James Doohan RIP

[jack_babalon]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4701167.stm

I figure we'll hear a lot of 'Beam me up' references and Trekkie stories. I got this off his obituary. Another side of the man outside the engine room.

" Doohan's wartime experiences were every bit as hair-raising as his fictional fights with the Klingons. As a captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery Regiment, he lost a finger on the first morning of the D-Day landings in Normandy. He then saw a tank, which was carrying his substantial winnings from a cross-Channel card school, blown to pieces before his eyes.
Besides this, his aerobatic exploits, which included nearly crashing his aircraft in Holland while taking "a look" at a German U-boat, earned him the title of "the craziest pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force". After the war, Doohan spent two years studying acting at New York City's Neighborhood playhouse, where he later taught."





So heres my 'Scotty' Story~
I used to be a snipe in the Navy, a bilgerat or an engineer if you please. During General Quarter drills I would man my battle station in the foreward pump room, sliding down the escape hatch with the alarms roaring around me & a monotone voice barking over the PA "General Quarters, General Quarters all men man you battle stations!". I'd man up my headset and would log on from my station, "ENFN Mosca. Foreward Pump room secure!" Then I'd sit down in this tiny little room all the way at the bottom of a long shaft. There was no one for company except the two LPACs(low pressure air compressors) and the static voices of the other engineers. Nothing to do but smoke cigarettes and read the stash of comic books and porn I had hidden down there. One day we lost power in the aft pump room. This meant those LPACs were off line and the ship was quickly losing it's fresh water supply. A lot of our equipment needed fresh water to keep the electronics cooled down. We had about twenty minutes to realign the system.
"Mosca You better be awake down there!" My Chief yelled into the headset, literally waking me up. He updated me on the situation. I had to align the system configuration, power up the LPACs and make sure they were producing enough pressure to keep things flowing. It took a while, a lot of cursing and consulting of the military techmanuals (which are specifically written to be make absolutely no sense to anyone up or down the chain of command). Finally, a full pack of smokes later and a lot of cursing and praying the two LPACs were up and running. They were at 60% capacity and nothing I could do would change that.
"What's going on down there?" an unfamiliar voice barked at me.
"Everythings aligned right on my end"
"We're reading 200 psi we're gonna need a helluva lot more than that son!"
"I'm givin' her all she's got Cap'n!" I say in my best Scottish brogue "..but the Dylthium crystals won't hold" I don't know why I said that. There was snickering across the bandwave and the unfamiliar voice returned.
"You realize that this is The Captain"
I froze and tried to swallow my heart back down my throat.
"S-sorry sir"
"Just take care of those LPACs Scotty!" he laughed "We need warp speed in ten minutes". All the other engineers laughed about that for the next two weeks and they'd slap me on the back on line for supper. "Hey howzitgoin' there Scotty!"




http://www.warrenellis.com

Comments

Beamed up at last

[raygunn-revival.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize he was so old. He had a good run of it. I hope my grandfather runs into him in the afterlife. They can exchange harrowing war stories.

[infiniteapathy.livejournal.com]

your pics are so much better than the ones I found...

geek moment - the first one is from "by any other name" season 2.

[jackbabalon23.livejournal.com]

I don't know if he's on your friends list @ myspace but check out
http://bulletin.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=bulletin.read&messageID=110446101&Mytoken=20050720144916

It's from a one Reverend Wolf and it's really cool!