Scotty Captain of Engineering

[Newt]

Bit of a nitpick but in TSFS Mr Scott is promoted to Captain of Engineering and we see than promotion on his Starfleet jacket with his rank insignia on his uniform.
Fast forward to TVH he's back to commander. TFF, TUC he's back to captain. Generations and his TNG appearance he's still a captain. He's only referenced as a captain in relics as he has no rank insignia on display.

Behind the scenes it's a small continuity error. Especially as the cast are still in their same costumes in TSFS and TVH from what I can tell.. Not getting into Chekov's costume change or wardrobe malfunction during TSFS.
Also their stay on Vulcan is for 3 months and their wearing the same stuff, I hope they had good laundrette near by lol

Do have an in-story theory. Maybe Scotty misplaced his captain rank whilst on Vulcan and happened to have his old commander rank in his pocket and popped it on.
Also could it be possible ,Scotty, has early memory issues? Displaying his previous rank is just a goof at the trial of the crew at the end of TVH? Or maybe he just grabbed an old uniform from his residence in Edinburgh (assuming he has a home whilst not on missions).
Could easily say memory issues fit as in TNG he thought Captain Kirk came to his rescue. (I know I know its a goof on the writers behalf in generations , as it was written after relics)

Just a thought to fix a minor continuity issue and sloppy writing.

 

[LAFR]

"Do have an in-story theory."

Maybe it's fiction??

 

[Uxi]

Informal promotion from Morrow, who's sacked after the Genesis debacle and replaced with Cartwright, who seeing as Scott had sabotaged Excelsior, didn't push the paperwork through (or outright stopped it). By the time TUC that promotion came through for time in grade (and pay grade) but obviously not CO of the ship.

 

[Newt]

"Do have an in-story theory."

Maybe it's fiction??

Yeah I am well aware it’s fiction. Fans do tend to discuss the nitpicky details. Cheers for the belitllement

Informal promotion from Morrow, who's sacked after the Genesis debacle and replaced with Cartwright, who seeing as Scott had sabotaged Excelsior, didn't push the paperwork through (or outright stopped it). By the time TUC that promotion came through for time in grade (and pay grade) but obviously not CO of the ship.

That’s not a bad theory better than mine.
Thanks for the input.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Weird, Scott loses the rank but gains the command color.

 

[Newt]

View attachment 45076
Weird, Scott loses the rank but gains the command color.

It’s be that dam Vulcan laundromat. Bet they got mixed up with Welshy lol

 

[Nerys Myk]

It’s be that dam Vulcan laundromat. Bet they got mixed up with Welshy lol

Another Scotty Uniform Anomaly. In TUC he wears the full uniform with captain's bars and a gold shirt at the diplomatic function. But for the rest of the movie he's in his vest and a white shirt. He's also back in gold for GEN.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

My headcanon is that Scotty removed his Captain's bars after the events of STIII as a matter of honor. Scotty was smart enough to know that Starfleet would throw the book at him for sabotaging the Excelsior and there wasn't a chance in hell he'd ever retain his new rank. So he reverted back to his Commander insignia during the crew's three month Vulcan exile.

Heck, if you want to be cutesy with it, you could even say that Scotty used his Captain's bars as a widget to fix some mechanical issue with the Klingon Bird of Prey they commandeered. At some point during the events of STIV, he pulls his Captain's bars out of some nook or cranny on the Bounty and says, "There those are! I've been looking for those for months!"

As for Scotty's memory lapse re: Kirk hauling the Enterprise out of mothballs in the episode "Relics," there's an explanation right there in the episode: Scotty's transporter pattern degraded slightly, so his memory was spotty right after he came out of the transporter buffer. In my mind, that's also why Scotty agrees to Beverly Crusher incorrectly saying he's 147 a short while later. (He's actually 149 by my estimation. Born in 2220, the same year as Dr. McCoy, just as James Doohan and DeForest Kelley were both born in 1920.) That, or else he knows Beverly got it wrong but he was too polite to correct her outside of a joking "I don't feel a day over a hundred and twenty."