3 episodes of Star Trek to watch to celebrate James Doohan’s birthday

Star Trek legend James Doohan was born this week in 1920.

Usually, we get these on the birthday of the given Star Trek actor, but due to technical difficulties, that was not an option this time around but we’d be remiss if we didn’t do something for Star Trek icon, James Doohan. Doohan would’ve been 102 this week, and passed away in 2005 at the age of 85. Doohan was most famously known for his portrayal of Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, but Doohan was also a key voice actor in the Star Trek: The Animated Series show, voicing a bulk of the characters from the animated version of the franchise.

Doohan is beloved but during his run with the original show, he really didn’t have a lot of Scotty-centric episodes. That would change more in the films, as Scotty was given massive story-arcs to play out, and even had an entire episode during The Next Generation that was dedicated to just him.

We’re not looking at the films right now, just Doohan’s time in the television world. So here are three Star Trek episodes to watch to celebrate Doohan’s birthday (birth-week).

3 episodes of Star Trek to watch to celebrate James Doohan’s birthday.

The Original Series – The Trouble with Tribbles

The episode isn’t specifically about Scotty, but James Doohan has one of the best moments in the episode; a moment so iconic that Deep Space Nine brought it back to life with Trials and Tribble-ations. In both episodes, Doohan’s Scotty gets into it with Klingons, and eventually starts a bar brawl with the warrior race over the honor of the Enterprise.

The Original Series – TOS By Any Other Name

Another episode that isn’t exactly about Scotty but has another great Doohan moment. In it, Spock, Bones, Kirk, and Scotty are the only four intact members of the Enterprise, which has been hijacked by the Kelvans (not JJ Abrams). The four men start conspiring ways to get back control of the ship, with Scotty resulting in getting a Kelvan drunk through various forms of alcohol. The drunk antics of Scotty remains one of the more joyous and delightful moments of the original series and the fact he drank an alien under the table (albeit briefly) was a sight to see.

The Next Generation –  Relics

Relics is one of the few times the Orignal Series and the Next Generation crossed paths, with Doohan’s Scotty being found stuck in a ship’s transporter buffers. Decades have passed since then, and the man who once knew how to keep any ship flying was now stuck out of time. It’s one of Doohan’s best outings as the character, as Scotty grapples with finding a place in the new world despite not being aware of most of the changes in technology. It also happens to be one of the best episodes of LeVar Burton’s career as well, as Scotty leaned heavily on the Enterprise-D’s Chief of Engineering, Geordi La Forge, to help him with the advances in technology.