James Doohan, the actor who played Montgomery Scott, chief engineer of the USS Enterprise on Star Trek, has died at age 85. May he rest in peace.

I told him not to wear the red shirt.

It's a sad day for all when a good man dies.

We will never forget the words he spoke: "Cap'n, she canno' take no mourre!" It's too bad, Scotty was my favorite character on the show.

*sigh*

One last beam up for the old fella.

He was my favourite too. Nicer to have someone who was human and didn't always do everything perfectly, but still manage to do his job and work some bloody miracles for the big man in the bridge.

He got to see his name put down underfoot in Hollywood before he died, and by all accounts lived a full and happy life, I hope we all get the same chance.

Just what I always thought, all my friends liked Spock. I always thought Spock was just a rip off of an elf, but Scotty was a human and a character that seemed to have some depth.

My favorite memory of Mr. Doohan is from the movie Trekkies. He has an interview wherein he recounts how a fan mailed him saying she was going to kill herself. He was really disturbed by this and got her to come to a convention he was doing that weekend, where he talked to her a little. I believe she came to a bunch of conventions he was at soon after that. If I recall, a few years later she mailed him again saying he had saved her life.

Mr. Doohan was really tearing up as he was recounting this, and I was struck by his deep humanity. We'll miss him. Rest in peace, sir.

--matt

Probably the very best thing about film is that we get to keep a little piece of these people in our lives. It's odd really, when you think about it, how much they do affect us. How a statement like "Beam me up, Scotty!" can become such a recognizable part of our culture.
I wonder sometimes if people really appreciate the affect such things and people can have? Fortunately for us, at least Star Trek was a positive effect. So hard to say that about todays current media fare.