star trek scotty right hand

The Real Reason Scotty From Star Trek Is Missing A Finger

"Star Trek" was one of the most revolutionary shows of its time. Its plot helped to not only inspire future fiction writers, but influence real-world scientists, engineers, and astronomers as well (via NASA ). The show also has a connection to the civil rights movement, having earned Martin Luther King Jr. as a fan. Cast member Nichelle Nichols was even  convinced by King to remain on the show , as she was one of the few African American women on television at the time. While the original series only lasted three seasons, it inspired a massive franchise of other Star Trek TV series and films. 

One quality of the original series that seldom gets appropriate attention, however, relates to the character of Montgomery Scott — "Scotty,” the chief engineer, played by James Doohan. While the character canonically always had his digits, Doohan himself had by then lived for years without his right middle finger. During production he even utilized body doubles and camerawork to conceal his missing appendage (for the sake of continuity; per StarTrek.com he never hid it in real life). Its absence was in fact the most visible of several injuries he received during his World War II military service on D-day (via All That's Interesting ). 

James Doohan lost his finger while invading Normandy

Despite the characteristic Scottish accent he used in the show, James Doohan was in fact born in Vancouver , Canada (via Today I found Out ). In the buildup to the European Theater of World War II Doohan became an artilleryman in the Canadian army, earning the rank of Lieutenant. In 1944, he was one of the soldiers set to land at Juno Beach during the invasion of Normandy, as this was the only beach to be assaulted by the Canadian army, rather than the Americans or British. 

After disembarking from their landing craft, Doohan himself killed two German snipers as the Canadian troops did their best to navigate a minefield. As the sun faded and the fighting continued, a Canadian machine gun mistakenly fired on Doohan (via The Vintage News ). He was hit four times in the leg, once in the finger, and once in a cigarette case, which spared him an otherwise fatal chest wound. After his recovery Doohan became a pilot, flying light aircraft for the remainder of the war (via World War Wings ).

10 Behind The Scenes Reasons For Star Trek Characters' Quirks

4. scotty's right hand.

In the Original Series and most of the TOS era movies, Scotty rarely allows his right hand to be in frame. His left hand features prominently in almost all shots, as James Doohan did not want to display his other hand. He had served during the Allied Invasion of Normandy on D-Day and, during combat, his right middle finger had been severed.

Although there are scenes in the early years where, for one reason or another, the hand manages to slip into frame, it would not be until Star Trek V: The Final Frontier that Doohan seemed to relax his attempts to conceal it. While he stands with Uhura on the bridge, discussing shore leave and about to tuck into a lunch of rations, his right hand is clearly visible, missing finger and all.

Though up to this point he had mostly used hand doubles during filming, there was a scene in The Trouble with Tribbles where the missing digit was noticeable while Scotty held a huge armful of Tribbles. In The Next Generation episode Relics, he also doesn't try to hide it while sharing a drink with Picard on the holodeck.

Writer. Reader. Host. I'm Seán, I live in Ireland and I'm the poster child for dangerous obsessions with Star Trek. Check me out on Twitter @seanferrick

• Warfare History

From Killing Nazis to Klingons: James Montgomery Doohan

“ Beam me up, Scotty ” is probably Star Trek’s most iconic phrase, instantly conjuring up the Enterprise’s miracle worker chief engineer, who commanded the spaceship and recorded its log when the captain and first officer were absent. The franchise’s second most memorable phrase is probably “ I’m giving it all she’s got, captain! She can’nae take any more! “, delivered in a thick Scottish burr by the Enterprise’s engineer.

In real life, James Montgomery Doohan (1920 – 2005), the actor who played Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, did not have a Scottish accent, and was not even from Scotland. Instead, Doohan was a Canadian who had earned a reputation as the most versatile voice actor in the business before he was cast for his defining role in Star Trek. Before he took up acting, however, Doohan had been a real life, honest to goodness, World War II badass who personally killed Nazis in combat, was struck by bullets multiple times on D-Day, and had a middle finger shot off.

From Science Nerd to Hitting the Beach on D-Day

Doohan was the youngest of four children born to Irish immigrants in Vancouver, British Colombia. His mother was a homemaker, while his father made a living as a dentist, veterinarian, and pharmacist who owned and operated a chemist shop. Doohan’s dad was an enterprising and talented amateur scientist, who reportedly invented an early form of octane gas in 1923. However, he was also a serious alcoholic, and the heavy drinking got in the way of success, and kept him from following up on his discovery and cashing in.

Jimmy Doohan took up after his father in his love of science, and enrolled in a technical high school where he excelled at science and mathematics. He also joined the Royal Canadian Cadet Corps – Canada’s version of high school ROTC – in 1938. The Second World War kicked off a year later, and Doohan went from playing soldier in high school to the real thing, joining the Royal Canadian Artillery early in the conflict. He was first assigned to the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division’s 14th (Midland) Field Battery, before he was commissioned as a lieutenant and assigned to the 3rd Canadian Division’s 14th Field Artillery Regiment.

His unit was shipped to England in 1940, where the Canadians spent the next few years garrisoning the British Isles against a German onslaught, and training for an eventual invasion to retake Europe from the Nazis. Other than for a failed raid on Dieppe in 1942 that turned into a catastrophe, and which Doohan luckily missed, the Canadian ground forces saw next to no combat. Eventually, they started getting antsy after years of constant training with little action, and from the snide comments directed their way, sarcastically referring to them as “ the world’s best trained soldiers “.

Doohan and the Canadian ground formations finally got their first taste of combat in the Normandy Invasion, when they landed at Juno Beach on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. They were supposed to land in the predawn darkness, but rough sea conditions ended up delaying their amphibious assault until well after sunrise on D-Day. Doohan and his comrades were undaunted, and years later, he described the experience of being on a landing craft as it approached the enemy shore: “ We were more afraid of drowning than we were of the Germans “.

He had cause for confidence, as the superbly trained Canadians turned out to be more than a match for the German defenders. However, it was no cakewalk. For one thing, the invasion planners had overestimated the effectiveness of heavy aerial bombardment that had targeted the beaches in the days and weeks leading up to the invasion. It was assumed that the aerial raids would have destroyed or seriously damaged the German fortifications, and inflicted such heavy losses so as to enable the attackers to advance against relatively little opposition. Those estimates turned out to be overly optimistic, and things did not work out quite that way on the actual day of battle.

NEXT >>

D-Day Badass

Intense Allied aerial attacks in the runup to D-Day wreaked havoc on German infrastructure, road and rail transport, and communications hubs throughout Normandy and Northern France. However, bombing proved largely ineffective against the actual defenders on the beaches targeted for amphibious attacks on June 6th, and left them mostly unscathed. The first wave of Canadians to disembark were mowed down by Germans firing from heavily fortified and well situated positions overlooking the beach.

The attackers were temporarily pinned down by intense fire, and their advance came to a halt until they were saved by the timely intervention of a British cruiser, HMS Ajax . The Ajax’s guns blasted the defenders and wrecked their positions from what amounted to point blank range for naval fire, long enough for the Canadians to move inland. Doohan led his men over the wet sands, which were strewn with antitank mines that luckily did not go off because the men did not weigh enough to trigger them.

His unit was tasked with securing the Caen-Bayeux road, and with capturing an airport west of Caen, a key city whose capture would bedevil the Allies for a considerable time to come. As Doohan’s unit made its way off Juno Beach and to higher ground inland, he came across and personally killed a pair of German snipers. Despite the early difficulties on the beach that morning, he and his men managed to secure their assigned D-Day objectives by noon of June 6th.

However, chaos reigned on the landing beaches behind them, as reinforcements and follow up units arrived faster than the beach masters, tasked with directing them to their destinations, could handle them. Soon, there was a huge snarl on the beaches and throughout much of the ground recently liberated by the Allies, as different units were jammed next to and mixed with each other. It was not just messy, but also dangerous. Without well defined unit boundaries, jittery troops, many of them experiencing combat for the first time, were liable to shoot up their comrades, mistaking them for Germans. Doohan would experience that firsthand.

Around 11:30PM on D-Day, Doohan was making his way to a command post, when a nervous Canadian sentry opened up on him with a burst from a Bren gun. He was struck by six bullets, four of them hitting his legs, one striking his chest, and one shooting off the middle finger of his right hand. It could have been worse: the bullet that hit him in the chest was deflected by a silver cigarette case, a gift from his brother. As Doohan joked about it in later years, smoking had actually saved his life. It was no joking matter at the time, however, as he writhed in pain while being rushed to a hospital to get his wounds treated.

<< Previous

From Fighting to Fame

After recovering from his injuries, Doohan signed up for pilot training to fly an artillery observer aircraft. After getting his wings, he was assigned to fly a Taylorcraft Auster Mark V plane for No. 666 Aerial Observation Post Squadron, and served in that billet until war’s end. Although he was technically not a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Doohan earned a reputation as “ the craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Force “. Among other things, he once got in serious trouble for slaloming his plane between telegraph posts, just “ to prove it could be done “.

Back home after the war, Doohan resumed his technical education, but after hearing crappy voice acting in a radio drama, he figured he could do better. He turned out to be right, helped in no small part by a talent for doing accents that he had since childhood. So Doohan went to a drama school in Toronto, then earned a scholarship to study drama in New York City. By 1946, he had secured several radio roles with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Over the next few years, he shuttled between Toronto and NYC as work demanded, eventually performing in what he estimated to have about 4000 radio gigs, and 450 TV ones.

By the 1960s, he was making regular appearances on TV, with credits including The Twilight Zone , Bonanza , Bewitched , The Fugitive , The Outer Limits , and Hazel . His big break came when he auditioned for the role of chief engineer in Star Trek , and producer Gene Rodenberry asked him what accent best suited the role. “ If you want an engineer, in my experience the best engineers are Scottsmen “, was Doohan’s reply.

Doohan was cast as the Enterprise’s engineer in the series’ second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before , with the name Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, after the actor’s grandfather. Scotty spoke in an Aberdeen accent that Doohan had once heard, but he almost ended up cut from the show after Rodenberry had second thoughts, and wrote to tell him : “ We don’t think we need an engineer in the series “. The character remained only after Doohan’s agent intervened.

Scotty became one of Star Trek’s defining characters, with a depth of technical savvy that frequently allowed him to come up with creative and unconventional fixes to solve seemingly insurmountable problems. He frequently bridged the gap between Captain Kirk’s ambitious plans and his ship’s capabilities, encapsulated by the iconic phrases: “ I’m giving it all she’s got, captain! She can’nae take any more! ” Moreover, with an identity strongly connected to the Enterprise , Scotty brought the inanimate ship to life as a character in of its own right.

By the third season, Rodenberry was glad that he had kept him in the show, writing in a memo that Doohan was: “ capable of handling everything we throw at him “, and praising “ the dour Scott “. After the series ended, however, Doohan discovered that rather than furthering his career, his successful role as Scotty had typecast him, and he had difficulty getting different roles. He eventually accepted that he would “ always be Scotty “, and made a living from personal appearances – one of the few cast members who actually enjoyed meeting fans and talking about the Star Trek days. He lived to age 85, dying in 2005 from pulmonary fibrosis, caused by exposure to harmful substances in WWII.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­____________

Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources & Further Reading

Turner Classic Movies – James Doohan

Internet Movie Database – James Doohan Biography

Star Trek – Doohan, James

War History Online – Star Trek Star Shot Two Snipers on D-Day and Was Shot Seven Times in WWII

Wikipedia – James Doohan

Gene Roddenberry Isn't Who We Should Be Thanking For Star Trek's Scotty

The legend is well-known to Trekkies. When actor James Doohan was first hired to play Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on the original "Star Trek" series, show creator Gene Roddenberry asked the actor to perform his audition using multiple accents, a talent Doohan had always tried to cultivate . After cycling through his catalog of regional dialects, Roddenberry asked Doohan which of the voices he liked best, and which one was most befitting of a futuristic engineer. Doohan said that he liked his Scots accent best, saying that he felt Scotland created the best engineers. Perhaps Doohan was thinking of Alexander Graham Bell, James Watt, or, most likely, Sir William Fairbairn; Doohan cited Scotland's many notable shipbuilders as his primary inspiration. Once the dialect was settled, the character emerged. Doohan claims to have named the character Montogmery Scott himself, after his own grandfather.

Some Scottish "Star Trek" fans have noted that Doohan's accent, while acceptable, is hardly authentic. His Scots accent, it has been indicated, is sort of an amalgam of sounds from around the Isles, with  The Scotsman comparing it to Dick Van Dyke's weirdly Australian-sounding cockney accent in "Mary Poppins." Doohan, at conventions, defended his accent by saying it's the way Scots will sound in several centuries' time. Accents, after all, do evolve. Many people in the U.S., meanwhile, were hoodwinked by Doohan's Scots voice. According to Marc Cushman's invaluable book "These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s, Volume 1 (1970-75),"  Doohan shocked several U.S. casting agents, post "Star Trek," by revealing he was, in fact, Canadian.

So it seems that Roddenberry gave little input into the process of inventing Scotty. He knew that the Enterprise needed an engineer, and that's kind of where his input stopped. 

The second Star Trek pilot

It's worth remembering that the "Star Trek" we all know and love was born of a secondary pilot. Then original pilot — the one with Captain Pike — was rejected for being too cerebral and not action-packed enough. Only Spock ( Leonard Nimoy ) was carried over from the original pilot into the secondary one with Captain Kirk. It seems Roddenberry needed to invent several characters in a hurry, likely assembling his new ensemble in less time than he had to construct his first. Hence the Enterprise's engineer didn't have a name or nationality while auditions were being held.

Doohan was a soldier in the Canadian army during World War II and stormed the Normandy beach on D-Day. In his memoir, "Beam Me Up, Scotty,"  Doohan tells the story of how a nervous Canadian sentry accidentally opened fire on him, shooting him in the legs, chest, and right middle finger. A cigarette case blocked the bullet to his chest, but he did lose his finger in the accident. Doohan always kept his right hand turned away from the camera throughout "Star Trek," so that no one would not notice his injury. He occasionally wore a flesh-colored glove to hide it as well.

It was during his army service, according to an interview with Sci-Fi Online , that Doohan learned his Scots accent. He worked alongside a Scottish soldier from Aberdeen, and his Montgomery Scott voice was largely an imitation of that soldier. Inspired by a military friend, his talent for accents, and his admiration for Scots, Scotty was born. Roddenberry, it seems, merely rubber-stamped all these decisions.

Other small pieces of Doohan's personal life also began to infiltrate Scotty. According to the same interview with Sci-Fi Online, Scotty was said to subscribe to various technical journals once the "Star Trek" writers learned that Doohan had similar subscriptions in real life.

'We don't have a part for a Scotsman'

As noted above, Doohan's accent was so striking that it caused many U.S. viewers to assume that he was actually Scottish, a misapprehension that ultimately cost the actor jobs. Doohan noted that in the early 1970s, after "Star Trek" had been canceled, he auditioned for a movie, and the filmmakers greeted him with language that suggested pretty clearly that he had been typecast. Doohan said in the Sci-Fi Online interview:

"I did a movie called ' Man in the Wilderness' in Spain with Richard Harris in 1971. When I came back, I would go to producers' offices to read for parts and the secretaries would say, 'Oh, hi Scotty!' and everything else. And then the producers would say, 'I'm sorry, but we don't have a part for a Scotsman.' I only did a Scottish accent once before ' Star Trek ,' and that included 450 live television shows and 4,000 radio shows! But by 1972 I had been typecast and was flat broke! Fortunately, I was able to make a living out of personal appearances."

Doohan's accent was, then, a blessing and a curse. However, he noted that he was relieved when, in 1978, Paramount decided to start making "Star Trek" movies. Since the original series paid so little, he was happy to finally use his status as Scotty to finally make a little money.

Here's a fun piece of trivia: In the 1950s, Doohan appeared as a character named Timber Tom in the Canadian version of "Howdy Doody." At the exact same time, in the U.S. version of "Howdy Doody," a character named Ranger Bill was played by Doohan's future "Star Trek" co-star William Shatner .

Actor James Doohan Dies Star Trek's Scotty was 85

Redmond, WA – Actor James Doohan, best known as Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, the chief engineer of the starship Enterprise on the sci-fi series Star Trek , died on Wednesday, July 20. Doohan, who was 85, passed at his home in Redmond, Washington, due to complications from pneumonia and Alzheimer’s Disease.

The inspiration for the enduring catch phrase “Beam me up, Scotty,” Doohan’s Scottish-accented character was one of the mainstays of the original Star Trek , along with William Shatner’s Capt. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock and DeForest Kelley’s Dr. McCoy.

Doohan, whom many assumed to be a Scot due to his rich burr on the series, was actually a native of Canada. He was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia, and grew up in Sarnia, Ontario.

Although his exploits were earthbound rather than intergalactic, Doohan demonstrated admirable courage and experienced more than his share of danger as a soldier during World War II. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, while serving in the Royal Canadian Artillery, he landed on Juno Beach in Normandy. While crossing a minefield, he and his unit were attacked by German machine-gun fire. During the onslaught, Doohan was shot several times in the leg, the middle finger of his right hand was blown off and he survived a bullet to the chest when it struck a silver cigarette case that had been given to him by his brother. Years later, Doohan was one of many WWII veterans to publicly thank director Steven Spielberg for his unflinching depiction of the Normandy invasion in the opening sequence of the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan .

Upon his return from the war, Doohan enrolled in a drama class in Toronto and eventually earned a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he studied along with Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall and Richard Boone. In the 1950s he began appearing on television and built a reputation as a versatile character actor with a facility for accents, a gift that led to the creation of his most memorable role.

According to his manager, Steve Stevens, Doohan auditioned for Star Trek in several European accents before the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, asked him what nationality he thought best suited the part. “He said, ‘It’s got to be a Scotsman,’” Stevens once recalled.

Prior to being cast on Star Trek , Doohan was a frequent TV guest star, appearing in such series as Bonanza , Gunsmoke , The Twilight Zone and Bewitched . In the years following Start Trek ’s cancellation, he continued to act in television on shows such as Fantasy Island , Magnum, P.I . and MacGyver . He also appeared in several Star Trek feature films, including Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan , Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , Start Trek IV: The Voyage Home , Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . His other feature films include Test Pilot and Man in the Wilderness . His last performance was in this year’s horror thriller Skinwalker: Curse of the Shaman .

Doohan, who received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year, was married three times. He and his first wife, Judy Doohan, had four children. He had two children by his second marriage to Anita Yagel. Both marriages ended in divorce. In 1974, he married Wende Braunberger, with whom he had three children—Eric, Thomas and Sarah, who was born in 2000, when Doohan was 80.

Shortly after Doohan’s passing, it was announced that his wife intended to send some of his ashes into outer space, as was done for Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry upon his death in 1991.

Browser Requirements

We suggest you use the latest version of any of these browsers:

Visiting the site with Internet Explorer or other browsers may not provide the best viewing experience.

Close Window

• TOS performers
• TAS performers
• Film performers
• TNG performers
• DS9 performers
• Video game performers
• Audiobook performers
• Saturn Award nominees
• SFX Award winners
• TV Land Award winners
• Voice performers
• PRO performers

James Doohan

• View history

James Doohan ( 3 March 1920 – 20 July 2005 ; age 85) was a Canadian actor best known for his portrayal of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on Star Trek: The Original Series and the first seven Star Trek movies . He also appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode " Relics " and in the archive footage used in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " Trials and Tribble-ations ".

Doohan's work as Scotty ranged over a twenty-nine year period, with his first being in " Where No Man Has Gone Before " in 1965 and his last live appearance being in Star Trek Generations in 1994 . Archived audio of Doohan was later assembled for an animated appearance in PRO : " Kobayashi ".

• 1 Early life and World War II
• 2 Radio and early television
• 3 Star Trek
• 4 After Star Trek
• 5 Star Trek films
• 6 Later life
• 7 Appearances as Montgomery Scott
• 8.1 Voice and actor
• 8.2 Voiceover roles
• 10 Star Trek interviews
• 11 External links

Early life and World War II [ ]

Doohan was born in March of 1920 in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia on the west coast of Canada. He was the youngest of four children while his parents, Sarah Frances (née Montgomery) and William Patrick Doohan, were both Irish immigrants from Bangor, County Down, in Northern Ireland. As a teenager, James Doohan lived in Sarnia, Ontario, where he attended high school at Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, nineteen-year-old Doohan enlisted as a gunner in the Royal Canadian Artillery. After rising through the ranks to Sergeant, he won a place at Officer Training School, becoming a lieutenant in the 13th Field Artillery Regiment.

James Doohan during the Second World War

On 6 June 1944, Doohan, by then promoted to Command Post Officer (captain), was among the Canadian forces sent to take Juno Beach in Normandy as part of the D-Day invasion. He was in command of one hundred and twenty men. That night, Doohan was hit by machine-gun fire when returning to his command post, sustaining wounds in the leg, right hand, and chest – a cigarette case caught a bullet that would otherwise have killed him – and lost the middle finger of his right hand (because of this injury, outside of rare occasions, Doohan concealed that portion of his right hand in film shots). " I was twenty-four, " Doohan wrote in his book Beam Me Up, Scotty , " and if the Germans had been marginally better shots, I wouldn't have seen twenty-five. "

After convalescing in England, Doohan became a qualified pilot at 43 Operational Training Unit, Andover, England, winning Air Observation Post pilot's wings in early 1945. He was posted to 666 (AOP) RCAF Squadron, where he flew the Auster Mark V aircraft, a dangerous, low-level flight tasking for artillery officers who photographed enemy positions, and directed artillery fire from the air. Although 666 (AOP) RCAF Squadron was not sent into battle, the unit was stationed at Apeldoorn, Holland, through the summer of 1945 to conduct "air taxi" duties, as documented in the 1945 publication (and 2006 republication), Battle History 666 (Calgary: Abel Book Company, 2006), and in the 2002 publication entitled Canada's Flying Gunners , by Col. Dave Fromow.

During his war service, Doohan fraternized with Scottish troops. He became particularly friendly with some from Aberdeen, and he said that he tried to base Montgomery Scott's accent upon them. Doohan himself recalled, " I decided to give Scotty an Aberdeen accent, which was something I had learned [...] when I was sent over to England during the war. While I was there, I met this fellow from Aberdeen; and I couldn’t understand one word he said! But I did learn that accent from him and that was the one I used for Scotty. " ( Conversations at Warp Speed )

Radio and early television [ ]

After the war, Doohan started work in radio, but quickly branched out into TV, movies, and plays. By the 1950s, he had moved to America and had begun appearing as a guest star in minor television shows and movies. By the 1960s, he had credited guest star roles on such historic shows as The Twilight Zone , The Outer Limits , Have Gun Will Travel , The Virginian , and Gunsmoke . His roles in these series also had Doohan coming into contact with several future Star Trek actors, including Skip Homeier and Keith Andes , who appeared with Doohan in an episode of The Outer Limits .

Star Trek [ ]

Doohan's special ability to do multiple accents originated from his time as voice actor on Canadian radio and this specialty landed him in the role of Montgomery Scott in 1965. Director James Goldstone and producer Gene Roddenberry asked him to read some lines from the script of TOS : " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", proposing for the role of the not-named chief engineer, doing different accents. Doohan did several different ones, including German and Italian, from which he finally choose Scottish, citing Scotsmen's great engineering skills. ( The World of Star Trek ) At around this same time, Doohan did a Scottish accent in the pilot of the Western Iron Horse which was directed by Goldstone, who co-created that series with Stephen Kandel , the writer and producer of that show's pilot. Steve Ihnat also appeared in that episode. The only other time Doohan did a Scottish accent prior to the debut of Star Trek was in a 1963 episode of the sitcom Hazel entitled "Hazel's Highland Fling".

Roddenberry originally wanted to leave out Doohan and the character of Scott after the second pilot, but Doohan's agent got angry when he heard the news of his client planned to be fired, and eventually convinced Roddenberry to keep Scott in the series. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story )

For the first season, Doohan's contract allowed him to appear in five episodes out of thirteen, for a salary of US$850 each episode. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , p. 108) In the second season, his salary remained the same, but he was given seven episodes out of thirteen, while everyone knew he'd appear in more. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two , p. 27)

A skilled voice actor, Doohan contributed many voices to both the original series and the animated series , including (among others) Lt. Arex . Doohan also created the first words of the Klingon language, Klingonese , which was later expanded by Marc Okrand . He also helped to shape some words and sounds for the Vulcan language . However, contrary to popular myth, Doohan was not the uncredited voice of Trelane 's father for " The Squire of Gothos "; this was actually provided by voice artiste Bartell La Rue .

After Star Trek [ ]

After the end of the Star Trek TV series in 1969, Doohan spent the 1970s performing various roles in television and film, in an attempt to continue his acting career. During this time, Doohan appeared in the 1971 films Man in the Wilderness and Pretty Maids All in a Row , the latter of which also featured William Campbell and Dawn Roddenberry and which was written by Gene Roddenberry . Doohan also guest-starred on the TV series Marcus Welby, M.D. , Tarzan and the Super 7 , Daniel Boone (1969 – "The Cache", 1970 – "Perilous Passage"), and Return to Peyton Place .

Between 1973 and 1974, Doohan returned to the role of Scott in Star Trek: The Animated Series . He was later cast as Commander Canarvin in the 1978 science fiction series Jason of Star Command . This series used several musical scores from The Animated Series and co-starred Sid Haig as the main protagonist.

Star Trek films [ ]

Doohan with LeVar Burton during filming of "Relics" in 1992.

Doohan was propelled back into the role of Scott in 1979, with the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture . In the 1980s, he appeared as guest star on the hit shows Magnum, P.I. , MacGyver , and Fantasy Island (starring Ricardo Montalban ), but by 1982, with the release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , Doohan was effectively typecast as Montgomery Scott, and spent the rest of his career appearing in the remaining major Star Trek films along with a few minor roles in various television shows. Doohan being typecast was exemplified by his cameo appearance as a "Scotty" in the 1993 spoof movie Loaded Weapon 1 (also featuring fellow Original Series actor William Shatner ) where he reprised his famous role as a parody, trying to fix a coffee-making machine.

In 1991, Doohan appeared in a cameo role on the TV film Knight Rider 2000 , with William Daniels , Francis Guinan , Megan Butler , and Christine Healy . The next year, he reprised his role of Scott for the episode " Relics ". Alexander Singer , the director of the episode, was in concordance with his above quoted movie colleague Nicholas Meyer, reaffirming that Doohan "was a delight to work with, and he got all the jokes, so to speak". ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 24, issue 3/4, p. 24)

Later life [ ]

Doohan's last on-screen role as Montgomery Scott was in 1994 when he appeared in Star Trek Generations . In 1996-97, he appeared as a regular supporting character on the sitcom Homeboys In Outer Space . He played a character named Pippin. By the 2000s, Doohan's age had limited his activities but he kept busy speaking at colleges and Star Trek conventions. In July 2004 , Doohan announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in addition to his existing Parkinson's disease and diabetes, and would be withdrawing from public life. His final public appearance took place on 31 August 2004 , at the ceremony for his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

Doohan's last credited film role was as a judge in a 2005 direct-to-TV sci-fi/horror film entitled Skinwalker: Curse of the Shaman .

Doohan lost his battle with Alzheimer's disease, complicated by pneumonia , at 5:30 am on 20 July 2005. He was 85 years old. He died at his Redmond, Washington, home with his third wife Wende by his side. He asked his family to have him cremated and his remains shot into space. After nearly two years of delays, this wish was finally granted: his ashes were launched into space on 28 April 2007 from New Mexico. [1] (X) More of his ashes were launched into space on board the first SpaceX Dragon capsule launched towards the International Space Station on 22 May 2012 . [2]

He left behind a total of seven children from his three marriages; his youngest, Sarah, was born in 2000 when he was 80 years old. One of his twin sons, Christopher , has honored his late father by playing a transporter technician in Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness , and even reprised his father's iconic role in the fan film series Star Trek Continues from 2012 to 2017 as well as in the computer game Star Trek Online in 2016.

Doohan was among those to receive tribute in the 2006 Memoriam reel at the 79th Annual Academy Awards. The reel used a scene from Star Trek: The Motion Picture in which Kirk tells Scott, " Thank you, Mr. Scott, " to which Scott replies, " Aye, sir. "

Several costumes and costume components worn by Doohan in Star Trek were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including a stunt version of his undershirt. [3]

Appearances as Montgomery Scott [ ]

Montgomery, James, and Christopher Doohan in 1978

• " The Cage "
• " The Man Trap " ( Season 1 )
• " Charlie X "
• " What Are Little Girls Made Of? "
• " Dagger of the Mind "
• " The Menagerie, Part II "
• " The Conscience of the King "
• " Shore Leave "
• " Court Martial "
• " This Side of Paradise "
• " Errand of Mercy "
• " The Alternative Factor "
• " Amok Time " ( Season 2 )
• " Journey to Babel "
• " The Omega Glory "
• TAS : every episode except " The Slaver Weapon "
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• Star Trek Generations
• Star Trek Beyond (picture only)
• TNG : " Relics "
• DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations " (archival footage)
• PRO : " Kobayashi " (hologram)

Additional roles [ ]

Voice and actor [ ].

Voiceover roles [ ]

• " A Piece of the Action " as an Iotian radio announcer
• " The Ultimate Computer " as Enwright
• " Assignment: Earth " as NASA Mission Control announcer
• Beam Me Up, Scotty
• The Privateer
• The Independent Command

Star Trek interviews [ ]

• TNG Season 6 DVD special feature "Mission Overview Year Six" ("A Visit from Scotty"), interviewed on 12 August 1992

External links [ ]

• James Doohan at StarTrek.com
• James Doohan at the Internet Movie Database
• James Doohan at Wikipedia
• Doohan received Walk of Fame Star at MSNBC.MSN.com
• Obituary at News.BBC.co.uk
• James Doohan at TriviaTribute.com

• Terms of Use

War News | Military History | Military News

‘star trek’ star james doohan survived six bullet wounds during the allied landings on d-day.

• World War 2

James Doohan saw action during World War II and in outer space. His exploits inspired many to become an engineer, and one individual even followed him to the moon. He spoke with a Scottish accent, even though he wasn’t from Scotland. All in all, he was among the most famous military veterans to transition to the small screen.

James Doohan’s entry into the Canadian Army

James Montgomery “Jimmy” Doohan was born to Irish immigrants on March 3, 1920 in Vancouver, British Columbia. His father, William, was a pharmacist who may have invented a form of high-octane gas in 1923. Whether or not that’s true, Doohan grew up familiar with science and creative invention.

When his family moved to Ontario, Doohan enrolled at the Collegiate Institute and Technical School in Sarnia, where he showed an aptitude for mathematics and science. In 1938, he enlisted with the 102nd Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps, after which he joined the Royal Canadian Artillery, 14th (Midland) Field Battery, 2nd Canadian Infantry Division.

Doohan did so well he was commissioned a lieutenant with the 22nd Field Battery, 13th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and sent to England for training.

Preparing to land at Juno Beach

Fast forward to D-Day on June 6, 1944. The British, American and Canadian forces were each assigned a portion of Normandy’s beaches for their amphibious assaults. The Canadians were allocated Juno Beach, the codename for the area from the village of Courseulles-sur-Mer, all the way to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer.

The mission for James Doohan’s division was to travel west of Caen. It wouldn’t be easy. Facing them were two battalions of the German 716. Infanterie-Division . There were also troops from the 21st Panzer Division holed up near Caen. As if that wasn’t daunting enough, the Germans had strewn the beaches with anti-tank mines.

The night before, Allied aircraft blasted German positions. As the landings were to happen before dawn, the Canadians wouldn’t be visible, as they landed in the dark – or so the thinking went. That did not happen. The preemptive aerial bombardment hadn’t been as effective as the Allies had hoped, due to lousy weather and poor visibility. As such, the coastal defenses along Juno Beach were almost unscathed.

James Doohan took out two German snipers on D-Day

It got worse. Rough weather and high waves delayed the landings until well after the sun had risen on June 6, 1944. Out at sea, James Doohan felt queasy, but it wasn’t because of what lay ahead. He later told the Associated Press , “We were more afraid of drowning than [we were of] the Germans.”

Once the risk of drowning was behind them, what lay ahead for the Canadians proved to be much worse. The first group reached Juno Beach at 7:35 AM and were quickly cut down.

Fortunately for them, the light cruiser HMS Ajax (22) had bombarded Juno Beach earlier, doing more damage to the coastal defenses than the aircraft had. After two hours, the Canadians had swept aside most of the Germans along their stretch of the beach. Doohan led his men across the sands and got lucky, as none of the anti-tank mines went off, as the men weren’t heavy enough to activate them.

As they made their way to higher ground, Doohan shot two German snipers – his first kills of the war. By noon, they’d secured their positions. However, they now had a new problem. The beach was so thick with Canadians that the later arrivals couldn’t advance. As darkness fell, there was a risk they’d mistake comrades for the enemy and end up shooting at each other.

This was exactly what happened, not only at Juno Beach, but at the other landing beaches.

James Doohan suffered six bullet wounds

At around 11:20 PM, James Doohan finished a cigarette and patted the case he kept in his shirt pocket. It had been given to him by his brother as a good luck charm – and a good thing, too. Some 10 minutes later, he was walking back to his command post when he was shot six times with a Bren light machine gun . The first four bullets slammed into his leg, the fifth struck him in the chest and the sixth took off his right middle finger.

The shooter was not a German sniper. In fact, Doohan had been shot by a nervous, trigger-happy Canadian sentry. Fortunately, the cigarette case had stopped the bullet that hit his chest. Doohan later joked it was the only time being a smoker saved his life.

‘Craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Force’

After recovering from his injuries, James Doohan learned to fly a Taylorcraft Auster Mark IV for the No. 666 Squadron RAF. By this point, he was an officer in the Royal Canadian Artillery, supporting the 1st Army Group Royal Artillery at RAF Andover, Hampshire.

In early 1945, Doohan flew his aircraft between two telegraph poles, just to prove it could be done. He got in trouble for that, and everyone called him the “ craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Force .”

James Doohan goes from the Canadian Army to outer space

After the Second World War , James Doohan returned to Canada. Upon hearing a radio drama, he believed he could do a better job than the voice actors featured and switched his focus of study from technical schooling to drama. His first job was with CBC radio. He ultimately went on to do 4,000 shows on radio and 450 on television, earning a reputation as the most versatile voice actor in the business.

In 1965, Doohan was assured of a place in film history when he landed – and helped develop – the role of Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in Star Trek . In addition to playing the role of chief engineer for the starship Enterprise , Doohan also helped create the Klingon and Vulcan languages for the show.

Doohan became so iconic that fans credited him with their interest in engineering, astronomy and other technical fields. Among these was the engineer-turned-astronaut Neil Armstrong , who personally thanked Doohan in 2004.

More from us: Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry Faced Death Twice While In the US Army Air Forces

Doohan died in 2005. To honor him, a Falcon 9 launch vehicle took some of his ashes into space. Two years later, the Scottish town of Linlithgow claimed him as one of their own with a predictive commemorative plaque. “Predictive” because it claims he will be born there on 2222.

James Doohan, Star Trek's 'Scotty', dies at 85

Wednesday, July 20, 2005  

James Montgomery Doohan , the Canadian actor best known for playing the role of Star Trek ' s " Scotty " the engineer died Wednesday of pneumonia after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease . He was 85 years old.

Now, Doohan's family is hoping to beam him up to the "Final Frontier" that Scotty loved so dearly. The actor had told relatives he wanted his ashes blasted into outer space, as was done for "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry. "He'll be there with his buddy, which is wonderful," said Doohan's agent and longtime friend, Steve Stevens.

At the time of his death, he was living in Redmond, Washington in the United States with his wife and their three young children.

Doohan was born in Vancouver and participated in World War II as a captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery . He lost the middle finger of his right hand at the Invasion of Juno Beach on D-Day , a bloody scene immortalized in the 1998 Steven Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan . Doohan was among the film's greatest supporters, thanking the director for not sanitizing the gore of the actual event.

He started his acting career with a radio appearance at a CBC show and went on to act in several character roles. Doohan had already made a name for himself in the entertainment business as a featured voice actor in Canadian and U.S. radio dramas and motion picture voice-overs due to his knack for picking up linguistically perfect accents. His ability to affect a near-perfect Scottish accent made him a natural for the role of Scotty, according to producers at the time.

When he auditioned for what would become the role of his life in 1966, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry asked him which of the different accents Doohan mastered would best suit the role of Scotty. Doohan respond that he believed "all the world's best engineers have been Scottish". After the original Star Trek series had ended, Doohan found himself typecast and had difficulties getting other roles.

Doohan suffered from Parkinson's as well as Alzheimer's disease. In August last year he received a star on Hollywood's Walk of fame .

After DeForest Kelley , Doohan is the second actor of the original Star Trek cast to die.

He is survived by his wife Wende, with whom he had been married since 1975, and seven children.

• " 'James Doohan to be sent to his final frontier' " —  CNN , July 21, 2005
• " James Doohan, 'Star Trek's' Scotty, dead " —  CNN , July 20, 2005
• " Obituary: James Doohan " —  BBC News , July 20, 2005
• " 'Star Trek's' Doohan dies, immortalized for 'Beam me up, Scotty' " —  Associated Press , July 20, 2005

Public domain Public domain false false

• July 20, 2005
• Public domain articles
• North America
• United States
• Culture and entertainment
• Articles not disputed

Navigation menu

5 TV Stars You Probably Didn’t Know Were Missing a Finger

By jake rossen | mar 28, 2023.

Movies and television shows are very much an attempt at creating an illusion, from making viewers believe characters are on distant planets to putting them in harm’s way. Sometimes, that illusion extends to performers obscuring certain physical traits that may not be shared by their characters. Famously, professional wrestler Kerry Von Erich wrestled with a prosthetic foot in the 1980s following a motorcycle accident, a fact that was largely unknown to spectators.

Von Erich isn’t the only television personality who has lived with limb difference. These five actors appeared on weekly television without viewers noticing they’re each missing all, or part of, a finger.

1. Bob Ross

Television’s best-known art instructor hosted The Joy of Painting on PBS from 1983 to 1994. His painter’s palette obscured a lesser-known fact: He was down one digit. After dropping out of high school, one of Ross’s first jobs was working as a woodworker alongside his father; part of his left index finger was later severed in a carpentry accident. Ross left that vocation soon after, enlisting in the Air Force before his painting career took off.

2. James Doohan

Best known as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on Star Trek (1966-1969) and its numerous big-screen outings, Doohan went to some lengths to obscure a missing finger from being picked up by film cameras. The actor had suffered the injury while serving in the military and storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day in 1944. Doohan—a member of the Royal Canadian Artillery Regiment—shot two German snipers in the fracas but later absorbed machine gun fire delivered by a trigger-happy Canadian sentry. Incredibly, one bullet in his chest was deflected by a cigarette case. Others wound up in his leg; the other went though his right middle finger, which was later amputated.

Camera angles kept the missing finger out of view most of the time on Star Trek. Hand doubles were also used at times, though there are a few scenes—including in “The Trouble With Tribbles”—where it’s noticeable.

3. Telly Savalas

Savalas was a ‘70s icon thanks to the cop show Kojak and the character’s omnipresent lollipop. The actor was actually missing a portion of his left index finger, which some fans might not have known or easily spotted if they watched the series or saw Savalas in films. The origin of the injury is difficult to pin down; Lost magazine reported that Savalas may have lost it in a grenade mishap while serving in the military or possibly that it was partially gnawed off by a rat when he was a child.

4. Matthew Perry

Perry, who starred as Chandler Bing on the NBC sitcom Friends for 10 seasons, is missing part of his right middle finger. According to Esquire , the actor lost it after his finger was inadvertently slammed in a car door when he was a child.

5. Walter Jones

Jones portrayed Zack, one of the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers . The actor is missing the middle finger of his left hand, though it’s not particularly noticeable when he’s morphed. The series repurposed action footage from the Japanese series Super Sentai , where Zach’s Ranger was played by a different performer. “Because we had all of the Japanese footage, the only time we wore our suits was in the Command Center, with our helmet off,” Ranger Jason David Frank told Complex in 2013.

The political writings of G.S. Griffin, activist and author

Scotty’s missing finger.

James Doohan’s Montgomery Scott wasn’t often the centerpiece of “Star Trek” storylines, but he could always be counted on to save the day by eking some kind of miracle out of the Enterprise’s transporters or warp engines. Doohan’s performance was lively, and “Scotty” lovable and charismatic, even if the Canadian actor’s for-television accent was once included on the BBC ’s list of “Film Crimes Against the Scottish Accent.” According to The Guardian , Doohan based the voice on that of a Scottish soldier he met in World War II.

Indeed, Doohan was a soldier before he had any interest in acting. He joined the Canadian artillery after high school, right as the largest conflict in human history was brewing. He rose to the rank of lieutenant and was sent to Britain to prepare for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy ( Valour Canada ). Long before Scotty saved Kirk, Spock, and his other comrades from all sorts of alien enemies and celestial phenomena, he led men into the fires of D-Day, June 6, 1944. 

Following a naval and aerial bombardment, Canadian units stormed Juno Beach. James Doohan and his men unknowingly ran across an anti-tank minefield, being too light to detonate the defenses ( Snopes ). Bullets piercing all around, they reached cover and advanced inland. Doohan made his first two kills of the war by silencing German snipers in a church tower in Graye Sur Mer. 

After securing their positions, Doohan and his troops rested that evening. But just before midnight, everything went wrong for our future chief engineer. Stepping away from the command post for a smoke, on his way back his body was riddled with at least half a dozen bullets. The middle finger of his right hand was torn off, four bullets hit his knee, and one hit his chest, but did minimal injury because it happened to strike the silver cigarette case in his breast pocket. But this was no German attack. It was friendly fire.

According to Valour Canada , James Doohan was shot by a Canadian sentry who mistook him in the night for a German soldier. This sentry has been described as “nervous” and “trigger-happy” ( Snopes ). Doohan later said that his body had so much adrenaline pumping through it after the shooting that he walked to the medical post without even realizing his knee had been hit. Doohan survived the incident and the war, moved to the United States, and started acting in 1950 ( IMDb ). Sixteen years later, after small roles in “Gunsmoke,” “The Twilight Zone,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” and more, he landed the part that would bring him global fame. According to StarTrek.com , Doohan had a hand double to conceal the missing finger while filming close-ups on “Star Trek.” However, it is still obvious in many shots, stills of which fans have collected, for instance on this Stack Exchange .

For more from the author,  subscribe and follow  or read his  books .

Share this:

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

A Complete Guide to Scotty From Star Trek

The Enterprise's redoubtable Chief Engineer is one of Star Trek's most beloved characters. Here's everything you need to know about Montgomery Scott.

Few Star Trek characters are more beloved than Montgomery Scott. With his immense engineering skills and propensity for jury-rigged solutions, he spent much of The Original Series at the heart of the action, and even took command of the Enterprise when Kirk and Spock were busy on some planet's surface. And while it was never used in precisely those terms, the phrase "beam me up Scotty" became one of Star Trek's first tag lines: referring to his uncanny operation of the ship's transporters.

Along the line, he experienced multiple reboots and updates, and like his fellow OG characters, he's always a welcome presence regardless of the project. He served as inspiration for subsequent Star Trek engineers -- notably Miles O'Brien from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -- and yet his in-universe origins remain surprisingly murky. His arrival on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds may change that, in addition to generating renewed interest in the character and his rich Star Trek history.

RELATED: The Past 30 Years of Star Trek Movies Are Missing This Key Ingredient

Scotty's Origins

The character's origins lie with actor James Doohan, who played him for over 30 years and who remains more closely associated with Scotty than any other. According to David Gerrod's 1973 reference guide The World of Star Trek , Doohan played a huge role in the character's creation. He delivered a variety of accents while auditioning for the show's second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before." When asked which accent he himself would use, the actor suggested Scottish because Scots were "renowned for having great engineering skills." That established the core of the character more or less on the spot.

Doohan always played Scotty as utterly devoted to the ship, to the point of considering it his property. That was often played for laughs: notably in Season 2, Episode 14, "The Trouble with Tribbles," when he started a bar fight with a group of Klingons after they disparaged the Enterprise's honor. He could solve any problem with the warp drive -- or any other part of the ship's systems -- which gave the show a natural ticking clock whenever it needed one. Scotty would invariably fix the malfunction with seconds to spare, allowing the Enterprise to escape by the skin of its teeth.

Scotty in The Original Star Trek

Scotty appeared in 65 of The Original Series' 79 episodes, as well as the first seven Star Trek movies and all but one entry in Star Trek: The Animated Series . That established his modus operandi: diligent, plain-spoken, and given to simple but accurate assessment of the problem du jour. It also cemented his unwavering loyalty to Captain Kirk, and his steadfast ability to hold the line in the face of trouble. That arose most often during his stints in the captain's chair, which helped define the character alongside his last-minute repairs and timely use of the transporter.

The Star Trek movies largely relegated him to support duties, though they found quiet ways to develop his character. A cut subplot from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan introduced his nephew among the Enterprise's new cadets, who's killed in Khan's first sneak attack. The brief sequences further connected Scotty to the ship's redshirts, as well as shedding light on his family and background. He played a more lightweight role in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock when he sabotaged the Excelsior in anticipation of the crew's theft of the Enterprise. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home similarly let him flash his comedic chops, notably while dealing with a 1980s-era personal computer.

RELATED: Star Trek: Lower Decks Season Premiere Hints at Another Crossover

Scotty in Later Star Trek

Doohan made a memorable cameo as Scotty in The Next Generation Season 6, Episode 4, "Relics," which also revealed details about his final years. After becoming a captain in The Search for Spock he remained the Enterprise's Chief Engineer until the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered County . One year later, he embarked on the U.S.S. Jenolan en route to retirement in the Federation colony of Norpin. The ship crashed on a colossal alien structure called a Dyson Sphere, and he survived in the transporter's pattern buffer until the Enterprise-D revived him a century later. Picard gave him one of the ship's shuttlecraft, and he departed for points unknown. That presumably marks the end of the character's life, at least as far as canon is concerned.

A holographic version of the character also appeared in Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 6, "Kobayashi." He was one of multiple classic figures recreated by Dal aboard to holodeck to assist him with his Kobayashi Maru test . The production used dialogue previously recorded by Doohan to bring him back for the episode. (Doohan himself passed away in 2005 at the age of 85.)

Scotty in The Kelvinverse

2009's Star Trek movie entailed a massive reboot, resulting in a new alternate timeline dubbed "The Kelvinverse" by fans. Scotty was memorably played by comic actor Simon Pegg, who revised the role in the next two Kelvinverse films. The changes in continuity resulted in a slightly different version of the character: relegated to a remote outpost before joining the Enterprise crew mid-emergency. In practical terms, it allowed Pegg to pursue his own take on Scotty without altering Doohan's. (Pegg has always expressed the highest respect for his predecessor.)

Besides playing up the character's funnier side, Pegg infused him with slightly wilder qualities: making him more willing to take risks than Doohan's version. The actor also developed a non-canon backstory for his Scotty, which shifted his birthplace to Glasgow among other things. (Dialogue in The Original Series Season 2, Episode 7, "A Wolf in the Fold" implied that he was from Aberdeen.) The Kelvinverse also gave Scotty a sidekick: the diminutive alien Keenser, played by Deep Roy. It gave him someone to play off of, further enhancing his status as the series' comic relief.

RELATED: Star Trek Is Primed for a Return of These Previously-Hated Aliens

Scotty in Strange New Worlds

Pegg's background for the character is unofficial, and relegated to the Kelvinverse timeline regardless. The history of Doohan's "prime" version is very much a mystery prior to his position onboard the Enterprise. Strange New Worlds looks to change that by introducing a younger version of Scotty played by Martin Quinn in Season 2, Episode 10, "Hegemony." (Quinn has the distinction of being the first Scottish actor to play the part.) Christopher Pike's Enterprise crew finds him among the survivors of a Gorn attack. Before that, he served aboard a solar research vessel called the Stardiver. The Gorn wiped the vessel out, leaving Scotty the only survivor. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, to be resolved in the Season 3 premiere (unreleased as of this writing).

Quinn's version of the character is very likely to join the Strange New Worlds crew full-time. The series' first engineer, Hemmer, was killed at the end of Season 1. His replacement, Commander Pelia, isn't expected to remain onboard, and with Scotty destined for the position regardless, the move makes a lot of narrative sense. Strange New Worlds has an opportunity to fill in his early years much the same way it has for Uhura, Jim Kirk, and Mr. Spock . Regardless of its plans for him, it ensures that he will remain firmly a part of Star Trek 's future as well as its past.

Was James Doohan Shot Six Times on D-Day?

A popular meme recounting the actor's involvement with the d-day invasion at normandy is largely accurate, but some of the details are a little hazy., published june 8, 2018.

About this rating

A meme purportedly relaying the heroic exploits of James Doohan, who is best known as the actor who played Scotty in the original  Star Trek  series, was shared by the "Meanwhile in Canada"  Facebook page in June 2018, in remembrance of D-Day:

The story presented in this meme is largely accurate. Doohan was one of some 14,000 Canadian soldiers who landed in Normandy, France, in June 1944 during World War II. He did suffer several gunshot wounds during the invasion, which ultimately resulted in the loss of his middle finger. It's also true that one of these bullets was stopped by a cigarette case in his pocket. 

However, this meme doesn't identify the likely source of these gunshots: A nervous Canadian sentry. 

Doohan was a commissioned lieutenant with the 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, and was tasked with invading an area of Normandy code-named Juno Beach. As the meme states, Doohan successfully led his men across the beach littered with anti-tank mines , and also managed to take out two German snipers:

The first Canadians reached Juno Beach at 7:35 AM and were cut down. Fortunately for them, the HMS Ajax had bombed Juno earlier, doing more damage to the coastal defenses than the planes had. After two hours, they had swept aside most of the Germans on their stretch of the beach. Doohan led his men across the sands and got lucky. Despite the anti-tank mines beneath their feet, none went off, as the men were not heavy enough to activate them. As they made their way to higher ground, Doohan managed to take out two German snipers – his first kills of the war. By noon, they had secured their positions. They could rest, as well as deal with their dead and wounded. There was, however, a problem.

Although Doohan escaped the initial moments of the invasion relatively unscathed, his luck didn't last: 

At about 11:20 that evening, Doohan finished a cigarette and patted the silver cigarette case he kept in his breast pocket. It had been given to him by his brother as a good luck charm… and a good thing, too. Some ten minutes later, he was walking back to his command post when he was shot. Six times. By a Bren Gun. The first four bullets slammed into his leg, the fourth whacked him in the chest, while the sixth took off his right middle finger. It was not a German sniper. He had been shot by a nervous, trigger-happy Canadian sentry. Fortunately, the cigarette case stopped the bullet aimed at his chest. Doohan later joked it was the only time being a smoker saved his life.

Doohan attempted to hide his missing finger in episodes of  Star Trek  (a hand double was even used in some close-up scenes), but he wasn't always successful. For example, Doohan's injury can be briefly glimpsed in the famous episode "The Trouble with Tribbles":

There is at least some debate over the provenance of the bullets that wounded Doohan. Although books such as D-Day: The Essential Reference Guide and Fight to the Finish: Canadians in the Second World War state that Doohan was wounded by friendly fire, Doohan's mother was told, at least initially, that her son had been hit by German bullets. We have also encountered varying reports about the number of times Doohan was shot (ranging from six to eight.)

We attempted to locate accounts from Doohan himself about the incident, other than the one presented in his autobiography, but didn't turn up much additional information. The most revealing report appears to come from a  New York Times article that centered around a letter Doohan sent director Steven Spielberg shortly after the release of the film Saving Private Ryan in 1998 (which mentioned Doohan being hit by "German" bullets):

"When I wrote Spielberg I told him I'd landed on Juno on D-Day, which was nothing as horrid as the Omaha disaster." Not horrid, perhaps, but bad enough. He and his men landed unscathed on Juno then fought their way successfully into the Normandy peninsula as far as the town of Courseulles that first day. But Artillery Lt.  James Doohan of D Company, Winnipeg Rifles, 13th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Army, ended up just before midnight plugged by eight German bullets.  Four hit his left knee, three took out the middle finger of his right hand, and one was deflected from killing him by a sterling silver cigarette case in the breast pocket of his jacket. "I still have that cigarette case today," the husky 78-year-old Doohan said through his walrus mustache, shooting his eyebrows. 

Doohan also downplayed his heroics, saying that the mines on the beach were anti-tank mines and that his men were not heavy enough to trigger them. Doohan also said that he wasn't sure if he had truly killed two German snipers and added that he didn't notice the gunshot wounds in his legs until he got to the medic:

"We landed safely, thank God, through those Y-shaped steel barriers you see in the film, tracer bullets, all that, none of our men hurt, and dashed 75 yards to the 7-foot tall dunes," Doohan said.  "Crossed a minefield, found out about it later: It was meant to blow up tanks, and we weren't heavy enough. Moved up through a down - hardly a town just a village - called Graye Sur Mer, saw a church tower that was a machine-gun post, firing off to our left.  Doohan took out the machine-gun post with a couple of shots. "I don't know if they were killed or wounded, but it shut them up," he said.  His mother was told that German bullets had hit him at 11:30 p.m. on D-Day as he was returning from a forward gun position. He waled a quarter-mile - "the adrenaline lets you do it" - to the regimental aid post, Doohan said. He know about his right hand and the wack on his chest against that cigarette case, but that was all. "The medic said: 'You also have four bullets in your left knee.' I said: 'Well, I walked here.'"

Russell, Shahan.   "Star Trek star Shot Two Snipers on D-Day and Was Shot Seven Times in WWII."     War History Online .   29 November 2016.

Tucker, Spencer.   D-Day: The Essential Reference Guide. .     ABC-CLIO, 2017.   (p. 76).

Talmer, Jerry.   "'Scotty' Praises Spielberg for 'Private Ryan.'"     Star Tribune .   19 August 1998.

By Dan Evon

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

Article Tags

Screen Rant

Star trek confirms an original series genius is so smart, even the gods respect him.

In Star Trek #19, fans learn a beloved crew member of the Original Series is so respected, that even the gods come to him for advice.

• In Star Trek #19, by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly and Megan Levens, fans learn even the gods respect Scotty's intelligence and experiecne.
• The Organian/Vulcan T'Lir comes to Scotty, seeking advice on how to handle a crewmate.
• Scotty is taken back to be giving advice to a god, but T'Lir takes what Scotty says to heart.

Warning: contains spoilers for Star Trek #19!

Throughout Star Trek history, Scotty distinguished himself as one of Starfleet’s best engineers, and his reputation is so sterling that even the gods come to him for advice. A Star Trek icon, Scotty has joined Captain Sisko and the Theseus on a mission to save reality itself. As the crew prepares for the mission ahead, one god-like being comes to Scotty seeking advice in Star Trek #19 .

Star Trek #19 is written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and drawn by Megan Levens. After T’Lir has a falling out with Ensign Sato, they go to Scotty, seeking advice on how to handle mortal friendships. Scotty was a little taken back that a god-like Organian would come to him for advice. T’Lir persists in their request, and Scotty gives them solid advice, citing his own familial experiences as well as his time with Kirk and Spock.

Scotty advises T’Lir to cherish everyone close to them, god-like or not.

Scotty Earned His Reputation as "the Miracle Worker."

Scotty lived to the 24th century thanks to his ingenuity.

Montgomery Scott, known as “Scotty,” set the template for all other engineers in the Star Trek franchise. After years of bouncing around on freighters and other ships, Scotty came to the Enterprise. While Strange New Worlds established that Scotty knew Captain Pike, it would be under Captain James Kirk’s tenure that his reputation as the “miracle worker” grew. Scotty would retire in the early 24th century, but fate had other plans for him. Crash-landing on a Dyson Sphere, Scotty kept himself alive for decades in a jury-rigged transporter.

Scotty has been played by three different actors: James Doohan in the Original Series, Simon Pegg in the Kelvin-timeline films and Martin Quinn on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Rather than mope and brood about his situation, Scotty returns to duty in Starfleet. In some non-canonical sources, he helped design the Sovereign class starships, of which the Enterprise NCC-1701-E was one. When Kahless embarked on his genocidal quest against the gods, Scotty joined up with Sisko to help. He offered Sisko use of the Theseus , an older starship that Scotty refitted to be the best ship in Starfleet. The Theseus is an impressive feat of engineering, one of the most advanced ships in the fleet, and is a testbed for new technologies, some of which Scotty designed.

"It's Been 70 Years Since My Feet Touched the Ground": Scotty Reveals the Bittersweet Final Fate of Star Trek's Original Heroes

Scotty's genius is respected even by the gods, now scotty is going to meet the god-like beings of the star trek universe.

Scotty has been front and center in IDW’s flagship Star Trek comic. His service to the Theseus and the Federation as a whole has been a great reminder to fans why Scotty is a Star Trek icon in the first place. T’Lir remembers meeting Scotty as a child on Organia, and they recognize his genius. A century’s worth of experience on board starships counts for something, and T’Lir knows this. This god-like being sees Scotty as the true Star Trek genius he is, both as an engineer and as a human being.

Star Trek #19 is on sale now from IDW Publishing!

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Published May 27, 2019

Remembering D-Day Hero James Doohan

This Memorial Day we're looking back at Doohan's service during that fateful landing in the Second World War

Galerie Bilderwelt

Memorial Day is a most appropriate time to think about the sacrifices made on D-Day, the fateful evening in 1944 that the Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, to battle Hitler's Nazi forces and liberate mainland Europe. One of those soldiers, on his very first combat assignment, was a young Canadian named James Doohan, who later when on to great fame as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on Star Trek: The Original Series . That bit of trivia — and the story that goes along with it — may be old news to longtime fans, but to the Star Trek newcomers out there, it's a tale that's well worth repeating.

"The sea was rough," Doohan recalled of his landing on Juno Beach that day, an anecdote included in his obituary, which the Associated Press ran on June 20, 2005. "We were more afraid of drowning than [we were of] the Germans."

The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't heavy enough to detonate the bombs, the AP story continued. At 11:30 that night, Doohan — a pilot and captain in the Royal Candian Artillery Regiment — was machine-gunned, taking six hits. One bullet blew off his middle right finger, four struck his leg and one hit him in the chest. A silver cigarette case stopped the bullet to the chest.

Throughout his acting career Doohan took measures to hide the missing finger, but it was occasionally visible to the camera, including in certain shots from Star Trek . He made no effort, however, to hide the missing finger during his decades of autograph signings and convention appearances.

So, this Memorial Day, we hope you'll join everyone at StarTrek.com in saluting Doohan, as well as all the soldiers who risked or gave their lives on that pivotal evening.

Get Updates By Email

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Wolf in the Fold

• Episode aired Dec 22, 1967

Kirk and the Enterprise computer become detectives after Scotty is accused of murdering women on a pleasure planet. Kirk and the Enterprise computer become detectives after Scotty is accused of murdering women on a pleasure planet. Kirk and the Enterprise computer become detectives after Scotty is accused of murdering women on a pleasure planet.

• Joseph Pevney
• Gene Roddenberry
• Robert Bloch
• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• 31 User reviews
• 13 Critic reviews

• Captain James Tiberius 'Jim' Kirk

• Mister Spock

• (as Charles Macauley)

• (as Tania Lemani)

• Transporter Chief
• Karen Tracy

• Yeoman Tankris
• (as Judy McConnell)

• Enterprise Computer
• (uncredited)
• Lieutenant Hadley
• Serving Girl
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia For most of Star Trek, James Doohan ("Scotty") hides his right hand, which was missing the middle finger due to a WWII D-Day injury. While being questioned with his hand resting on the lie detector scanner, his fingers are hidden by being curled around the edge of the plate. During a close-up shot of the machine reacting to an intentional lie being told, a five-digit hand spread across the plate is seen - that of a stunt double. Doohan later wrote about it in his autobiography and said this was one of his favorite episodes.
• Goofs Scotty's hand shifts position between shots as he is on the witness stand. More, the close-up of Scotty's hand was that of another actor. This was done to conceal the fact that James Doohan 's right middle finger was missing, the result of his participation in the 1944 Invasion of Normandy.

Captain James T. Kirk : Bones, what's the sedative situation?

Dr. McCoy : I've got some stuff that would tranquilize an active volcano.

• Alternate versions Special Enhanced version Digitally Remastered with new exterior shots and remade opening theme song
• Connections Featured in Star Trek Logs: An MTV Big Picture Special Edition (1991)
• Soundtracks Theme Music credited to Alexander Courage Sung by Loulie Jean Norman

User reviews 31

• Oct 9, 2023
• December 22, 1967 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA
• Desilu Productions
• Norway Corporation
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 50 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

REVIEW: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 Episode 5 — “Mirriors”

T hroughout its final season, Star Trek: Discovery  embarks on a journey of self-reflection , seeking to emulate the iconic elements and themes of past Trek installments as well as its own. However, in its earnest endeavor to honor the legacy of the franchise, Discovery risks diluting its own distinct identity. As the series navigates the fine line between homage and originality Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 5 leaves viewers to ponder whether it’s losing sight of what truly makes Discovery stand out.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 5 opens with Discovery finding an unseen wormhole while trailing Moll ( Eve Harlow ) and L’ak ( Elias Toufexis ). Inside, they stumble upon the ISS Enterprise. This Enterprise will be familiar to fans of Star Trek: The Orginal Series from the episode “Mirror, Mirror” in Season 2, Episode 10. In that episode, a transporter glitch catapults Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura into a parallel universe dominated by an evil Empire. There, Kirk reigns as a tyrant and Spock serves as his cunning right-hand man establishing the Mirror Universe. Since then, the universes have clashed in various Star Trek franchises, including Discovery.

With the Discovery unable to enter the wormhole, they opt to send a shuttle instead. Booker ( David Ajala ) and Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) pilot the shuttle into the wormhole, setting up a showdown between the couples as hinted earlier in the season. Their encounter aboard the ISS Enterprise continues the recurring mirror themes. Before the USS Discovery arrived in the future, Booker and Burnham were couriers together for a year. Burnham, having almost lost hope of reuniting with her crew, would have done anything for Booker. He was essentially her only family in the galaxy , much like La’k is for Moll. The question arises: would Burnham have also pursued Progenitor technology if it meant safeguarding everything she holds dear?

Moll’s connection to Booker adds another layer to the mirror theme. Booker’s mentor was Moll’s father, sparking a complex exploration for the pair throughout the episode. If Moll’s father had stayed with her, she might have lived a much different life, potentially mirroring Booker’s. The question arises: is the man Booker idolized truly as great as he believed? Additionally, Booker was willing to jeopardize the entire galaxy’s fate to prevent the tragedy that befell his homeworld from happening elsewhere. Aware of the Federation’s forgiving nature, he understands Moll’s intentions better than anyone.

Meanwhile, Commander Rayner ( Callum Keith Rennie ) leads the Discovery crew in what’s meant to be a feel-good moment in Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 5. Once trapped, he “assists” them in finding a solution to rescue Burnham and Booker from the wormhole. However, it took four episodes for him to build confidence and earn the crew’s favor, even though he wasn’t the one to ultimately solve the problem.

His role this season could have been fulfilled by any existing crew member, potentially allowing more screen time for characters like Dr. Hugh Culber ( Wilson Cruz ). Despite the season acknowledging Dr. Cubler’s struggle to find himself after his experiences, his screen time remains limited to brief moments of self-reflection. Instead, more attention is devoted to developing empathy for Commander Rayner.

To compound matters,  Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 5 finally delves into Moll and La’k’s backstory . However, it falls painfully flat. When Moll’s motivations for pursuing technology with galaxy-altering potential finally reveal themselves, they lack the depth of the profound love we’ve seen other characters develop throughout the series. It diminishes one of Discovery’s key distinctions from other Star Trek franchises: its adept handling of complex romantic relationships. Instead, the villain’s primary motivation resembles a fleeting teenage infatuation.

While the last two seasons differentiated themselves from previous Trek series, this one is inclined to pay homage. Like other episodes this season, the episode’s title is a direct homage to other Treks with “Mirrors” directly referencing The Orginal Series ‘s “Mirror, Mirror.” This connection to other franchises echoes patterns seen in earlier seasons. However, it is a weak imitation of the rich history it tries to honor, losing what makes the Discovery franchise distinct. This connection to other franchises echoes patterns seen in earlier seasons. It would have been refreshing to see the series strive for something new and set itself apart one last time.

As Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 5 attempts to echo the Trek that came before it, the portrayal of Moll and La’k as mirrors to Burnham and Booker falls short. With familiar paths continuing to play out, revisiting the episodes that inspired this final season might be more rewarding than the episodes themselves. At the very least, you can skip Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 5 , where even dialogue recaps the lessons from this episode and previous episodes like an after-school special.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 5 is streaming exclusively on Paramount+ with new episodes every Thursday.

The post REVIEW: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 Episode 5 — “Mirriors” appeared first on But Why Tho? .