Part of the fun of watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds over the past two seasons is how the series connects to the overall Trek canon. Especially the original Star Trek, for which the storylines on Strange New Worlds are barreling towards. So far, Strange New Worlds has five regular and recurring cast members who were part of the classic ‘60s crew—Spock, Uhura, Chapel, M’Benga, and on occasion, James T. Kirk. In the season two finale, “Hegemony” they introduce us to yet another iconic member of the Enterprise crew, Montgomery Scott. Played originally by James Doohan, then Simon Pegg, Scotty is played now on Strange New Worlds by 29-year-old Scottish actor Martin Quinn.
Mr. Scott Joins the Strange New Worlds Cast
We meet Scotty in “Hegemony” as a brilliant young engineer who becomes stranded on the planet Parnassus Beta when the reptilian Gorn ravaged the colony world. A lieutenant junior grade, Scotty encounters Pike and his landing party on a rescue mission. Pike’s away team then falls into a Gorn “trap” he set, while sheltering in an abandoned building. We learn he was assigned to the U.S.S. Stardiver, a solar research vessel. The Gorn ambushed the Stardiver in a surprise attack, and Scotty escaped in a shuttle he jury-rigged to increase its warp capacity to Parnassus Beta.
Much like Ellen Ripley in Alien, he was the sole survivor of this attack on his ship by an aggressive non-humanoid species. With his technical know-how, Scotty was then able to help Pike and the Parnassus survivors beam back to the Enterprise. There, he meets the Enterprise’s current Chief Engineer Pelia (Carol Kane), and we discover the two actually have quite a history. When Pelia was an instructor at Starfleet Academy, she was Scotty’s professor. In fact, she describes Mr. Scott as “one of my best students, who sadly received some of my worst grades.”
Does Scotty’s Appearance on Strange New Worlds Line Up With Star Trek Canon?
We don’t know a whole lot about Mr. Scott’s past before becoming Captain Kirk’s chief engineer on the Enterprise. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Relics,” an elder Scotty explained to Captain Picard that in his 51-year career, he served on 11 different ships. Some were cruisers, others freighters, and of course, some Federation starships. He mentioned that he only served as Chief Engineer on two vessels—the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701, and its successor ship, the Enterprise NCC-1701-A. However young he may appear on Strange New Worlds, he’s likely already served on nine other ships besides the Stardiver.
Will Martin Quinn Join Strange New Worlds as a Regular Cast Member?
We think it’s likely Martin Quinn will join the cast of Strange New Worlds in season three, probably as a junior officer working in engineering. Although, nothing has been confirmed so far. Given his prickly relationship with Pelia, that would result in a lot of interesting stories. We could see her training him for his eventual role as the Enterprise’s Chief Engineer under Kirk. Although we imagine that would still be several seasons away from happening. The arrival of Scotty to Strange New Worlds leaves only three major crew members from classic Star Trek who have yet to appear in the series. That’s Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, Hikaru Sulu, and Pavel Chekov. Hopefully, though, we don’t see all of them on Strange New Worlds.
Chekov was a very young ensign who joined Kirk’s crew in season two of Star Trek. So it wouldn’t make sense to see him at all. As for Sulu and Bones, we hope that if we do see them, they don’t become part of Pike’s crew. Kirk needs to have some officers of his own choosing when he takes over the Enterprise from Pike. It would be a disservice if all his main crew were just holdovers from Pike’s days. Still, we can’t wait to see Scotty meet his future commanding officers Spock and Kirk in season three. We have a feeling even the young Mr. Scott will earn his reputation as an engineering “miracle worker” early on.
Originally published on August 10, 2023.
