Montgomery Scott
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
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| Gender: | Male |
| Species: | Human |
| Affiliation: | Federation Starfleet |
| Occupation: | Chief engineer |
| Serial number: | SE 19754 T |
| Status: | Active (2369) |
| Born: | 2222 |
| Other Relative(s): | Peter Preston (nephew) |
| Played by: | James Doohan |
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- For the mirror universe counterpart, see Montgomery Scott (mirror).
- "Of course, sir. How else would I maintain my reputation as a miracle-worker?"
- "Your reputation is secure, Scotty."
- - Scotty, Kirk (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
Montgomery Scott (referred to as Scotty by his shipmates), serial no. SE 19754 T, was the chief engineer of both the USS Enterprise and the USS Enterprise-A for a period of nearly thirty years.
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[edit] Early life and career
Montgomery Scott was born in Scotland, on Earth in 2222. (TNG: "Relics") He spent part of his life in Aberdeen, once referring to himself as an "old Aberdeen pub-crawler". (TOS: "Wolf in the Fold") He joined Starfleet and began his engineering career in 2241. During his 52-year career in Starfleet, he served on a total of eleven ships, including various freighters, cruisers and starships. (TNG: "Relics")
He also briefly served as an engineering adviser on the freight line between the Deneva colony and the outlying asteroid belts. (TOS: "Operation -- Annihilate!")
[edit] The five-year mission
In 2265, Scott was assigned to the USS Enterprise under Captain James Kirk as chief engineer. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before")
- At this point, Scotty would have been in Starfleet for over twenty years. However, the first episode uniforms has all officers wearing only one braid, whether they were lieutenants or commanders, making it impossible to tell if Scotty had already been made lieutenant commander at this point, but his years of service make it likely. From "The Corbomite Maneuver" onward, he wore lieutenant commander braids on his uniform, until assorted episodes from Star Trek: The Animated Series, as well as Star Trek: The Motion Picture, showed his promotion to commander.
His duties also included maintenance and operation of the Enterprise’s transporter systems. Three of his top engineers included Lieutenants Kyle, Leslie and Gabler.
During the historic five-year mission Scotty served as second officer. As such he assumed command when both Kirk and Spock left the ship, or in the event that they were incapacitated . In these cases he was often faced with critical situations both diplomatic and military in nature. (TOS: "A Taste of Armageddon", "Journey to Babel", "Friday's Child", "Bread and Circuses") In 2268 Kirk noted him to commendation for his outstanding command performance without disobeying the Prime Directive and saving the landing party on planet 892-IV. (TOS: "Bread and Circuses") However in 2267, Kirk fired Scotty when he couldn't repair the ship's engines and break out of orbit around Gamma Trianguli VI. After the destruction of Vaal Kirk immediately re-hired him. (TOS: "The Apple")
By the late 2260s, Scott knew more about the warp engines aboard a Constitution-class starship than the men who designed them. (TOS: "The Apple") This knowledge and ability to save the ship in a jam eventually lead to his reputation aboard the Enterprise as a "miracle worker." This was brought about by his reputation for being able to effect starship repairs faster than usually required. Scott later admitted that he often padded his estimates of time needed for repairs by a factor of four in order to appear that much faster. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; TNG: "Relics")
In 2267, Scott was thrown against a bulkhead of the Enterprise during an explosion. This resulted in a severe concussion and possible amnesia. He was ordered to take time off for therapeutic shore leave on the planet Argelius II. While on Argelius he got into "a wee bit of trouble," as he later described it, when he was accused of murdering an Argelian woman named Kara. Scott's situation worsened when he was accused of two more murders, those of another Argelian, Sybo, and fellow officer Karen Tracy. Scott was later acquitted of the murder charges, following the discovery of a non-humanoid lifeform called Redjac in the form of Mr. Hengist, who was found to be responsible for the murders, and who admitted to being Jack the Ripper and other serial killers in previous incarnations. (TOS: "Wolf in the Fold"; TNG: "Relics")
Scott was extremely proud of the Enterprise. In fact, he was so proud that he once started a bar fight aboard Deep Space Station K-7 when a Klingon suggested that the ship should be hauled away as garbage. As a result, he was confined to his quarters by Kirk. Scott smiled and told Kirk the punishment would give him a chance to catch up on technical journals he had not had time to read. Shortly after the incident at K-7, Scott managed to rid the Enterprise of the tribbles which had infected the ship. Much to the pleasure of Captain Kirk, Scott, in collaboration with Spock and McCoy, beamed the tribbles aboard a Klingon ship just before it went into warp. (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles")
In 2268, Scotty helped Kirk, Spock and McCoy regain control of the Enterprise after the ship was invaded by agents of the Kelvan Empire and set on a course to the Andromeda Galaxy. Before leaving the Milky Way Galaxy, Scotty and Spock devised a plan to destroy theEnterprise at the galactic barrier, but Kirk decided against it. Later Scott tried to incapacitate the Kelvan agent Tomar by drinking various alcoholic beverages with him. He got Tomar so drunk that the alien passed out, but his plan was foiled when Scotty passed out before he could leave his quarters. (TOS: "By Any Other Name")
In the same year the Enterprise was hurled hundreds of light years away from a Kalandan outpost, and sabotage accelerated the ship to dangerously high warp speeds. Scotty risked his life by entering the access crawlspace to the matter-antimatter reaction chamber to repair the fused matter-antimatter integrator, a procedure so dangerous that it was not to be undertaken while the integrator was in operation. When a faulty magnetic probe nearly ruined the procedure, Scotty demanded that Spock eject him from the chamber into space, but Spock risked critical seconds to allow the engineer to successfully complete his task. (TOS: "That Which Survives")
[edit] Later career
In 2270, Commander Scott played an instrumental role in the massive refit of the USS Enterprise while serving under Captain Will Decker.
In 2285, Scott was promoted and reassigned to the USS Excelsior as captain of engineering during the ship's early test runs. Scott detested his assignment aboard the Excelsior, citing the ship as little more than a "bucket of bolts." He later sabotaged the Excelsior, removing components from her transwarp computer drive to prevent it from pursuing the Enterprise when the Enterprise was stolen for an unauthorized mission to the Genesis planet. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
- Scott's uniform department color patch was usually yellow (signifying operations division), although in some scenes he wore the white shirt of the command division. For the record, besides Scotty, only one other captain, the sciences division's Krasnovsky, has ever been portrayed as wearing captain rank insignia on a uniform not of the command division.
In 2286, Scott traveled back in time to 1986 along with the rest of the Enterprise crew to find a pair of humpback whales. In order to construct a water tank for them, he visited the Plexicorp facility as "Professor Scott" from Edinburgh. Making a deal with plant manager Nichols he gave him the formula of transparent aluminum in exchange for a sheet of plexiglass. When Dr. McCoy objected against "changing the future," Scott pointed out "How do we know he didn't invent the thing?". After returning home he was reassigned as chief engineer of the newly commissioned USS Enterprise-A. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) He then spent nearly a year refitting the ship for service. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
Scott appeared as a "guest of honor" aboard the launch of the USS Enterprise-B. When the Enterprise-B responded to the distress call of two El-Aurian transports, he assisted in rescuing a small group of survivors. (Star Trek Generations)
[edit] Retirement
In 2293, Scott purchased a boat in anticipation of his retirement from the Enterprise-A. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
In 2294, following his retirement from Starfleet, Scott traveled aboard the USS Jenolan to the Norpin colony, where he planned to spend his retirement. The Jenolan, however, encountered a Dyson sphere en route, and while attempting to investigate it, the transport crashed on its surface. Scott and fellow engineer Matt Franklin were the only survivors. Together they rigged the Jenolan's transporter systems, and existed for nearly 75 years in the ship's transporter buffer. (TNG: "Relics")
In 2369, Montgomery Scott was rescued by the USS Enterprise-D, but Franklin's pattern was too degraded to be recovered. After Scott helped rescue the Enterprise-D from the Dyson sphere, Captain Picard rewarded him with the Enterprise's shuttlecraft Goddard. (TNG: "Relics")
[edit] Family and personal life
Scott had at least one sister, whose son, Peter Preston, served aboard the Enterprise in 2285 as a midshipman during a Starfleet Academy training cruise. Preston was killed when the Enterprise was attacked and severely damaged by the USS Reliant in a surprise attack by Khan Noonien Singh. Scott was grief-stricken after the tragedy. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
- In both the Star Trek II and Star Trek III novelizations, the relationship between Scotty and his niece, Dannan Stuart, is strained at best. Dannan is also a Starfleet officer, and apparently a maverick. In Star Trek II, he warns Peter not to follow the example of "that sister of thine that has been thrown in the brig more times than I can count," even though he admires her greatly. In Star Trek III, Scotty returns to Scotland to attend Peter's funeral and gets into an argument with Dannan. She accuses her uncle of riding Peter to show his fairness, not realizing that he's actually singling him out. He counters that he was the natural choice to train him, given her disciplinary history.
Scott had a love for good Scotch whisky, often making references to drinking or frequenting drinking establishments on more than one planet, even referring to himself once as an "old Aberdeen pub-crawler." (TOS: "Wolf in the Fold") He considered Scotch a drink for real men as opposed to, for instance, vodka which he referred to as "sodapop" and "milk diet". (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles")
He also played bagpipes, most notably playing "Amazing Grace" at the funeral for Captain Spock in 2285. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) He was also fascinated to be handling a old fashioned Scottish claymore. (TOS: "Day of the Dove")
[edit] Relationships
Although a gentleman at heart, life as an engineer for Scott was often lonely, as he often attempted to pursue hopeless relationships with much younger female officers that were often perceived as being out of his league.
Scott was first attracted to Carolyn Palamas and reacted bitterly to the Greek god Apollo's infatuation with her. (TOS: "Who Mourns for Adonais?")
Scott later became infatuated with the newly transferred Mira Romaine in 2269. (TOS: "The Lights of Zetar")
Years later, Commander Uhura began to show some romantic interest in Scotty, but their relationship was never pursued. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
[edit] Memorable Quotes
"I canna change the laws of physics! I've got to have thirty minutes." (TOS: "The Naked Time")
"Diplomats! The best diplomat I know is a fully activated phaser bank." (TOS: "A Taste of Armageddon")
"Aye, the haggis is in the fire for sure." (TOS: "A Taste of Armageddon")
"It's armed now. Press this one, 30 seconds later, POOF! Once its activated, there's no way to stop it." (telling Kirk about the delay detonation device hooked into the Constellation's impulse engines) (TOS: "The Doomsday Machine")
"You mind your place, mister, or you'll be wearing concrete galoshes." (TOS: "A Piece of the Action")
"It's uh ... (sniffs contents of bottle) It's green." (TOS: "By Any Other Name"; later paraphrased by Data in TNG: "Relics")
"All right, you lovelies. Hold together." (TOS: "The Paradise Syndrome")
"That Vulcan won't be satisfied until these panels are a puddle of lead!" (TOS: "The Paradise Syndrome")
"Oh, my bairns! My poor, poor bairns..." (TOS: "The Paradise Syndrome")
"The Enterprise takes no orders, except those of Captain Kirk. And if you make any attempt to board or commandeer the Enterprise, it will be blown to bits along with as many of you as we can take with us." (TOS: "The Enterprise Incident")
"I'll not take that, Mr. Spock! That transporter was functioning perfectly! Transport me down right now and I'll explain to those... gentlemen..." (TOS: "The Mark of Gideon")
"President Lincoln indeed! No doubt to be followed by Louis of France and Robert the Bruce." (TOS: "The Savage Curtain")
"Mad! Loony as an Arcturian dogbird!" (TOS: "The Savage Curtain")
"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
"N-C-C 1-7-0-1. No bloody A, B, C, or D." (TNG: "Relics")
"I have spent my whole life trying to figure out crazy ways of doing things." (TNG: "Relics")
"Don't you worry, captain. We'll beat those Klingon devils, even if I have to get out and push!" (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
"I know this ship like the back o' me hand!" (at which point Scott knocks himself out cold on a low hanging pipe) (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
"I'll bet that Klingon bitch killed her father!" (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
"Hello, computer!" (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
"A keyboard! How quaint" (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
- "Give the word Admiral!"
- "Mr. Scott, the word is given."
- "Aye, Sir!"
- - Scotty, Kirk (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
"Why? How do we know he didn't invent the thing?" (speaking with Dr. McCoy on the temporal consequences of giving 23rd century technology to Doctor Nichols) (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
"Give me one more day, Sir. Damage control's easy - reading Klingon, that's hard!" (to Kirk regarding the HMS Bounty) (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
"What ar' ya standing around for? Don't ya know a jailbreak when you see one?" (after rescuing Kirk, McCoy, and Spock from the brig) (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
"Borgus Frat! "Let's see what she's got," said the captain! And then we found out, didn't we?" (lamenting the fact that the new Enterprise isn't fully functional yet) (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
"USS Enterprise shakedown cruise report. I think this "new" ship was put together by monkeys. Oh, she's got a fine engine, but half the doors won't open, and guess whose job it is to make it right?" (log entry on the status of USS Enterprise-A) (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
[edit] Chronology
- 2222: Montgomery Scott is born
- 2242: Begins his Starfleet career
- 2265: Assigned as chief engineer of the USS Enterprise; rank: lieutenant commander
- 2270: Assigned to refit crew of the USS Enterprise; rank: commander
- 2285: Promoted to captain while assigned to the USS Excelsior; returns to the rank of commander following theft of the Enterprise and hijacking of HMS Bounty
- 2286: Assigned as chief engineer of the USS Enterprise-A
- 2293: Guest of honor aboard the newly-commissioned USS Enterprise-B
- 2294: Retires from Starfleet with the rank of captain; lost aboard USS Jenolan on Dyson sphere
- 2369: Discovered by the crew of the USS Enterprise-D
| Chief engineers of the starships Enterprise | |
|---|---|
| Enterprise (NX-01): | Tucker • Kelby |
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701): | Scott |
| USS Enterprise-A: | Scott |
| USS Enterprise-D: | MacDougal • Argyle • Logan • Lynch • La Forge |
| USS Enterprise-E: | La Forge |
| ISS Enterprise (NX-01): | Tucker |
| ISS Enterprise: | Scott |
[edit] Background information
Montgomery Scott was played by actor James Doohan in all of the character's television and cinematic appearances. Doohan lost the middle finger on his right hand during the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day. However, Scott has a right middle finger within the Star Trek storyline: any time a closeup is seen of Scotty's right hand (working the transporter controls, etc.) someone else's hands are used, and when Scotty appeared in wide shots he usually hid his right hand from the camera. His loss was most evident in TNG: "Relics", where the missing finger can be clearly seen in wide shots while talking to Captain Picard on the holodeck recreation of the original Enterprise bridge.
There is much debate, especially in Scotland, as to which Scottish city Montgomery Scott was born in. The character once described himself as an "Aberdeen pub crawler" in TOS: "Wolf in the Fold". Confusing the matter is a 1970s interview with actor James Doohan in which he stated his belief that Scott came from Elgin, a town forty miles west of Aberdeen. Linlithgow, twenty miles west of Edinburgh has also been vocal in its claim, citing D.C. Fontana's novel Vulcan's Glory. On the death of James Doohan, the local West Lothian Council announced plans to open a memorial exhibition for James Doohan in Linlithgow to commemorate his contribution to the Trek universe and make the town's claim to be the future birthplace of Montgomery Scott concrete. The exhibition, held at Annet House, Scotty's "official" future childhood home opened in the summer of 2007. It is worth noting that in the non-canon story published in the UK comic magazine TV21 & Joe 90 #21 in 1970, Scotty describes his ancestors as "highlanders". According to Who's Who in Star Trek #2 (DC Comics, April 1987), Scotty was born in Glasgow.
One inconsistency that involves Scotty is that when the USS Enterprise-D rescued him from the from the transporter buffer of the USS Jenolan in "Relics", Commander William T. Riker said that he was from the "USS Enterprise". Scotty then assumed Captain James T. Kirk had arrived to find him; however, before Scotty embarked on his trip on the Jenolan, he witnessed Kirk get blown off the Enterprise-B, and though not known to him, into the Nexus, so he should have known Kirk wasn't alive to be able to find him. This was caused by the fact that the movie Generations was filmed after Relics, causing a retcon. According to Ronald D. Moore, who wrote both "Relics" and Generations, Scotty was included in the latter despite the inconsistency out of affection for the character. (Star Trek Chronology)
A possible canon explanation for the inconsistency is that being stuck in a transporter pattern for so long may have had some effect on his memory, at least temporary, or he may have been deluded in the moments following his rematerialization. Another possible explanation may be that Captain Scott simply assumed that Kirk had somehow managed to cheat fate once again. This would be consistent with Kirk’s larger-than-life persona and his uncanny ability to circumvent death.
Another minor inconsistency can be spotted in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where Scotty wears uniforms with commander's insignia instead of captain's.
[edit] External link
- Montgomery Scott at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
