James Doohan - After Star Trek

After Star Trek

Doohan hoped that Star Trek would benefit his acting career. After the series ended, however, he found himself typecast and had a hard time getting other roles. After a conversation with his dentist, he realized that he would "always be Scotty", and could support himself with income from personal appearances. Unlike some other members of the cast, Doohan relished meeting fans and was always ready to entertain with a story —or a song. Otherwise, he had minor, fleeting parts, often trading on his Trek fame, such as the Captain in the short-lived Saturday morning live-action kids' show, Jason of Star Command, or a cameo in the made-for-TV movie Knight Rider 2000 as "Jimmy Doohan, the guy who played Scotty on Star Trek". He also had a role in the TV series Homeboys in Outer Space, in which he played a character named Pippen: a pun on Scotty and basketball star Scottie Pippen. He appeared as himself in an episode of The Ben Stiller Show. He also played Damon Warwick, father of James Warwick, on the daytime soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful.

When the Star Trek franchise was revived, Doohan reprised his role of Scotty in seven Star Trek films and made a guest appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation's 130th episode "Relics", all of which left him financially comfortable. Many of Doohan's film appearances did centre on the role of Scotty, such as a cameo in National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, where he plays a policeman who tells his superior officer "I am giving it all she has got, Captain!" in the same accent he used in Star Trek. However, he refused to contribute to the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" or allow his image to be used in it, and was "replaced" in the episode by the created character "Welshie" who was ultimately given the redshirt treatment.

Although he continued to work with William Shatner in the Star Trek movies, in private life Doohan didn't care for him, and was once quoted as saying "I like Captain Kirk, but I can't say that I'm very fond of Bill," declining to be interviewed by Shatner for Shatner's first Star Trek: Memories book about the show. However, Doohan consented to be interviewed for William Shatner's second book, Star Trek: Movie Memories, and an Associated Press article, published at the time of Doohan's final convention appearance in late August 2004 stated that Doohan had forgiven Shatner and they had mended their relationship.