UPDATED!!! Scotty Gets Beamed Up (FOR REAL!!)

UPDATE: According to Doohan's family, arrangements have been made to have Scotty's ashes sent into space to orbit the Earth and eventually burn up in the atmosphere. The same thing was done to Gene Roddenbury's remains a few years ago, and I hope to be able to afford the same treatment when it's my time to go...

Hey guys, it's Donnie...I'm not a comic fanboy, and while I have a deep and spiritual love for Star Wars, I never got totally wrapped up in the lore of that universe. No no no, what really did it for me as a youngster was Star Trek. While it's history as a franchise has certainly be very up and down from movie to movie and series to series, the universe created by Gene Roddenbury was not only exciting and inspirational, but also just really really intelligent, which was always the missing element for me when it came to Star Wars. I've always preferred the sceience-based Trek to the magic-based Wars because it always made me feel like Trek could happen someday. We could invent warp drives and phasers and, most importantly, transporters.

And so, it is with great sadness that I report the death of the greatest engineer and transporter operator that ever lived: Star Trek's Scotty, James Doohan. He passed away at 5:30AM Wednesday morning due to complications arising from pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease at age 85. Everytime I hear about the death of a former Star Trek cast member, a small part of my childhood dies inside. Once a Trekkie, always a Trekkie. I may not be able to quote from the Star Trek Encyclopedia anymore (and yes, I could do it at one time) but it doesn't mean I love the franchise any less.

Scotty was an enduring icon, and Doohan always had a great sense of humor and humility regarding his place in the entertainment world. He realized that he was always gonna be Scotty and rather than fight against it, he embraced it. As the years tolled on, his health began to seriously deteriorate and he began making fewer and fewer public appearances, and his presence was most definitely missed.

We at the Booth extend our deepest sympathies to his wide Wende and the rest of his family.

"For the world is hollow and I have touched the sky..."