James Doohan, ‘Star Trek’s’ Scotty, dead

A sad day for Star Trek fans. And I believe that there were plenty of “Scotty” fans that weren’t really Star Trek fans, what with so many “Beam me up” jokes and all.

About, oh, 9 years ago, I was working a booth at Gencon. Set-up was a real pain in the ass for everyone involved. It was the morning that the show was to start, and all around there were cranky faces and tired, grump booth workers.

Suddenly over the loudspeakers came a voice. “This is Captain Montgomery Scott speaking….” and he gave a little pep-talk. I don’t really remember what he said now, but I remember when he finished, the entire place erupted into cheers and clapping and suddenly there were smiles all around the place. He was doing an appearance at the show and had arrived early to provide a bit of a morale boost. It was a very cool moment, and it really helped the show get off to a strong start.

So that’s my closest brush with James Doohan. He lived a good long life, and let’s hope he’s going to a final frontier much much nicer than this one.