Montgomery Scott, usually known as Scotty, is a character in Star Trek: The Original Series, played by James Doohan. He served as the Starship Enterprise's chief engineer, spoke with a thick Scottish accent, and was seen as a "miracle-worker". The character was reportedly born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He appeared in the first seven Star Trek movies, and an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Relics". Scott held the rank of lieutenant commander during the original series, had been promoted to commander by the time of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and received a promotion to captain in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

Scotty's role in operating the Enterprise transporter system inspired the popular catch phrase "Beam me up, Scotty", which gained currency in popular culture even beyond Star Trek fans, though that exact phrase was never heard in any episode of the show.

Scotty also became a kind of general cliché for any chief engineer in the movie genre of science fiction parodies. It has also become something of a cliché for starship engineers to be Scottish - even Star Trek: The Next Generation briefly had a Scottish engineer aboard the Enterprise-D.

Continuity questions

Scotty's appearance at the christening of the Enterprise-B (Star Trek: Generations) raises some continuity questions. He had last appeared in the Next Generation episode "Relics", shot before anyone began exploring the subject of the final fate of the original crew. When rescued by William T. Riker and Geordi La Forge and upon hearing the name Enterprise, he immediately assumed that Captain Kirk came to the rescue yet again. Since Scotty's disappearance would obviously have to take place after he witnessed the loss of Kirk, it is generally assumed that in his old age, he either forgot about Kirk's loss, simply does not wish to acknowledge or believe it (Kirk having defied death a number of times), or that his stay in the 24th century was brief and he eventually returned to the 23rd century prior to the events of 2293. Additionally, one should bear in mind that Scotty does drink a lot.

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