:: W4B photography's companion blog ::

:: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 ::

"I can't change the laws of physics. I've got to have 30 minutes!"

Photo from StarTrek.com

space:On the day when NASA is going to be making a second attempt at launching Discovery after a two year hiatus (good luck and Godspeed folks!) I thought I would mention a passing. James Doohan. Scotty. Someone who has inspired a generation of geeks to go into engineering and science and get involved in space exploration. He was 85 when he died earier on in the week.

He was MacGuyvering the Enterprise well before Richard Dean Anderson's character did his thing, and on a scale bigger than big. Jury rigging transporters and using slivers of dilithium to get the warp reactors going again - and transporting tribbles to Klingon warships. But he was also an actor, a Canadian like Shatner, and grew up near here in Sarnia Ontario. He was a lieutenant in the Canadian Army leading troops ashore at D-Day, being wounded in the effort. I didn't know that. He had in his later years also been suffering from alzheimers and parkinsons.

If you want to see a great tribute to him in the form of nearly six minutes of clips from the first episode to his last appearance, go to this Startrek.com article from last year and click on the "wit and wisdom" link on the top left. It will open a video player QT or WMP, and you can smile along - or shed a tear- as Doohan portrays Scotty over nearly 40 years.

More from the Startrek.com obit article.

T-5 mins to the Discovery Launch.

Carpe Diem

:: Mike Wood 10:33 [+] :: 0 comments
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