Lantern's Spotlight - Canadians, Aging, and Ron Burgundy: Chapter 1

Greetings, cyberspace. Originally I was going to write about a thread connecting some recent news events as filtered through the Lantern's Light, but part one ran a little long and it's getting late. Instead, enjoy the first of three focuses for the Lantern's Spotlight. Starting in chronological order, a worldwide personality passes...

James "Montgomery Scott" Doohan
March 3, 1920 - July 20, 2005

Probably the best article I read the day of "Scotty's" passing was from the movie critique site Ain't It Cool. Take it away, Harry's Dad:

Our beloved Scotty, James Doohan, the engineer of the Starship Enterprise on the original "Star Trek" TV series and movies who never failed to answer the command "Beam me up, Scotty," died today, Wednesday, at the age of 85 about 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Washington home with his wife Wende, at his side. The cause of death was pneumonia complicated by advanced Alzheimer's disease.

James Montgomery Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia. At 19, James joined the Canadian army, becoming a lieutenant in artillery. He was among the Canadian forces that landed
on Juno Beach on D-Day. The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger (he managed to hide the missing finger on screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. Fortunately the chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case.

After the war Doohan on a lark enrolled in a drama class in Toronto. He showed promise and won a two-year scholarship to New York's famed Neighborhood Playhouse, where his fellow students included Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall and Richard Boone, among others. Doohan already had a career as a character actor when he answered the cattle call for a role as an engineer in a new space-opera-adventure on NBC in 1966. A master of dialects from his early years as a radio voice actor, he used seven different accents in the sesson before he settled on the Scotsman.

The series attracted an enthusiastic following of science fiction fans, especially among teenagers and children, but a shortsighted NBC canceled it after only short three seasons. When the series' first life ended in 1969, Doohan found himself typecast as Montgomery Scott, the red shirted engineer with a burr in his voice. "Star Trek" continued in syndication in the United States and abroad, and its following grew larger and more dedicated, fanatical even. In the years after its original NBC run, Doohan attended dozens upon dozens of "Trekkie" cons around the world and even gave talks on several college campuses.

As one of Star Trek's "second hand" fans from it's early syndication/pre-franchise days, the character of Mr. Scott held a special place for me. Mostly because like my grandfather, Scotty came from Scotland - though if I remember my trivia correctly, Scotty was from Aberdeen while Grandpa came from Edinburgh.

Scotty worked the transporter and knew how to fix the ship. While these are not particularly enduring character traits, they are certainly something a six-year old boy will find "neat" about a TV character. Why, he was kinda like that "Q" guy in those James Bond movies my dad likes too!

Finally, Scotty was different. It wasn't just the Scots burr, the quick grin, or the way he pulled off last-minute saves - he was the only regular member of the bridge crew in a red shirt. I'm not certain when I noticed this, but in a ship run by gold and blue-shirted senior staff, Scotty's red shirt 'authoritah' was keenly felt.

With the advent of the animated series, I began to pick up on a few things. Not only did I notice the turnover rate for all the other Enterprise crew that wore red, making Scotty an early standout, but the nuances of the character began to reveal themselves. Doohan's Montgomery Scott was a working class ship's officer that expected his stern orders to be followed, but never talked down to his fellow red-shirt staff, or even the technicians in the blue jumpsuits. Scotty even treated the most replacable guys on the ship with professional respect, just just because it's the correct thing to do, but because Mr. Scott remembers when HE was that technician, or HE was that Engineering Aid. A real working man's officer.

Like many early Trek fans, I was taken in by Scotty's thick accent, and in imitating it I picked up on many similar sounding male voices like Carter Winston in The Survivor, or the male Thasian voice from Charlie X. It wasn't until after Doohan's death that I learned about his career
in Canadian radio productions. Hell, I didn't even know the man was a D-Day war hero until I heard it on NPR...though I don't remember them mentioning anything about a lucky cigarette case. In any event, I'm certain between trying to master Scotty's brougue and the Liverpudlian scouse of The Beatles, I developed my love of speech and sound. In later years, Doohan narrated many of the Star Trek audio books, and produced accurate renditions of Kirk, Spock and McCoy based mostly on tone, timing and inflection. Even in ill health, the man still worked doing what he could with what he knew.

Some have written that Doohan's death is a "terrible tragedy" and a "crushing blow". Look fanboys, the man was 85 years old and suffering from compliations due to Alzheimer's! He died surrounded by friends and family, and he's remembered by millions of people worldwide. How is having a full life, a rewarding career, and millions of fans a "terrible tragedy"? An old man that entertained and inspired generations of fans is no longer ravaged by a debilitating disease.

Bless you, Mr. Doohan.

NEXT CHAPTER - Another year? Already?? Nahhh...