James Doohan on engineering students

The late James Doohan talks about how his Star Trek character "Scotty" pursuaded young people to take up engineering as a career. It was taped in Toronto in 2001 or 2002 at the John BassettTheatre, where Doohan was a guest at an NHL Awards event. Doohan was born in Toronto where he enjoyed a successful acting career, including a role in "Space Command", an early television space shop produced by the CBC. You can see Doohan referring to his Toronto roots by going to "Star Trek 25th anniversary celebration". The clip is part a television series about Star Trek fandom titled "Trek Talk".

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• James
• Doohan
• Star
• Trek
• engineering

[usbiker133t]

I became a nuclear engineer and am now serving on the USS Enterprise CVN 65 because of him. I owe alot to the entire franchise but specifically to his character for where i am now. Maybe someday i'll work on engines powered by plasma but for now I'll have to live with steam:)

[FacultyFan]

I regret not getting to meet this man. He died around my 21st birthday. I drank scotch to honor him. :-)

[grayburst]

I became an electrical and telecommunication engineer thanks to the influence of James Doohan and the fiction of George O. Smith.

[benjiii4]

If I'm not mistaken, Doohan, Shatner and Christopher Plummer all appeared on a kids show at the same time on CBC. 30 years later the all appeared in a Trek film together. Small world

[Garbanzo884]

I'm one of those engineers!!! If it wasn't for Scotty, I might not be an engineer today!!! Thank you, Sauk Valley College!! Thank you, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign!! Most of all, thank you, Scotty!!!!

[fjccommish]

@usbiker133t Do you overstate repair times?

[starscreamdkmo]

my fav from the tos

[romeedee]

My hero.

[pfcwar5150]

Scotty!,..you've just earned your pay for the week

[SchmidtFilms86]

This was not taped in 2001 or 2002. He was much older at that time.

Maybe you mean 1991 or 1992?

[btstv]

@usbiker133t That's phenomenal, m8!!! Seriously. Doesn't matter what kind of engine you work with either....if you try to do your job as well as Mr.Scott and take the kind of pride he did in his work you can't do better! Cheers.

[Wolf101101]

I had the honor of meeting Mr. Doohan at a Star Trek convention some years ago. He was the judge of a "Scott Off", for people who could do the Scotty voice. When my turn came I knew I had to do something special if I was going to win this, so I said "Cap'tan, I cannan change the laws of physics...well actually I can, but I dunno like to brag." Poor man almost choked to death on his soft drink, but I did win the contest, and a handshake from the man himself.