Monday, August 15, 2005

Aberdonians Boldly Go


"The engines cannae take it Captain!"
Following the sad demise of James Doohan, famous for his role as 'Scotty' in the original (and best) Star Trek, Aberdeen City Council have announced that they plan to build a visitor attraction/theme park in his immortal memory.
Aberdeen is one those places that isn't exactly renowned for the number of famous citizens it has produced over the years. It's a bit like the old chestnut of being asked to name ten famous Danes. Er.......I know......Hercule Poirot.....er that's it. Actually, he was Belgian: and fictional . I can't think of many famous Aberdonians. Annie Lennox and, oh I don't know.....Fish out of 'Marillion'; although I could be wrong on the latter.
The good burghers of Aberdeen have seized on the flimsiest of pretexts for their venture. In one of the episodes of Star Trek, Scotty reminisces about going for a "pub crawl in auld Aberdeen".
Well, that's it isn't it, bona fide Aberdeen credentials. Problem is, James Doohan was a Canadian: his accent in Star Trek sounded about as Scottish as George W Bush. The councillers are obviously grasping at the flimsiest of flimsy straws. Perhaps they imagine that their theme park will attract high spending trekkies from all over the globe. I think they may be being a mite over optimistic.
A few years ago, a local historian claimed that Elvis Presley was descended from emigrants hailing from a village close to Aberdeen. I expect that we will soon hear an announcement that a replica of 'Graceland' is to be constructed next to a B&Q warehouse.
This all smacks of desperation. Anyone would think that the oil was running out

18 comments:

pissoff said...

I've learnt something new again. I didn't know Scotty was Canadian.

Herge Smith said...

It has the Bon Accord shopping centre (i think, if I remember correctly).

garfer said...

Aberdeen is actually very nice, if you can get over the frostbite and almost permanent sea fog. Lots of Ferraris driven by oilman to provoke feelings of jealousy. Crap, incomprehensible, accent as well.
Not many people realise that Scotty was Canadian. He sounded more like a Pakistani.

Sniffy said...

I knew he was Canadian, but I didn't realise he was supposed to be doing a Jock in Star Trek.

garfer said...

He was called SCOTty for gawd sake. He was also noted for saying 'didnae' and 'cannae' a lot.
Didn't realise he was supposed to be a Jock. Duh!

Wyndham said...

I didn't realise Scotty was the ship's engineer. I thought he was a catering contractor. Well, I never.

garfer said...

Er...not quite with you there Wyndham.

Sniffy said...

I was joking, Garfer. I thought he did an excellent Scottish accent, much better than the real ones that nobody can understand.

garfer said...

Say that to a Glaswegian and they'll chib* ye.

*perform amateur plastic surgery with a sharp implement.

Herge Smith said...

Star Treks rubbish though, innit?

Sniffy said...

Yes, and the Scots seem such a friendly bunch too - never ones to over-react or anything. Just bitter that the English always beat them.

Sniffy said...

And Star Trek (in all its formats) was shit.

Herge Smith said...

And Stargate.

That's really bad.

garfer said...

I liked the Star Trek episode with the tribbles in it.
Seven of Nine was also attractive in a dominatrix kind of way.
Mr Data was a wanker.

Sniffy said...

I liked uhuru

garfer said...

Yeah, Uhuru was a babe.

Sniffy said...

I liked that spirally thing sh put in her ear - like a forerunner of today's bluetooth earpieces. I bet hers kept crashing all the software on the Enterprise too.

garfer said...

From what I can recall she did a lot of 'hailing on all frequencies captain'. The nasty aliens always spoke English.
Perhaps she had one of those babel fish thingies in her earpiece.