James Doohan, the Canadian actor made famous by his portrayal of “Scotty”, the chief engineer of the (original) starship, Enterprise, died yesterday at the age of 85. As an original “Trekkie” from way back (we’re talking the 1960s here!) I mourn his loss as I did that of Deforest Kelly (“Dr. McCoy”) several years ago.

“Star Trek” has become an icon of American popular culture and an industry, spawning spin-off shows (ST the NG, ST Deep Space Nine, ST Voyager, and finally Enterprise, the prequel series) and a pile of movies that ran (in my opinion) from laughably terrible (the ones directed by William Shatner) to quite good. My favorite with the original cast, “Save the Whales”, actually titled, “Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home”, directed by Leonard Nimoy (“Mr. Spock”). Classic lines from this film include Kirk, after having landed their spaceship in Golden Gate Park, reminding the crew to “…remember where we parked.” Or Scotty, after “beaming” the two humpback whales onto the ship exclaiming “Admiral, there be whales here!”.

But of course, Scotty’s own contribution to American English was spoken to him and not by him, “Beam me up, Scotty!”. Nerd Trekkies will rush to tell you that these lines as written are never spoken by anyone in ST the OS or the movies, but so what! They now belong to the ages, as does James Doohan aka Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott!


I’ll leave you with these lyrics from the Tom Rush song, “Beam me up Scotty”:

“Beam me up Scotty! Beam me aboard.
I’m just a poor old Trekkie, in a world he can’t afford.
All my life supports have failed,
All the other ships have sailed.
So,

Beam me up Scotty! Beam me up!”