The Case Against Scotty

[Use of Time]

5. The Charge: Substandard as an Engineer

The Evidence: TOS, TMP, TWoK, STIII.

Ever notice how when something was really broken on the Enterprise Mr. Spock would eventually have to go fix it?

This happened more than once in the series, but reconsider the movies. In TMP, Scotty has been with the whole refit of the Enterprise, but can't figure out the fuel equations to get to warp. When Kirk insists that they go to warp to intercept the BDO threatening Earth (Kirk was pushing here, but going to warp is like taking an elevator in Trek) they wind up in a worm hole. Heck, it wasn't even Scott who entered the solution - he stood back and had and underling take stab at it:

ASSISTANT ENGINEER: That's it, sir. I can't do any better.

SCOTT: Aye, lad. It's borderline on the simulator. Captain, I canna guarantee that she'll hold up.

So here is Scotty, on his ship, working over the refit he's been overseeing for 18 months. And he can't even get the ship to warp. Spock shows up, and like 5 minutes later they have warp drive. Miracle worker?

Star Trek II - Scotty saves the day? Scotty takes the bullet for the team? Nope, it's not Mr. Scott - he knows what they're up against and he should've also known that he could also manually put the mains back on line, but NO - Spock has to hike all the way down from the bridge and kill himself because Scotty can't fix the ship. Way to go Scotty!

Star Trek III - they're hit by like one shot from a dinky Bird of Prey and all their systems are fried (because that's how Scotty does things - the Enterprise is always wired like a Christmas tree when he's doing the fixes). Result? Kirk has to destroy the Enterprise and they have to transport to the planet.

Significance: The only reason we put off with Scotty being drunk all the time and stabbing random Argelian women is that he supposed to save you when you're in a fix. But it turns out he only looks good because he inflates repair estimates and when you look closely, it turns out Spock was really the Chief Engineer.

That stabbing random Argelian women line had me cleaning coffee off of my keyboard thanks.

 

[Ian Keldon]

In TMP, Scotty has been with the whole refit of the Enterprise, but can't figure out the fuel equations to get to warp. When Kirk insists that they go to warp to intercept the BDO threatening Earth (Kirk was pushing here, but going to warp is like taking an elevator in Trek) they wind up in a worm hole. Heck, it wasn't even Scott who entered the solution - he stood back and had and underling take stab at it:

ASSISTANT ENGINEER: That's it, sir. I can't do any better.

SCOTT: Aye, lad. It's borderline on the simulator. Captain, I canna guarantee that she'll hold up.

So here is Scotty, on his ship, working over the refit he's been overseeing for 18 months. And he can't even get the ship to warp. Spock shows up, and like 5 minutes later they have warp drive. Miracle worker?

No, it took a little doing even after Spock showed up to help. You have to remember that Scotty was dealing with a ) experimental systems that were b ) rushed into service.

Star Trek II - Scotty saves the day? Scotty takes the bullet for the team? Nope, it's not Mr. Scott - he knows what they're up against and he should've also known that he could also manually put the mains back on line, but NO - Spock has to hike all the way down from the bridge and kill himself because Scotty can't fix the ship. Way to go Scotty!

Apparently you forgot about the fact that the chamber was flooded with radiation levels no human could survive.

Star Trek III - they're hit by like one shot from a dinky Bird of Prey and all their systems are fried (because that's how Scotty does things - the Enterprise is always wired like a Christmas tree when he's doing the fixes). Result? Kirk has to destroy the Enterprise and they have to transport to the planet.

Let's see, the Enterprise was still half shot-up from the battle with the Reliant, Scotty was working with jury-rigged automation systems in combat with no staff support. Again, the result was from circumstance, not any incompetence on the part of Scotty.

Significance: The only reason we put off with Scotty being drunk all the time

Proof? Occasional drunkenness (and the one time he got REALLY sloshed he was under orders to do so to get the Kelvan device)

and stabbing random Argelian women

I do believe Redjack had something to do with that as well.

Well in TMP, Kirk forced Scotty's hand. Given more time Scotty might have been able to get warp drive fully functional.

Still, you've gotta admit. It doesn't look good. Spock shows up and has the engines working in a few minutes and he hasn't been working on the refit or hanging out in the engine room. He just shows up and figures out the fuel equations.

Nope. First we don't know how long it took him to catch up to Enterprise from Vulcan, so he was probably working on those equations that whole trip.

Secondly, we know per Kirk's Log entry that it still took between 2 and 3 hours after he got there to get things in working order.

Try again, sport. Your "charges" don't amount to squat.

 

[Ian Keldon]

condensed posts

 

[1001001]

Try again, sport. Your "charges" don't amount to squat.

Easy, tiger. I think we're all just having a bit of fun here. As the OP said, let's not take this too seriously.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Concerning Scotty's alleged estimate padding:

In TOS, I don't believe there was ever any indication of such. In fact, there was never any indication at all that Scotty and Kirk were not always communicating with great efficiency and clarity and were always on the same page.

In TSFS, the jocular exchange between Scotty and Kirk that some see as Scotty confessing to long-term lying about his estimates is really nothing more than some good-natured joking between two friends based on their shared opinion that repairs that should take eight weeks by the book, Scotty can do in two.

It is not until Scotty's guest appearance on TNG that he becomes someone who thinks of starship captains as children who need to be lied to and "handled" (assuming one doesn't interpret that whole scene as him simply pulling Geordi's leg). Personally, though, I think it's wise to take the TNG-and-later writers' interpretations of any of the TOS characters with a grain of salt.

Thank you for saving me the effort of writing all that. It's exactly my take on the whole Miracle Worker thing.