Fantastic Voyage - New Discovery!

Over the past week, FXMHD has been showing one of my favorite classic science fiction movies, Fantastic Voyage. Produced in 1966, Fantastic Voyage is the story of a team of military officers and doctors, miniaturized to bacterial size in a submarine and injected into a wounded scientist in order to remove a blood clot in his brain from the inside. It's famous because the special effects were really great for the time and it features the screen premier of Raquel Welch. Since then, it's been parodied a bunch of times, including by The Simpsons and Archer.

I hadn't seen the movie in a while when I watched it on Saturday night and there were quite a few things that amused me.

When Raquel is introduced as the main surgeon's assistant, the hero makes a couple of sexist remarks about her looks and the Colonel in command forbids her from the sub because "This mission is no place for a woman!" But once the surgeon insists (good for him!), she's brought aboard and for the rest of the movie treated like a professional.

The main surgeon, Dr. Duval, and Donald Pleasence (he has a character name, but come on), the doctor in charge of the mission, get into some philosophizing on the sub as they view the human body from the inside. When Duval calls the oxygenation of blood "a miracle" and Pleasence raises evolution, we discover that the "best brain surgeon in the world" is a creationist! And, of course, Pleasence's character comes across as an atheist. Guess who's the surprise traitor trying to wreck the mission!

Later in the movie, the commanding general finds an ant in the control room and they make a point of how his perspective has changed; he just can't squish it. My concern was more that there are ants in their sterile, surgical control room. The general, who's drinking coffee throughout the mission, also has a half dozen setups in the movie where you expect him to say, "Looks like I picked the wrong day to give up [controlled substance]." It's possible Airplane got the Lloyd Bridges scenes from this movie.

And finally, there's this. I caught the movie again today and recorded a specific section. This scene has the brass checking in with various doctors monitoring the patient.

To prep this clip, below is the cast list. Doctor Sawyer, in charge of hypothermia, is NOT credited and I can find nothing on the Internet identifying him.

• Stephen Boyd as Grant
• Raquel Welch as Cora Peterson
• Edmond O'Brien as General Carter
• Donald Pleasence as Dr. Michaels
• Arthur O'Connell as Colonel Donald Reid 
• William Redfield as Captain Bill Owens
• Arthur Kennedy as Dr. Peter Duval
• Jean Del Val as Dr. Jan Benes
• Barry Coe as communications aide
• Ken Scott as a Secret Service agent
• Shelby Grant as nurse
• James Brolin as technician

Now watch the clip and identify the uncredited Doctor Sawyer on the monitor.

Any ideas?

I am 99% sure that's James Doohan, Scotty from Star Trek. I can't find any evidence that it's him other than how he looks and, more tellingly, how he sounds. There's also no evidence of whom it might be if it's not Doohan. I think it's him and it's kind of shocking this major science fiction connection has never been made.

Unless someone identifies him as someone else, I claim credit for this discovery.