# Why does the death of Star Trek actors affect me so much? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961 "2010-05-19T02:42:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Wikipedia_Cites)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/1 "2010-05-19T02:42:24Z")
Somehow the death of Star Trek actors, just watching their still extant episodes, and knowing they are gone, makes me very sad. Is this normal? In particular I am thinking of Doohan & DeForest. Why do I care so much for these actors as opposed to the other celebrities and big shots in the Obits page? Or other TV actors? I’m not a freak and don’t wear the costumes to school/work, I just appreciate the series as good entertainment, and do not take Klingon grammar lessons. But even though he apparently was 85, Doohan’s earthly disappearance seems harshest. I wonder how the other crew thinks, especially the big man & the ears, seeing their former co-stars slowly fall off one by one, and much much younger actors play them. By the way, what was the episode in the original series where they are stranded on this planet that has this castle, and they find this strange dude with an original michelangelo painting and he has a never-known but authentic Schubert piano composition lying around as well? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/2 "2010-05-19T02:51:37Z")
> [@sassyfras](#): > > By the way, what was the episode in the original series where they are stranded on this planet that has this castle, and they find this strange dude with an original michelangelo painting and he has a never-known but authentic Schubert piano composition lying around as well? ‘Requiem for Methuselah’. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/3 "2010-05-19T03:21:20Z")
[Here’s a link, BTW](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_for_Methuselah). For me, deaths that make me sad include Lux Interior and Joe Strummer. I never had the pleasure to see The Cramps live, but I did see Strummer a couple of times when he was playing with The Pogues. See, I listened to The Cramps and The Clash when I was young. It’s just sad that these guys, who were so vibrant back in the day, got old and dead. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/4 "2010-05-19T03:29:01Z")
I fully anticipate taking Leonard Nimoy’s death very hard - I know he’s just a guy, who was just doing a job, but he was SPOCK! He was in town a few weekends ago for our local comic-con, and we paid a lot of money and stood in lines for very, very long times to have our picture taken with him - I’ve never done that before. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/5 "2010-05-19T03:30:38Z")
I know I’m going to be hit really hard when Shatner and Nimoy shuffle off this mortal coil. A world without the two of them doesn’t seem like much of a world at all. And I think Doohan’s and DeForrest’s deaths hit you hard because Scotty and Bones were genuinely good, admirable men, who always did the best they could, and who even got to save the day more than once. True that’s conflating the actor with the character, but for thousands of people, their deaths really did mean the deaths of Montgomery Scott and Dr. McCoy. And that’s a sad thing. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/6 "2010-05-19T03:37:12Z")
I’m going to take George Takei’s death hard. I don’t give a crap about TOS but Takei is the fucking man. When I say I’m going to take it hard I mean it’s going to have an emotional impact. I don’t anticipate crying or anything, but still, it’ll be weird. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/7 "2010-05-19T03:38:25Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > True that’s conflating the actor with the character… [James Doohan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Doohan#Military_service) had some exciting times IRL too. > [@](#): > > At the beginning of the Second World War, Doohan joined the Royal Canadian Artillery. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the 13th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. Doohan went to the United Kingdom in 1940 for training. His first combat was the invasion of Normandy at Juno Beach on D-Day. Shooting two snipers, Doohan led his men to higher ground through a field of anti-tank mines, where they took defensive positions for the night. Crossing between command posts at 11:30 that night, Doohan was hit by six rounds fired from a Bren gun by a nervous Canadian sentry: four in his leg, one in the chest, and one through his right middle finger. The bullet to his chest was stopped by a silver cigarette case. His right middle finger had to be amputated, something he would conceal during his career as an actor. > > \ > > Doohan trained as a pilot and flew Taylorcraft Auster Mark V aircraft for 666 (AOP) Squadron, RCAF, as a Royal Canadian Artillery officer in support of #1 Canadian AGRA (Army Groups Royal Artillery). > > \ > > Though he was never actually a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, he was once labeled the “craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Forces.” A story from his flying years tells of Doohan slaloming a plane — variously cited as a Hurricane or a jet trainer — between mountainside telegraph poles to prove it could be done, which earned him a serious reprimand. (The actual feat was also performed in a Mark IV Auster on the Salisbury Plain north of RAF Andover, in the late spring of 1945). ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/8 "2010-05-19T03:46:29Z")
It’s sad the original Trek actors never put aside their differences. I’ve heard Doohan died a very angry and bitter man. I’ve only heard good things about DeForest Kelly. He was a true Southern gentleman and very well liked. I grew up watching Trek. The actors deaths closes the book on any possible reunion. I feel much the same way about TNG. It’s a shame they are wasting these years without any more movies. I guess someday they’ll do another, but by then the cast will be pretty old. If something happens to Patrick Stewart, then that ends any hope of a new movie. Trek wouldn’t be the same without Picard. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/9 "2010-05-19T03:51:30Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It’s sad the original Trek actors never put aside their differences. I’ve heard Doohan died a very angry and bitter man. I’ve only heard good things about DeForest Kelly. He was a true Southern gentleman and very well liked. > > I grew up watching Trek. The actors deaths closes the book on any possible reunion. I feel much the same way about TNG. It’s a shame they are wasting these years without any more movies. I guess someday they’ll do another, but by then the cast will be pretty old. If something happens to Patrick Stewart, then that ends any hope of a new movie. Trek wouldn’t be the same without Picard. No. No more TNG movies. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/10 "2010-05-19T04:29:04Z")
I’d watch more TNG movies. I’d rather see a new series though that includes the occasional TNG/DS9/VOY characters. I didn’t care for TOS, but I liked the movies and loved the cameos of the old characters in the newer shows and movies. That’s impossible to do with the last casts if the current movies stay in the alt universe. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/11 "2010-05-19T05:18:30Z")
I think this re-boot means that we’re never going back to TNG movies again. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/12 "2010-05-19T06:46:24Z")
I think Nemesis means that we’re never going back to TNG movies again. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-death-of-star-trek-actors-affect-me-so-much/539961/13 "2010-05-19T07:11:17Z")
Heck, given the awfulness of the reboot, I’m half inclined to give up on Trek movies in general. Eh, who’m I kidding? I’ll be there in 2012, though it will likely be an exercise in masochism.