^^^I think there's a lot of truth to the way LaForge treated Scotty. Imagine if the Wright brothers showed up on an aircraft carrier in a comparably dangerous situation. Their advice would be mostly useless, and with an immediate crisis, no one would be in the mood to reminisce about the good old days.
I also like that even as likable officer as LaForge is shown to have his crabby moments. Again, it adds a little realism to the characterization.
I also thought it was funny that Picard totally blew Scotty off when he first comes aboard with, "I look forward to hearing your interesting perspective on the thrilling events of your day...later" (I'm paraphrasing). It just seems like a wonderful way to say, "get out of my way--I'm busy."
People grumble about how Scotty is treated by the crew in this episode a lot, but I think it's unwarranted.
First of all, well, Picard
was busy! He has a ship to run and a ship that had just stumbled upon an
enromous (both literally and figuratively) scientific discovery! He's got work to do! And he
did seek out Scotty to talk with him when it became convenient.
As for LaForge I think how he's treated by some is out-of-line too. First of all they weren't in a "crisis", LaForge was simpy doing scans of the Dyson Sphere. But they were scans he had to do and scans that Picard wanted and expected. LaForge seemed more than willing to show Scotty around and talk with him, again, when he had the time. But LaForge was busy doing his job.
So, imagine this. You're sitting at your job when in walks someone you had encountered earlier. This man worked in your field 30 or 40 years ago, fell into a coma, and has recently recovered and is trying to get back into step (for the sake of argument this is a "Hollywood Coma" where when you wake up you're good-as-new!). So you're sitting there and in walks this guy who proclaims he's there to help you do your job! A job that's changed
greatly in the intervening time and this guy is greatfuly ill-equipped to lend any help and add into this a "time crunch" to get your work done for the boss.
Now imagine while you're talking to this guy, trying to do your job, trying to manage your subordinates the guy goes around playing around with things. He opens equipment, starts punching around on computers, and pretty much makes a bother of himself. Wouldn't
you be just a bit annoyed?!
LaForge (and Picard) both seem more than willing to talk with Scotty a help him catch up but at the moment they've a major scientific discovery to explore they don't have time to sit-down with Scotty and play catch-up with him.
So LaForge is in Engineering, finishing his survery and Scotty comes in and says he's there to help. How does he help? He babbles about nothing which isn't likely to aide in anyone's work, he opens up the dilithium chamber, he starts fiddling with the computer and engineering settings and then he
insults how LaForge reports to his superior officer and tells LaForge has a lot to learn if he wants to be a good engineer. This all happens
before LaForge finally breaks down and tells Scotty off.; up until then LaForge has either been simply a bit dismissive of Scotty, listening to him out of the side of his ears, or trying to quickly explain the changes Scotty discovers.
Scotty is the jerk here. The Enterprise-D is a huge ship with plenty to do, plenty of people to talk to and a vast computer filled with the technichal information Scotty would want to read-over to catch-up on the 80 years of changes in technology. When the Dyson Sphere studies were over the crew would've been more receptive of Scotty. Infact, recall that Picard seeks Scotty out himself to talk showing he
did have an interest in the man. LaForge is also very nice and talkative with Scotty when they fist get aboard ship.
Scotty simply butts in at too stressful of a time and gets more in the way than he "helps." (As if he'd be of any help whatsoever after being out of the loop for nearly 80 years) Sorry, Scotty was in the wrong in this episode. Could LaForge have been a bit nicer to Scotty when he came to engineering? Perhaps but, again, LaForge was on a time-crunch to do his job.
