Goodbye, Scotty

James Doohan’s ashes are being sent into space tomorrow.
(Read more here http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/02/doohan.ashes.ap/index.html)


It’s a poignant and fitting tribute to the man best known and loved as Lt.-Cmdr. Montgomery Scott, Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise on the original Star Trek.

The original series was the best. It was never about space or special effects or science fiction. Because of that it stays in reruns and the episodes can be watched over and over again.

Star Trek was more real to me than anything on television.
I hadn’t realized how much of an impact the show had on me until one day in the early 1980s. I had a government drone job and was on my way back to the hive by way of a shortcut through The Bay store. A radio station was announcing a contest and I swear the prizes included “one of 10 Air Canada trips to the Neutral Zone!”

I’d go in a heartbeat.

Doohan’s death took a wee bit of my childhood with it. It’s a reminder of mortality and the bittersweet passage of time.
Consigning his ashes to the stars makes it real to me all over again.
Of course Mr. Scott is in space.
Where else would he be?