An Interview With James Doohan
by Dennis Fischer
While James Doohan is best known as STAR TREK's Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott,
he has also acted in hundreds o fplays, radio show, television shows, motion pictures, been a
pilot for an artillery observation plane in World War II, and is a spokespersion for NASA and the space program.
In addition to STAR TREK, he has also been a regular on Peyton Place, Jason of Star Command, Space Command,
and is a semi-rgular on Magnum P.I. His films include The Wheeler Dealers, Bus Riley's back in Town,
The Satan Bug, Fellowship, Jigsaw, Man in the Wilderness, Pretty Maids All in a Row, and of course
the three STAR TREK films.
He is a charming and engaging man and a top performer.
His versatility at verious dialects is legendary. Whenever he talked about Scotty's character, he would
drop into a Scottish brogue, a dialect and role that would typecast him in Hollywood for years despite his
adeptness as portraying many different kinds of perosnalities. Doohan proudly announced that he had
given up smoking, quitting cold turkey after being a three carton a week man for years. He has six children
and three grandchildren.
James Doohan: OK, you ask the questions, and I'll do my best to answer them.
SD: What question are you asked most often?
Doohan: How did I get the role of Scotty?
SD: If the role hadn't been that of a Scotsman, what background would your character have had?
Doohan: Well, they did have me read several dialects when I came in for the part. I can't remember them all.
What happened was that about two weeks before they were going to do the second pilot of STAR TREK, my agent
sent me to read for the part of a Scotland Yard Inspector, which would happen to be an Englishman.
I didn't get that role, but the director (James Goldstone) of that one found that I did a lot of accents,
and he called me back about ten days later and said, I'd like you to come do some of your accents for the
STAR TREK people. And I said 'Who are they?' He told me, and I said that's fine.
Anyhow, I went down there and they gave me a page of script and I proceded to read the page with
six or seven different accents. They asked me, which accent do you like?
I said, Well, I'm mightily impressed with the way the Scotsmen do their engineering, so why don't we
settle on Scotty? And they said, that's fine, we like that to.
I named him Montgomery Scott. I named him after my grandfather on my mother's side. Now if I had
picked some other ethnic group or some other dialect, when Captain Kiek calls down and says 'Give me Warp 12!'
instead of hearing the familiar (Scots accent) "But Captain, my engines just can't take that," instead,
you'd hear "Si."
Or (Australian) Now look here, Cap'n, I've told you many times before I don't like to go above
Warp 8. Oh, that's an order. Well, all right.
Or (French) Capitaine, you are playing with me, no? Also, I noticed on the planet you did not
get zee girl. You should have come to Lucky Pierre.
Or (ala' Long John Silver) Aye, you be young Kirk, eh?
Now listen'ere, Laddie, I don't like goin'above Warp 8. That'll be enough out of you, or I'll see you hangin'
from the highest yardarm in Star Fleet.
Or my favorite would be Reggie, andhe would answer the Captain something like this (English) I'm terribly
sorry sir, but I can't get the little buggers to move any faster.
SD: According to The Making of STAR TREK, you were called the "Bad Boy" of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Why is that?
Doohan: I was not in the RCAF, they just looked after my aircraft. I was called the "Bad Boy" because I did certain
kinds of flying that other people didn't do. I recovered from certain things that people never thought I'd recover from,
but I think I'm probably famous for slaloming under telephone wires between the poles. The one time I was spotted,
I had just finished doing 19 in 1 row. I did all sorts of lovely things, but I never thought they were dicey.
I practiced them, and I did them, and as far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with them.
There was one fellow who was a stock broker in Montreak. He said to me one day, Jimmy, you're going to have
to quite flying like that. You're going to end up dead or in the hospital. Two days later, I walked into the hospital
to see him. He crashed into a high tnesion pylon, and that's something I never did. I've never crashed into anything.
I've had my engine cut on me a couple of times.
Once I was at 2000 feet over my own aerodrome, and that was a piec e of cake. I got down and I landed, and they
had fire trucks and ambulances and everything else waiting for me. I asked what the hullabaloo was about. I'd done
a lot of "dead stick" landings. Another time it happened at about 20 feet, and so I went up to about 150 feet to have
a look and see where I was going to put it down. Right in front of me was the autobahn, so I alnded across one lane of it.
Then I turned the tail wheel facing down the autobahn, got out, started the engine, and took off. Obviously, there was
nothing wrong with it.
SD: Do you fly anymore?
Doohan: Not much. The reason I don't fly is that I had such freedom during the war. In other words, I was my own boss.
If I didn't want to do this, I didn't have to do it. My word was law as far as flying was concerned. Today there are
just too darned many restrictions. It's no fun anymore, so I let the commercial pilots take me here, there, and anywhere.
If I was in Alaska or someplace where there is a lot of wild country where I wouldn't be reported, I might do some
flying. I did some while I was =in Colorado, buzzing dinosaur bones and things like that.
SD: What kind of plane did you fly in the war?
Doohan: I flew a high wing monoplane Mark V Auster. A very good ship. It was plexiglass right down to the tail. When I
sat in that the very first time, I just said, 'Hey, this is mine.'
SD: When did you get started acting?
Doohan: I went to Toronto in early 1953. I did anywhere from 7 to 14 hours a week for about 8 or 9 years. I'd been acting
there for about 2 years, and a woman at a party said, 'I know you're an actor, but what do you do for a living?' I was
probably making twice as much as her husband!
SD: Were you doing anything else?
Doohan: No, once I became an actor, that was my living. I did mostly live television. I did over 400 live television shows.
In 1954, I did a show called Flight into Danger, which was Arthus Hailey's very first script. It was a very
successful and highly dramatic show. (Hailey would later adapt the plot into his book, Runway Zero-8 and the film Zero Hour.)
That is the basis for Airplane and Airplane II, obviously. I have a kintescope of Flight into Danger, and I've shown it
at some conventions that I've been to. Only if they ask me to bring it will I bring it. One of the big problems is that
I have to carry it, and I don't like to carry things when I go on to airplanes, but if I get enough requests, I'll bring it
and let people see it. Let them see what I was like in 1954.
SD: Of all the kinds of acting you do, which do you like the best?
Doohan: I enjoyed radio very much, but there's nothing like live stage. You have a much better chance to create a character.
They want you as they see you in motion pictures and television. When you walk in the door, that's exactly the way they
want you, but on stage, you've got a chance to really give something.
SD: Could you talk about the films you've been in?
Doohan: The film I've been in? Before or after ST? Oh, God. I've been in Man in the Wilderness in Spain with Richard Harris.
I don't know, an awful lot of them I can't remember. You're talking about after 1969, right? Good Good. You know,
I've got a great memory, but not that great, particularly when I was not impressed with some of the things I did because
it was just for the money. Pretty Maids All in a Row, that was another one. Made good money on that one.
That's a lousy movie, though.
SD: Well, of all the movies you've been in, which is your facorite?
Doohan: Of the Star Trek movies?
SD: No, of all of them.
Doohan: Man in the Wilderness was the best.
SD: How many voices did you do in the animated Star Trek series?
Doohan: I created three characters in every animated episode, and I did four in some of them, and five in one of them.
The point is, once you did more than three voices, they had to give you a whole new check again, and that was great.
So I'd look at the number of characters and say, I'd like to do that and that and that one and that one and that one
They'd say oh come on now, Jimmy, I did three characters in every one of them, and it was fun and exciting.
SD: According to The Making of STAR TREK, Scotty was an only child, so how could he have a nephw in STAR TREK:
the Wrath of Khan?
Doohan: Who said I was an only child? You know what, do you realize that certain fans have created my character for me
without bothering to ask me? They also have me with one of my names as Edward. I'm sorry, I did not condone that,
and every time I see that in a book, I ask permission to stroke the 'Edward' out. I don't care who it is that wrote it,
but please, if you're going to write my story, ask em about Scotty, OK?
SD: Well, it was Stephen Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry that wrote that Scotty was an only child.
Doohan: Well, they never asked me.
SD: Does the character have a middle name?
Doohan: The name is Mongomery SCott, that's it. Not Montgomery Edward Scott.
SD: Has Scotty ever been married?
Doohan: SCotty has not been married except to engineering.
SD: Any girlfriends?
Doohan: (Laughing) No, he drank too much.
SD: Why does Scotty leave his post and take his nephew to the bridge of all places?
Doohan: I was dazed. (Jokingly) I was smashed to the gills...no,no,no. He was definitely my nephew, and that's
a terrible thing to have to find him dying in your arms, and i wanted to go up and show him to Captain Kirk
and say, don't do this sort of thing again.
SD: I noticed in STAAR TREK III: The Search for Spock, Scotty has captain's bars.
Doohan: That's right, I'm a captain of Engineering. I got promoted, latddie. For some reason or other, the fans
aren't satisfied unless I get a promotion with every movie. I don't know what I'm going to be if we do the
full 8 movies. By then I'll be promoted right out of a job. That won't be much fun. But as long as I get more
money, I won't mind, so that's the way that it goes.
SD: What does Scotty think of the Excelsior?
Doohan: Well, actually what they show me of the Excelsior is extremely limiteed, even though I was supposed to be
working on it and, ah, make sure its engines worked properly (Knowing smile).
SD: I understand that Grace Lee Whitney made a special appearence in STAR TREK III.
Doohan: Leonard (Nimoy) actually made a specific point of shooting a scene with Grace Lee Whitney in it.
I wasn't there, but that's what I understand. That just shows you what a nice fellow Leonard is.
SD: What did you think of t=his work as a director.
Doohan: Great. Leonard really did a sensational job. I was highly impressed, as were all of us. Leonard
did his homework. He was terrific.
SD: Can you give an example of how he may have helped in your role?
Doohan: (Thinking a moment) I had a terrible case of bronchitis for 7 out of 12 weeks we were working, and if
you've ever had bronchitis, you were completely lacking in any ambition, and there I was in the midst of shooting
a movie, and I couldn't even think. I didn't want to work, that's for sure. So I told Leonard, and he said don't
worry abouot it. I knew he'd look after it. He did all my thinking for me, and that's great.
SD: How would you compare working in the films as opposed to working in the series?
Doohan; You don't have to work that hard in a motion picture, and it's not so phrenetic as it is in TV, so you usually
don't make mistakes. In the movie, we took maybe three takes, but in television, we took 12, and in one case I remember,
33 takes. So it's a lot, a helluva lot.
SD: What was that real story on that fire at the Paramount lot?
Doohan: The fire has been blown all out of proportion. So Bill (Shatner) took a glass of water and threw it at a wall.
Come on, let's fae it. It was good publicity. It didn't really mean anything. The outside wall got warm.
The fire was on the block next to us. Any time you have a fire, a wall is going to get warm. There was a street between
the wall and the fire.
SD: Had you read a lot of science fiction before you did STAR TREK?
Doohan: Yeah, as a matter of fact, I read a lot of science fiction before STAR TREK, and practically none since.
I started out with Buck Rogers when I was five or six years of age, or as soon as I could read. I prefer the
Arthur C. Clarke type of stories.
SD: Is Scotty ever tempted to tell the captain off when he asks for more power? What would he say?
Doohan: What do you suggest? You know, someone handed me a button yesterday that said, 'Up you shaft!' I say that in the
movie. I'm talking to the elevator. A shaft by any other name, OK?
SD: Have you ever met any of the people in other countries who do Scotty's voice?
Doohan: I was suppose to meet Mr. Ludwig who does the German voice of Scotty, I was suppose to see him in germany last
August with all the other german cast members (dropping into a German accent) and talk mit them and have a lot of fun,
drink a lot of beer, and all that sort of thing. But I couldn't go. I had to do STAR TREJ III.
SD: Any new projects planned or other films we can look forwar to seeing you in?
Doohan: I've given up trying to do anything with Hollywood, except that I always read new plays that are sent to me,
just looking for characters to play. My agent hasn't given up, but I let him just go ahread. I am busy with other
personal projects.
SD: So what is your favorite STAR TREK episode?
Doohan: My favorite episode was "The Trouble with Tribbles." At least it was suppose to be a comedy. Other episodes
ended up as comedies, but had no intention of being comedies.
SD: Finally, what is your opinion of Star Trek fans?
Doohan: I'll answer that with a Scottish toast (He does and then translates) Nobody could possibly be as good as we
are, because if they were that good, they'd have to be dead.