Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will be the first time a Scottish actor will play the role of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, and new-ish recruit Martin Quinn wants to make sure he's doing it right. The actor recently revealed that during the filming for Season 3, he'd made suggestions about how to make his character more authentic and perhaps a bit less stereotypical than past iterations of the chief engineer. Naething wrong wi' that!
Quinn recently spoke to The BBC about following in the footsteps of Trek vets such as James Doohan and Simon Pegg in portraying Scotty, and his experience thus far on the show. Quinn first appeared during Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Season 2 ending and he'll have a larger presence in Season 3 of the upcoming Trek series. In the interview, the actor revealed some of the smaller ways he's trying to make the role feel more authentic during production, and the efforts being made by the writing staff. In his words:
They let me put in the word 'baw-heid' instead of 'turnip-heid. Maybe they think all Scottish people are farmers? But they were very gracious about it. And [the writers] are wanting to be authentic to Scotland as well, and that's really nice - not everyone's like that.
Martin Quinn and the writers have made some tweaks to make Scotty at least sound more Scottish, which is something fans from the country will likely appreciate, since even the best performative accent only goes as far as how valid the vocabulary is. I'd imagine we'll be seeing a lot more of the character in Season 3 and beyond, as showrunner Henry Alonso Myers previously said the goal was to put the original Star Trek characters on the ship before they become their actualized selves.
With the news that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was renewed for Season 4, Scotty will definitely have more time to become the miracle worker chief engineer that fans know too well. For a little while he'll have the support of his former instructor and current Enterprise chief engineer Pelia, played by the legendary actress Carol Kane. Martin Quinn seems to be enjoying the job so far, but did mention there are some hiccups in being one of the only Scottish actors on the crew:
I'm constantly having to enunciate because I don't think they know what I'm saying. It’s trying to find the balance, because it’s not just Scottish people watching this TV show, but I want to be as authentic as possible to how I speak.
I can't fault him for that, and seeing as Outlander is a hit show primarily set in Scotland, I think audiences outside of the country are able to adapt to his voice regardless. I'm eager to see him and the cast back in new episodes, and I'm still crossing my fingers we can get at least one episode released before 2025.
Martin Quinn's quotes about keeping Scotty authentic are interesting, and it leads me to wonder what other ways TOS characters may change as they are introduced in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. (Will Spock be "more Vulcan" or something?) That said, this change stems more from Quinn' attempting to correct the misguided attempts to create a character previously portrayed as Scottish, so it remains to be seen if other characters will change at all when they're brought in.
As fans wait for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, they can stream the previous two seasons with a Paramount+ subscription. Of course, they can also catch the final season of Discovery, which is streaming new episodes on Thursdays.
