We watched Monday night’s episode of “Heroes” last night. (Yes, I know, but by 9 pm Melanie is wiped out and ready for bed so thanks to the magic of Tivo we timeshifted it to Tuesday night.) As usual, it was quite fun—although Peter Petrelli is quickly becoming the superhero known as “Whiny Boy.” I would have been tempted to throw him off the roof too, just to shut him up. Plus, his brooding over his “girlfriend’s” completely innocuous talk with former heroin-addict “Blind Boy of Manhattan”, was baffling.
I’m sure all the other geeky Star Trek fans caught the visual Easter egg reference, right? In George Takei‘s (Trek’s “Sulu”) final scene, we catch a glimpse of the limo’s license plate and see some familiar numbers and letters. As I whooped and paused and rewinded to show Melanie, she just look bewildered: “What am I supposed to be seeing?” When I explained it, she rolled her eyes and sighed, “You are such a geek.” I replied, “That’s not geeky. If I told you that James “Scotty” Doohan was assigned 1,701 Artillery Battalion of the Canadian Army during World War II, that would be geeky.” (Still don’t know what I’m talking about? Someone should say it in the comments.)
Anyway, we’re all excited about the return of “Lost” tonight (although that pesky post-9-pm thing is hanging over us still; Maybe I’ll pump her full of coffee.) We’ve assiduously avoided reading or seeing too many promos and articles and blog posts about the rest of this season to avoid spoiling the story, although we’ve seen some small tidbits like ...
I am so NOT a trekkie, but even I know that the number on the outside of the Enterprise was NCC-1701.
OK, Fr. Jim, you are not a trekkie…
But in the words of the brilliant and lovely Mrs. Bettinelli: “You are such a geek.”
I’m an even bigger geek- “Show me the bridge of USS Enterprise. NCC 1701, no bloody A, B, C or D.”
I’ll accept the “geek” badge and try to wear it with honor.
I thought Doohan was a Combat Engineer, not Artillery.
Or was he considered an Artillery officer when he was flying Reconnaissance planes?
I just know what he said at that Star Trek convention all those years ago. Maybe it was combat engineers and not artillery, but the unit was the 1,701st.
There are artillery forward observers who “call for fire” from planes. Even though “airborne” the remain “red-legs”.
“Biography for James Doohan. Birth name: James Montgomery Doohan … Landed on Juno Beach on D-Day as a member of the Royal Canadian Artillery. …”
I saw Jimmy Doohan in a different environment. At URI in 1983. He was absolutely brilliant away from the whole trekkie thing.