Starfleet engineers are known throughout the universe for their innovation and ability to fix absolutely anything. Whether it’s connecting all the warp cores or turning rocks into replicators, the legend of the engineer all started with one man: Montgomery Scott.
Born in the early 22nd century, Scott was raised in the years of Starfleet’s mission that turned a small force into stuff of legend. With a passion for learning Scott was trained in a mix of obsessively learning everything he could to the point of reading technical manuals as a pass time, to hands on experience working on some of the finest and most complex systems in the fleet.
Assigned as chief engineer of the Enterprise in the 2260’s, Scott saw the prestigious ship as his own; engineering his complete domain where even the captain was merely a guest on his decks. An old fashioned and hands on engineer, Scott knew his ship inside and out, ready to rise to any challenge and fix any problem without a second thought with so much care and skill that many of his procedures and fixes became fleet standard within a century. Even against the designer of the ships warp drive, Scott’s familiarity and advancement of the technology couldn’t be beat.
Growing up in Scotland, Scott would move to the Academy and become of the best engineering students of his year under his instructor, Pelia. Despite the praise, and his relentless studies, his grades would never seem as exceptional as his natural talent would suggest. Following his graduation he more than made up for his poor academic showing with practical knowledge and remarkable innovation; the most impressive of which was setting a ‘Gorn Trap’ during a conflict that saw him escape as the only survivor of their target, the USS Stardiver, only to build the trap system to protect the stranded crew of the Cayuga.
Having served on eleven ships through the years, his experience and career, his time on the Enterprise would hold his defining career moments. Not just in terms of being an engineer, but at the ships third in command and valued leading officer. More than once Scott would save the day, sometimes in unique situations that saw drink an occupying enemy under the table, and sometimes by being a stern and strong leader wiling to assert an unflappable authority when taking the captains chair.
Having gained his reputation as a ‘miracle worker’, Scott would freely admit well after retirement that port of the reputation was down to padding his repair estimates so he’d always be ahead of schedule. Following Kirk’s promotion to Admiral, Scott would lead a redevelopment of the Enterprise itself, using everything they’d learned from it’s extended missions to refit the ship in line with a more up to date fleet standard. Following the Enterprise’s retirement, he’d move on to working with the advanced warp technologies on the USS Excelsior. Though, only briefly as he’d use his access to sabotage his new ship to help the Enterprise crew steal the old Enterprise.
Following their trial and reinstatement, Scott would oversee another project. Another old Constitution Class recommissioned as the Enterprise-A falling to pieces and barely operating, a fixer-upper of a Starship. An Engineers dream! Scott would serve on board as the chief engineer though to his retirement, his last mission helping to uncover a Starfleet conspiracy to delay peace with the Klingons.
After a few ceremonial appearances, including attending the shakedown cruise of the Enterprise-B, Scott would be presumed dead following the disappearance of a transport ship. Hiding himself in the transporter buffer for nearly a century, he was rescued by the Enterprise-D crew and despite feeling out of place, and out of his element, would finally retire with a new century of technology to explore, allowing him the time to add to his already impressive list of achievement’s by inventing a few more innovations, including transwarp transporters to allow extreme long range transportation even to a ship travelling faster than light.
Despite being a solid part of the line up and one of the most memorable – and quoted (or misquoted!) characters from the original series, Scotty’s inclusion in the line up wasn’t intentional. Auditioning for the role with a selection of accents, Gene Roddenberry picked the Scottish option to highlight the reputation of Scottish engineering. Once the pilot was done and dusted, however, Scotty was dropped until Doohan’s agent fought his corner.
Doohan would continue for all three seasons and six films for the original cast, as well as star as Scotty and additional voices in the Animated series. His final appearance was in Star Trek Generations following a cameo in the Next Generation. In 2009 Simon Pegg took on the role for the Kelvin Timeline movies. More recently Martin Quinn, the first and only real Scotsman to play the part, would be cast as a young Scott, making his debut in Strange New Worlds season two finale.
Like most of the original characters in Star Trek, there wasn’t much to Scotty’s history on paper. An odd line here and there, but the stories were told by the characters in the moment. Their history and how they got there wasn’t really something that was delved into to all that often. With Strange New Worlds telling the tale of the Enterprise before Kirk became it’s Captain, the show has been able to expand and give new life to some legacy characters including Uhura and Chapel.
After making his debut in Strange New Worlds season 2 finale, the show looks set to give us a Littlemore history on Starfleet’s most famous Engineer when Martin Quinn joins the cast of Strange New Worlds for Season 3.
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