"Scotty, Four t--" "Aaarrghh..*" "...ah. Three to beam up."

Wow.

A long and illustrious career comes to an end at the hands of fate for someone who was notorious for engineering a way out of those same hands.

Yesterday, unbeknownst to me, James Doohan passed away.

Yeah. I know. I should write something about DeForest Kelley, too. (Gary Sinise could reprise Kelley's role as Dr. McCoy. Scotty seems a little less replaceable).

I got to meet the inimitable, yet frequently imitated, Mr. Doohan once a long time ago, in about 1982, right around the release of The Wrath of Khan. It was at a Science Fiction convention in the day when admissions to such were actually affordable.

He was funny as hell on his talk regarding his exploits on the set of the Enterprise while Star Trek was being filmed. The one I remember most clearly was when he recalled answering Kirk in an upper class English accent, responding as "Reggie". "I say, Kirk, old boy, are you there?". And, of course, being of Irish descent, he had no problem pulling off a nice brogue. He had the audience in absolute stitches.

Of course, the retelling of the bridge doors failing to open for Captain Kirk was a help.

I wish I'd had the cognisance at that age of what kind of questions one asks of a screen actor, especially one intimate with the niche he was in.

Unfortunately, like a lot of the fans there, all I could do was get a flyer and have him autograph it. I STILL don't know what I'd ask him at this point.

Not knowing much of the man, all I can do is remember him fondly as being an inspiration to Geekdom ("Geek" is an Honorary title, much as is "Hacker" (with a capital 'H')).

Seeing as our TV was broken between second and eighth grade for me, if I wanted to watch anything, I had to find a friend with similar interests. This wasn't usually too hard, and in this case it was easy.

I was, I felt, fairly good friends with Ron and Steve down the street, but I was also clearly outside their inner circle, as when they would play the imaginary games based on the world of Star Trek, they had the roles of Kirk (Ron) and Spock (Steve) fairly well filled, and they usually waited until Hoyt and Krist (Scotty and McCoy) were available. Didn't leave me with much except Ensign Expendable. As well, as I didn't become intimately versed with Star Trek until well after those days, I was pretty much dead weight when the play went on.

But I digress. I did know who the people were, and as far as I was concerned, Scotty, Spock and Sulu absolutely rocked. The rest I could have taken or left.

Scotty was the only one I got to meet in person. He was a very receptive person, very warm, and had I the foresight to think of what to ask, I'm sure he would have answered me.

Usually I feel a need to tribute to people who have somehow touched me directly.

In this case, it's been very indirect. His contribution to the culture which defines the very nature of people with whom I do like to interact has been very deep. There is much that would just not have been the same without that bit of pop culture injected.

And I don't think it would have survived as long as it has.

One of these days I really need to question: "What does one do when one's heroes die?"

But that's for another day.

Mr. Doohan, thank you for the wonderful energy and humour you imparted upon this world while you lived. You are missed.