No “beam me up” jokes from me, either.

James Doohan, the actor best known for his role as the intergalactic engineer Scotty in Star Trek, has died at his home in the US. He was 85.

Doohan lost his struggle against pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease this morning in Washington State, according to his agent and friend Steve Stevens.

A Canadian actor with a knack for accents, Doohan became inseparable from his role as Montgomery Scott, the surly Scottish engineer on the Starship Enterprise, after he was cast in the original Star Trek series in 1967.

First DeForest (“McCoy”) Kelley, now this. I’m too young to remember the original broadcasts, but I grew up on the re-runs of Star Trek. I always played Mr. Spock when me and other kids would play pretend, though.

As campy as the series was, I still feel like much of my philosophy derived from Star Trek principles. The Prime Directive: do not interfere with a developing culture. The Vulcan Concept of IDIC: celebration of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Hot chicks in go-go boots and short skirts, or better yet, hot green alien chicks in one of those “how does it stay on” costumes-of-holes that William Ware Theiss designed (see, I am a Trekkie nerd! I know the wardrobe designer’s name!) An Earth that had banded together to eliminate poverty, starvation, and war. Interracial kissing (Kirk & Uhura, “Bread & Circuses”, 1968, first black-white screen kiss ever). Environmental awareness and ecological concern (“The Trouble With Tribbles” is really a story about overpopulation). People of all races and ethnicities working together in harmony, and of course, the half-black/half-white Cherons of “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” that taught us how silly color discrimination is (“But he’s black on the LEFT side!”)

Now I find myself typing on a massive computer network (where I work on “Enterprise” software), working for a company that makes Dr. McCoy’s medical tricorders (Welch Allyn medical monitors), and possessing the ability to call my crew anywhere on the planet with my Captain Kirk communicator (my Verizon cell phone). Now if they could only get working on that transporter…

I got to briefly meet James Doohan at the one and only Star Trek convention I ever attended (I’m a nerd, not a geek.) I was surprised to see that he was missing a finger; you never saw that on TV. He seemed to be the most patient, likable guy you could ever want to meet.

My heart still warms whenever I see one of the original Star Trek cast on film or video. “Boston Public” is one of my favorite shows because I can’t get enough Shatner (and Shatner as a Fox News lovin’ conservative early-Alzheimer’s patient is a hoot!). I’ll hear George Takei’s fantastic baritone voice on some Discovery channel documentary and I’m forced to listen. I was pleasantly surprised to see Nichelle Nichols with a small role as the grandma in the recent Ice Cube family movie “Are We There Yet?” (filmed right here in Portland, too!)

I’m sad I will not see any new Jimmy Doohan appearances. Rest in peace.