So my broadband went down this week, which is fine. Here in self-isolation it’s not
like it’s my only lifeline to the outside world and also the of my sole source income
in this trying times as well as a means of keeping me sane! Haha NO!
Anyway, normality restored, let’s take a look at the personnel file of officer SE 19745
T, Montgomery Scott, also known as “Scotty” one of, if not the most famous Starfleet engineers
who coined several in-universe stereotypes of the “miracle worker” engineer. While
I enjoy Simon Pegg’s portrayal of the character, this is going to be looking at his Prime Universe
original, played by James Doohan. This file will contain memory beta materials represented
by this emblem in the relevant sections to flesh out his career and life around the main
series of Star Trek and its films. Coincidentally, Scotty was born in Scotland
in 2222 to Arlyne and Montgomery Scott Sr, the oldest of three siblings. The town or
city has had several locations cited but generally raised around Edenborough.
He Spent time in Aberdeen and Glasgow where he enjoyed pub crawls. He also met a young
Leonard McCoy as a child and the two remained distant friends.
He also befriended Glynnis Campbell in 2229. He tinkered with machines from a young age
but developed an interest in engineering after he realised he could not replicate his sisters
artistic streak. In 2238 he disproved the Perera Theory and
had his conclusions written up in several technical manuals.
In 2239: He took part time work in repairing freighters, even serving on the SS Deidre
for around a year. In 2241: he Joined Starfleet Academy where
he studied most engineering courses available as well as psychology, strangely.
In 2242: he Served as Cadet Ensign on learning postings.
He also undertook the command training program at his parents behest in the later years of
the academy and while he passed with adequate results, it was clear his interests lay in
engineering. He would have graduated from Starfleet Academy
in 2244 at the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade His first true assignment was to the San Fransisco
Fleet Yards where he began to work on the construction of the new Constitution class
of starship. During 2245 he was reassigned to the USS Gagarin
for a time then to the USS Kumari. He also served aboard a mining vessel and
on the colony of Rigel 12. In 2253 he was reassigned to the USS Enterprise
NCC-1701 currently under the command of Captain Christopher Pike as an assistant junior engineer.
He served on this ship until 2264 and was eventually promoted to Lieutenant during his
tenure here. In 2364 he was awarded a promotion to Lieutenant
Commander and guaranteed a chief engineer’s positioning.
He was assigned to the USS Lovell NCC-470 among the Corps of Engineers to make repairs
to a Neutral Zone observation post. In 2264, he received his posting, the chief
engineer of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 Here, his duties included maintenance of the
transporter systems as well as his other duties as chief engineer.
He was also appointed second officer do to his completion of the Command program.
During the famous 5 years mission, he was killed in actions by Nomad in 2267: but “repaired”
shortly afterwards. He was also Accused of Murder, but acquitted
and in 2268: Kirk commends him for 892-IV rescue
operation. In 2270 he was awarded the Prentares Ribbon
of Commendation. The Enterprise was taken in for its refit
as part of the Constitution refit program of 2270 and Scotty was promoted to Commander
and oversaw the Enterprise during its time in spacedock.
2272 saw him take part in the V’Ger incident. In 2273 he was involved in a time travel incident
where he was sent back to 1746, Scotland and became heavily involved in the Jacobite Rising.
In 2274 he was involved in battles over Levaeri 5 and later returned to Earth to marry Glynnis
Campbell. It was most likely that during this time he
was involved in writing his numerous texts and regulations for Starship engineering as
he was also involved heavily in Starfleet Academy.
In 2285 during a Cadet Training cruise he was acting as chief engineer on USS Enterprise,
now a training vessel when it the Genesis Incident occurred and his nephew Peter Preston
was killed in a battle with Khan Noonien Singh In 2285 Scotty was Promoted to Captain and
assigned to USS Excelsior NX-2000 as temporary “Captain of Engineering” to oversee its
prototype transwarp testing. Presumably he would have been reassigned on its full commission.
In early 2286 Glynnis was killed in a shuttlecraft accident.
In 2286 However He sabotaged the USS Excelsior on the orders of Rear-Admiral James Kirk although
he had little respect for the transwarp program and always doubted is success.
Of course, this culminated in a time travel incident to 1986 where he gave Pelxicorp the
formula for transparent aluminium, however this may have in fact been a causality loop
and always the case as there was no timeline change when they returned to 2286.
On the return to his time, he was pardoned of all charges due to Kirk’s acceptance
of blame and Scotty’s own part in the rescue of Earth.
In turn he was assigned to be the chief engineer of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A for its three-week
shakedown cruise at the end of the year. In 2293 Captain Scott shot Colonel West during
the Attempted Khitomer assassination upholding the conference, during these events, he planned
to retire from Starfleet. In 2293 he attended the launch of the USS
Enterprise NCC-1701-B as a guest of honour and was present for the run in with the Nexus
ribbon that seemingly killed Captain Kirk. He continued with his retirement plans and
in 2294, Scotty boarded the USS Jenolan bound for Norpin Colony however it never arrived.
In actuality it had deviated to investigate a Dyson Sphere and was downed by its entry
tractor array. In hopes of rescue, Scotty and engineer Matt
Franklin placed themselves in mid-transport to preserve their patterns in suspended animation…
for 75 years. In the year 2369, the same Dyson Sphere was
encountered by the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D and Captain Scott was rescued by the crew.
He was Granted the “Goddard” shuttlecraft by Captain Picard for personal use. Unsure
as to where to head, he considered using time travel to attempt to save Kirk in 2370.
On returning to Earth, he met up with fellow displaced captain, Morgan Bateson and Koloth
of the Klingon Empire. In 2371 he reenlisted in Starfleet after taking
refresher courses and was stationed on Starbase 12. Here, he and Bateson worked on the construction
of the USS Honorius, a sovereign class Starship. However after the destruction of the USS Enterprise
NCC-1701-D, the Honorius was rechristened the Enterprise E.
He then served aboard the USS Sovereign to test out some modifications for future application
to the class. This ended in 2375. Admiral William Ross then appointed Captain
Scott as head of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, which he accepted although delegated much
of the paperwork to others so he could continue to tinker.
In 2377 he served on the USS Alliance briefly before 2382 where he served as captain of
the Engineer Corps ship USS Challenger NCC-71099 for a time then recommended Geordie LaForge
for his replacement. La Forge may have taken command in 2385 after the Utopia Planetia
attack, but the canon timeline is still unfolding so I’ll leave it there.
According to books and the like Scotty is still active within Starfleet, having even
created a transwarp beaming theory by 2387 while taking increasingly managerial roles
with the engineering divisions, much to his chagrin.
In terms of hobbies, he focuses most of his time on engineering, theorising, problem solving
and tinkering with machines. He genuinely loves the mechanical nature of his work and
actively pursues knowledge and skills throughout all avenues of engineering to the extent that
his hobbies and work blend. Of course he does have his personal outlets, he is a fan of
various alcohols over synthahol and a firm believer that the synthetic beverages are
a poor substitute for the real thing, amassing his own collection of spirits, especially
scotch. He is also immensely proud of his heritage,
frequenting many locations across Scotland in his youth and seemingly deliberately learning
the Bagpipes. He expresses fascination at Scottish relics and takes advantage of Starfleet’s
dress uniform codes to don his kilt. His complete embracing of his culture entwines with his
mechanical ability to such an extent that it has formed its own stereotype, or homage,
to a Scottish engineer within the lore of the Star Trek and in real life.
In Star Trek Online, there is even a class of starship made by the Corps of Engineers
called the Miracle Worker in open appreciation of the man’s illustrious career, a career
that literally spans the centuries. He has routinely worked on the forefront of Starfleet’s
ship design, from the Constitution to Sovereign class and it’s no wonder that he was commandeered
for “the Great Experiment” of Transwarp. As this project never succeeded in full, I
like to think that some of his disdain for it came from his realisation that it wouldn’t
work. Just as, in matters of science many would take Spock’s word as truth, many an
engineer wouldn’t doubt Scotty, at least in his early years.
He has confessed to LaForge however, that he did intentionally pad his projections for
repair works because he was aware of how push Starfleet captains could be in their demand
for the impossible, giving him some wiggle-room. This aided in his reputation as a “miracle
worker”, but it’s worth pointing out how disastrous this conduct could be if attempted
by someone less experienced, in essence, he could afford to play up to his reputation,
because it was actually well earned and not just all talk. Many of his repairs were likely
done by fudging protocol in pinch, bringing the times down, but he knew his ship and what
it could take. He tended to personify his ship as much as
any ship’s captain and having served most of his career circling back to the USS Enterprise,
had a great investment and feeling of ownership to the vessel, often fretting over her stresses
and status as you would a person. This could lead him to be overly cautious at times, but
inwardly, he knew the ship like the back of his hand and would make it quite clear when
a job was genuinely impossible, from “Scotty” impossible.
One theme that was present, especially outside of the original series was that his services
were in high demand and he would often serve briefly on other starbases, ships and other
sectors away from the Enterprise for brief stints. However, such career focused success
did come at other costs, while not lacking for friendship, his self-imposed obsession
with work often led him to be unable to sustain a relationship and there are numerous infatuations
on his part throughout his career, with his desire to remain in space often trumping opportunities
to settle down. He disliked most actions that took him away
from his engineering duties and although was rated for command and the second officer of
the Enterprise, is said to have secretly dreaded these stints. It was the same when he was
appointed positions that required more administrative actions and if we take his return to Starfleet
as true, then it shows that he needed to occupy his time as well as returning to the familiar
in an uncertain era. More than anything, the man needed to feel useful and occupy his time
with proactive efforts. Now some Scotty centric episodes have to include
the TNG episode “Relics” to see how he fares with being dislocated in time and suddenly
loosing that one thing that made him stand out, his relevant expansive knowledge base.
As for some more era-appropriate episodes, there is always “By Any Other Name” although
not a scotty based episode, its worth seeing for that one scene. You know the one. And
finally I recommend “Friday’s Child” for good portrayal of Scotty in command.
Thank you for looking at this personnel file on one of the most recognised Starfleet officers
to serve and tell, me what do you think about the extra canonical content included? Does
it line up with what you’d expect from him, especially with his return to Starfleet at
the age of… 72? Or 147 depending on how you want to measure it. Thanks again for watching,
I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you next time, goodbye!