scottish independence star trek

2024 Is a Hell of a Year in Star Trek History

A year of hell, you might say. but not that one. this is a different kind of bad..

The year 2024 is shaping up to be solid for Star Trek in our own reality—we’ve got the final season of Discovery , work is underway on Michelle Yeoh’s Section 31 film , and we’ve got the future of Strange New Worlds , Prodigy , and Lower Decks to look towards (and maybe even more ?). But in Star Trek itself, this year is... well, it’s not great.

A lot— a lot —happens historically in Star Trek ’s 2024 , crucially important events that go on to not just shape Earth as it is in the early 21st century, but form foundational pillars for the contemporary Star Trek timeline. It’s a year we’ve heard about, and visited, multiple times across several Trek shows. So what’s exactly wild about it? Well, let us take a look through Trek ’s past to find out... and perhaps, our future?

Irish Reunification

As mentioned by Data in TNG ’s third season episode “The High Ground,” the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland bring an end to a century of violence and British influence to become a united nation in its own right in 2024.

We’re probably closer to the chance of Scottish independence happening sometime soon rather than that in our own timeline, but according to Data, reunification wasn’t just a step on the path to a more globalized Earth in terms of a planetary society, the event was a notable example of terrorism as a successful political instrument.

Global Political and Environmental Upheaval

Beyond Irish Reunification, 2024 in Trek history is defined by a series of political and environmental crises. In Europe, France is rocked by a series of civil protests and political battles between Neo-Trotskyists and Gaullists over how to deal with them, seen by the wider world as an indicator of Europe’s descent into turmoil.

Climate change also continues to rock the world this year, with America ravaged by wildfires, polluted air, and other forms of climate displacement that see it wracked with a homelessness crisis that eventually leads to the establishment of Sanctuary Districts, walled sectors of major cities designed to combat mass displacement and economic downturn, but only leading to... well, we’ll get to that later.

Pretty Much the Entirety of Star Trek: Picard Season 2

And you thought the global political and environmental upheaval was bad! I kid, I kid.

Almost all of Picard ’s second season is set in 2024, as Q, attempting to help Jean-Luc reckon with the past of his family, sends the Admiral and his allies back to 2024 Los Angeles and mucks about with the timeline and Jean-Luc’s great-great-cousin, Renée Picard. Renée was a mission specialist on an interplanetary mission launched in 2024 called the Europa Expedition, an alliance between the United States and multiple world nations to send a shuttle to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

During the mission Renée discovers a sentient microorganism on the moon Io, and brings it back to Earth for study—setting the stage for vital research that would radically combat climate change, avoiding humanity’s impending extinction.

The Bell Riots

Extinction avoided is nice, but that doesn’t stop other bad things existing in Trek ’s 2024. Remember those Sanctuary Districts we mentioned earlier? They begin cropping up in major cities all over the United States, intended to provide free housing, healthcare, and job opportunities to people impacted by the wave of economic, climate, and political crises wracking the country. But Sanctuary Districts rapidly descended into totalitarian ghettos, with local police forces ruling the districts with iron fists, and local governments using the sanctuaries to corral poor civilians away from the upper classes, largely unaware of just how brutal the districts had become.

As depicted in the Deep Space Nine two-parter “Past Tense,” in the late summer of 2024 in San Francisco’s Sanctuary District A, a group of residents lead by Gabriel Bell staged a violent takeover of the district’s processing center, taking several federal employees and police officers hostage. The hostage situation was nearly diffused peacefully on Bell’s part (who was, in fact, Captain Benjamin Sisko, who created a paradox after a transporter accident led to him and several of his officers being sent back to 2024 and inadvertently causing the death of the real Graham Bell), with the plight of the Sanctuary Districts being broadcast across the U.S..

But the Governor of California ordered a violent crackdown on District A by the National Guard, leading to the massacre of hundreds of residents being broadcast as well. The Bell Riots, as they would come to be known, sparked a wave of public action against Sanctuary Districts—leading to campaigns for mass socioeconomic reform to replace the need for the districts.

The Advent of World War III

Okay so this doesn’t actually happen in 2024, but it’s important to note after last couple of events—turning points in human history for the better, without which a United Earth and the concept of Starfleet and eventually the Federation wouldn’t have existed—that things don’t immediately start improving. In fact, they get much, much worse: World War III breaks out two years later in 2026.

Continuing global unrest sees the United States enter thermonuclear war with a pan-nation alliance known as the Eastern Coalition. Lasting into the early 2050s, World War III sees the death of six hundred million million people, the eradication of almost every major city on Earth, and the complete destruction or dissolution of many national governments. Society as most of Earth had known it for hundreds of years collapsed entirely, and if not for the arrival of a group of Vulcans in 2063 to kickstart humanity’s ascent to the interstellar sphere, it likely would’ve stayed that way as the remnants of the species navigated the fallout of the post-apocalypse.

But Hey, the Baseball’s Pretty Good?

So the global thermonuclear war, ravages of climate change, and economic and political turmoil are all pretty bad. But baseball in 2024? Never been better .

A hilariously obscure factoid from Captain Sisko’s love of the ancient game , we learn in background ephemera from Deep Space Nine that 2024 is the year Harmon “Buck” Bokai, considered one of the greatest players of the game in human history, becomes the first solar system-wide batting champion while playing for Seibu in, presumably, Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, before moving to the London Kings in 2025. Just how an Earth still in the nascent stages of interplanetary exploration has a solar system-wide professional sports body has never been explained—there was at least, eventually, a Planetary Baseball League on Earth—but good for him!

Bokai would continue to play baseball for a variety of teams for the next two decades, when the professional livelihood of the sport came to an end in 2042 with the final World Series. Don’t ask how they kept playing professional baseball during the near-total-devastation of Earth, either.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

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Scotty’s accent was legendarily bad, but Scottish Star Trek fans loved him anyway

Is Strange New Worlds about to break a streak?

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[ Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 10, “Hegemony.”]

Great Scott! In this week’s season finale of Strange New Worlds , Star Trek ’s most beloved miracle worker finally arrives aboard the USS Enterprise. During a rescue mission on the border of the Gorn Hegemony, Captain Pike and his crew encounter the lone survivor of another Starfleet vessel, the talented and loquacious Lt. Junior Grade Montgomery Scott, who joins the effort to save a group of human colonists from an ongoing massacre.

Scotty’s debut on the show (the earliest TV appearance in the character’s personal chronology) was an unadvertised surprise, but not a total shock, as Strange New Worlds used its previous season finale to unveil Paul Wesley as the new James Kirk . What makes young Scotty a particularly sweet treat, however, is that for the first time, he’s being performed by an actual Scot: Martin Quinn has finally endowed the engineer with a convincing Scottish accent.

But before we criticize him a bit, let’s pay proper respect to the late James Doohan, who originated the role on Star Trek: The Original Series back in 1966. Doohan essentially created Montgomery Scott himself, having been brought in to audition for a then-unnamed role as the Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise by James Goldstone, director of the show’s second pilot episode.

According to Marc Cushman’s exhaustive multi-book reference guide These Are The Voyages , Doohan tried a variety of different accents for the character, and when series creator Gene Roddenberry asked which accent sounded best for an engineer, Doohan selected Scottish, citing Scotland’s history of naval innovation. Doohan was also permitted to name the character, and in the years that followed, “Scotty” became American television’s most famous man from Braveheart Country.

The trouble is, if you ask any true Scottish person, they’ll tell you that Doohan’s accent is laughable. Though Doohan learned it firsthand during World War II while serving alongside a soldier from Aberdeen, it’s widely mocked for its inaccuracy, and can frequently be found on lists of the worst Scottish accents in TV and film history . The Scotsman ’s David McLean called it “the Dick Van Dyke of Scottish accents,” in reference to the American comedian’s infamously awful attempt at a Cockney accent in Mary Poppins . On the other side of the pond, however, few Americans knew any better: Doohan says he was turned down for multiple roles in the 1970s because casting directors weren’t looking for a Scot.

Despite Doohan’s goofy accent, many Scots still took a liking to the jolly engineer. As foreign as the idea may seem in Trek’s native United States, positive representation for Scots has never been a given in the broader landscape of British television. In 2020, a survey of BBC viewers found that no single demographic — across nationality, race, class, gender, and sexual orientation — was more dissatisfied with their depiction on the network than Scots.

When Star Trek first arrived in the UK in 1969, Montgomery Scott was a relatively textured and dignified “Aberdeen pub-crawler.” He’s a consummate professional, often seen in command of the Enterprise, and adored by all. He enjoys a drink, but he’s not a drunk. He’s a flirt, but not a cad. Scottish audiences were so enamored that, upon James Doohan’s death in 2005, four different towns declared themselves the “future birthplace” of Montgomery Scott, each citing a different piece of non-canonical provenance. When Doohan’s son Chris visited one of the claimants, Linlithgow, the town provost told him that Scotty’s phony accent was, in fact, “one of the things they loved about him.”

However, when English actor Simon Pegg was cast as the new Scotty in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 feature film reboot, Scottish Trekkies were far less forgiving. Pegg based his take on Scotty’s lilt on his own father-in-law, who hails from Glasgow, but that didn’t prevent fans from voicing their strong negative reactions when the film’s first trailers were released.

While Pegg’s accent is certainly closer to the mark than Doohan’s was, the audience’s standards for a major motion picture in the 21st century were significantly higher. The performance fell victim to a common criticism of Hollywood Scottish accents, that being a lack of playable local identity, though this could be a consequence of Abrams asking Pegg to dial the accent back so an international audience could understand him.

More than a decade later, Strange New Worlds has gone where no Star Trek has gone before — the actual Scotland — to recruit 29-year-old Martin Quinn. Born in Paisley and trained at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Quinn has no previous North American productions on his résumé , though American viewers might recognize him from a bit part on the Netflix hit Derry Girls . Quinn makes a charming Star Trek debut, and even a clueless American listener (such as myself) can immediately detect the difference between the typical “Hollywood” Scots accent and the real deal.

Will his performance pass muster for Scottish viewers, and finally put to rest what part of the country Montgomery Scott calls home? Has even this accent been sanded down to better relate to American audiences, but to an extent only detectable by native speakers? Or, could it be that Strange New Worlds has really worked out the last bug in the man who can fix anything?

Star Trek: Discovery tore itself apart for the good of Star Trek’s future

Star trek: discovery boldly goes where no trek has gone before by saying religion is... ok, actually, star trek: discovery is cracking open a box next gen closed on purpose, loading comments....

Scotland was a country in Old Britain on Earth . Those native to Scotland were known as Scots and spoke the Scots language .

The Loch Ness monster was a creature said to inhabit the murky waters of Loch Ness, in Scotland. ( ENT : " Storm Front, Part II ", TAS : " Bem ")

Jessel Howard was an ancestor of Doctor Beverly Crusher . She lived in Scotland in the 17th century . Ronin was also born in Scotland in 1647 . ( TNG : " Sub Rosa ")

In 2024 , Scotland was one of the countries that participated in the Europa Mission . ( PIC : " Watcher ", " Fly Me to the Moon ")

Montgomery Scott was from Scotland, born in 2222 . ( TOS : " Space Seed ", " Wolf in the Fold "; TNG : " Relics ")

The Caldos colony was a Federation colony terraformed during the 23rd century that was modeled after Scotland. Cornerstones from various buildings in various cities in Scotland were brought to Caldos to build the colony in a Scottish style. ( TNG : " Sub Rosa ")

• 1.2 Landmarks
• 2 External links

Geography [ ]

• Aberdeen ( TOS : " Wolf in the Fold ")
• Edinburgh ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ; TNG : " Sub Rosa ")
• Glasgow ( TNG : " Sub Rosa ")

Landmarks [ ]

• Glamis Castle ( TNG : " Sub Rosa ")
• Loch Ness ( TAS : " Bem "; ENT : " Storm Front, Part II ")
• Scottish Highlands ( TNG : " Sub Rosa "; DS9 : " Change of Heart ")

External links [ ]

• Scotland at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Scotland at Wikipedia
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)

James Doohan Basically Developed Star Trek's Scotty Himself

Contrary to popular belief, the late James Doohan, who played the famously Scottish engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on the original "Star Trek," was not Scottish at all. In fact, according to a 1994 interview with Paul Rosa , the actor had only used a Scottish accent once before his time on "Star Trek," when he appeared in a 1963 episode of "Hazel" as a character named Gordon MacHeath. Doohan went on to explain that he got the part in "Star Trek" because he had auditioned for another show a few weeks before and didn't get it, but the director called him back for the "Star Trek" audition.

Later in the same interview, Doohan explained that being known for the role of Mr. Scott caused him to be typecast in roles requiring Scottish accents. He said it made him really angry at first, and that he doubted his decision to play a Scottish character in the first place, but he eventually came to embrace it and accepted roles that were looking for his artificial accent.

But why was the Enterprise's chief engineer made to be Scottish anyway? Well, it turns out that the character's nationality had a lot to do with Doohan's own decisions during his audition, and it was "Star Trek" creator Gene Rodenberry himself who gave Doohan that freedom.

James Doohan may have been the one to make Scotty Scottish

In a 1976 interview on NBC's "Tomorrow," which was hosted by Tom Snyder, Doohan explained that when he auditioned for "Star Trek," he was asked to do several different accents and they decided on the Scottish one. "And of course I was delighted with that because I think the tradition of an engineer is a Scotsman, because all the great motor ships and the steam ships of the world were built in the Clyde," the actor explained. This is a little bit at odds with an interview  Doohan did in 1989 where he insisted that, after he did the accents, Roddenberry asked which one Doohan preferred, and Doohan decided that the engineer would have to be Scottish.

In a 2015 thread in the r/Scotland subreddit, user  u/Sensational_Al asked what actual Scottish people thought of the actor's famous accent, and the consensus seemed to be that it was good, but not great. Redditor u/dangerousrockface called the accent "Decent for a Canadian in the 60s." A Redditor with a now-deleted accoun t called the accent "okay," but also said, "We're absolute suckers for being pandered to," even when the accents in question aren't very good. While Doohan's accent isn't perfect, it's certainly iconic, and it's interesting to know how much of a hand he had in choosing it.

Museum celebrates the future birthday of Star Trek character Scotty to be born in West Lothian in 200 years

Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott will be born in the local town in 2222

• 12:04, 7 JUL 2022
• Updated 14:35, 12 JUL 2022

Linlithgow museum has gone where no one has gone before in displaying a plaque to commemorate the 200th ‘future birthday’ of ‘Star Trek’ character Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott.

The sci-fi star ship engineer, played by acting legend James Doohan, was said to have been born in Linlithgow on June 28, 2222.

The blue plaque titled ‘Federation Heritage’ places of birth for Montgomery Scott in Linlithgow, Scotland,on Earth in the Sol System under the United Federation of Planets.

First unveiled in 2007, the plaque was revealed by James Doohan’s wife Wende upon the opening of an exhibition celebrating the life of the actor following his death in 2005 - the exhibition was on display at the former museum site in Annet House in Linlithgow.

By redisplaying the plaque, Linlithgow Museum aims to tie it in with a ‘future heritage project’ in collaboration with Heriot Watt University on September 17 - examining Linlithgow’s connection with science-fiction, and comparing it to science as we know it now.

While disputed by a few Scottish towns and cities - like Elgin, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen - original series script-writer and Star Trek novel author, Dorothy ‘D.C’ Fontana in 1989 wrote in ‘Vulcan’s Glory’:”Lieutenant Montgomery Scott had no trouble finding his quarters.

“The Enterprise’s corridors and decks were already as familiar to him as his mother’s house in Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland.”

This claim was apparently backed up by James Doohan himself, who always identified the character as coming from Linlithgow, with a mother who still stayed in the town.

Linlithgow Museum community co-ordinator, Julia Branch, said:”James Doohan knew his character really well, and if Scotty said he was born in Linlithgow - that’s where he was born!

“One novel by D.C. Fontana even mentions Scotty’s mother hanging laundry up at The Vennel in Linlithgow.

“We’re very proud of our Star Trek connection in Linlithgow - as a trekkie myself it’s wonderful to have that link here to a TV show I grew up with.

“I think they chose Linlithgow because it’s a central town in Scotland - of course it’s famous for many other reasons - like being the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, so I suppose it was building off the town’s legacy.

“We’re not as well known or as big as Glasgow or Edinburgh or Dundee - and I think James Doohan and Fontana saw his character as an opinionated little Scotsman who worked his way up from a small town in Scotland.”

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Will of Scottish people should not be ‘thwarted’ by UK government – Swinney

The Scottish First Minister was commenting on the potential for another Scottish independence referendum.

The will of the Scottish people on independence should not be “thwarted” by the UK government if the SNP wins a majority of seats, Scotland’s First Minister has said.

At his party’s manifesto launch, John Swinney said the SNP winning a majority of Scottish seats on July 4 will see him seek negotiations with Westminster on another referendum.

But during a visit to Scotland this week, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he would not engage in such talks if he becomes prime minister.

Speaking to LBC on Sunday, Mr Swinney said: “Keir Starmer accepts that the United Kingdom is a voluntary union, it is a bringing together of the countries of the United Kingdom, in which Scotland is entitled to exercise our right to say ‘well, actually, we want to be governed differently as a consequence of our votes’.

“That should not be thwarted by the actions of the United Kingdom government.”

On the BBC’s Sunday Show, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar reiterated his view that it is “for the Scottish people” to decide on independence and that another referendum would require support for separation to become the “settled will” of the people.

But Mr Sarwar – much like other politicians on both sides of the constitutional divide – refused to say what support would be required or how it could be quantified.

He added: “We’ve been really clear in this election campaign. I don’t support independence, I don’t support a referendum, there isn’t a consistent majority for independence, there isn’t a majority for a referendum.”

Douglas Ross, also speaking to the BBC, said he believes the United Kingdom was a voluntary union and the chance to leave was not taken in 2014.

Independence, he claimed, has been a distraction for the SNP-led government in Scotland.

“It’s getting in the way of everything they do,” he said.

“They have been elected to govern Scotland and manage our NHS, our economy, our education system, the police service.

“All of these issues have been ignored and neglected by an SNP government obsessed with independence.

“They have taken their eye off the ball on so many key issues, they have accepted that themselves.”

In a debate ahead of the 2021 Holyrood election, then first minister Nicola Sturgeon said her government “took our eye off the ball” on the drugs deaths crisis.

Meanwhile, Mr Swinney was also asked what he will view as a success for his party in the election.

He told LBC: “Becoming the largest party in Scotland, that would be my objective in this election. And that would be the largest party in terms of seats.”

It is understood the First Minister’s comments should not be taken as a shift in the SNP’s position on beginning independence negotiations.

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Alex Salmond Warns Of Scottish Independence No Voters' 'Wrath' If Devolution Not Delivered

The wrath of those who voted no to Scottish independence will be greater than "the wrath of Khan" if devolution is not delivered, Alex Salmond has said.

Salmond, who resigned as Scotland's First Minister after 55% of Scots voted no to independence, said the arguments among the main parties in Westminster over how to grant Scotland devolution have left those who voted to stay in the union "angry, hurt and disappointed".

"The wrath of Khan will be as of nothing to the wrath of a No voter who has been gulled by the Westminster leadership," he said, using a Star Trek analogy to emphasise the point.

Alex Salmond warned of No voters' 'wrath' if devolution is not delivered

"I don't see how they can be kept between David Cameron who says they must go in tandem with changes in England, and Ed Miliband who says they can't go in tandem with changes in England. These seem to be two irreconcilable positions from political interest at Westminster.

"It's the people who voted No because they believed these commitments from the Westminster leadership, these are the people who are feeling most angry, most hurt, most disappointed in Scotland today."

The Wrath of Khan is the title of a 1982 Star Trek film about a vengeful superhuman trying to take revenge on Captain Kirk.

Benedict Cumberbatch played the character in the most recent film of the franchise - Star Trek Into Darkness.

Mr Salmond - who has identified the vow by the three Westminster leaders as being pivotal in the success of the No campaign - claimed the Labour and Conservative positions were now "irreconcilable".

He told the Murnaghan show on Sky News: "David Cameron doesn't think he can carry his own backbenchers, never mind the threat from Ukip, unless he links Scottish progress to changes in England.

"Ed Miliband doesn't want to do that because Labour would lose their majority over English business in the House of Commons. That is the log jam the Westminster leaders got themselves into.

"There is a big issue there, but shouldn't they have thought of that before they made a solemn vow and pledge to the Scottish people."

READ MORE Ed Miliband Praises Andrew Marr's Gordon Brown impression Best Evidence Yet That Ed Miliband Really Struggles To Take A Good Photo Petition Demanding Referendum Be Re-Held Because It Was 'Rigged' Reaches 70,000 Twitter Users Try To Pass Off Photos Of London Riots As Scenes In Glasgow Gordon Brown Urges Scots To Unite As He Sets Out Vision For The Future 'We Couldn't Have Designed A Worse F*****g Campaign' #IndyRef Has Attracted The Most Voters In Scotland's History Now The North's Newspapers Have United To Demand Devolved Power

Analysis of figures from the referendum showed that "the majority of Scots up to the age of 55 voted for independence, and a majority of Scots over 55 voted against independence," Mr Salmond said.

"I think that vow was really important and the people who are really angry in Scotland today are not the Yes campaigners, our opinion of the Westminster elite is really pretty low. The people who are really angry are those people who were persuaded to vote No by that vow, by that solemn pledge and are now already beginning to feel let down, angry, disappointed because it looks like they have been tricked."

He went on: "When you have a situation where the majority of a country up to the age of 55 is already voting for independence then I think the writing is on the wall for Westminster.

"I think the destination is pretty certain, we're only debating the timescale and the method."

He restated his view that a constitutional referendum is a "once in a generation" opportunity, but added: "There are many routes to independence."

Mr Salmond said: "This is a real thing, this generational change of opinion in Scotland, and I think the writing is on the wall for Westminster. It's a question of how fast and how far we get."

He also ruled out taking a seat in the House of Lords after he steps down as First Minister.

"My policy is to abolish the House of Lords," Mr Salmond said, adding that "rocks would melt with the sun" before he would "ever set foot in the House of Lords".

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• Star Trek Series | 2151 - 2270
• Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series

How realistic was Scotty's accent?

• Thread starter BoredShipCapt'n
• Start date Dec 31, 2013

BoredShipCapt'n

Rear admiral.

• Dec 31, 2013

Could someone from Scotland please give an appraisal of James Doohan's performance on the accent? I know that there are many regional Scottish accents and certain variations of particular sounds within each, but as an ignorant American I'm curious as to whether anyone in Scotland would actually talk like Scotty. And if it's not realistic, does it sound as if he was striking a balance between authenticity (or possibly caricature) and what he thought an American audience would be able to understand? Or more as if he just wasn't doing it very well? Thanks.  

Professional Geek

IIRC, James Doohan once said (with tongue at least partly in cheek, I assume) that Scotty's accent was what a Scottish accent would sound like 200 years in the future. Truth be told, his "Scottish" dialect was about as authentic as Dick Van Dyke's "mockney" accent in Mary Poppins . Disclaimer: I'm not Scottish myself, although my name is Scot (with one T).  

Snagglepussed

Knowing various Scottish people I'd venture to say it only bears a passing resemblance to actual Scots accents.  

Greylock Crescent

I totally bought it. I first heard it when I was six.  

There were times when I thought it sounded... acceptable . Generic, but acceptable. Other times though, not so much.  

Fleet Admiral

When I met one of our actual Scottish relatives (a cousin from Glasgow) I couldn't understand a fookin' word he said!  

Chris Doohan says when he toured Scotland, the Scots loved Scotty, but said the accent was terrible. They were much more pleased with having a Scotsman being such a major character and I guess he embodied enough positive qualities that the accent was just a source of amusement. Personally, I find that the more I drink the easier it is to understand a Scot...  

The world then was full of ethnic humpr done by white guys with cheesy accents. Buddy Ebsen on the Tonight show doing his "classic bit" as a Chinese waiter or something like that. 1966, people were ok with cheesy accents. Like bad disguises on spy shows. Now that we're exposed more in US media to real people from the actual places, the old cheese hasn't aged well. Except Pegg and other true Scots sound wrong to me, raised on the glories of Jimmy Doohan. (And accents definitely change over time as Doohan asserted. My father in law, born in the US to Finnish parents, goes to Finland and he sounds hilarious to them. In the new country the language ossified as it was in 1890. In hipster Finland, it kept evolving.)  

I'm not surprised that Scotty's Scots accent was not very authentic - I've also read a number of comments on Chekov's . . . not very good Russian accent. Among other things, I enjoy old movies and I'm frequently amused by English actors speaking in their native voices, but playing German or French characters. It never seemed to bother them, or the producers. However, yesterday while watching an old Perry Mason episode, I may have heard the world's worst accent on film. The character, as described on film, was supposed to be a Welsh person, but the actor (read generic white TV character actor) was so bad with the accent, it came out as an Indian accent - and a caricature at that. ME  

Mr. Laser Beam

Craig Ferguson once said that Scotty sounded like "a Pakistani with a stroke". Makes me wonder two things: 1) what he thinks of Simon Pegg's version, and 2) would Ferguson himself have been able to play Scotty if asked? You gotta admit, Ferguson simply *looks* more like James Doohan, and has the advantage of actually being Scottish (although in Pegg's case, his wife is, and she helped him with the accent)  

As I recall (perhaps from the book Chekov's Enterprise ), Koenig said his accent was based on Lithuanian grandparents or something, not Russian. I'd have to look it up.  

I'm not sure what's worse: Scotty's Scottish accent, or Picard's French accent. Not Trek related, but Daphne's Cockney accent on Frasier is awful. A Brit friend of mine said that she sounds like a Brit, trying to sound American, trying to sound English.  

TOSalltheway

Lieutenant commander.

How French did Picard sound ? This is centuries in the future. Scotty is from Aberdeen but could have gone to school in the US, worked in Germany and had a home in Australia. All would affect his accent. Bottom line, I liked it. Don't forget in real life Doohan is from Vancouver Canada. Go Canada !  

Armored Saint

Fleet captain.

TOSalltheway said: How French did Picard sound ? This is centuries in the future. Click to expand...

Kirby said: I'm not sure what's worse: Scotty's Scottish accent, or Picard's French accent. Click to expand...

Ronald Held

Vice admiral.

I suppose that In the 23d century it would sound like a Scottish accent influenced by Federation Standard.  

Ríu ríu said: Kirby said: I'm not sure what's worse: Scotty's Scottish accent, or Picard's French accent. Click to expand...

Doh. I thought Pegg was Scottish. My wife right now, God help me, is watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks and the bad Prussian accents are flying.  

Maurice said: Knowing various Scottish people I'd venture to say it only bears a passing resemblance to actual Scots accents. Click to expand...

• Jan 1, 2014

Kirby said: Not Trek related, but Daphne's Cockney accent on Frasier is awful. A Brit friend of mine said that she sounds like a Brit, trying to sound American, trying to sound English. Click to expand...

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Star trek: 15 things you didn't know about scotty.

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Star Trek Expands Iconian Lore With Wild New Link to the Guardian of Forever

Captain kirk's "death" proves a truly dark fact about star trek's entire universe, i don't care if modern star trek breaks established canon.

The original Enterprise that we saw in  Star Trek: The Original Series   was held together with tape and string. Starships were powered by dilithium crystals, which could not be replicated and had a tendency to be temperamental.

A lot of the problems with dilithium were ironed out by the time period of  The Next Generation,  which meant that the writers needed to come up with different reasons for the ship to break down. In  The Original Series,  the Enterprise was held together by a single man, whose intimate knowledge of the workings of machinery was all that saved the crew from destruction on many occasions.

His name was Montgomery Scott, and he was one of the greatest engineers in Starfleet history. He was played by James Doohan, who had lived a fascinating life before the idea of  Star Trek ever entered Gene Roddenberry's mind.

We are here today to celebrate the life of one of the greatest  Star Trek  characters of all time, as well as the incredible man who played him.

From his current status in the canon of the series, to one of the most misquoted lines in television history, here are the  15 Things You Didn't Know About Scotty from Star Trek.

15. Scotty Is Still Alive In Star Trek Online

The  Star Trek  reboot movies established the creation of a new timeline, due to a Romulan named Nero, who went back to the past and changed history. Fans wondered if this meant that the TV shows that took place after  Enterprise  had now been wiped out from continuity. The answer lies in a video game, as the original TV show universe of  Star Trek  is continued in the world of  Star Trek Online .

Scotty froze himself in time in  The Next Generation  episode called "Relics", and thus he is still alive in  Star Trek Online , where he can be encountered in several different missions. Scotty is voiced by James Doohan's son, Christopher.

When Leonard Nimoy passed away in real life, his character was also allowed to pass away in the  Star Trek  reboot universe. Scotty is not the only living member of the original Enterprise crew, however, as Pavel Chekov has become a temporal agent.

14. The Deleted Death Of Scotty's Nephew

In  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,  there is a scene where Scotty looks on sadly as a member of the engineering crew of the Enterprise dies from wounds he suffered when the ship was attacked. Khan used the USS Reliant to attack the Enterprise and tried to incapacitate the ship by attacking the engineering section. The young engineer did not abandon his post and thus his actions may have saved the Enterprise and her crew.

The reason Scotty looks so sad (other than the fact that he's witnessing the death of a young man) is because the crew member was his nephew. The character's name was Peter Preston, and he was the youngest son of Scotty's sister.

There were scenes recorded for the movie which explained their familial link, but were later removed for the theatrical release. These scenes were added back in for certain television showings of  The Wrath of Khan , though,   and can be found in the numerous home releases of the movie.

13. James Doohan Created The Klingon Language

The Klingon language is the most widely spoken fictional language in the world. There were many episodes of  Star Trek  that featured long sections of the Klingon language being spoken by actors, with handy subtitles added for the audience. Klingon was refined by a man named Mark Okrand, who helped to develop the language for the  Star Trek  TV shows and movies.

James Doohan is the man credited with creating the Klingon language. He came up with the first few words, which were used in  Star Trek: The Motion Picture . It was these words that formed the basis for the language, which Mark Okrand used to further develop into something that could actually be used in conversation.

This was the foundation that was used to create the  Klingon Dictionary,  as well as several audiobooks that were created to help teach the language to people. These were mainly narrated by Michael Dorn, who played Worf in  Star Trek: The Next Generation .

12. The Son Of Scotty

James Doohan fathered seven children in his lifetime, the youngest of which was born in the year 2000 when he was in his eighties. One of his oldest sons is Christopher Doohan, who has appeared in numerous  Star Trek  productions.

Christopher Doohan is the guy who voices Scotty in  Star Trek Online . He has had guest appearances in  Star Trek: The Motion Picture  and the first two reboot movies. Christopher is friends with Simon Pegg, who toke over the role of Scotty in the reboot films. Pegg personally invited Christopher and his family to the premiere of  Star Trek  (200 9) .

There are many  Star Trek  fan movies and series that have been created over the years. One of the most prominent is  Star Trek Continues,  which acts as a continuation of  The Original Series . Captain Kirk is played by Vic Mignogna, who is best known for his voice-over work in anime and video games. The role of Scotty in  Star Trek Continues  is played by Christopher Doohan, who may be the best possible man for the role.

11. Craig Ferguson's Revenge

One of the main goals of  Star Trek: The Original Series  was to show people of different gender, race, and nationalities working together in harmony. This is something that the show has often been praised for, especially considering the fact that it debuted in the '60s when civil rights was a huge issue in the United States of America.

There is one problem with the respectful nature of the crew of the original Enterprise, however, and it's Scotty's accent. Any Scottish person will tell you that his accent is widely overblown and is essentially a stereotype given form.

This doesn't mean that Scotty isn't loved as a character in Scotland, but he did manage to attract a few haters in his native land. The most prominent of these is Craig Ferguson, who is now best known for hosting  The Late Late Show .

Craig Ferguson played a character named Mr. Wick in  The Drew Carey Show.  This character was an over the top stereotype of a stuffy Englishman. Ferguson has openly stated that James Doohan's horrible Scottish accent in  Star Trek  was the inspiration for the character and that his portrayal was revenge against Scotty.

10. Gene Roddenberry Wanted To Get Rid Of Scotty

Gene Roddenberry didn't create the character of Scotty in the same way that he envisioned the other members of the Enterprise crew. He did want a chief engineer, but the character wasn't intended to have a large role in the story.

James Doohan was asked to audition for a role in  Star Trek  by James Goldstone, who had worked with him previously and had him in mind for other projects. Doohan auditioned for the role and was asked to try out different accents, with the Scottish one winning out in the end.

It seems that Roddenberry wasn't too fond of the Scotty character, as he was trying to get rid of him as early as the second pilot for the show. The only reason Scotty stayed on the show was that Doohan's agent came down to the set personally and talked Roddenberry down. It took time, but Doohan's performance won Roddenberry over and he was accepted as one of the main characters on the show.

9. Scotty's Missing Finger

James Doohan was born in Canada, though his parents both emigrated from Ireland. He joined the Royal Canadian Artillery and took part in World War II. He killed two men during the Normandy Landings when his unit assaulted Juno Beach.

Doohan was accidentally shot by one of his own sentries. He was hit by six different bullets, one of which would have killed him if it weren't for a silver cigarette case within his jacket. One of these bullets went into the middle finger of his right hand, which had to be amputated.

After the war, James Doohan pursued an acting career. He generally hid his missing finger during screen productions. There are only a few scenes in  Star Trek: The Original Series  where the missing digit can be seen. The most notable is probably during "The Trouble With Tribbles", in the scene where Scotty is holding an armful of the creatures.

James Doohan became less concerned with showing his right hand in later productions, as his missing finger can be seen in several scenes in the  Star Trek: The Next Generation  episode called "Relics".

8. The Loaded Weapon Cameo

The actors who were cast in  Star Trek: The Original Series  had no idea of how the roles were going to totally change their lives. They have made no secret about how they've all become best known for their  Star Trek  roles, and how this familiarity has prevented them from getting other work. William Shatner and George Takei had to become shrieking parodies of themselves in order to be better known than Kirk and Sulu.

James Doohan had trouble finding work outside of  Star Trek  for a long time, as he had become strongly associated with the character of Scotty. This wasn't helped by the large gap of time between the end of  The Original Series  and  The Motion Picture. 

It seems that James Doohan just gave up and started playing parodies of Scotty in other productions. He played Scotty in the parody film  Loaded Weapon , where he was a police officer who needed to fix a coffee machine. This involved him shouting a lot of the dialogue that he said in  Star Trek .

7. Scotty's Ashes Needed An Engineering Department

James Doohan passed away in 2005 at the age of 85. He suffered many ailments later in life, which were partly a result of the injuries he sustained in World War II. His passing was mourned by  Star Trek  fans across the world, as well as by the entertainment industry at large.

Before he passed away, James Doohan asked for his ashes to be shot into space. This turned out to be a far bigger request than he may have realized, as it took two years for this wish to be fulfilled. In 2007, a portion of Doohan's ashes was shot into space in a capsule, which then plummeted into a desert in New Mexico. It took weeks for the capsule and the ashes to be reclaimed.

The next portion of Doohan's ashes was sent up in a rocket in 2008. This rocket failed after two minutes and his ashes were spread over Washington. The remainder of his ashes were sent up in the Falcon 9 rocket in 2012, which, thankfully, made its way into space.

6. The Relics Retcon

When Gene Roddenberry first started developing  Star Trek: The Next Generation,  he had originally intended for none of the characters or races from  The Original Series  to make an appearance. This rule didn't last long, as a Klingon now served aboard the Enterprise. The first episode also featured a guest spot from a very old Dr. McCoy. Leonard Nimoy would also reprise his role of Spock in the show.

The last member of  The Original Series  cast to appear in  The Next Generation  TV show was Scotty. It was revealed that he had kept himself alive within a transport buffer for decades.

However, Scotty quickly manages to cause an inconsistency with his first few lines of dialogue. When he discovers that the Enterprise saved him, he asks if Captain Kirk led the mission. This line doesn't make sense, as it was later established in  Star Trek Generations  that Scotty was there when Kirk was believed to have been killed during the maiden voyage of the Enterprise-B.

5. The War For Scotty's Future Birthplace

It was never clear whereabouts in Scotland that Scotty was actually born. This is due to contradictory information that was given throughout the franchise and wasn't helped by his ill-defined accent. The matter was never officially resolved within  Star Trek  canon, though the novels have given several opinions on the subject.

After James Doohan passed away in 2005, there was a bidding war between several different cities in Scotland to become known as the future birthplace of Montgomery Scott. This might seem like a crazy idea, but it is one that has already happened in Iowa. The city of Riverside proclaims itself to be the future birthplace of James T. Kirk.

The town of Linlithgow made a bid to become the future birthplace of Scotty, which included an attempt to hold the world premiere of the 2009  Star Trek  there. This ran into a hiccup when it was revealed that Linlithgow didn't even have a cinema, however.

Alas, it was the city of Aberdeen that finally won the right to call itself the future birthplace of Scotty.

4. James Doohan Saved A Suicidal Fan

Star Trek  is known for inspiring lots of different people in their careers. Whoopi Goldberg has cited Nichelle Nichols' performance as Uhura for inspiring her to become an actress. There have also been a lot of people who cite  Star Trek  as inspiring them to enter scientific, engineering, or psychiatry careers.

James Doohan once gave an interview for the movie  Trekkies , where he talked about saving a fan's life. She sent him a letter that he recognized as a suicide note. He called her to invite her to a convention. Doohan kept inviting her to conventions, in order to make sure that she was alright. She came to visit him at different conventions for two years, before cutting off contact with him.

Eight years later, the fan contacted Doohan to tell him that she had just completed her master's degree in Electrical Engineering and that his actions had saved her life.

3. Pegg's Accent

The  Star Trek  reboot movies have been set in the era of the Enterprise from  The Original Series . This means that all of the old familiar characters were recast with new actors. The role of Montgomery Scott went to Simon Pegg, who was a huge Star Trek  fan.

Pegg's casting was ironic, as he had previously written and starred in a show called  Spaced , which included a scene where he said something was ". .. sure as every odd-numbered Star Trek movie is s--t. " He would go on to play Scotty in an odd-numbered  Star Trek  movie, which turned out to be great.

Simon Pegg took the role of Scotty seriously, to the point where he actually tried to emulate a proper Scottish accent for the performance. Pegg had some help with this from his wife and her family, who are from Scotland-- he based his Scottish accent on her's and used it for his performance of Montgomery Scott.

2. The Many Voices Of The Animated Series

Star Trek: The Original Series  was canceled in 1969 after a three-season run. The show quickly found a huge audience in syndication, which began the many attempts to revive the show.  Star Trek  finally returned in 1973 as a cartoon show called  Star Trek: The Animated Series . This show brought back the original cast, who all reprised their roles and continued the five-year mission of the Enterprise.

The show had a limited budget. It is for this reason that James Doohan was called on to voice numerous different characters on the show. Along with Scotty, he also voiced Kyle, an Ancient Insectoid, a Magnetic Organism, a science officer, the Guardian of Forever, Ari bn Bem, Dramian Supreme Prefect, Kol-Tai, Dawson Walking Bear, Kukulkan, and Karl Four, among many others.

The creators of  Star Trek: The Animated Series  clearly got their money's worth with James Doohan. The majority of the female roles in the show were also voiced by Majel Barrett.

1. No One Ever Said "Beam Me Up, Scotty"

One of the most recognizable phrases in all of  Star Trek  is "beam me up, Scotty." This phrase has entered the consciousness of society in such a way that even people who have never seen  Star Trek  can pinpoint its origin. It was the phrase used by Kirk or Spock whenever they needed to be quickly beamed up off the surface of a planet, which means that it was spoken in hundreds of episodes...

Actually, it wasn't. The phrase "beam me up, Scotty" was never spoken on any  Star Trek  TV show or movie. This is an example of a popular phrase coming from nothing, such as "elementary, dear Watson" or "play it again, Sam." There were a few instances where a character spoke a similar line, such as " beam us up Mr. Scott " or " Scotty, beam us up, " but the actual full line was never spoken.

James Doohan actually named his autobiography Beam Me Up, Scotty . This is proof of how ingrained this phrase became in our minds. The actual story of James Doohan's life was given a title from a phrase that people only thought he said. It represents the part of our brain that is forever dedicated to his memorable performance as Montgomery Scott.

Can you think of any other interesting facts about  Star Trek 's Scotty? Let us know in the comments!

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Salmond has taken Scottish nationalists from margins to independence vote

Linlithgow, about 20 miles from Edinburgh, is the birthplace of two figures of world renown: Mary Queen of Scots and Scotty from Star Trek. Both have plaques commemorating their association with the town. But if on 18 September Scotland votes for the breakup of the union, Linlithgow will be able to claim another world-famous luminary, Alex Salmond .

The case for a third plaque would be overwhelming. Placed by the door of the modest council house in which he grew up – 101 Preston Road – it might read: "Born 1954, Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond, who led his country to independence."

He would not rank alongside figures such as Gandhi, George Washington or even Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera. But in historical terms he would be a tier above many of the leaders who peacefully led their countries away from Britain in the 1950s, 60s and 70s: for Salmond would have destroyed the mother country.

That Scotland is even at this point marks an extraordinary turnaround in the fortunes of the Scottish National party. When Salmond took over as leader in 1990 it was on the margins of British politics, with only three MPs (including himself). Its annual conferences were a mishmash of Highlands conservative women in tartan skirts, angry socialists from the central belt and, unique to the party, an embarrassing array of men in kilts armed with broadswords and invoking the ghosts of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.

Salmond turned them into a modern political party, one that this week forced the UK's political leaders to rush north in panic. "It is a huge achievement," said Peter Jones, one of Scotland's best-known political commentators – and one of the few who is not nationalist-leaning. "The significance of his leadership is he has been able to marry the nationalism of the heart – the kilts and broadswords – with the nationalism of the mind, which takes in economics."

Salmond is planning to spend referendum day in the Aberdeenshire village of Strichen, where he and his wife, Moira, live. The next day he is expected to be in Edinburgh. The result is due to be announced early on Friday. If it is yes, he will begin preparations to negotiate the terms of separation with the British prime minister, whoever that might be.

Few know Salmond well. Apart from his wife of more than 30 years, he confides in his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, and a handful of others, including his former party press chief, Kevin Pringle. There are few close friends. He remains an intensely private person.

When he was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, the SNP, founded in 1934, was an oddity. So why did Salmond become involved? He cites his grandfather, who filled him with stories from Scotland's history, as one of his main inspirations.

Just being in Linlithgow could also have influenced him as the town resonates with history. Linlithgow Palace is a short walk from his former home. More importantly, though, Linlithgow and the surrounding towns of West Lothian had a strong SNP presence.

"We are both Black Bitches," Tam Dalyell said of Salmond. It is the label bestowed on Linlithgow residents – a reference to the coat of arms. Dalyell, a former Labour MP for the area, first came across Salmond on a school visit.

"There was one boy who asked questions repeatedly about just one subject, prices and incomes policy, and nothing was more difficult for a Labour MP to talk about in those days," Dalyell said. The boy, inevitably, was Salmond, whom Dalyell described as "clever, precocious and bumptious".

He went on to study economics and medieval Scottish history at St Andrews University. The university at the time was strongly conservative and "nationalism was very much a minority pursuit in student politics", said Jones, a contemporary.

Jones recalled Salmond storming out of a student representative council meeting after he lost a vote. "He said later it was the only vote he ever lost." That boast will be tested on Thursday.

After university Salmond worked as an economist for the government and later the Royal Bank of Scotland, but the SNP was his passion. He became caught up the internal struggles and was expelled for his membership of a leftwing nationalist caucus, the 79 Group, but later allowed back.

I was covering politics for the Scotsman when he was elected in 1987. He had a chirpy self-confidence even then and a sense of humour, but what made him attractive to a journalist was his enthusiasm for mischief.

The last shot him to prominence in 1988 when he disrupted the Conservative budget speech. He stood up and complained about a technical point in relation to Scotland. Salmond refused to sit down, bringing proceedings to a halt, and looked bemused by the chaos he had created. He ignored SNP colleagues nervously tugging at his jacket to sit down and was eventually suspended from the Commons so the Tory chancellor, Nigel Lawson, could resume his speech. It was a gutsy act that went down well in Scotland.

There was a revealing episode in the mid-1990s when, with feelings at the party conference running high over a column I had written that was critical of the film Braveheart, the party said it would not be a good idea for me to attend. In the end I went to see Salmond in his Perth hotel room to have the "ban" lifted. He prides himself on being a pragmatic, modern nationalist but there was a rare glimpse of romantic nationalism in him. In spite of all its inaccuracies, he mounted a partial defence of Braveheart, recalling passages from Blind Harry's 15th-century epic poem on Wallace.

He was party leader at the time and was to stay until 2000. There were plenty of mistakes in that period, such as the SNP campaign slogan "Free in 93". He returned as leader in 2004, becoming Scottish first minister in 2007, a post he has held since.

Opinion about him is divided. A YouGov poll last week gave him a personal rating of minus 20 (38% trust him, 58% do not). The former Conservative foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who was in the Commons when Salmond disrupted the budget, acknowledges he is smart and politically astute but does not think there is much depth to him. "If I had to choose a single word that encapsulates my view of him, it is smug," Rifkind said.

Salmond's strategy for dealing with the Conservatives and Labour, used again in the referendum campaign to devastating effect, is one he began to develop in the 1980s: firstly, to play on Scottish dislike of Conservatives; and secondly, to portray Labour as ineffectual in defending the Scottish working class from the Conservatives. In the 1987 election Scotland returned 50 MPs. Salmond, to their irritation, dubbed them the Feeble Fifty for their inability to protect Scotland from Thatcherism.

With the SNP he has been ruthless in uniting the party, bringing an end to long-running feuds. The main split had involved fundamentalists – people such as Alex Neil, Kenny MacAskill and Jim Sillars – who wanted the focus to be purely on independence and who tended to be to the left of Salmond.

By contrast, Salmond was a gradualist who was shifting from the left to the centre. The gradualists believed in a step-by-step approach to building support for independence, one that included acceptance of devolution.

Salmond prevailed, securing the loyalty of Neil and MacAskill, in part by bringing them into his cabinet. "The idea of gradualists and fundamentalists. That is all in history," Neil said this week.

As well as the party, Salmond has imposed his will on the Scottish civil service and there have been temper outbursts and heated phone calls to people who have crossed, annoyed or disobeyed him.

Labour accuses him of portraying himself as leftwing while presiding over a government whose policies, particularly on benefits, help the middle class instead of tackling poverty.

There is an echo of this in the resignation last year of Alex Bell, Salmond's chief policy adviser, who was upset that the programme for an independent Scotland was not radical enough. "It was noticeably lacking on social policy and yet it retained a corporate tax policy which party insiders know alienates a section of leftwing/trade union voters," Bell said. "Salmond by instinct is a middle-of-the-road politician."

But Bell praised Salmond for turning the SNP into such a media-savvy operation. The party had found it hard to get a fair hearing in the Scottish media throughout most of its history, being regularly savaged. "The SNP had been through this brutalisation experience. That is why they are so slick with the media, so loyal," Bell said.

Salmond has the support of Rupert Murdoch, ensuring that at least the Scottish Sun is sympathetic. Meeting journalists out on the stump, he is often abrasive and combative, especially when taking questions from the Telegraph, Mail and, occasionally, the BBC.

But on the whole "Eck" is amiable, making time for reporters, giving spot interview after spot interview, chatting to anyone who catches his attention, whether from a major UK paper or a Netherlands radio station he has never heard of, all very different from the increasingly tightly controlled appearances of UK leaders.

Salmond will turn 60 on Hogmanay. If it is a no vote, would he be tempted to resign and make way for Sturgeon? He could spend more time betting on horses. He would still be relatively young for a politician but Moira, a former senior civil servant who largely keeps out of the public eye, is 17 years older. Might she want him to retire at last?

One of the tiny band who knows them well said that, having lived with this driven man for so long, she is unlikely at this stage to ask him to retire. Asked by the Guardian about retirement during one of the media scrums in Edinburgh, he was adamant he will see out his full term as first minister, which would take him to at least 2016. Asked if he would then make way for Sturgeon, he paused, a slight smile on his face, but did not elaborate on his intentions.

Scotland has been drifting away for decades, a move driven by de-industrialisation, by the end of empire, by Thatcher, by the breakdown in voting along sectarian lines and by disenchantment with Labour. Salmond's achievement is to have modernised the party so that it could exploit all this and, above all else, persuade Scots that independence is no longer an unthinkable option.

The pre-eminent historian of modern Scotland, Sir Tom Devine, said: "The Scottish National party between the 1960s and today has been transformed from a sect into a potent political force. To a large extent this is the result of Alex Salmond's effort to move from ethnic nationalism to civic nationalism, which polls suggest now has a very wide appeal to the Scottish people." Devine is voting yes.

When Labour set up the Scottish parliament after winning 1997 general election the Guardian quoted Tony Blair predicting, in an assessment that could turn out to be spectacularly wrong, that devolution would cement the union. Salmond, in the same Guardian report, saw it differently, predicting independence "in my lifetime".

In reality, Thursday can only be a win for Salmond. He has wrung promises from Westminster of more devolved powers. And the campaign has created a huge bloc of support for independence as well as an Obama-style grassroots organisation. Some of the young may peel away as the excitement dies but many others, radicalised by the campaign, would be thinking about next time.

There may yet be a plaque at 101 Preston Road.

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Teri Garr – Roberta Lincoln in Star Trek : Assignment Earth

One of the most successful actresses to get her start on the original Star Trek series is Teri Garr, who played Roberta Lincoln in the second season finale “Assignment : Earth”. 

This is also one of the strangest episodes of Star Trek because in many ways its not really an episode of Star Trek.  Due to poor performance NBC cancelled Star Trek during its second season.  A legendary letter writing campaign convinced NBC to commission another year, with a worse time-slot, and a much lower budget. However, before that happened Gene Roddenberry started looking for another job. 

His plan was what is known as a “back-door pilot” – that is use an episode of his existing show to preview his proposed replacement show.  In other words, make a Star Trek spinoff.

In this episode (and proposed series) a human agent named Gary Seven (played by the late Robert Lansing) has been trained by altruistic aliens to be their agent on planet Earth to prevent its destruction by nuclear apocalypse.  He meets a woman named Roberta Lincoln (played by Garr) who he assumes is another agent, but is really just a young woman looking for a job as a secretary in the office that serves as a front for the room containing his alien technology, such as a typewriter that takes voice dictation. 

The Enterprise, having travelled back in time intercepts Seven and after hijinks ensue with a couple of police officers, they assist Mr. Seven in stopping the launch of a nuclear weapons satellite.  At the end of the episode Roberta takes the job of Seven’s secretary while Kirk and Spock wish them well in their future adventures, thus setting up the Assignment Earth television series.

Ultimately NBC passed on the concept and Star Trek chugged along for another year until it ran out of steam.  The characters occasionally show up in star trek licensed media such as the Assignment Earth comic book series and the Peter David novels detailing the rise of Khan Noonian Singh (which brilliantly weave together most of the 20 th century characters from the varies series) 

Teri Garr’s relationship with Star Trek seems to have been like many connected to the show: at times it has been dismissive and resentful, and at other times warm and appreciative. 

During an infamous interview in 1990 with Starlog Magazine she said things like “I did that years ago and I mostly deny I did it” and expressed relief that Assignment Earth didn’t go to series so she could avoid a life-time of Star Trek conventions. In her 2006 autobiography “Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood” she describes Roberta Lincoln as an important break thru in her career and a steppingstone to some of the comedy parts she was later cast in.

During the early 1970s she was often typecast as what she describes as “ditsy blonds” in sitcoms, but these jobs led her to Mel Brooks who cast her as Inga, a blond bombshell with an absurd eastern European accent in the comedy “Young Frankenstein”. 

In the late 1970s her career progressed to more serious work, and she returned to science fiction in the landmark film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” directed by Steven Spielberg, although in that infamous Starlog interview she claimed she didn’t think of that film as being science fiction. 

By the early 1980s her career had progressed to the point where she was cast in the Dustin Hoffman film “Tootsie”.  It was for this film she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (she lost to Jessica Lange who also appeared in the film). 

It was during the making of Tootsie that her life started an enormous change.  While making the film in New York she went jogging in central park and started feeling tingling in her leg.  Over the next two decades she would have progressively worse symptoms until a doctor finally diagnosed her with Multiple Sclerosis in 1999.   In 2007 she suffered a brain aneurysm unrelated to MS and was in a coma.  For decades her witty banter made her a favourite guest of David Letterman who asked her on the show many times, and she triumphantly made a return appearance in 2008 making fun of her medical ailments, although noticeably walking with a limp.  Reportedly her symptoms have worsened in recent years to the point where she often uses a wheelchair and a personal support worker.

Evidently, she was feeling well enough to deal with fan mail as this week I received three autographed photos of her as Roberta Lincoln.  If there is any remaining resentment of Star Trek, she does not take it out on the fans who ask her to sign things.

As you can see from these images her signature has become a bit rough as her symptoms have worsened.  Under the circumstances I would not have blamed her for throwing my envelope in the garbage.  If I was in my mid 70s with major health setbacks, I do not imagine I would want to sign 50-year-old photographs.  Never-the-less I will put these on the wall and treasure them, just like I treasure this show.

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Published by jordandrewdotca

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