A Year Late, the Academy Honors Scotty

After last year's Oscars, I wrote about the omission of James Doohan from the ritual honoring of those in the motion picture industry who had died the previous year. I must not have been the only one who noticed. James Doohan was honored at the 2007 Oscars among those the industry lost in the past year (he died on July 20, 2005.) The tribute showed a moment from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, with Captain Kirk saying "Thank you, Mr. Scott" at the end of the shuttle ride to the Enterprise, and Scotty replying, "Aye, Sir"--it was the only dialogue in the entire tribute reel--followed by an image of Doohan in this film on split screen with him in a later Trek film, perhaps Generations, as his name came on the screen. Later this week (March 3) is the 87th anniversary of Doohan's birth.

Also honored in that tribute was Jane Wyatt, who played Amanda, Spock's mother (she died on October 20, 2006.) The images of her that were shown appeared to be from her first feature, Lost Horizon, directed by Frank Capra. (Most of her scenes were cut from the film seen in recent decades in the U.S. until a restored version came out on DVD.) Her last big screen appearance was as Amanda in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. An assistant director on that film was Frank Capra III.

It was fitting perhaps that Star Trek was part of the ceremony this year, as it was an Academy celebration that honored its past (with Steven Speilberg, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola presenting the Best Director award to Marty Scorcese) and directed attention not only to its future (with the international diversity of nominees) but everyone's future, with the Best Documentary Award (and Best Song) to An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's film about the Climate Crisis, and the Academy's official committment to taking action to save the future from the worst effects of global heating.