KEEP ON TREKKIN' - A STUDY OF THE ENGINEER'S FINGER

Not quite "The Adventure Of The Engineer's Thumb", but 'twill serve.....

From Wikipedia:

At the beginning of the Second World War, James Doohan joined the Royal Canadian Artillery and was a member of the 14th (Midland) Field Battery, 2nd Canadian Infantry Division.  He was commissioned a lieutenant in the 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. He was sent to England in 1940 for training. He first saw combat landing at Juno Beach on D-Day. Shooting two snipers, Doohan led his men to higher ground through a field of anti-tank mines, where they took defensive positions for the night. Crossing between command posts at 11:30 that night, Doohan was hit by six rounds fired from a Bren Gun by a nervous Canadian sentry: four in his leg, one in the chest, and one through his right middle finger. The bullet to his chest was stopped by a silver cigarette case given to him by his brother. His right middle finger had to be amputated, something he would conceal during his career as an actor.

As Doohan would later joke in his career, he gave the finger to Hitler.

I never knew this story until after I met him.  Doohan was the special guest for an FX sci-fi auction held on the set of the network's morning show which was constructed to simulate an apartment.  I was a behind-the-scenes visitor thanks to a fellow Iddiot, Listener Mara.  (Hi Mara!)

After the show, I shook his hand and kept my cool as I realized there was a finger not making contact where it should... and that was because it was missing.  

I've read that Doohan was self-conscious about the missing finger and did his best in trying to keep it hidden from the cameras during his career as an actor.  But in the pell-mell production of a series, it wasn't that easy for Doohan to keep it from being seen as he played Commander Montgomery Scott, Chief Engineer on board the starship Enterprise.

From Memory Alpha:

Although Doohan had lost the middle finger on his right hand during the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, Scott had a right middle finger within the 'Star Trek' storyline; any time a closeup was seen of Scott's right hand (working the transporter controls, etc.), someone else's hands were used, and when Scott appeared in wide shots, he usually hid his right hand from the camera. His loss was most evident in 'TNG': "Relics", where the missing finger can be clearly seen in wide shots while talking to Captain Picard on the holodeck recreation of the original Enterprise bridge and in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", when Scotty is holding a bag of food.

From another Wiki:

Despite his efforts, the injured hand can be seen in several 'Star Trek' episodes: "The Trouble With Tribbles", "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", "The Enemy Within", "The Ultimate Computer" and "Catspaw", as well as in "The Search for Spock" when giving parts from the USS Excelsior to Dr. Leonard McCoy, in "The Final Frontier" when Nyota Uhura brings him dinner on the bridge of the USS Enterprise-A, and in the 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' episode "Relics", when the missing finger is clearly apparent as Scotty offers Captain Jean-Luc Picard a drink while on a re-creation of the original Enterprise bridge.

Again, I had no clue it had popped up in some shots of the series.  So with his appearance in "Relics", I saw that as a missed opportunity to address the issue.  I thought the loss of the finger could have been splained away by a glitch in the 70 year long transporter buffering cycle in which Scotty was trapped.

But that wouldn't explain why we saw it was missing in "The Trouble With Tribbles"....

Nor would it help the Zonk caused because the finger was actually there in the previous episode "The Wolf In The Fold" and yet missing in scenes from episodes before that.

Here are the list of pertinent episodes dealing with Scotty's missing middle finger:

"The Enemy Within"

1672.1

2266

September 2,  2324, Time: 23:43:35

"Tomorrow Is Yesterday"

3113.2

2267

February 11,  2326, Time: 07:37:55

"Catspaw"

3018.2

2267

January 7,  2326, Time: 15:25:55

"Wolf in the Fold"

3614.9

2267

August 13,  2326, Time: 10:31:26Stunt Hand used

"The Trouble with Tribbles"

4523.3

2267

July 11,  2327, Time: 00:06:28

"The Ultimate Computer"

4729.4

2268

September 24,  2327, Time: 05:32:38

"That Which Survives" 

Unknown
But at some point in 2269?

Stunt Hand used

The stardates used are officially from the episodes.  The years seen on the next lines down are from the page markers found in the Okudas' "Star Trek Chronology".  And I'm comfortable with the expertise of Michael and Denise Okuda on "Trek" topics.  

The following lines with the full dates and even the times are from a stardate conversion site.

And that clashes with the Okudas' chronology.

As you can see, there were two episodes in which his middle finger is supposedly seen.  (Actor Eddie Paskey supplied the "stunt hand".) It's O'Bvious when Scotty has to use the truth detector during interrogation in "The Wolf In The Fold".  But the other day, in putting together this post, I re-watched "That Which Survives" and as far as I can tell, that was Doohan's hand holding the "sonic" wrench:

But what do I know?

Both of those episodes disrupt the timeline for the missing finger.  He's missing the finger, then got it back, lost it again, and finally regained it?  No amount of techno-babble can splain that adequately for me.

At least... not with that timeline....

Luckily for me, I can find help in this memo from the writers' bible for the original series:

 From a "Star Trek" production memo for the writer's guide:

We invented "Stardate" to avoid continually mentioning Star Trek's century (actually, about two hundred years from now), and getting into arguments about whether this or that would have developed by then. Pick any combination of four numbers plus a percentage point, use it as your story's stardate. For example, 1313.5 is twelve o'clock noon of one day and 1314.5 would be noon of the next day. Each percentage point is roughly equivalent to one-tenth of one day. The progression of stardates in your script should remain constant but don't worry about whether or not there is a progression from other scripts. Stardates are a mathematical formula which varies depending on location in the galaxy, velocity of travel, and other factors, can vary widely from episode to episode.

That last line is important: Stardates are a mathematical formula which varies depending on location in the galaxy, velocity of travel, and other factors, can vary widely from episode to episode.

So I'm going to say that broadcast order has no bearing in the order needed for the Toobworld timeline.  Because of what some may think is the trivial matter of Scotty's missing finger, here is the timeline as it should now be considered:

"Wolf in the Fold"

3614.9

2267

Stunt Hand

August 13,  2326, Time: 10:31:26

"That Which Survives" 

Unknown
But at some point in 2269?

Stunt Hand

"The Enemy Within"

1672.1

2266

September 2,  2324, Time: 23:43:35

"Tomorrow Is Yesterday"

3113.2

2267

February 11,  2326, Time: 07:37:55

"Catspaw"

3018.2

2267

January 7,  2326, Time: 15:25:55

"The Trouble with Tribbles"

4523.3

2267

July 11,  2327, Time: 00:06:28

"The Ultimate Computer"

4729.4

2268

September 24,  2327, Time: 05:32:38

In this new timeline, Scotty lost the middle finger at some point after "The Wolf In The Fold".  As long as the hand is kept hidden in other episodes, it won't be until "The Enemy Within" when we have to say that he definitely lost it.  As for "That Which Survives", it's kind of the "demilitarizd zone of episodes in that he could be missing the finger, maybe he isn't.  I'm of the opinion that he has lost it by this episode in the new timeline adjustment, before "The Enemy Within".

I know there will be people out there who read this and think: it's just a production error during filming; it's nothing to get upset over.  But that's Trueniverse thinking, from a mind trapped in Mundania.  Once you dash cold water on Toobworld's "reality", all magic dies.

The only way I can leave the timeline in the original broadcast order is to insert the Gallifreyan Time Lord known as the Doctor into the storyline.  At some point before Scotty lost his finger, he joined the Doctor on board the TARDIS to work on the malfunctioning chamelion circuit and the Doctor placed him back into his personal timeline at the wrong point - after he had already lost his finger.  (Apparently nobody noticed.)

In trying to right what once went wrong, the Doctor's attempt to return him to the proper moment in Time could be what caused Scotty to lose that finger in the first place.

I'm sorry Mr. Doohan had a self-confidence problem with his image about his missing finger.  I think a great sci-fi story could have been crafted to splain it all away.  But as it stands now, I think the safe bet as the Caretaker of Toobworld is to accept the revised timeline and leave the original one back in the Trueniverse as nothing more than the broadcast order.

Any thoughts?

Live Long and Prosper!