Farewell, James Montgomery Doohan

Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott
3 March 1920 – 20 July 2005

Mr. Doohan lived a long life, far longer than your typical Federation redshirt. I grew up watching him on Star Trek, but I did not realize until today the amazing story of the man. Canadian artillery officer, storming the beach on D-Day, wounded in action including four shots in the leg, a lost finger and a nearly fatal shot stopped by a cigarette case, air force pilot, and arguably the best damned engineer to ever serve on a starship.

IMDB.com has some interesting tidbits in its bio.

The only two episodes of “Star Trek” (1966) in which one can see that his middle finger is missing are “The Trouble with Tribbles” and “Cats Paw”. Also in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), when Scotty is handing McCoy the parts from the Trans-Warp Drive, as well as in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) when Scotty is holding a plastic bag dinner given to him by Uhura.

According to the Director’s Edition DVD of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), the Klingon language first introduced in that movie and later featured in many later Trek movies and TV episodes was initially devised by Doohan. His original sounds were later expanded upon and refined by others, ultimately resulting in Shakespeare plays and The Bible being translated into Klingon years later. Ironically, his character, Scotty, complains of difficulty reading Klingon at the start of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).

[…]

During his early stage work, he demonstrated a remarkable gift for foreign accents. He tried several During his audition for “Star Trek” (1966), and Gene Roddenberry was immediately taken by his Scottish brogue. Roddenberry cast him as the (previously-unnamed) ship’s engineer character, and they improvised the name Montgomery Scott (‘Scott’ for the accent, and ‘Montgomery’ for Doohan’s middle name).

John has an excellent tribute to Mr. Doohan over at Argghhh!, including appropriate music.

Meanwhile, Ace of Ace of Spades HQ fame waxes poetic in honor of Mr. Scott, as only Ace can.