that the link to the AP story still works and I see that the obit has been updated to include a note about Jason of Star Command. But I already had my correction written — and I like to show off that “unsettling command” of pop-cultural detritus I’ve heard I possess — so I’m leaving it here.]
Anyway, moving on, I’ve been rather surprised and disappointed that Jimmy’s former co-stars haven’t had much to say, at least not publicly, on his passing. Shatner offered up a couple of less-than-inspiring words on his Website‘s message board, which I guess isn’t too surprising given the bad blood between him and Doohan. (Call me a romantic, but I was really hoping The Shat would use the occasion of Jimmy’s death to try and put right old wrongs, but from what I understand, he’s never fully acknowledged that there even were any wrongs. As they say on our planet, c’est la vie, I suppose.) Nichelle Nichols’ site hasn’t been updated in over a year, and Walter “Chekov” Koenig’s site is basically just an autograph mill. Leonard Nimoy has a site dedicated to his photography work, but it contains nothing personal or Star Trek-related. The only member of the classic Trek cast that’s made a fitting statement, in my opinion, is George Takei, a.k.a. Sulu. His tribute is a nice piece of work, heartfelt and honest. Of the several remarks he makes about Jimmy, I like this one best:
For a time, before he moved to Redmond, Washington, Jimmy was my special drinking buddy. We shared some blissful times together. He loved his Scotch. He was of Irish ancestry but he said he had imbibed enough of the libation of Scotland to qualify him as a Scotsman. When his doctor told him he had to quit drinking Scotch, he dutifully complied. He switched to vodka.
Wil Wheaton, the Trek alum with the greatest Web presence, didn’t say too much, but what he did say was nice:
Everyone who watched Star Trek liked Scotty, but everyone who met him loved Jimmy…
I’m sure I’m not the only person today who feels like they lost a friend.
Meanwhile, if you’re one of those people who just doesn’t quite get the big deal about Star Trek, you might be interested in a very personal Doohan tribute by guy who calls himself Stax. He puts the Trek phenomenon into perspective and explains why people like him and myself care so much about the death of a mere television actor:
…Doohan was an integral part of something that transcended being a mere pop culture phenomenon. Britney Spears is a pop culture phenomenon; Star Trek is almost a religion. It is like the Elvis of fanboy crazes, where it is no longer really just about what it was (entertainment) but what effect it had on your life personally. “Scotty” was a key member of that special family…
…While Star Trek is clearly larger than any one person, even creator Gene Roddenberry, and will likely continue on in some form in the coming years, it is sobering to see the individuals who comprised the initial wave of Trek begin to leave us: Roddenberry, DeForest Kelley and now Doohan. We’ll always have those episodes and films, those memories, to remind us of why Star Trek was more than just a show for us.
I disagree with his remark about Trek continuing — I genuinely think it’s over — but everything else he says in that excerpt is dead on the money.
And then there are the words of the inimitable Lileks:
Its impossible to understate Doohan’s appeal – if you sneak into a NASA control room during a mission and ask the controllers how many chose their profession because of Scotty, half the hands in the room would go up. No one wanted to go into space because of that whiny little red-head kid on Lost in Space. It takes something indefinable to be a Kirk, it takes med school to be a McCoy, it takes green blood to be Spock, but Scotty aye. Any man could be Scotty, if he applied himself. And he’d be among manly things, too. In a hundred years from now, no one will remember Brad Pitt. But theyll have a picture of Scotty taped up in the break room off the moon shuttle.
I think he may be a little harsh in his opinion of Brad Pitt — history will be the judge of that, I suppose — but again, I agree with his Doohan-related sentiments.
One final note: Jimmy Doohan, who spent so much of his professional life pretending to be in space, will make it into space for real later this year when some of his ashes will be sealed into an aluminum capsule and launched into low orbit by a Houston-based company that specializes in this sort of thing. The capsule will eventually re-enter the atmosphere and burn up. What a beautiful way to end your corporeal existence… as a shooting star.
And now, I want to leave you with a classic Scotty moment. Enjoy!
