Movies - TV
Star Trek’s Gene Roddenberry Shouldn’t Get Credit For Creating Scotty
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
While Gene Roddenberry was responsible for creating the original "Star Trek" series and played a significant role in its development, he can't take credit for everything.
Roddenberry’s original pilot was rejected for being too cerebral and not action-packed enough, leaving the creator to invent several characters in a hurry.
Roddenberry had actor James Doohan audition for the part, which still had no name or nationality. Doohan pulled from his experiences in the army to create Scotty.
During Doohan’s time in the Canadian army during World War II, the actor worked alongside a Scottish soldier from Aberdeen, who became the inspiration for his character’s accent.
Although Scottish people could tell Doohan was doing an accent, many U.S. viewers (and some filmmakers) assumed that he was actually Scottish.
This misapprehension ultimately cost Doohan jobs. After "Star Trek" was canceled in the early 1970s, he auditioned for a movie, and he could tell he had been typecast.