Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
Like, what if his name just happens to be Montgomery Scott, so all of his friends started calling him “Scotty,” and then every time he was introduced to a new person, they would be like “Oh, are you Scottish? My uncle was Scottish!”
And finally, he just gets sick of explaining the situation, so he starts replying with “aye, laddie!” But then it turns out that the person he said that to was Captain Kirk, and he doesn’t want to admit that he lied to his new commanding officer, so he has to keep speaking in a ridiculously over-the-top brogue and commenting constantly on how much he loves drinking Scotch, and by the time that he realises that Kirk would have found humour in the situation, he’s in too deep and can’t stop pretending, and it gradually just becomes his normal speech pattern.
Then, years later, the Enterprise is being inspected by a Starfleet engineer who’s actually Scottish, and Scotty takes him on a walking tour of his warp engines and is all like “Auch! Here be me wee bairns!” and the other engineer is just like “what the fuck is wrong with you?”
I take the fact that James Doohan is Canadian as evidence of this theory.
Scotty hacking into his Starfleet personnel file to alter his place of birth.
Scotty soundproofing his quarters on the Enterprise so that no one can hear him teach himself to play the bagpipes from instructional videos.
Scotty making a great show of taking a shuttle down to Aberdeen to “visit his family” every time the Enterprise is in Earth orbit and then, once on the ground, discreetly site-to-site transporting himself to Vancouver or whatever.
None of these things are out of character or beyond his technical ability.
Yeah, but also in character: Jim Kirk has known since Day 1 that Scotty is not, in fact, Scottish, but is just sitting there waiting to see how far Scotty is willing to go to keep the story going. It started out as an “enough rope” situation but now it’s one of Jim’s greatest ongoing sources of entertainment and he wouldn’t admit at gunpoint that he knows.
Honestly, Kirk would actively claim to have met Scotty’s Extremely Scottish Family/visited them in Aberdeen just to keep it going.
Frankly, as someone who’s paternal side is all Scottish, I simply can’t see any Scottish person not seeing this situation and running with it.
Next thing Scotty knows, half of Scottish Starfleet is claiming to be his brother’s sister-in-law’s half cousin twice removed and the Loch Ness Monster has been painted on the door to his quarters.
Jim: Loves them! Carries them around in an improvised baby sling. Tries to teach them warp theory. Ultimately accidently kills them.
McCoy: “Well, we can’t just abandon them, Spock!” Keeps them in a tank in the medbay. Grumbles about them to Jim at every opportunity. Happily talks at them when no one else is around. Chapel overhears, but saves the info for a special occasion.
Spock: is very dubious about this, but recognizes that leaving them behind would violate the Prime Directive. Does extensive research and sets up a habitat for them in his quarters. Plays Vulcan music for them. Absolutely does NOT talk to them about his hopeless crush on Jim.
I think that part of the brilliance of Trek is represented by Arena. If someone asked me to define Trek in one episode I simply would refuse because I don’t think that’s fair, but Arena lies there as the representation of not fulfilling the expectations of the common audience, both in the 60s and in 2021. Arena is the episode where everything is set to end up in a bloodshed. The title itself evokes violence. No one is going to an arena to make peace. Arenas are meant for competitions, for fighting, for winners and losers. Arenas don’t have a lot in common with equality, one must win, the other must lose. And based on that, the episode begins. There’s fighting, there’s violence. Everything the audience expected, obviously. And we think, even Spock thinks, “Go, Kirk, get Gorn” because it’s what we do since we were kids in P.E., we choose a team, we root for the other one to be defeated. That’s the culture that brought us the wonders of sports and the tragedies of wars. But then, Trek shift gears. Kirk doesn’t defeat Gorn nor he is defeated. “How is that possible?”. The expectations of the audience are no longer fulfilled. Arena becomes the representation of the fight between unnecessary violence and peace. Peace is, ultimately, the winner, not Kirk, not Gorn. When peace wins, both sides win. Everyone wins. So Arena is built to look like a fun episode where the great Kirk defeats an ugly alien, but hidden in its core it’s the compassion that makes Kirk great and a question directed at the audience, the audience that was expecting what we were told to expect, and the question is: “Can you see that there is another way?”. Arena couldn’t define all that Trek is, but it was and it is a symbol of how brilliantly Trek brought a possibility opposed to what we usually expect. It brought an alternative.
