Last year I commented about what was described as (and in fact was) the last public apperance by Jimmy Doohan, known to countless Star Trek fans as Scotty, the ship's engineer. I wrote that entry as a eulogy for him, knowing (and hoping, for his sake) that it wouldn't be long before he died. He died today, after a (comparatively and mercifully) short struggle with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and lung fibrosis (from his service in the Canadian military during WWII), at the age of 85.

I don't want to repeat everything I wrote before, but I'll say that Scotty was always my second-favorite character on the original Star Trek (after Spock), but Jimmy was probably my favorite member of the cast. I've never heard a bad thing said about him by anyone who ever met him, which included a lot of people. He didn't get along with Bill Shatner, but that's because of Shatner's ego. His fans included not only countless future engineers, but Neil Armstrong, the man who actually did go Where No Man Has Gone Before (exactly 36 years before Jimmy died). Unlike some actors who chafe at being typecast, or has-beens who cling to their past stardom like a life preserver, Jimmy grew to enjoy the fame that Trek brought him, and tried his best to give back to his fans. Next-Generation actor and self-described geek Wil Wheaton, commented that "Everyone who watched Star Trek liked Scotty, but everyone who met him loved Jimmy."

Once when asked about hearing the catch-phrase (which - for the record - was never actually spoken in an episode of the series) "Beam me up, Scotty," repeated over and over and over, he answered, "I'm not tired of it at all. Good gracious, it's been said to me for just about 31 years. It's been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It's been fun."

Which pretty much sums it up.

May your dilithium crystals be fully charged, your matter/anti-matter reaction balanced, your wee bairns well cared for, and I wish you a safe and painless transport to your final shore leave.

Energise.

I saw the world premiere of Sushi Saki Hot tonight at the Wealthy Theatre, which was a lot of fun. It's a no-budget, locally-produced movie, 45 minutes long, about a highly motivated but inept cable advertising director/producer/salesman who manages to get a local sushi restaurant to let him make a TV commercial for them, featuring a third-rate country blues musician. I enjoyed it on three levels:

The movie was entertaining on the basic level of it being funny, well-presented material. The concept is lovably absurd, and the resulting advert (shown at the end of the movie) is perfectly terrible... that is, it's terrible and that's perfect. The actor who plays B.T. Donovan (the salesman) pretty much steals the show, with his largely-improvised monologues (mostly in the first half) giving a real challenge to the actually scripted material. His performance is a bit like the un-self-aware boss in the U.S. version of the sitcom The Office... but without being so monotonously unlikeable. He's a joke, and doesn't realise it, but he's mostly harmless. The other major character is Jumpin' Johnny Blues, who's well-portrayed but not as inherently funny and not as convincingly believable. The rest of the cast are mostly bit parts, including a few local business owners.

That "local businesses" angle made the movie entertaining on another level. The opening shot is instantly recognisable as downtown South Division (the sidewalk sign for Vertigo Music helps), followed by a scene in the (unidentified) My Video Shoppe. The bar where Jumpin' Johnny performed had to be Billy's, I'm sure I've driven past that hardware store, and even the non-descript strip mall where the sushi restaurant is located looked familiar. It had "Made In Grand Rapids" all over it... even more so than Hardcore (the 1979 George C. Scott film which had scenes filmed here). And definitely more so than American Pie, which was set in a clone of Grand Rapids, but didn't look like it.

Finally, I got a boost out of seeing that these guys had pulled this off. They wanted to make a movie, and despite having no money and being stuck in Grand Rapids, Michigan, they did it. One of the team tossed out the number $100,000 as the "cost" of making it, but they got all the services donated by local talent. That puts my own ambitions into perspective, which entail perhaps a few thousand dollars worth of labor to produce a short comic book. That seems to me like a lot of money for a rather small end product, but compared to a hundred grand for a DVD about the same size, which takes maybe 2-3 times to experience... it's not so bad. Comics may be far more labor-intensive than prose, but compared to movies... they're obviously a bargain. Which gives me a little more reassurance that I'm working in the right medium.

For me, at least. These guys have movies in their blood. That's obvious. Apparently most of them do this kind of stuff toward less creative ends (such as making TV commercials) for a living, and they worked on this as A) a favor for guys who'd given them paying work in the past, and B) a chance to use their abilities for fun, rather than finances. That's definitely an example worth following.

More information about the film can be found at SakiHot.com.

For earlier articles on this topic, see God's ex-Boyfriend, volume one.