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Montgomery Scott, nicknamed Scotty, is a fictional character in the Star Trek universe. He served as the second officer & chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise, and was known as a "miracle worker" for being able to come up with unconventional solutions to solve practically any engineering problem he faced (though he often padded his estimates of how long it would take, so that he could always seem to have gotten the job done very quickly). Scotty was born in Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland in 2222 *, and spoke with a thick Lowland Scottish accent.
The character was played by the late actor James Doohan in the television series The Original Series and the first seven Star Trek movies, as well as in the The Next Generation episode "Relics". Scotty held the rank of lieutenant commander during the original series, had been promoted to commander by the time of The Motion Picture, and received a promotion to Captain of Engineering in The Search for Spock.
Scotty was third in the Enterprise chain of command, and routinely took command of the ship when Kirk and Spock were unavailable. Once, when Kirk and Spock were trapped on an alien world, Scotty used the ship's power to shut down the planet's electrical grid for a few seconds, enabling Enterprise crewmen to rescue Kirk and Spock without violating the Prime Directive. Kirk placed a commendation in Scotty's personnel record for his innovative tactics. (episode "Bread and Circuses")
Scotty's operating of the Enterprise transporter system inspired the catch phrase "Beam me up, Scotty", which gained currency in pop culture even beyond Star Trek fans, though that exact phrase was never spoken in any episode of the show; the closest it came to being said was in The Voyage Home where Kirk's "Scotty, Beam me up!" was both homage and in-joke.
Scotty also became a kind of general cliché for any chief engineer in the movie genre of science fiction parodies. It has also become something of a cliché for starship engineers to be Celtic — even The Next Generation briefly had a Irish engineer aboard the USS Enterprise-D.
Like many of the main characters of the original Star Trek, relatively little is known about their history before joining Starfleet. A scene that was cut from the theatrical release of The Wrath of Khan (but restored in the ABC television version and the Director's Cut DVD release) details that Midshipman First Class Peter Preston (the cadet killed in Khan's first attack) was his nephew, hence why he broke down into tears when he died. Since Star Trek canon rules state that only what is seen on screen is canon, the presence of this scene in some editions of the film but not others makes its position as strict canon unclear, although his relationship to the Preston family was elaborated on in the novelization of the film, and other later works, and has been widely adopted as fanon.
Continuity issues
Scotty's appearance at the christening of the USS Enterprise-B ( Generations) raises some continuity questions. He had last appeared in the Next Generation episode "Relics", shot before anyone began exploring the subject of the final fate of the original crew. When rescued by William T. Riker and Geordi La Forge and upon hearing the name Enterprise, he immediately assumed that Captain James T. Kirk came to the rescue yet again, saying "...I'll bet it was Jim Kirk himself who hauled the old girl out of mothballs to come looking for me!" Since Scotty's disappearance would obviously have to take place after he witnessed the loss of Kirk in Generations, it is generally assumed that in his old age, he either forgot about Kirk's loss or simply does not wish to acknowledge or believe it (Kirk having defied death a number of times).
It should also be noted that Scotty had just spent 75 years as essentially energy in the pattern buffer of a transporter. There was originally one other member of his ship's crew with him, but his transporter pattern had decayed too far to be retrieved. It is known that some decay occurred in Scotty's pattern as well, and this could result in the loss of some memory, at least temporarily.
Although not canon, a number of authors have explored Scotty's life after leaving the Enterprise-D. Among the things Scotty had done after the events of Relics according to the novels was to help design the USS Enterprise-E. In the Starfleet Corps of Engineers novel series, Montgomery Scott leads Corps of Engineers and issues the characters of the novels their assignments. The character is presently still alive and active in the TNG-era Trek universe; it remains to be seen if the death of James Doohan in 2005 will result in Scotty also meeting his ultimate end, as the death of Dr. Leonard McCoy was chronicled in a comic book story soon after the death of actor Deforest Kelley.
Birthplace debate
Following the death of actor James Doohan in July 2005, several towns in Scotland began campaigning to be named the official birthplace of Scotty.
The most vocal of the claimants is Linlithgow, which claims Scotty as a native son because of it being mentioned in the novel Vulcan's Glory that he was born there. However, the novels are not considered canon, and Star Trek historians and others claim that Scotty's birthplace is in fact Aberdeen, Scotland due to a line in the Original Series episode "Wolf in the Fold" in which Scotty describes himself as "an old Aberdeen pub crawler".*
However, James Doohan is Irish-Canadian.
Popular lines
Scotty had numerous memorable lines of a light comedy character throughout the series:
- "Beam me up!" – From The Original Series (though not actually used by Scotty himself, and actually never spoken on the TV show, it became popularly associated with him as he was frequently the one that manned the transporters on Kirk's Enterprise)
- "My bairns ..." Lowland Scots for "children", used for the warp drive of the Enterprise
- "She canna take much more!" frequently said to Captain Kirk as the engines were overtaxed
- "Diplomats! The best diplomat I know is a fully-loaded phaser bank." – From A Taste of Armageddon
- "I canna' change the laws of physics!" – From "The Naked Time", as well as large number of parodies of the series and actor including the pop song Star Trekkin'
- "NCC-1701 no bloody A, B, C, or D!" From TNG episode Relics, asking the holodeck to show him the bridge of his Enterprise.
- "No matter how much you try, you never quite love anyone like you loved your first." From TNG episode Relics, when speaking with Captain Jean-Luc Picard on how much his Enterprise, the original Enterprise, meant to him.
- "If you're gonna have tribbles, it's best they be little ones." From the animated series episode More Tribbles, More Troubles.
External links
Fictional Scots | Fictional engineers | Fictional commanders | Fictional captains | Star Trek film characters | Star Trek: The Original Series characters | Time travelers in Star Trek
Montgomery Scott | Montgomery Scott | Montgomery Scott | Montgomery Scott | 蒙哥馬利·史考特 | Montgomery Scott
"Montgomery Scott"