Aberdeen Plans Space Park To Honour Scotty

Aberdeen is taking a preemptive step in declaring itself the future birthplace of the most famous Scot of the 23rd century, the Enterprise's Montgomery Scott. The city plans to build a "space park" as a memorial to Scotty.

The Sunday Times reported that the city has written to NASA and to the government of Kazakhstan, the home of the Russian space programme, to ask for used rocket pieces for the monument, which would make Aberdeen an official pilgrimage site for Star Trek fans.

While Edinburgh, Elgin and Linlithgow have all attempted to insist that James Doohan's beloved engineer was born elsewhere, Aberdeen is seen as having the strongest claim because in the episode "Wolf in the Fold", Scotty referred to himself as an "Aberdeen pub crawler." Lord provost John Reynolds, a fan of the original Star Trek, wanted a larger memorial than a plaque to commemorate the character's connection to Aberdeen.

"Aberdeen has never had a major attraction and we would really love to have something that would bring in people from all over the world," he said. "Our council has very good working relationships with NASA and the authorities of Kazakhstan where they launch and land the Russian space missions...because of this I am hoping they could donate a space craft to Aberdeen and we can set-up a permanent or semi-permanent display on space itself."

Debra Rahn of NASA said that the city's request would be considered, since there are precedents for American spacecraft being displayed in other countries.

The original item is in The Sunday Times.

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