It’s no secret that a major part of the appeal of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the chance to see the legendary Star Trek: The Original Series characters we know and love as fledgling members of Starfleet. So far, in addition to following Pike and Una’s adventures across the galaxy with their crew, we’ve already gotten to meet a handful of original Enterprise crew members before their time on Kirk’s Enterprise, including Nyota Uhura, Doctor M’Benga, Nurse Chapel, and (as of the season one finale) Captain James T. Kirk himself. Heading into the season two finale, “Hegemony”, we knew to expect another intense clash with the Gorn that would yield devastating consequences, but what we weren’t expecting was getting to meet another member of Kirk’s Enterprise crew.
**Spoiler Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season two finale, “Hegemony.”**
That’s right! Scotty, the eccentric, heavily-accented Enterprise engineer made a surprise Strange New Worlds debut, which makes this new incarnation of the character the earliest we’ve gotten to see him in his personal timeline. “Hegemony” sees Nurse Chapel and Captain Pike’s long-distance girlfriend Captain Batel among a number of Starfleet officers trapped on a human colony overrun with Gorn, and follows Captain Pike, Spock, and co. in a mad dash to rescue the colonists and their lost crew members before the Gorn get to them first.
Pike assembles a rescue party and races to find his crew members—but once he gets to the surface of the planet, he ends up caught in a Gorn-proof trap designed by a young, wide-eyed engineer: Montgomery Scott, played by Martin Quinn. Remarkably, Quinn marks the first time Scotty is being played by an actual Scotsman, having been previously portrayed by Canadian James Doohan in the original series and Brit Simon Pegg in the J.J. Abrams films. Quinn (29) is also the youngest actor to take on the role of Scotty, which aligns with the fact that this is the youngest version of the character we’ve met to date.
Though he’s not the focal point of the episode (that’s reserved for more Spock/Chapel soap opera romance and an unsettling revelation regarding Captain Batel), Scotty still gets a few moments to shine, namely in showing off his mechanical prowess by helping cook up a number of technologies that allow Pike and his crew to escape the planet undetected. In addition to seeing Scotty pre-Kirk, we also get additional insight into his past: As he tells Captain Pike, he was a crew member aboard the exploratory solar vessel the Stardiver before it was attacked by (you guessed it) Gorn.
We also learn he’s already got history with an Enterprise crew member. Once he beams aboard, he’s surprised to see his old Engineering Professor Pelia serving as Chief Engineer—another story thread that could serve as prime fodder for next season, should they decide to keep Scotty around.
As far as the episode itself, it’s standard fare—dare I say an underwhelming finale, considering we’ve already gotten a dark, gritty Gorn episode with more impactful emotional stakes. (Last season’s “All Those Who Wander” similarly featured Gorn and led to the death of Enterprise’s engineer, Hemmer.) But while “Hegemony” feels, in many respects, like a rehash of a story we’ve seen before, there’s no doubt that Scotty’s introduction was a delightful surprise and a perfect way to ensure fans stick around for next season.
Admittedly, we don’t know where Scotty’s time on Strange New Worlds will go from here. It’s entirely possible that his surprise appearance to help fight the Gorn was a one-off cameo, but considering how Paul Wesley’s Captain Kirk was upped to a recurring character after his initial appearance in the season one finale, there’s also a significant possibility that we’ll see plenty more of Scotty in season three.
(featured image: Paramount Plus)
