Writing Chekov and Scotty
- Thread starter JonLuck Pickerd
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I remember James Blish's "Scotty" accent being impenetrable - as a kid reading Spock Must Die!, I had no idea what Scotty was meant to be saying half the time, quite apart from the fact that the "real" Scotty didn't talk like that. Vonda McIntyre, as great as her books were, never wrote a Chekov or Scotty who sounded like their onscreen selves, either.
One of the Trek writers who I remember being particularly good with the accent was Janet Kagan, who handled Chekov's speech patten very effectively. I seem to remember that she did use "Keptain" and "I hev" for "Captain" and "I have," but not in an obtrusive way; it just...sounded like Chekov.
One of the Trek writers who I remember being particularly good with the accent was Janet Kagan, who handled Chekov's speech patten very effectively. I seem to remember that she did use "Keptain" and "I hev" for "Captain" and "I have," but not in an obtrusive way; it just...sounded like Chekov.
Blish's Spock Must Die! came to my mind, too. While it may have been a more authentic Scottish speech pattern coming from a British author, it was nearly incomprehensible at times to a preteen in the American southwest. And it certainly didn't sound much like the Scotty I saw on the TV screen. So I agree that was an example of carrying the printed accent too far.
A little bit for flavor is certainly nice, though.
I used to think that too, but actually Blish was born and raised in the US and didn't move to England until 1968, just a couple of years before Spock Must Die! was published, and thus probably just about a year or so before it was written. So I'm not sure how authentic his version of a Scots dialect was.
I have heard real Scots (i.e. Craig Ferguson) express amazement at Scotty's actual onscreen voice. CF says that real Scots don't talk like that.
^Well, yeah, but since Blish's version of Scotty's dialogue sounds nothing like Doohan's Scotty, that's really a separate subject from this one.
^ Lwaxana is a full telepath, that probably makes it easier for her to learn languages.
Blish is American, and Craig Ferguson is right.
(AFAIK I'm the only Scot to have written him, so I have to hope I didn't distract people with how he talked in IFM! Tried to get a balance between how the actor played it - how we talk now isn't how people talked 300 years ago, so maybe Scots will talk like that 300 years hence! - and some real Scottishness, which is more about turns of phrase than a phonetic accent...
(AFAIK I'm the only Scot to have written him, so I have to hope I didn't distract people with how he talked in IFM! Tried to get a balance between how the actor played it - how we talk now isn't how people talked 300 years ago, so maybe Scots will talk like that 300 years hence! - and some real Scottishness, which is more about turns of phrase than a phonetic accent...
^As a Scot, do you have any insight into the accuracy of Blish's version of Scotty's dialect in Spock Must Die!?
To be honest, I haven't read that for about 30 years, and remember absolutely nothing about it, other than there being two Spocks somehow
One of the positive elements about "The Ashes of Eden" was the authors writing out Chekov's accent. Same with Peter David's "The Captain's Daughter." I'm pretty used to that, but am content with regular writing as well (like in The Sundered and Forged In Fire, where we get nods to Chekov's accent..."
What I can't stand is when the author slips in and out of the accent. Like in Alan Dean Foster's ST09 novel, in which he keeps changing it from "Keptin" to "Captain." That was annoying.
What I can't stand is when the author slips in and out of the accent. Like in Alan Dean Foster's ST09 novel, in which he keeps changing it from "Keptin" to "Captain." That was annoying.
I prefer Keptin.
I didn't realize that! I remembered references in his later years (and upon his death) that he lived in England, so I assumed he was British. Thanks for correcting me, and for giving me an excuse to Google him and remind myself of some of the many books he wrote that I enjoyed.
I read that Blish had never seen an episode of TOS when we wrote his adaptations or "Spock Must Die!" - if true (it seems unlikely), it might explain Scotty's accent.
Tbh, I don't recall anything about Scotty in SMD.
Tbh, I don't recall anything about Scotty in SMD.
IMHO, you nailed it.
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