Since 1965, when James Doohan stepped in front of the cameras for the second Star Trek pilot episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” science fiction history was forever changed. But although he was the chief engineer of the Enterprise, Montgomery Scott wasn’t a major character at the beginning of Star Trek history. Yes, Scotty is famous in the culture because of the phrase “beam me up Scotty,” even though that phrase was never actually uttered in any Star Trek thing to date. He’s also famous as the guy you call to give you more power, who pushes back on all those power demands. In this way, Scotty is a paradox: He both pushes back on the strains that various characters put on the mechanisms he’s tasked to maintain, but he also produces miracles out of those machines.
“I like the idea of thinking of him as a car mechanic,” actor Martin Quinn tells Inverse. “But is Scotty working class? Is that even a thing in the Star Trek future?”
