Scotty's Actions During Khan's Ambush

[The Beer Slayer]

Something never quite sat right with me during Kahan's initial attack on the Enterprise in TWOK and I finally figured out what it was: Scotty.

Here we have the Enterprise under attack by forces unknown, the ship in such dire straits that they don't even have auxillary power and are down to batteries only, and what does the Chief Engineer do? He abandons his post in the middle of a battle to take his mortally wounded nephew, not to sickbay, but to the bridge.

The clincher is that when Scotty, Kirk, and McCoy are all in Isckbay, Scotty waxes poetic about how his nephew stayed at his post when all the trainees ran. That's all well and good Mr. Scott, but where were you? Were you in the engine room making sure power was restored before some madman killed you and everyone else on the ship? No, you were picking up your nephew and abandoning the engine room. Were you directing damage control teams to get the fires and hull breeches under control? No, you were riding in an elevator not to sickbay but to the bridge. Were you in engineering restoring power immediately after the battle? No, you were in sickbay.

Now, I appreciate that Scotty's nephew might be important to ol' Scott, but he left engineering in the middle of a battle for personal reasons and the only reason Khan wasn't able to kill everyone on the Enterprise, including Mr. Scott is because Kirk knew more about starships than Khan. Kirk should have come down hard on Scotty for dereliction on duty, possibly even court martialing Scotty.

Dramatically, I'm not sure if this couldn't have been handled in a different way that didn't include making Scott look less than professional.

 

[Christopher]

This is why I'm not that fond of TWOK. Time and again, it puts melodrama over logic. Why did Scotty take his dying nephew to the bridge? Why did Kirk keep wearing the jacket with Preston's blood on it? Why couldn't an engineering tech have donned a helmet and gloves (since they're wearing the rest of a radiation suit by default) and gone into the reactor room in less time than it took Spock to get down there from the bridge? Why couldn't the Reliant crew count planets? And so on. The story just doesn't make much sense.

The novelization explained that Scott had been confused and had hit the wrong button in the lift. But you raise a good point -- it still doesn't explain why he'd abandon his post in the first place. Just as Spock shouldn't have needed to sacrifice himself when there were engineering personnel available, Scotty shouldn't have needed to do the job that could be performed by the medical staff.

Although that could perhaps be explained by the fact that they had a crew of trainees aboard, who maybe weren't experienced or numerous enough to handle those jobs the way a regular crew could. Still, the whole thing with Scotty coming on the bridge with his bloodied nephew in his arms is one of the film's three most awful moments of overblown melodrama. The others are Peter's subsequent death scene (which is only in the director's cut) and, of course, "KHAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!"

 

[FormerLurker]

Funny, I remember seeing that death scene every time I've ever watched the film, from the first time on or about June 8th, 1982(I had just taken my last sophomore final in high school), to the most recent, somewhere around a year ago. And I've never seen the director's cut.

Peter asks Kirk "Is the word given, admiral?" and grabs Kirk's jacket. Kirk grasps Peter's wrist, and answers "The word is given. Warp speed." Then Bones pulls the silvery polar blanket over Peter's head and says "I'm sorry, Scotty."

It's meant to be very moving, and if you're in the right mood, it's very effective.

 

[trevanian]

His death has always been in the movie, it is just cut differently in Meyer's version. Anybody disagreeing is wrong wrong wrong (otherwise we'd have years of folks wondering why Kirk's tunic is bloody for the next bridge scene.)

 

[Christopher]

Of course you're right. I misspoke. What I meant to say was that the director's cut version of the scene was extended from the theatrical cut, and that the restored material included some really corny, melodramatic stuff that should've stayed on the cutting room floor. Although now that I think about it, I'm not entirely sure which parts were in the theatrical cut and which were restored later.

 

[Data Holmes]

Lifts were inoperable below C deck, so I always took it that the lift malfunctioned when it took him to the bridge.

As for what scotty was doing, he was there when he told kirk that all that was left was the battery and that he could get them phasers but a few short. So he was at his post up until the end of the battle. Comm channels were open so he may have heard that the Reliant was in retreat and leaving the area before he grabbed peter and pulled him into the lift to get him to sickbay.

 

[Christopher]

Just because the battle was over didn't mean he didn't still have a job to do overseeing the repairs. From an engineer's standpoint, the end of the battle is just the beginning of the work. Nephew or no nephew (and in the theatrical version that relationship was cut out anyway), Scotty should've stayed in command of engineering and delegated someone else to take Peter to sickbay. That's not only a matter of duty, it would've been better for Peter; after all, a younger cadet could carry Peter to sickbay faster than a 63-year-old man could.

 

[J.T.B.]

In the TOS writer's guide, the standard was supposed to be "What would an officer on a present-day US Navy cruiser do?" Now TOS didn't always hold to that standard, no question. But to me that scene in TWOK has always been one of the most egregious violations. Can you imagine the chief engineer of any vessel not only leaving their post after the battle, but carrying a wounded person far out of the way to the bridge? Are there no medical teams in the vicinity? At least send a less-essential crewmember, and not to the bridge!

Of course it was intended to hark back to old sailing-ship-battle movies, Captain Blood and the like, where the captain is on the quarterdeck and can simply look out at the gundeck and see the dramatic scenes of blood and sacrifice. But with some long turbolift rides in between the melodramatic casualty and the captain, it doesn't make much sense.

--Justin

 

[RobertScorpio]

Funny, I remember seeing that death scene every time I've ever watched the film, from the first time on or about June 8th, 1982(I had just taken my last sophomore final in high school), to the most recent, somewhere around a year ago. And I've never seen the director's cut.

Peter asks Kirk "Is the word given, admiral?" and grabs Kirk's jacket. Kirk grasps Peter's wrist, and answers "The word is given. Warp speed." Then Bones pulls the silvery polar blanket over Peter's head and says "I'm sorry, Scotty."

It's meant to be very moving, and if you're in the right mood, it's very effective.

I think some of this negativity ignores the fact that this is a movie...I don't really care about Torpedos and phasers and warp speed, and I don't think most 'average' movie goers do. They care about the characters, or should care about the characters, or why else invest your emotions to a movie?

TWOK is the best TREK movie, IMO. And its the best TREK movie because of these and other character moments. I wouldn't want in any other way.

Rob

 

[Pauln6]

The novelisation explains that the turbolift allowing direct access to sickbay was blocked and he came to the bridge directly because it allowed faster access to an alternative route.

I'm not sure that stacks up mechanically, since to reach the bridge the lift has to pass every deck but I don't have any deck plans handy so I don't know where the different shafts go.

 

[Timo]

I never thought Scotty was taking the kid to sickbay. Tending to his wounds was not Scotty's priority or purpose; stopping Kirk from killing more of his lads was.

That's a job Scotty couldn't delegate to any other person. He had to personally go to the bridge and bitch-slap Kirk so that he'd stop sending children to battle. Repairing the ship was secondary, and would indeed be counterproductive to his goal of stopping the madman.

Scotty need not have been completely rational when choosing this course of action. He couldn't be expected to be. He might be an obedient little warrior when sent to war, but here he was having what essentially amounted to a family holiday, and Kirk turned it into a bloodbath instead. Starfleet might have rules about that sort of thing, but there'd also be rules of decency.

Scotty doesn't appear on the bridge looking lost or anything. He just appears to say "See what you did? See?" even if his lips don't quite move...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Maurice]

Wow, that's reaaaally a stretch, Timo. In fact, logic snapped several times in the process.

 

[FormerLurker]

Funny, I remember seeing that death scene every time I've ever watched the film, from the first time on or about June 8th, 1982(I had just taken my last sophomore final in high school), to the most recent, somewhere around a year ago. And I've never seen the director's cut.

Peter asks Kirk "Is the word given, admiral?" and grabs Kirk's jacket. Kirk grasps Peter's wrist, and answers "The word is given. Warp speed." Then Bones pulls the silvery polar blanket over Peter's head and says "I'm sorry, Scotty."

It's meant to be very moving, and if you're in the right mood, it's very effective.

I think some of this negativity ignores the fact that this is a movie...I don't really care about Torpedos and phasers and warp speed, and I don't think most 'average' movie goers do. They care about the characters, or should care about the characters, or why else invest your emotions to a movie?

TWOK is the best TREK movie, IMO. And its the best TREK movie because of these and other character moments. I wouldn't want in any other way.

Rob

Negativity? I apologize if you think I was being negative. I was just pointing out that I've seen Peter's death scene every time I've watched the movie, and I've never seen the director's edition.

I agree, TWOK is the best TREK movie. The character moments is what I was addressing when I said that if you're in the right mood, this scene is very moving.

 

[RyanKCR]

The novelisation explains that the turbolift allowing direct access to sickbay was blocked and he came to the bridge directly because it allowed faster access to an alternative route.

I'm not sure that stacks up mechanically, since to reach the bridge the lift has to pass every deck but I don't have any deck plans handy so I don't know where the different shafts go.

Actually the Novelization does not have Scotty going up to the bridge but has Kirk and Spock go to engineering and finding Scotty there holding Preston saying he cannot reach Dr McCoy. Spock then takes Preston from Scotty and they all head to sickbay.

 

[Pauln6]

Actually the Novelization does not have Scotty going up to the bridge but has Kirk and Spock go to engineering and finding Scotty there holding Preston saying he cannot reach Dr McCoy. Spock then takes Preston from Scotty and they all head to sickbay.

Whoops. In my defence it has been twenty years since I read it.

My favourite bit is where Khan tortures the Regula 1 crew. Not because I like the gore but because the novel builds them up as characters so you actually care what happens to them, plus Zinaida gives us a glimpse of how cool Ilia could have been if the planned Phase II had had decent writing.

 

[David cgc]

The novelisation explains that the turbolift allowing direct access to sickbay was blocked and he came to the bridge directly because it allowed faster access to an alternative route.

I'm not sure that stacks up mechanically, since to reach the bridge the lift has to pass every deck but I don't have any deck plans handy so I don't know where the different shafts go.

Actually the Novelization does not have Scotty going up to the bridge but has Kirk and Spock go to engineering and finding Scotty there holding Preston saying he cannot reach Dr McCoy. Spock then takes Preston from Scotty and they all head to sickbay.

Honestly, I've heard people say the novelization still has Scotty go to the bridge, but explains it away somehow so often I'm curious if it was revised in between printings at some point, so the edition you and I have has Kirk and Spock meet Scotty in engineering, but there's another version that matches the events on-screen.

 

[Unicron]

I'll have to look at my copy sometime. Some things are certainly done better in the novelizations IMO - the TUC has the crew doing the same thing with the books during the conversation with the Klingon outpost, but there it's because the conspirators have disabled the UT. They use the books because there's no alternative in the short space of time they have. Had they done it that way in the film, the comedic quality of the scene might have played better.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

It's been a while. Did any version of the movie even explain that Peter was his nephew?

I know the novelization did.

 

[Unicron]

Yes, there is a line in most (if not all) versions that Peter is his "sister's youngest."

 

[Pauln6]

It's true - Kirk and Spock open the turboliflift at engineering and Scorry is standing there with Peter. He didn't want to abandon his post but couldn't raise McCoy on comms. Thus he travelled with Kirk's permission to sickbay and therefore did not abandon his post in the novel.