Usually, the summer’s a funny time for news. Not a lot actually happens, so any old rubbish gets in the papers. It’s a bit different this year, what with all the explosions and shootings. But some traditionally weird summer news has hearteningly turned up.
It concerns James Doohan, the recently-deceased Star Trek actor. There are four towns that want to erect memorials to Scotty, because they all claim they were his real birthplace. Even though he’s not going to be born until the year 2222. And he’s fictional.
Last week, the town of Linlithgow announced that it would erect a plaque to commemorate the birthplace of Scotty. But this has caused a wave of controversy across Scotland. Now Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Elgin are also making claims that the pretend Scotsman from the future was born in their towns.
West Lothian councillor Willie Dunn told The Times "We have information that Scotty was born here in 2222, and then he moved to Aberdeen for a while. Fair do’s to Aberdeen, you can see where their claim comes from, but Edinburgh or Elgin? I’m not so sure.”
The Linlithgow folks were serious about the plaque – they’d already conducted a study into the economic benefits of erecting it.
Their claim comes from old Star Trek scripts, but they are contested by Aberdeen, who claim that he was born in Constitution Street. Or he will be born. Or something. Doohan had always said that he based Scotty’s accent on an army officer from Aberdeen, and has described the character as an "Aberdeen pub crawler". So pubs will still be around in 200 years. That’s reassuring.
Aberdeen’s education and leisure leader Pamela MacDonald is under the impression that “If he came from Aberdeen and there’s a
quotation to say that, then we should claim him. We should get a copy
of that quotation and put up a statue with it on the plinth.” Full marks for use of the word "Plinth", Ms MacDonald.
Elgin are also muscling in on all this made-up spaceman nonsense, after Doohan claimed in an interview that Scotty was from there. And Edinburgh saw that Scotty was from their town on a website.
So who are you backing in the great ‘Future birthplace of a fictitious character’ debate? If you care enough to leave a comment, we’re a little bit worried about you to be honest.
Check the facts for yourself. Kelkoo.co.uk has found some beautiful Star Trek DVD boxsets
[story by Stuart Heritage]