Ye Cannae Change the Laws o’ Physics

Captain Montgomery Scott, Starfleet Command, Serial Number: SE-197-54T, has sailed beyond the farthest star.

James Montgomery Doohan, 1920 - 2005, the beloved Scotty of Star Trek, left us on the morning of 19 July. Departing on urgent business, I have no doubt, in a place to which we all some day must make the journey. War hero, actor, author, philosopher, friend to all who met him, he was a unique and inspiring human being in a distinctive period in history; we shall not see his like again.

While he was an accomplished actor who portrayed many roles, none of them is so well known as that of the irascible Scottish chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise. Catch phrases from Star Trek: The Original Series and the first seven Star Trek movies are so imbedded in the collective psyche that I would not be surprised to visit primitive tribesmen in Borneo and there hear them bandying about maxims such as “Captain, I cannae ge’ no power!” and “The engines wi’ nae take the strain!”, all in the appropriate Scottish brogue. A miracle worker who could rebuild a warp engine with baling wire and chewing gum, he was the solid anchor of the crew, convinced that no matter who was captain, the ship really belonged to him, especially the engines (“Oh, mah poor bairns!”). Hard-core Star Trek fans (myself among them) loved seeing him reprise his role in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Relics”, where once more he saved a ship named Enterprise from certain doom.

I had the good fortune to see him in person several years ago at a Star Trek convention in Dallas, where he was the featured speaker. Coming to the podium while uttering his famous line from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (“There be whales here!”), he spent the next hour making all of us in the audience feel like we were old friends of his that he had just dropped in to chat with. He struck me as a person who genuinely enjoyed making other people happy, and that he was grateful that Star Trek had given him the opportunity to do so on such a grand scale.

I am saddened by his passing, but glad for the accomplishments of his life, knowing that I will continue to hear the Scottish burr of this Starfleet engineer in reruns, old movies and DVDs. It is we who remain behind, not those who move forward, who mourn. So instead of mourning, let us celebrate the life of a man who entertained so many.

And since it falls unto my lot
That I should rise, and you should not;
I’ll gently rise and softly call,
“Good night, and joy be to you all.”

The Parting Glass

Beam me up, Scotty.