Why Fans Actually Loved Scotty's Terrible Accent In Star Trek: The Original Series
In the final episode of the second season of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," called "Hegemony," audiences were introduced to a young Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, played by actor Martin Quinn. Scotty was, of course, the chief engineer on the starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek," and was played by actor James Doohan. In a truly novel casting twist, however, Quinn is actually from Scotland, having grown up in the Gallowhill area of Paisley. Doohan was Canadian, affecting a broad Scottish dialect for the role. Simon Pegg, who played Scotty in the notorious Kelvin timeline movies, is from Gloucestershire in England. His Scots accent was a little better.
For many American and Canadian viewers of the original "Star Trek," Doohan's Scottish brogue was taken as 100% accurate. One can only assume none of them had met an actual Scot, however, as reports from the Isles describe Doohan's accent as pretty unilaterally terrible: a broad amalgamation of Scottish sounds that don't follow any known local sounds. Indeed, The Scotsman once listed Doohan's as one of the worst Scottish accents in all media. When confronted by his vocal choices at conventions, Doohan would defend himself by saying that "Star Trek" is set in the 23rd century, and Scottish people will sound a little different by then. This is a diplomatic and fair assessment.
Despite being wholly inaccurate, fans tend to love Doohan's Scots accent. Scottish people, you see, weren't well represented in popular media in 1969 (when "Star Trek" began airing in the UK), and many locals celebrated his very existence, even if the accent was off. According to a report in Polygon, several Scottish towns claimed to be the future birthplace of Montgomery Scott.
The origins of Scotty
Scotty was a capable and respected character, which is one thing that Scots liked about him. Doohan initially came up with his Scottish accent by imitating a fellow soldier, a man from Aberdeen, when he was serving in the Canadian army in World War II. Indeed, it was Doohan's idea, not Gene Roddenberry's, to make the Enterprise's Engineer Scottish, and to name him Montgomery Scott. By that estimation, Scotty, the character, was born in Aberdeen — a fact born out by a line of dialogue in "Wolf in the Fold" (December 22, 1967) when he describes himself as "an old Aberdeen pub-crawler." In "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," Scotty is said to be from Edinburgh, although that was part of a made-up cover story.
There are no actual canonical documents declaring what city Montgomery Scott was born in, leaving real towns in Scotland open to make the claim. According to a 2005 report in the Guardian, four cities have made claim to Scotty: Aberdeen, Linlithgow, Elgin, and Edinburgh. Linlithgow was the first to make the claim, on the basis that "Star Trek" writer D.C. Fontana said that Scotty was from Linlithgow. The town has gone so far as to put a plaque up in honor of its future heritage, along with a countdown clock on the museum website, waiting for the time when Scotty will be born. At last count, we're 198 years away.
Citing the canonical dialogue, Aberdeen made the claim next, and a local minister has suggested the city put up its own plaque in Scotty's honor. Elgin, meanwhile, claims to have heard an interview with Doohan where the actor said Scott was from "Elgin, near Aberdeen." The two towns are about 66 miles apart. Edinburgh only made a claim because of a claim on a now-defunct, unauthorized sci-fi website.
Linlithgow adopts Scotty as its honorary native son
Representatives for Elgin, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen said in 2005 — the year Doohan passed — that they were considering plaques. Only Linlithgow has continued to roll with the claim, pushing itself harder than the other three towns to be known as the future birthplace of Montgomery Scott. According to TrekMovie, when James' son, Chris Doohan, visited Linlithgow, they noted that James' accent was kind of fake-sounding and certainly not authentic, but that they didn't care. The town's provost stated that Doohan's fake accent was one of the things they liked best about Scotty.
And, indeed, despite its lack of authenticity, Trekkies the world over have come to associate his bizarre brogue with the character. It was certainly enough to fool casting coordinators in Canada and American, who assumed that Doohan was Scottish. In an interview with Sci-Fi Online, conducted sometime in 2002, Doohan said that certain agents turned him away because they didn't have a part for a Scotsman. No one could believe that he was Canadian.
Doohan was a talented voice actor, of course, and played multiple roles throughout "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Animated Series." In addition to Scotty, he played the voice of Sargon, a tyrannical intelligence stored in a computer in "Return to Tomorrow." He played computers, insectoid aliens, intelligent plants, magnetic clouds, Andorians, Klingons, Vulcans, fish men, the Guardian of Forever, the White Rabbit, ancient gods, and Satan himself.
All told, Doohan has played 54 roles in "Star Trek," a record.