Star Trek Strange New Worlds: Funny reference to famous Scotty quote debunked!

• There’s a wonderful reference to a Scotty quote in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
• In a dramatic situation, Scotty tells Captain Kirk that he cannot change the laws of physics.
• When things get tough for Pikes Enterprise, he gives the order to change the laws of physics if necessary.

The new series “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” uses the classic episodic narrative structure of the original series “Starship Enterprise”. In the “Star Trek” chronology, the series takes place seven years be fore Captain Kirk’s (William Shatner) adventures. Logically, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” has many allusions and Easter Eggs ready.

Characters such as Captain Pike (Anson Mount), Spock (Ethan Peck), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and Sister Chapel (Jess Bush) all appeared in the original series. In the second episode of “Strange New Worlds” we now expect a small allusion to the chief engineer of Kirk’s Enterprise, Montgomery “Scotty” Scott (James Doohan).

Pike’s Enterprise loses contact with the field crew and the captain desperately wants the connection back. Pike gives the order, “Find a way to reach the landing party immediately. Change the laws of physics if necessary.” (This sentence was translated from English into German as there is no German dubbed version yet.)

Nothing rings for German viewers, but English-speaking Trekkies see a parallel in Pike’s statement to one of Scotty’s most popular quotes. In “Spaceship Enterprise” Episode 4 “Implosion in the spiral”, Kirk demands that he restart the engines, but a cold start is not possible.

Scotty replies to his captain: “I can’t change the laws of physics.” (“I can’t change the laws of physics.”) In the German translation, however, this striking quote from the chief engineer is lost, because Scotty simply says: “I can’t change it, Captain.”

Pike’s rotation of the quote seems at least humorous and makes us wonder if chief engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak) will one day confront Pike with Scotty’s quote, after all he can’t change the laws of physics either.

So far, the series has only started on the US streaming service Paramount + and is not scheduled to come to Germany until the end of the year, but we’ll tell you how you can already see “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” in Germany. We also list all “Star Trek” releases for you!