For generations of Star Trek fans, it was the nimble fingers of Montgomery Scott that ensured Captain Kirk and his comrades were beamed up just in the nick of time.
So, modern day Trekkies may be surprised to learn that James Doohan, who played Kirk’s dour chief engineer in the original series, went to great lengths to hide the fact that he was actually missing a digit.
The star had to have his middle finger amputated after being hit by ‘friendly fire’ during during the D-Day Normandy landings in June 1944.
Desperate to hide this fact, he performed his duties on the Star Ship Enterprise with his hand concealed or was ‘hand doubled’ by a fellow actor.
For other appearances, he wore a flesh-coloured glove with a fake digit to reassure fans the star ship was in safe hands.
Eagle-eyed Trekkies have spotted Doohan’s missing finger in less composed shots, including the 1967 ‘Cats Paw’ episode and 1967’s ‘The Trouble with Tribbles’.
James Doohan as Scotty in the original Star Trek series. Modern Trekkies may be surprised to learn that the actor lost his right middle finger while serving as a soldier during D-Day in 1944. Above: Doohan’s missing finger visible in 1969 episode The Lights of Zetar, alongside Jan Shutan as minor character Lt. Mira Romaine
The star had to have his middle finger amputated after being hit by ‘friendly fire’ during during the D-Day Normandy landings in June 1944. Above: Doohan in his military uniform during the war
Doohan’s role in D-Day, as a promising young officer whose life was nearly cut tragically short, his recounted by historian Professor Peter Caddick-Adams’s in his ground-breaking account of the Allied invasion of France in June 1944.
Steel and Sand tells how, like many famous faces in Star Trek, including Bill Shatner’s Captain Kirk, Doohan hailed from Canada.
After enlisting in the Royal Canadian Artillery in 1939, the future star so impressed his commanders he was promoted to lieutenant by 1940, and sent to Britain to train for Operation Overlord.
On June 6, 1944, he found himself in the thick of things, storming ashore on Juno Beach.
After surviving the hellish landing, Doohan took out two snipers and led his men through a field of anti-tank mines, but ironically, it was not the enemy who would cause him a life-changing injury.
Professor Caddick-Adams said: ‘It was a baptism of fire. After a breathless and nerve wracking D Day, at around midnight, the Command Post officer of the 22nd Battery had been too slow with the password when challenged by a highly strung sentry armed with a Bren Gun.
‘Of the six bullets that hit Doohan, one struck a cigarette case rather than entering his chest, but four rounds passed into a leg and one severed a finger.
‘Evacuated to England, Doohan’s war, for which he had trained since 1940, had lasted precisely twenty-four hours.
Doohan’s middle finger on his right hand clearly missing in this scene alongside William Shatner’s Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy’s Spok in 1967 episode The Trouble with Tribbles
Other times, the actor wore a flesh-coloured glove that kept most people watching him onscreen from noticing that one of the fingers inside was secretly missing
‘He was just one example of the multitude of casualties from ‘friendly fire’, an affliction which continues to dog modern warfare.’
Doohan made it to the nearest first aid post, where they bandaged up his bloody hand, before sending him to a hospital back in England.
The finger was amputated at the middle knuckle, but the stump had limited movement, so Doohan – on medical advice –opted to have it taken off altogether.
Professor Caddick Adams added: ‘After the war he could not pursue a whole range of jobs and became an actor.
‘He has to act with either one hand behind his back or nonchalantly in a pocket.
‘Doohan would later find fame as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, Captain Kirk’s dour engineering officer, highly protective of his vessel’s engines, aboard the star ship Enterprise.
‘In the alternate 1960s universe of television’s Star Trek, the careful eye will detect that Scotty’s right hand – missing the finger – was invariably concealed on screen.’
Often this was achieved by Doohan simply hiding his right hand, which was sometimes as easy as keeping parts of his hand out of frame while filming.
e was secretly missing. Eddie Paskey, who played minor character Lieutenant Leslie, also stood in for Doohan for some episodes requiring closeups of Scotty’s hands. Above: A scene showing Peskey’s hand instead of Doohan’s
James Doohan died aged 85 in 2005. He starred as Montgomery Scott in the television and film series
Other times, the actor wore a flesh-coloured glove that kept most people watching him onscreen from noticing that one of the fingers inside was secretly missing.
Eddie Paskey, who played minor character Lieutenant Leslie, also stood in for Doohan for some episodes requiring closeups of Scotty’s hands.
He was the hand-double in ‘Wolf in the Fold’ and ‘That Which Survives’.
Also in ‘The Lights of Zetar’ from season 3 Doohan is captured in a clinch with a female actress clearly showing the missing digit.
Although desperate to hide his injury, Doohan, who died in 2005, later admitted things could have been much worse.
The round to his chest was stopped by a cigarette case in his breast pocket – a gift from his brother and the only time, he later joked, that being a smoker had improved his health.
On the amputation, he mused it was either that ‘or spend my life looking as though I was flipping someone an obscene gesture.’
