The Day James Doohan Came to Town.
This is about James Doohan and my mother.
I was 11 and my mother was having a rough time. She was struggling to help her son. My father had disappeared. I wasn't giving her any way into my thoughts. I had withdrawn. I would go to school and my room. The only thing I really looked forward to were Sunday mornings. After church I'd sit glued to the TV and watch Star Trek. I'd been too young to watch it in prime time, but I was devoted in reruns.
In the paper one morning my mother found something she thought I'd enjoy. A local hotel was holding a Star Trek convention. Fans of the show would get together and there would be Star Trek items for sale. There would even be a Star Trek personality on hand to talk.
In 2005 you're jaded when you see the words "Star Trek Convention." They're now corporate cookie cutter events. At the high point of Star Trek popularity thousands of people would sit in Platinum Circles and Gold Circles and watch stars deliver 20 minute prepared statements.
That is now. This was then.
When I was 11 I walked into the "convention hall" with my mother. There were maybe a 100 chairs in a small meeting room. At one end were two folding tables with a few Star Trek posters and some photographs. At the other end stood James Doohan.
"Scotty" was standing 50 feet from me. My mother urged me to go sit up close. It's more than 30 years later and I still have the image of James Doohan standing 10 feet from me telling stories. And answering questions. And talking to fans.
By "fans" I mean maybe 40 or 50 people. I can't begin to tell you anything about James Doohan's life then. To me he was full of life. His stories were fresh and crisp. He answered each question like it was the first time he had heard it.
When James "Scotty" Doohan finished speaking and answering questions he wasn't whisked away by convention handlers. He sat down and talked. To each one of us. One or two at a time. For the rest of the afternoon.
Understand this -- James Doohan spent part of a Saturday afternoon talking to a kid in a dingy hotel meeting room. A kid abandoned by his father. A kid who was drifting away from his mother. James Doohan didn't learn that about me. I'm sure he saw just another kid who was amazed Scotty was sitting in front of him. But my mother would tell me later she noticed how nice this man treated her young son.
James Doohan didn't leave me with any words of wisdom. I'd like to say "That was the day I decided to become an actor" or some other heart wrenching decision was made. It was more subtle than that. And more life changing.
My mother saw a spark of life in me as we drove home. In the back seat were a couple of Star Trek posters we really couldn't afford. In the front seat we talked about Star Trek and science fiction and reading and TV and what a nice man James Doohan had turned out to be.
That day my mother found a way into the jungle that had grown around her son. She carved a path and helped me escape. We only had a few more years together before she died. I still miss her. Now another connection to her has passed. When my wife told me the sad news I immediately remembered that afternoon and how James Doohan helped my mother find her son again. I never got to thank him.
