Few Star Trek characters are more beloved than Montgomery Scott. With his immense engineering skills and propensity for jury-rigged solutions, he spent much of The Original Series at the heart of the action, and even took command of the Enterprise when Kirk and Spock were busy on some planet's surface. And while it was never used in precisely those terms, the phrase "beam me up Scotty" became one of Star Trek's first tag lines: referring to his uncanny operation of the ship's transporters.
Along the line, he experienced multiple reboots and updates, and like his fellow OG characters, he's always a welcome presence regardless of the project. He served as inspiration for subsequent Star Trek engineers -- notably Miles O'Brien from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -- and yet his in-universe origins remain surprisingly murky. His arrival on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds may change that, in addition to generating renewed interest in the character and his rich Star Trek history.
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Scotty's Origins
The character's origins lie with actor James Doohan, who played him for over 30 years and who remains more closely associated with Scotty than any other. According to David Gerrod's 1973 reference guide The World of Star Trek, Doohan played a huge role in the character's creation. He delivered a variety of accents while auditioning for the show's second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before." When asked which accent he himself would use, the actor suggested Scottish because Scots were "renowned for having great engineering skills." That established the core of the character more or less on the spot.
Doohan always played Scotty as utterly devoted to the ship, to the point of considering it his property. That was often played for laughs: notably in Season 2, Episode 14, "The Trouble with Tribbles," when he started a bar fight with a group of Klingons after they disparaged the Enterprise's honor. He could solve any problem with the warp drive -- or any other part of the ship's systems -- which gave the show a natural ticking clock whenever it needed one. Scotty would invariably fix the malfunction with seconds to spare, allowing the Enterprise to escape by the skin of its teeth.
Scotty in The Original Star Trek
Scotty appeared in 65 of The Original Series' 79 episodes, as well as the first seven Star Trek movies and all but one entry in Star Trek: The Animated Series. That established his modus operandi: diligent, plain-spoken, and given to simple but accurate assessment of the problem du jour. It also cemented his unwavering loyalty to Captain Kirk, and his steadfast ability to hold the line in the face of trouble. That arose most often during his stints in the captain's chair, which helped define the character alongside his last-minute repairs and timely use of the transporter.
The Star Trek movies largely relegated him to support duties, though they found quiet ways to develop his character. A cut subplot from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan introduced his nephew among the Enterprise's new cadets, who's killed in Khan's first sneak attack. The brief sequences further connected Scotty to the ship's redshirts, as well as shedding light on his family and background. He played a more lightweight role in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock when he sabotaged the Excelsior in anticipation of the crew's theft of the Enterprise. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home similarly let him flash his comedic chops, notably while dealing with a 1980s-era personal computer.
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Scotty in Later Star Trek
Doohan made a memorable cameo as Scotty in The Next Generation Season 6, Episode 4, "Relics," which also revealed details about his final years. After becoming a captain in The Search for Spock he remained the Enterprise's Chief Engineer until the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered County. One year later, he embarked on the U.S.S. Jenolan en route to retirement in the Federation colony of Norpin. The ship crashed on a colossal alien structure called a Dyson Sphere, and he survived in the transporter's pattern buffer until the Enterprise-D revived him a century later. Picard gave him one of the ship's shuttlecraft, and he departed for points unknown. That presumably marks the end of the character's life, at least as far as canon is concerned.
A holographic version of the character also appeared in Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 6, "Kobayashi." He was one of multiple classic figures recreated by Dal aboard to holodeck to assist him with his Kobayashi Maru test. The production used dialogue previously recorded by Doohan to bring him back for the episode. (Doohan himself passed away in 2005 at the age of 85.)
Scotty in The Kelvinverse
2009's Star Trek movie entailed a massive reboot, resulting in a new alternate timeline dubbed "The Kelvinverse" by fans. Scotty was memorably played by comic actor Simon Pegg, who revised the role in the next two Kelvinverse films. The changes in continuity resulted in a slightly different version of the character: relegated to a remote outpost before joining the Enterprise crew mid-emergency. In practical terms, it allowed Pegg to pursue his own take on Scotty without altering Doohan's. (Pegg has always expressed the highest respect for his predecessor.)
Besides playing up the character's funnier side, Pegg infused him with slightly wilder qualities: making him more willing to take risks than Doohan's version. The actor also developed a non-canon backstory for his Scotty, which shifted his birthplace to Glasgow among other things. (Dialogue in The Original Series Season 2, Episode 7, "A Wolf in the Fold" implied that he was from Aberdeen.) The Kelvinverse also gave Scotty a sidekick: the diminutive alien Keenser, played by Deep Roy. It gave him someone to play off of, further enhancing his status as the series' comic relief.
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Scotty in Strange New Worlds
Pegg's background for the character is unofficial, and relegated to the Kelvinverse timeline regardless. The history of Doohan's "prime" version is very much a mystery prior to his position onboard the Enterprise. Strange New Worlds looks to change that by introducing a younger version of Scotty played by Martin Quinn in Season 2, Episode 10, "Hegemony." (Quinn has the distinction of being the first Scottish actor to play the part.) Christopher Pike's Enterprise crew finds him among the survivors of a Gorn attack. Before that, he served aboard a solar research vessel called the Stardiver. The Gorn wiped the vessel out, leaving Scotty the only survivor. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, to be resolved in the Season 3 premiere (unreleased as of this writing).
Quinn's version of the character is very likely to join the Strange New Worlds crew full-time. The series' first engineer, Hemmer, was killed at the end of Season 1. His replacement, Commander Pelia, isn't expected to remain onboard, and with Scotty destined for the position regardless, the move makes a lot of narrative sense. Strange New Worlds has an opportunity to fill in his early years much the same way it has for Uhura, Jim Kirk, and Mr. Spock. Regardless of its plans for him, it ensures that he will remain firmly a part of Star Trek's future as well as its past.
