back to article Star Trek's Scotty boldly goes where he always wanted to

Elon Musk's Dragon spaceship that successfully took off this morning was carrying extra special secret cargo: Star Trek's Chief Engineer Scott. The Falcon 9 rocket, which launched the privately funded SpaceX craft containing supplies and science experiments for the International Space Station, also took up the ashes of actor …

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  1. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse
    FAIL

    An there was me thinking that...

    He was just an actor, playing a role. I'm sure it's just what he wanted as well.

    Even in death he can't help but be a parody.

    1. Sir Runcible Spoon

      Re: An there was me thinking that...

      We are all actors on the stage of life.

      It seems you got cast as a curmudgeon.

    2. Lee Dowling Silver badge

      Re: An there was me thinking that...

      He once said something like his character was "99% Doohan, 1% accent". I don't think he was that sad in the role he played, or would be disappointed with the way he was sent off (you honestly think he wouldn't have wanted his fans/family to say "The engine's cannae take it, cap'n!" on the first two failed attempts to launch his remains and have a good laugh about it?)

      I'm not a Trekkie, I can just about tolerate TNG for an episode or two before I want to blow my brains out, let alone the earlier stuff, but I can recognise something there in the actor himself - he seemed happier to get kids into engineering courses from his influence than anything else.

      I think I'd rather be remembered as a character like Scotty, or even better, an actor with Doohan's attitude, than not remembered at all. A lot more "famous" people do a lot less and make much bigger arses of themselves for the sake of money or a career.

      I'd rather die with humour and parody following me than without. If I'd been the actor who'd uttered the words: "He's dead, Jim", they would have been etched on my grave. What a way to be remembered.

      1. Z-Eden
        Thumb Up

        Re: Lee Dowling

        Nice post. I'd give you loads of thumbs up, but unfortunately you'll have to settle with the the El Reg mandated only one allowed click

        1. Thomas 4
          Pint

          Re: Lee Dowling

          There are worse places for your remains to spend eternity that watching over the Earth and gazing out across the infinite reaches of space.

    3. Haku

      @Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

      Watch this and tell me he wasn't just an actor:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsSdLD_YodQ

    4. Nameless Faceless Computer User

      Re: An there was me thinking that...

      Doohan was an actor who was adored by millions of people around the planet for most of his life. He inspired many to become Engineers and influenced generations of people, decade after decade. What have YOU done with YOUR life?

    5. teacake

      Re: An there was me thinking that...

      "He was just an actor, playing a role. I'm sure it's just what he wanted as well.

      Even in death he can't help but be a parody."

      So, 50 down-votes so far. Allow me to be number 51.

  2. Alan 6

    Not bad value

    $995 to get your ashes ejected into the upper atmosphere.

    We had to pay the local council £600 to take out a single scoop of earth for my mum's ashes. £600 for a 12" square plot!!!!!

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. MrZoolook
      WTF?

      Re: Not bad value

      £31 extra would have got her in space...

      [rant]

      WTG local council... that's one way to stop dead people from being a burden to you. Price them out of communicable graves. I guess it's less bodies to move when you finally decide to actually live up to your responsibilities to build houses.

      [/rant]

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sorry but...

    Bet that put a smile on his face. In fact I bet he Beaming Up there.

  4. Pete 2 Silver badge

    And on the first launch attempt

    ... a shudder went through the Trekkie fan base as it aborted and they all heard a voice in their heads:

    "Cap'n the engines canna take it!"

  5. SiempreTuna
    Thumb Up

    Split for Infinity

    Part of him has boldly gone.

    1. Lee Dowling Silver badge

      Re: Split for Infinity

      It's worse than that... he's dead, Jim.

  6. Robert Heffernan
    Pint

    Inspiring

    Honestly, I think as great as it is for James Doohan's ashes to be in orbit for a year before burning up on reentry, it's not exactly the respect deserved.

    I know he was just an actor playing a role but that role affected the lives of so many people, especially Scientists, Researchers and Astronauts. A lot of the people who designed, built and put the ISS in orbit, those who built the rockets to get the astronauts there, and the astronauts themselves all would have been inspired even a little by Mr Scott and James Doohan.

    I think his ashes should have been placed in a sealed container to be placed in a prime location inside the crew area of the ISS, as kind of a memorial or patron of seat-of-the-pants engineering and spaceflight. In fact, he should be joined by Gene and Majel Roddenberry.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Inspiring

      Luckily they still have some left... the amount sent up can't have been more than a pinch.

  7. bharq

    crowded

    308 people in a canister the size of a lipstick... must be crowded up there! I can hear the ashes calling out to each other: move over - it's my turn to sit at the window!

  8. ravenviz Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    "will orbit the Earth for about a year before disintegrating on reentry"

    Even so, their ashes are still "amongst the stars".

    1. Naughtyhorse

      Re: "will orbit the Earth for about a year before disintegrating on reentry"

      meh!

      stardust! been there seen it done it

      as joni put it a little more prosaically

      :-) great next chapter for scottie

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    He always stood out...

    Now, while I don't think the Next Generation is all that bad they couldn't match the acting qualities of Scotty IMO.

    "Relics"; as a passenger on the starship Jenolan Scotty is involved in a crash onto the surface of a strange globe. He and a person called "Franklin" are the only survivors of the crash. Aware that they're from a position far away from normal routes Scotty realizes that a rescue might take a while so he decides what he does best: by rigging the transporter he manages to get it into a continuous diagnostic cycle. Then he transports himself and Franklin; being the first person to survive for 60 years inside a transporter.

    In this episode you get to see Scotty and LaForge together and quite frankly I think Scotty was the better engineer. When he started talking about the Dyson sphere you could /hear/ the enthusiasm and awe he had for the "technological achievement". To which LaForge could only flatly comment: "Yeah, its quite impressive" while sounding as he didn't even really mean it.

    That guy was a classic... "Synthetic scotch, synthetic commanders....".

    However, I do think the guy who plays Data does manage to come very close with his acting. Very well seen when he offers Scotty a drink of a non-synthahol beverage..

    Scotty: "What is it?"

    Data: "It is...." Data looks at the bottle, only to see there's no label on it.

    He then opens the bottle to identify the scent, fully convinced that he can now answer Scotty's question Data starts: "It is....", but apparently this isn't part of his memory banks.

    Data looks at Scotty: "It is green.".

    Scotty now makes a gesture saying "Well, let me have it".

    That dear reader is what I call a classic :-)

    1. Leona A
      Happy

      Re: He always stood out...

      That was a good one, with the best quote from the series.

      "Please enter program."

      "The android at the bar said ya' could show me ma' old ship. Lemme see it."

      "Insufficient Data. Please specify parameters."

      "The Enterprise! Show me the bridge of the Enterprise, ya' chatterin' piece of..."

      "There have been five Federation ships with that name. Please specify by registry number."

      "NCC-1701. No bloody A, B, C, or D."

      "Program complete. Enter when ready."

  10. DrXym

    A portion of his remains

    Sounds like they divvied him up just in case (as happened) rockets failed. Makes you wonder what will happen to the rest.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good for him

    I'd like that to happen to my ashes too, but I think I would prefer them to be sent drifting out into space to an unknown fate rather than burn up on re-entry a year later

  12. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Pint

    I will raise a dram to Scotty

    Not the frothy kind! Distill the stuff I say. A glass of single malt to my fond memories of Scotty saying

    Ye cannae break the laws of physics capt'n!

  13. James O'Brien
    Thumb Up

    he boldly went

    Where several men have gone before.

    No one can replace him as Scotty. I'm still at odds over Simon Peg playing the part not sure if i like him in it or not yet.

    1. Intractable Potsherd
      Unhappy

      Re: Simon Pegg

      My opinion is very clear - Pegg as Scottie just about spoiled the entire film for me. Wrong actor for the role by miles. Talk about over-acting ...

  14. sjsmoto

    Scotty

    So the jinx where any ship Scotty was on gets destroyed finally ends!

  15. Maty

    Under the wide and starry sky,

    Dig the grave and let me lie.

    Glad did I live and gladly die,

    And I laid me down with a will.

    This be the verse you grave for me:

    Here he lies where he longed to be;

    Home is the sailor, home from sea,

    And the hunter home from the hill.

    R.L. Stevenson 1850 -1894

    RIP Scotty!

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I rather admired the tribute NASA gave to Eugene Shoemaker. As well as discovering the comet that whacked into Jupiter, he was the great planetary geologist who proved Barringer Crater was actually meteoritic in origin and that the Earth did have a record of large impacts. He was also the pioneer of understanding how and when the Moon's craters formed.

    So NASA gave him the send off he deserved, they placed a small portion of his ashes on the Lunar Prospector probe which was crashed into the South Pole of the Moon in the hope of discovering ice. In the process it carved out a new crater.

  17. JustNiz

    I cant help but think he actually meant he wanted to go into deep space as in not come back. Think voyager rather than skylab.

    Sending him into a low earth orbit for a few months to burn up or crash on reentry seems to be making a cheap mockery of what probably was his actual dream.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Give it 5 billion years or so and we'll all be part of the Sun, including him... his 'actual dream' has been merely postponed.

      1. PJM
        Alien

        nearly

        Part of some Sun or planet, or sentient life form, just not our Sun...

  18. Unicornpiss
    Pint

    Well, life is full of compromises I guess

    He played an engineer on a starship. He wanted his ashes to go into space. They did, though not as grandly as he'd have liked, I expect. I think his spirit has a much greater view now than the miniscule remains launched into orbit for a year will ever get. The unfeeling atoms of his remains are irrelevant anyway.

    James Doohan seemed to be an earnest, unpretentious man that enjoyed his bit of fame and certainly gave a smile and maybe some inspiration to a couple of generations of people, and maybe a few to come.

    I know that being the techie I am, Star Trek helped shape my world view and inspired me.

    Rest in peace Scotty.

  19. William Boyle

    Beam me up, Scotty.

    Finally, Scotty gets himself beamed up! Wonderful! Have fun up there James! :-)

  20. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    So maybe when a you see a meteor streak across the sky this time next year

    you will imagine to hear it say

    "More powerrr, we need more powerrrr!"

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