Captain Montgomery Scott – often referred to as "Scotty" by his shipmates – was a male Human Starfleet officer who lived during the 23rd and 24th centuries.
For a period of nearly thirty years, he served as the chief engineer of both the USS Enterprise and the USS Enterprise-A, both under the command of Captain James T. Kirk. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before"; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country; TNG: "Relics", et al.)
With his reputation as a "miracle worker", he was a man of superior technical and engineering skill, experience, and ingenuity. (TOS: "The Doomsday Machine"; Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home; TNG: "Relics"; SNW: "Hegemony")
Early life[]
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") After having time travelled to 1986, Scott was introduced in a cover story as being from Edinburgh. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) Upon being asked how he adjusted to space travel, Scott once admitted, "I was practically born to it." (TOS: "The Lights of Zetar")
Starfleet career[]
Starfleet Academy[]
Scott joined Starfleet and began his engineering career in 2241. (TNG: "Relics")
During his time at Starfleet Academy, he had Professor Pelia as an instructor, who considered him to be one of her best students. Nevertheless, he received some of the worst grades in her course, something he would remain embarrassed about well into his Starfleet career. (SNW: "Hegemony")
Early postings and assignments[]
Scott was commissioned as a Starfleet officer with the serial number SE 19754 T. (TOS: "Wolf in the Fold")
During his fifty-one-year career, he served on a total of eleven ships, including various freighters, cruisers and starships. (TNG: "Relics")
According to StarTrek.com, Montgomery Scott was given his first starship posting as an ensign in 2242. [1](X)
Over his career, Scott had experience working with PXK pergium reactors. The last time he had even seen one was in 2247, that was, until he attempted to repair the reactor at the Janus VI colony twenty years later. (TOS: "The Devil in the Dark") For a time in his career, he had also served as an engineering advisor for the freighting-line base established in the Deneva system that operated between the Deneva colony and the outlying asteroid belts. (TOS: "Operation -- Annihilate!")
During the course of his career, Scott wrote several technical manuals, including one titled Operating Protocol - Flow Sensors. A copy of this manual was stored in the Engineering Systems Database aboard the USS Enterprise-D in 2366. (TNG-R: "Booby Trap") He was also responsible for writing Starfleet Regulation 42/15, entitled "Pressure Variances in IRC Tank Storage", which was part of the basic operational specifications for impulse engines. These specifications were admittedly written "a wee bit" conservatively. (TNG: "Relics")
Service aboard the Stardiver[]
As a lieutenant junior grade, Scott was stationed aboard the USS Stardiver when the Stardiver was attacked by the Gorn in the Shangdi system. As the sole survivor, he escaped by constructing a transponder using parts from the Stardiver's Hubble K7C Stellar Assessment Array, which fooled the Gorn vessels into seeing his shuttle as one of their own. However, the shuttle had been damaged and Scott was forced to land on Parnassus Beta, in the adjacent system. Scott created a "Gorn trap" using faked Human bio-signs and force fields to ensnare any Gorn in the area. Scott was later beamed aboard the Enterprise, where he was reunited with his former instructor Pelia. (SNW: "Hegemony")
Despite spoken dialogue in "Hegemony" saying Scott was a Lieutenant junior grade, he wore a braid with a stripe that denoted he was a full lieutenant.
Service aboard the Enterprise[]
The five-year mission[]
Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott in 2265
By 2265, Scott was assigned to the USS Enterprise where he served as chief engineer under Captain James Kirk. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before") The Enterprise was the first ship on which he was the chief engineer. (TNG: "Relics")
At this point, Scott would have been in Starfleet for over twenty years. However, the second pilot uniforms had all officers wearing only one braid, whether they were lieutenants or commanders, making it impossible to tell if Scott had already been made lieutenant commander at this point, but his years of service made it likely. (In Star Trek, his counterpart was already a lieutenant commander in 2258.) 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. He was understandably upset when Harper, an assistant engineer who was one of only twenty crewmembers selected to remain aboard the Enterprise during the M-5 multitronic unit test mission, was killed by an energy transfer beam used by the insane supercomputer to draw power directly from the ship's warp engines. (TOS: "The Ultimate Computer"; TAS: "One of Our Planets Is Missing", "The Terratin Incident")
Scott also served as the ship's second officer, and often assumed command when both Kirk and Spock left the ship, or they both were incapacitated. Thus, he often faced critical diplomatic and military situations. (TOS: "A Taste of Armageddon", "Journey to Babel", "Friday's Child", "Bread and Circuses", "A Piece of the Action") 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 jokingly "fired" Scott 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") Despite being a capable command officer he never pursued his own command post because he "…never wanted to be anythin' else but an engineer." (TNG: "Relics")
By the late 2260s, Scott knew more about the warp engines aboard a Constitution-class starship than even the men who designed them. (TOS: "The Apple") Furthermore, Scott was diligent in keeping his professional skills up to date considering he was an avid reader of technical journals, which he considered his idea of relaxing. (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles") This knowledge and ability to save the ship in a jam eventually led 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") As he said to Geordi La Forge in the 24th century, "A good engineer needs to be a wee bit conservative, at least on paper."
Scott aboard the SS Botany Bay
In 2268, Scott stated that he knew the Enterprise better than Larry Marvick, the man who designed the starship. When Marvick visited the ship, escorting the Medusan Ambassador Kollos, Scott made a bet, that he wouldn't find his way around the engine room. When Scott allowed him access to the warp engine controls, Marvick, under the madness brought on by the sight of the Medusan, attempted to take over the vessel and hurled it into the void surrounding our galaxy. (TOS: "Is There in Truth No Beauty?")
Scott is pronounced dead by McCoy on the bridge of the Enterprise
In 2267, Scott was attacked and killed by Nomad, a probe originally launched from Earth in the early 21st century. Kirk was distraught by the death of his valued chief engineer, but Nomad informed Kirk that Scott could be "repaired" and the probe revived Scott in sickbay. Later, Scott assisted Kirk and Spock in beaming Nomad out into open space before it exploded from Kirk talking it to death. (TOS: "The Changeling")
Later in 2267, Scott was thrown against a bulkhead of the Enterprise during an explosion caused by a female crewmember. 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")
Kirk amused by Scott's beaming the tribbles aboard the Klingon ship
"Well, it's green."
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 named Korax 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 infested the ship. Much to the pleasure of Captain Kirk, Scott, in collaboration with Spock and McCoy, beamed the tribbles aboard the IKS Gr'oth where they would be "no tribble at all". (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles")
In 2268, Scott 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, Scott and Spock devised a plan to destroy the Enterprise 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 Scott himself passed out before he could leave his quarters. (TOS: "By Any Other Name")
Repairing his bairns
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. Scott 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, Scott 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")
Scott helplessly watching Kara aim a phaser at Kirk
In 2268, Scott's position as second officer and chief engineer required him to participate in executing the auto-destruct sequence to prevent Bele from hijacking the Enterprise to return Lokai to the planet Cheron. (TOS: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield") Scott also threatened the female Romulan Commander that he would use the auto-destruct to destroy the Enterprise and "as many of you as we can take with us" when it was surrounded by Romulan vessels during its espionage mission to appropriate the Romulans' cloaking device. (TOS: "The Enterprise Incident")
Scott examining the Enterprise's dilithium crystal
Also, in 2268, Scott prevented Garth of Izar from escaping the Elba II asylum to board the Enterprise when he challenged Garth, who, in the guise of Kirk, had attempted to order Scott to transport him to the ship, by requiring Garth to provide the countersign to the prearranged chess problem. (TOS: "Whom Gods Destroy")
Scott was romantically involved with Starfleet sciences division specialist Lieutenant Mira Romaine at least when she was aboard the Enterprise during its mission to Memory Alpha. Scott figured prominently in the successful attempt to prevent Romaine's body from being appropriated by the Zetarians. In carrying her occupied person to McCoy's decompression chamber, Scott insisted to Kirk, "Mira will not hurt me." Nevertheless, he was thrown across the room by their influence. (TOS: "The Lights of Zetar")
Scott complained to Kirk that "one of those barefoot whaddyacallems" had entered engineering and "tried to incite my crew to disaffect". (TOS: "The Way to Eden")
In 2268, Scott was present in the transporter room along with Kirk, Spock and Lieutenant Dickerson when Presidential honors were rendered to the Excalbian who had taken the form of US President Abraham Lincoln. He scoffed in suggesting sarcastically that "Lincoln" would be followed by "…[King] Louis of France and [fourteenth-century King of Scots] Robert the Bruce!" (TOS: "The Savage Curtain")
Refitting the Enterprise[]
Scott in 2273
In 2270, Scott was promoted to the rank of commander and played a leading role in the massive eighteen-month Constitution II-class redesign and refit of the USS Enterprise while serving under Captain Will Decker. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
Battle with Khan[]
In March 2285, Scott was a participant in Saavik's Kobayashi Maru scenario at Starfleet Training Command. Though not present on the bridge simulator, his voice was heard on speakers. After the scenario, he served aboard the Enterprise under the command of Captain Spock. He was the ship's chief engineer for a three week training cruise. Upon receiving a call for help from Regula I, Starfleet Command ordered an investigation by the Enterprise. With Rear Admiral Kirk assuming command, the cruise was cut short. The Enterprise became involved with Project Genesis and Khan Noonien Singh's attempt to steal the Genesis Device. Eventually, Kirk was able to stop Khan, but not before the latter had wrought extensive damage upon the Enterprise, requiring Captain Spock to sacrifice his life to save the ship. One of the casualties was Scott's nephew Peter Preston. Scott played the bagpipes at Spock's funeral. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
Stealing the Enterprise[]
With the Enterprise safely at Spacedock One, Scott was promoted to captain 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" and didn't particularly care for Captain Lawrence H. Styles either. When Admiral Kirk resolved to steal the Enterprise and take it to the Genesis Planet without authorization to retrieve Spock's body, Scott was instrumental in their successful escape. He sabotaged Excelsior's transwarp computer system by removing critical components, rigged an automation system that would allow Enterprise to be operated by only a handful of bridge officers, and hacked the space doors of Spacedock into opening.
When arriving at the Genesis planet, a Klingon Bird-of-Prey ambushed the Enterprise and opened fire, disabling Scott's automation system and leaving the ship as "a sitting duck". Scott, along with Kirk and Chekov, initiated the Enterprise's auto-destruct sequence to prevent it from falling into Klingon hands. The crew beamed down to the planet, where they watched their beloved ship burn up in the atmosphere. This would have a lasting impact on Scott in later life, as Enterprise was "his home and where he had a purpose". (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; TNG: "Relics")
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, though in the later movies, he relinquished his "second officer" status, which was fine with him, as he always preferred being in the engine room. Besides Scott, only one other captain, the sciences division's Krasnovsky, had ever been portrayed as wearing captain rank insignia on a uniform not of the command division.
Traveling back to 1986[]
Scott in 2286
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?".
Chief engineer of the USS Enterprise-A[]
The Sybok incident[]
After returning home, he was reassigned as chief engineer of the newly commissioned USS Enterprise-A. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) For three weeks, after a shakedown cruise, the flaws in the starship's systems were being identified and repaired under the supervision of Scott. During this time, he regained his rank of captain, after temporarily reverting to a commander following the incident of stealing the original starship Enterprise. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
Stopping a conspiracy[]
Scott firing his phaser at Colonel West on Khitomer
In 2293, after seven years of serving aboard the Enterprise-A, Scott, along with the rest of the Enterprise-A crew, were due to stand down. Scott played a role in exposing the Khitomer conspiracy. Upon beaming down to the surface of Khitomer, he shot Colonel West, who was about to assassinate the Federation president and kill Lieutenant Valeris, out of a window and several stories to his death. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
Retirement[]
In 2293, Scott obtained a boat in anticipation of his retirement from the Enterprise-A. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
Maiden voyage of the Enterprise-B[]
Scott in 2293
Scott appeared as a "guest of honor" along with his former commanding officer, James T. Kirk, and his old crewmate, Commander Pavel Chekov, for the maiden voyage of the new Excelsior-class USS Enterprise-B, commanded by John Harriman. When the Enterprise-B responded to the distress call from two El-Aurian transports, Scott assisted in beaming a small group of survivors on board – 47 out of a total of 150. When the Enterprise became trapped in the energy ribbon the transports were in, Scott formulated a theory to use an antimatter discharge to disrupt the ribbon long enough for the vessel to break away. After Captain Kirk modified the deflector relays to emit a resonance burst, Scott and Hikaru Sulu's daughter Demora were able to get the Enterprise clear. However, a hull breach was created on the secondary hull by the ribbon on the ship's way out and Kirk was presumed to be blown out into space. Upon being asked by Commander Chekov if anyone was in the deflector control room on Deck 15 when it was hit, Scott stared out the breach into space and solemnly stated "Aye". (Star Trek Generations)
En route to the Norpin colony[]
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 Ensign Matt Franklin were the only survivors. Knowing that they didn't have enough supplies to wait for the ship's distress call to be picked up, Scott rigged the Jenolan's transporter systems, and existed for seventy-five years in the ship's transporter buffer. (TNG: "Relics")
Reemergence in the 24th century[]
Scott in 2369 saying farewell to the crew of the Enterprise-D
In 2369, Montgomery Scott was rescued by the USS Enterprise-D, but due to phase inducer failure, 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")
Sometime before 2387, Montgomery Scott discovered the necessary formulas enabling transwarp beaming, which Spock later gave to a younger Scott in 2258 of the alternate reality. (Star Trek)
In the script of Star Trek but not the final version of that film, was not said to have discovered transwarp beaming, but rather it had been made possible by him devising "the correct field equation to recrystallize dilithium." [2]. Scott devised an experimental method for recrystallizing dilithium in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (2286), but did not expect to see recrystallization on a Starfleet ship in "Relics". (2369)
Anything but canon scenarios[]
Klingon attack destroys Enterprise
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Scott with Arex during the Klingon attack
In an anything but canon account, a fleet of D7-class battle cruisers once attacked the USS Enterprise. Scott was present on the bridge of the ship when this was happening. The captain was attempting to give the crew orders that would help save them from the Klingon's continuous assault, but unfortunately, he continued using figures of speech that angered various crewmembers.
As a result, the Enterprise exploded due to continuous bombardment from disruptor blasts. (VST: "Skin a Cat")
Party on the Enterprise
Scotty playing the drums
In another anything but canon account, in a nonsensical setting in which the crew of the USS Enterprise and the USS Cerritos were actors in cartoon shows; a party honoring the fiftieth anniversary of Scotty and the TOS era crew's cartoon was being celebrated. D'Vana Tendi of the Cerritos was present.
Although there was brief argument between the old cartoon and the new cartoon, but as William T. Riker and Hikaru Sulu left the turbolift and walked onto the bridge to join the party, the tension settled down and the party resumed, and the crew used their singing voices and musical instruments to play a song in the style of a music genre that Riker called Post Mainframe Acid-Cardassian Ten Forwardcore. By the end, Scotty told Tendi that he loved her and her crewmates on her ship, and he apologizes for arguing with her, and he admited she was cool because she got to use all the newest tech. Tendi even told him that she thought he was "hot." While they were still playing in the band, the ship was attacked by a fleet of D7 class battle cruisers, which causes an explosion on the bridge to occur. (VST: "Walk, Don't Run")
Family and personal life[]
Scott had at least one sister, whose youngest child, 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: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock novelizations, the relationship between Scott and his niece, Dannan Stuart, was strained at best. Dannan was also a Starfleet officer, and apparently a maverick. In Star Trek II, he warned 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 admired her greatly. In Star Trek III, Scott returned to Scotland to attend Peter's funeral and got into an argument with Dannan. She accused 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 enjoying a glass of Scotch
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." (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier; TOS: "Wolf in the Fold") He considered Scotch a drink for real men as opposed to, for instance, vodka which he referred to as "soda pop" and "milk diet". (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles"). He did not like synthehol Scotch. (TNG: "Relics")
He took shore leave reluctantly and ran into trouble during shore leave on at least three occasions: a fistfight on Deep Space Station K-7, (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles") an arrest for murder on Argelius, (TOS: "Wolf in the Fold") and a "wee bout" requiring Dr. McCoy's attention. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
He wore his Scottish Clan kilt on three occasions. (TOS: "Is There in Truth No Beauty?", "The Savage Curtain"; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) He also played bagpipes, most notably playing "Amazing Grace" at the funeral for Captain Spock in 2285. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) Scott was fascinated to be handling an old-fashioned Scottish claymore. (TOS: "Day of the Dove") In (TNG: "Relics") Scott remarks of declining to read technical manuals is an oblique reference to The Trouble with Tribbles (episode) where after fighting with Klingons he is confined to Quarters reading technical manuals!
Friendships[]
Despite his superior talents as an engineer, he was often the source of comic relief among the Enterprise crew, due to his use of the Scots language. (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles", "The Savage Curtain"; Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
Romantic 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 and Palamas' first meeting is detailed in the novel Crisis of Consciousness.
Scott was interested in Kara, prior to her murder. (TOS: "Wolf in the Fold")
While under the influence of Harry Mudd's love potion crystals, Scott briefly became interested in M'Ress. After the effects wore off, he snapped at her during his hangover. (TAS: "Mudd's Passion")
Scott and Romaine
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 Scott while she was under Sybok's influence. Scott politely declined her advances, mindful of her condition. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
Holograms[]
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Holographic Scott
During Dal's many attempts at the Kobayashi Maru scenario, he requested that the computer select a new chief engineer for the recently departed Jankom Pog. He was given a holographic Scott as a replacement. Scott was the rank of captain and appeared as he did during the early 2290s. (PRO: "Kobayashi")
Alternate timeline[]
In an alternate timeline in which Captain Christopher Pike remained in the command of the Enterprise and avoided the accident that exposed him to delta radiation, Scott was serving aboard the Enterprise during the Neutral Zone Incursion. When he and Spock were working on restoring to phaser control to working order, he stated to Spock that he was "an engineer, not a miracle worker.". (SNW: "A Quality of Mercy")
Key dates[]
Scott and his engineering staff on the Enterprise-A
- 2222: Montgomery Scott was born in Scotland, Earth
- 2242: Began his Starfleet career
- 2259: Rescued from Parnassus Beta by Christopher Pike and taken aboard the USS Enterprise; rank: lieutenant junior grade
- 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; remained the rank of captain 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: Retired from Starfleet with the rank of captain; lost aboard USS Jenolan on Dyson sphere
- 2369: Discovered by the crew of the USS Enterprise-D
Memorable quotes[]
"I cannae change the laws of physics! I've got to have thirty minutes!" (TOS: "The Naked Time")
"Of course I could treat them to a few dozen photon torpedoes." (TOS: "A Taste of Armageddon")
"Diplomacy! [derisive snort] 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 – thirty seconds later, poof. Once it's activated, there's no way to stop it."
- - Scott, telling Kirk about the delay detonation device hooked into the Constellation's impulse engines (TOS: "The Doomsday Machine")
"Before they went into warp I transported the whole kit 'n' kaboodle into their engine room… where they'll be no tribble at all." (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles")
"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] Well, it's green." (TOS: "By Any Other Name")
"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")
"Admiral, we have just finished eighteen months redesigning and refitting the Enterprise. How in the name of hell do they expect me to have her ready in twelve hours?!" (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
"It's borderline on the simulator, captain. I cannae guarantee that she'll hold up!" (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
"Give the word, admiral!"
"Mr. Scott, the word is given."
"Aye, sir!"
- - Scott and Kirk (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
"Up your shaft…"
- - Scott, to Excelsior's computer in the turbolift (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
"Hello, computer!" (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
"A keyboard. [in disgust] How quaint." (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
"Why? How do we know he didn't invent the thing?"
- - Scott, speaking with Dr. McCoy on the temporal consequences of giving 23rd century technology to Doctor Nichols (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
In the novelization of the film, Scott knows that Nichols did "invent the thing," and concludes that his presence in the same time and place as the creation of something crucial to his mission is a predestination paradox.
"Give me one more day, sir. Damage control's easy – reading Klingon, that's hard!"
- - Scott, to Kirk regarding the HMS Bounty (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
"Admiral! There be whales here!"
- - Scott, commenting in glee after the two humpback whales named George and Gracie beam into their cargo hold (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
"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)
"Whattaya standing around for?! Ye not know a jailbreak when ye see one?!"
- - Scott, 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?"
- - Scott, lamenting the fact that the new Enterprise is far from 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?"
- - Scott, recording a log entry on the status of USS Enterprise-A (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
"That suits me, I just bought a boat." (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
"Mr. Scott?"
"Aye, sir?"
"Did you find the engine room?"
"Right where I left it, sir."
- - Kirk and Scott (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
"I'll bet that Klingon bitch killed her father!" (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
"Synthetic scotch, synthetic commanders…"
"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")
"Starship captains are like children. They want everything right now and they want it their way. The secret is to give them what they need, not what they want."
"The tank can't handle that much pressure."
"Where'd you get that idea?"
"It's in the impulse specifications."
"Regulation 42/15: 'Pressure Variances in IRC Tank Storage'?"
"Right."
"Oh, that. Forget it. I wrote it!"
"A good engineer is always a wee bit conservative, at least on paper."
"I may be captain by rank… but I never wanted to be anything else but an engineer." (TNG: "Relics")
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Appendices[]
Appearances[]
- TOS:
- "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
- "The Corbomite Maneuver"
- "Mudd's Women"
- "The Enemy Within"
- "The Man Trap" (voice only; uncredited)
- "The Naked Time"
- "Balance of Terror"
- "The Galileo Seven"
- "The Menagerie, Part I"
- "The Squire of Gothos"
- "Arena"
- "Tomorrow is Yesterday"
- "The Return of the Archons"
- "A Taste of Armageddon"
- "Space Seed"
- "The Devil in the Dark"
- "The City on the Edge of Forever"
- "Operation -- Annihilate!"
- "Catspaw"
- "Metamorphosis"
- "Friday's Child"
- "Who Mourns for Adonais?"
- "The Doomsday Machine"
- "Wolf in the Fold"
- "The Changeling"
- "The Apple"
- "Mirror, Mirror"
- "The Deadly Years"
- "I, Mudd"
- "The Trouble with Tribbles"
- "Bread and Circuses"
- "A Private Little War"
- "The Gamesters of Triskelion"
- "Obsession"
- "The Immunity Syndrome"
- "A Piece of the Action"
- "By Any Other Name"
- "Return to Tomorrow"
- "Patterns of Force"
- "The Ultimate Computer"
- "Assignment: Earth"
- "Spectre of the Gun"
- "Elaan of Troyius"
- "The Paradise Syndrome"
- "The Enterprise Incident"
- "And the Children Shall Lead"
- "Spock's Brain"
- "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"
- "The Empath"
- "The Tholian Web"
- "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"
- "Day of the Dove"
- "Plato's Stepchildren"
- "Wink of an Eye"
- "That Which Survives"
- "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"
- "Whom Gods Destroy"
- "The Mark of Gideon"
- "The Lights of Zetar"
- "The Cloud Minders"
- "The Way to Eden"
- "Requiem for Methuselah"
- "The Savage Curtain"
- "All Our Yesterdays" (voice only)
- "Turnabout Intruder"
- TAS:
- "Beyond the Farthest Star"
- "Yesteryear"
- "One of Our Planets Is Missing"
- "The Lorelei Signal"
- "More Tribbles, More Troubles"
- "The Survivor"
- "The Infinite Vulcan"
- "The Magicks of Megas-Tu"
- "Once Upon a Planet"
- "Mudd's Passion"
- "The Terratin Incident"
- "The Time Trap"
- "The Ambergris Element"
- "The Eye of the Beholder"
- "The Jihad"
- "The Pirates of Orion"
- "Bem"
- "The Practical Joker"
- "Albatross"
- "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth"
- "The Counter-Clock Incident"
- Star Trek films:
- TNG:
- "Relics"
- DS9:
- "Trials and Tribble-ations" (archive footage)
- PRO:
- "Kobayashi" (hologram only)
- SNW:
- "A Quality of Mercy" (voice only)
- "Hegemony"
- VST:
Background information[]
Montgomery Scott was played by actor James Doohan in all of the character's television and cinematic appearances set in the "prime" universe. An alternate timeline version of Scott was voiced by Matthew Wolf in SNW: "A Quality of Mercy" and portrayed by Martin Quinn in SNW: "Hegemony".
The character of Montgomery Scott mostly originated from James Doohan himself. Doohan was asked by Director James Goldstone, to whom he had auditioned for another role only ten days prior, to come in and read a few lines from the script of TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" for him, Gene Roddenberry, Robert H. Justman, Joseph D'Agosta, and Morris Chapnick. The role he was proposed for was an unnamed Chief Engineer. When Goldstone asked him to do some accents, Doohan did several ones, including Irish, Scottish, English, Russian, etc. Roddenberry asked him which one he would choose, and he said Scottish, due to Scotsmen being renowned for having great engineering skills. Thus, the character became Scottish, and it was apparently Doohan who named him "Scotty". (The World of Star Trek), [3]
Gene Roddenberry nearly dropped Scott from the series after the second pilot. He informed Doohan's agent, Paul Wilkins, that "we don't think we need an engineer in the series." Wilkins became irate and met with Roddenberry that day, and insisted on returning Doohan to the Enterprise, which turned out to be a favorable decision. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, pp. 152-153)
NBC's early-1966 press brochure about Star Trek described Scott thus:
- Engineer Officer Scott is a wizard at repairing everything from the reading light on the captain's bunk to the ship's huge "space warp" engines. In an era of almost complete automation, his ability to fix things with a piece of baling wire or a rubber band has proven invaluable on more than one occasion. (reprinted in Inside Star Trek: The Real Story)
In the final draft script of TOS: "Mudd's Women" (dated 26 May 1966), Scott was described as "40… very military type." This suggests he was born in 2226.
Although Scott does not appear in "The Menagerie, Part II", he did feature in the script for that episode. At the end of the teaser, he accompanied McCoy into the Enterprise's hearing room, without having any lines of dialogue, eager to help Captain Kirk but unable to. Then, when the hearing-room screen abruptly came on in the first act of the script, Scott was ordered, by a Talosian projection of Commodore Mendez, to turn the screen off. Despite trying to do so with a remote control, he found that the screen wouldn't go off. Scott also appeared in a deleted scene from "The Menagerie, Part II". In it, after again accompanying McCoy into the hearing room, he announced that, thanks to McCoy, they had managed to determine which computers Spock had jammed in order to lock the ship on a course to Talos IV. As Scott explained, this discovery would allow the Enterprise officers to "safely cross-circuit that series out, return the vessel to manual control." [4]
The series writer's guide (third revision, dated 17 April 1967) described Scott thus:
- ENGINEERING OFFICER MONTGOMERY SCOTT: Played by James Doohan, Scott holds the rank of lieutenant commander, senior engineering officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise. With an accent that drips of heather and the Highlands, he is known to most as "Scotty".
- Scotty came up through the ranks, and his practical education is as broad as his formal training in engineering. He has rare mechanical capacity – many claim he can put an engine together with baling wire and glue… and make it run. He regards the U.S.S. Enterprise as his personal vessel and the engineering section as his private world, where even Captain James Kirk is merely a privileged trespasser.
- Engineering and spaceships are his life. His idea of a pleasant afternoon is tinkering in any engineering section of the vessel; he is totally unable to understand why any sane man would spend reading time on anything but technical manuals. He is strong minded, strong willed, and not incapable of telling off even a Starfleet captain who intrudes into what Scotty regards as his own private province and area of responsibilities. (Star Trek: The Original Series 365)
Although Doohan had lost the middle finger on his right hand during the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, Scott had a right middle finger within the Star Trek storyline; any time a closeup was seen of Scott's right hand (working the transporter controls, etc.), someone else's hands were used, and when Scott 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 and in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, when Scott is holding a bag of food. There is also a scene in TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles" in which his missing digit is briefly seen as he holds a giant armful of tribbles. Star Trek: The Animated Series's animation also depicted Scott as having all his fingers.
There was 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 was a 1970s interview with 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. If either of these claims were correct, it would imply Scott had a relatively genteel upbringing, as the regional accent of Aberdeenshire was far more coarse and Gaelicised than Scott's. 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 Star Trek universe and make the town's claim to be the future birthplace of Montgomery Scott concrete. The exhibition, held at Annet House, Scott's "official" future childhood home opened in the summer of 2007. It was worth noting that in the non-canon story published in the UK comic magazine TV21 & Joe 90 #21 in 1970, Scott described his ancestors as "highlanders". According to Who's Who in Star Trek #2 (DC Comics, April 1987), Scott was born in Glasgow. His actual accent implied he was raised in or near Edinburgh.
Simon Pegg, who portrayed Scott's alternate self in 2009's Star Trek and its sequels (and was a Star Trek fan long before being cast in the role), concocted his own backstory for the character to settle the debate over the character's accent. [5]
One inconsistency that involved Scott was that, when the USS Enterprise-D rescued him from the transporter buffer of the USS Jenolan in "Relics", Commander William T. Riker said that he was from the "USS Enterprise". Hearing this, Scott assumed "Jim Kirk himself" had arrived to find him; however, the film Star Trek Generations established that, before Scott 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 Star Trek Generations was filmed after "Relics", causing a retcon. (In what may have been an attempt to address the discrepancy, in the novel Star Trek Generations, Guinan tells Chekov that Kirk is, in fact, alive within the Nexus, though this information may not have reached Scott.) According to Ronald D. Moore, who wrote both "Relics" and Generations, Scott was included in the latter, despite the inconsistency, out of affection for the character. (Star Trek Chronology)
Another minor inconsistency could be spotted in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where Scott wears uniforms with commander's insignia instead of captain's.
In an ultimately omitted line of dialogue from the final draft script of "Relics", Scott remarked, "Even starships are retired… some are just lucky enough to die in action."
Evidently, Scott was obliquely referred to in the final draft script of ENT: "Fallen Hero". A statement made by Charles Tucker III, regarding the warp reactor aboard Enterprise, was attributed to him in the scripted stage directions. The dialogue was, "I've given you all she's got, Captain! There's no more power!" A scene description about this section remarked, "His words foreshadow another fabled Starfleet engineer."
In the unfilmed Star Trek: The First Adventure script, Scott was depicted as working with George Kirk on an experimental dilithium-fuelled warp jump before his disappearance.
Apocrypha[]
The nineteenth issue of the IDW comics series Star Trek: Ongoing reveals the alternate reality Scott's full name to be Montgomery Christopher Jorgensen Scott. Since Scott was born before the timeline split, he would therefore have the same full name in the prime universe.
With the introduction of Scott's origin story in the alternate reality, several novels set in the prime reality detail Scott's origins there:
According to Star Trek II: Biographies, Scott was born in 31 August 2121 in Aberdeen, Scotland to parents Robert Burns Scott and Mary Darnley. He has a brother named James McNeil Scott and a sister named Mary Darnley Scott.
According to Who's Who in Star Trek 2, Scott was born in Glasgow, Scotland and has a sister named Fran. He spent a year working aboard the SS Deirdre before applying to Starfleet Academy. He became the Enterprise's chief engineer after the previous chief engineer Hoyt retired.
The short story Bum Radish: Five Spins on a Turquoise Reindeer names his mother Arlyne Jorgensen Scott and his sister Kristen Scott.
The video game Star Trek: Starship Creator gives his parents' names as Mary and Vaughn Scott. His sister is named Linda Preston.
In the novel The Kobayashi Maru, Cadet Scott less-than-voluntarily entered the Command School at Starfleet Academy, but was reassigned to engineering after a Kobayashi Maru attempt in which he defeated a Klingon squadron using a tactic which he knew the the computer would believe to be viable even though field testing that he had participated in had disproved the theory on which the tactic was based. His position as captain in the scenario was arranged by an instructor who knew that Scott wanted to be in Engineering rather than Command to justify transferring Scott to engineering school.
In the D.C. Fontana novel Vulcan's Glory, in 2253, Lieutenant Scott signed aboard the Enterprise as a junior engineer under Lieutenant Commander Caitlin Barry. In his early days aboard the ship, he set up a still in main engineering for producing Engine Room Hooch. Despite the popularity of the beverage, it was produced by an illegal still, and Scott along with the other engineers were warned never to produce the beverage again.
In the novel Enterprise: The First Adventure, by 2264, Scott assumed the responsibilities of being chief engineer and was promoted to lieutenant commander under the command of Captain James T. Kirk. Scott was fiercely loyal to Captain Christopher Pike and initially he did not warm up to Kirk as he felt that the young captain could place the ship in jeopardy. Over time, the two officers put their initial differences behind them and became close friends.
In the comic issue Retrospect, Scott had an on-again, off-again relationship with a woman he'd known all his life named Glynnis Campbell (β). The comic tells the story of how they met and fell in love, went their separate ways, and eventually got married years later. They married shortly before the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and she died in a shuttle accident during the Enterprise crew's period of exile on Vulcan. The Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations novel Forgotten History gives her credit for inspiring him to grow a mustache.
By the novel Ship of the Line, Scott has become a teacher at Starfleet Academy, but stands in as a temporary chief engineer aboard the USS Enterprise-E for its inaugural voyage under Morgan Bateson.
The novel Star Trek has Spock revealing that the Prime Scott was also stationed at Delta Vega, which Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman stated on the film's audio commentary were meant to be for the same reasons.
In the Starfleet Corps of Engineers novels, Scott was given command of the unit sometime after his retrieval from the Jenolan.
In Star Trek Online, players encountered Scott on Drozana Station in the year 2265, helping him protect the station from an infestation of Devidians. He plays a major role in the "Agents of Yesterday" expansion pack, in which he is voiced by James Doohan's son Christopher Doohan, who had previously played the role in the fan series Star Trek Continues. 23rd century Starfleet characters first encounter him on the Enterprise during the time of the Babel Conference, where he discovers a temporal transponder left behind by an older Pavel Chekov. In the mission "Ragnarok", Scott finds himself in the 26th century, arriving aboard the USS Enterprise-J during the Battle of Procyon V; he explains that he still carried Chekov's transponder at the time he was rescued from the Jenolan. Working together with Chekov, Scott installs the Tox Uthat aboard the Enterprise-J, which allows the Federation and its allies to defeat the Sphere-Builders. After the battle, Chekov returns Scott to the 24th century, but not before going back to the 23rd to see "their" Enterprise one last time.
In Star Trek Cats, Scott is depicted as a Scottish Fold cat.
In the novel Indistinguishable from Magic, Captain Scott commanded an SCE testbed ship, the USS Challenger. His crew included Lieutenant Commander Reginald Barclay, Lieutenant Commander Nog (chief of security), Dr. Alyssa Ogawa (CMO) and Dr. Leah Brahms as a civilian adviser. When called on to investigate the disappearance and reappearance of the starship Intrepid two hundred years prior, he requested a temporary transfer to his crew: Commander Geordi La Forge. The crew fought off an attempt by former DaiMon Bok of the Ferengi to hijack the Intrepid and use it to time travel and prevent his son from being killed by Captain Picard and solved the Intrepid mystery by discovering a powerful lifeform capable of traveling easily between galaxies and drawing starships with it. Scott was severely injured during the mission and developed a fatal condition. With his first officer dead, Scott named La Forge as his successor as captain. He stayed behind in the other galaxy that they were drawn to in order to ensure that the rest of the Challenger crew (and some Romulans who were also pulled there) got home. As the Challenger exploded, he set the transporter to potentially send himself to safety. His current fate is unknown.
External links[]
- Montgomery Scott at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- Montgomery Scott at Wikipedia
- Montgomery Scott at the Star Trek Online Wiki