Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reveals An Astonishing New Detail About Scotty

This article contains spoilers for the first two episodes of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 3.

Back in 2023, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" closed out its second season with a cliffhanger, but the biggest surprise of that finale, "Hegemony," was the debut of future Enterprise chief engineer, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. That character was played by James Doohan in the original "Star Trek" TV series and its spin-off films, and then by Simon Pegg in the Kelvin timeline "Star Trek" reboots.

In "Strange New Worlds," Scotty is played by newcomer Martin Quinn, the first actual Scottish actor to play Scotty. (Doohan was Canadian, and doing an overblown Scottish accent, which the British Pegg then imitated.) In "Strange New Worlds" season 3, Scotty/Quinn is now part of the main cast, but he's still not chief engineer just yet; that's his old professor Pelia's (Carol Kane) job. The second episode of season 3, "Wedding Bell Blues," revealed that's not the only thing that's different about this younger Scotty.

At Spock's bachelor party (long story), Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) brought a bottle of Saurian brandy. When he goes to pour Scotty a glass, Scotty covers his glass with his hand: "Honestly, I'm not much of a drinker. I hardly touch the stuff."

In "TOS," Doohan's Scotty was very much not a teetotaler. Being chief engineer on the Enterprise is a stressful job that often demands the impossible, so no wonder Scotty would turn to the bottle. While Quinn's Scotty is already an engineering genius, his reserved and introverted persona and lack of taste for alcohol shows he's not yet the brash character who Doohan created. Will we see Scotty grow into that character across the final three seasons of "Strange New Worlds?"

Much like Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Scotty was often shown with a glass in his hand across "Star Trek." Not that this prevented either of them from doing their duties, but both men clearly had a taste for booze. 

In season 2 episode "The Trouble with Tribbles," Scotty sits down with Chekov (Walter Koenig) at a bar on Deep Space Station K7. Chekov, a proud Russian, drinks vodka. Scotty denigrates Chekov's drink as "milk" and "soda pop," favoring Scotch as a "drink for a man." Scotty doesn't need the drink to start a bar fight with some Klingons, though; all he needs is overhearing them insulting the Enterprise.

Later in season 2, in the episode "By Any Other Name," aliens called the Kelvans hijack the Enterprise. The Kelvans, who hail from the Andromeda galaxy, have taken on human form to interact with the humanoid crew of the Enterprise. However, they're also unused to the sensory experiences of being human: emotions, tastes, pleasure, etc. The Enterprise crew manage to defeat the Kelvans by taking advantage of their inexperience in reining in their base impulses.

Noticing that the Kelvan Tomar (Robert Fortier) takes a liking to human food, Scotty offers Tomar something to wash his meal down with. The episode then repeatedly cuts back-and-forth to Scotty and Tomar going through Scotty's entire liquor cabinet together. Tomar's Kelvan constitution eventually gives out to Scotty's prized possession: a 200-year-old bottle of Scotch. 

At least for now, don't count on seeing such a scene in "Strange New Worlds." Note, though, that Scotty said he hardly drinks, not that he never drinks. Is there a backstory to be explored here? Was Scotty a drinker and he had a bad experience? Will "Strange New Worlds" explain how Scotty does become enough of a drinker that he keeps a whole booze cabinet in his quarters? The teaser for "Strange New Worlds" season 3 does show a scene from a future episode where Scotty is toasting with Jim Kirk (Paul Wesley) about what a good team they are.

Or, is this just an inside joke for Trekkies to show them that this Scotty isn't the one they know? Heavy drinking is a Scottish stereotype, one which doubtlessly informed Scotty's classic characterization as a high-functioning alcoholic. (Doohan, whose father was an alcoholic, had first-hand experience with the disease too.) Quinn has told the BBC that the "Strange New Worlds" writers want a more "authentic" Scottish portrayal of Scotty, and maybe part of that is leaning less on stereotypes? 

We'll find out, as "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 3 releases new episodes every Thursday on Paramount+.