Beam Him Up, Captain

We have lost one of the great ones; Scotty is dead.

Who can forget all those classic Star Trek episodes in which Kirk would say, "Mr. Scott, how long to fix the warp drive?" And the chief engineer would answer, "I don't know, Captain, but I'd guess about three weeks." And Kirk would grit his teeth and say, "Well, Scotty, you've got 12 minutes until we all die."

And somehow Mr. Scott, a role model for resourcefulness under the influence, always managed to fix the damn thing just in time.

Having gone where no man has gone before, James Doohan has now gone where all men and women will ultimately travel. Let us hope that he is looking down on us from above, a glass of his beloved scotch in his hand, that irreverent grin on his face, ready as ever to save the Enterprise should his services again be required.