RIP Ricardo Montalban

Ricardo Montalban died today at age 88. When I was a kid, I for sure appreciated his suave nature on Fantasy Island. But I will best remember him for his role as Khan in one of the original Star Trek episodes and of course in the Star Trek 2 movie, where he has some classic lines such as:

"Let me introduce you to Ceti Alpha V's last remaining indigenous lifeform."

"I've done more than kill you. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on...hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me. As you left her. Marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet. Buried alive... Buried alive... Buried alive..."

"I have deprived your ship of power, and when I swing around, I mean to deprive you of your life. But I wanted you to know who it was who had beaten you."

and of course...

"Revenge is a dish best served cold. It is very cold...in space."

KHAAAAAAAAAAN!

Beam Me Up! Scotty's Ashes Scattered Over Pacific As Rocket Explodes

Scotty's Ashes. Now there is a great band name.

When James Doohan - Scotty from Star Trek for those who don't know - passed away last year, the big news is that his ashes were going to be shot into outer space, per his last wishes.

An attempt was made over the weekend but sadly, gravity prevailed and Scotty and 207 other boxes of ash exploded and plummeted into the Pacific Ocean when space burial company Celestis' Falcon 1 rocket began spinning out of control less than two minutes after liftoff.

Seems that Celestis has had pretty bad luck getting its company off the ground - pun intended. From this article on Gearfuse:

SpaceX [Celestis partner] was started in 2002 by Paypal founder Elon Musk as a low cost space delivery service. Since then, they’ve unsuccessfully tried to launch their Falcon 1 rocket three times. In 2006, the first SpaceX Falcon flight failed due to a fuel leak. Last year, the second Falcon 1 rocket made it to space, but got lost by SpaceX mission control.

Gizmodo had a pretty funny take on it too, here.

But I could think of worse places to scatter ashes - the Pacific Ocean works. Maybe one of those whales from Star Trek IV scooped him up with some krill and plankton...