Matthew Scott

1st Lt. Matthew Scott

WARNING: SPOILERS

The following article contains SPOILERS. Proceed at your own risk.

Summary

From MGM: Losing his parents at a young age, Matthew Scott was raised by priests and wished to become one himself. Life and love however, lead him down a different path and into the military where his dedication to the missions and his teams ascended him through the ranks quickly. Though a young lieutenant, he is a strong believer in the command system and sees himself as a leader to those stranded with him. Unsure about what he’s left behind on earth, he also struggles with the grey areas that come with command and being so far from the clear cut morality he’s used to.

Personal Data

• Birthday:
• Birthplace:
• Marital Status: Single; Past relationship with Annie Balic
• Children: Son, Matthew Balic
• Parents: Both killed in an automobile accident when Scott was 4 years old; raised by a Roman Catholic Priest
• Siblings: None
• Stargate Program Rank: United States Air Force First Lieutenant
• Stargate Program Position: Assigned to the Icarus Base, and due to circumstances, given second-in-command responsibilities under Col. Everett Young aboard Destiny

Before Joining the Stargate Program

The Priest who influenced Scott in his youth

When he was four years old, Scott lost both of his parents in an automobile accident. As an orphan, he was raised by a Roman Catholic Priest. It was important to Scott that he never let this Priest down, so when he discovered that he had gotten a sixteen-year-old girl whom he hardly knew pregnant, Scott felt unworthy to answer the call to be a priest himself. Little did Scott know that the girl, Annie Balic, decided to keep the child rather than have an abortion. (Stargate Universe: 1.03 "Air Part 3"; spoilers for SGU 1.09 "Life")

The Priest that was so influential in his life unfortunately died from his own failure, that of alcoholism, when Scott was sixteen. (Stargate Universe: 1.03 "Air Part 3")

Icarus Base and Destiny

Around 2007, Dr. Nicholas Rush was the lead scientist on the Icarus Project, a project within the Stargate Program that focused on dialing the nine-chevron address written about in the Ancient Database in Atlantis. In order to dial this nine-chevron address, the Stargate needed an enormous amount of power. This power was found within the naquadria core of a planet on which the Icarus Base was established. Col. Everett Young was put in command of the Base, but Rush had the opportunity to select some of the personnel and to read the files of those who were assigned there. Scott was not among those whom Rush would have selected, but Young apparently felt differently, so fresh out of training, Scott was assigned to Icarus Base. (Stargate Universe: 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.02 "Air Part 2", 1.03 "Air Part 3")

In 2009, on the fateful day that Icarus Base was attacked and destroyed, Scott was in a sexual relationship with Lt. Vanessa James. They were together in a closet on the Base when Young called for him to meet the civilian party that had just arrived. Scott was assigned to be the escort of Eli Wallace, the young man who solved the mathematical problem of how to draw the power from the core of the planet safely. When the Base was attacked, Rush dialed the nine-chevron code and established a connection to evacuate, but they didn't know what the destination was. Scott led several of the people to the Stargate during the evacuation and then was the first person to go through the Stargate to the Destiny. Based on what he was able to gather from the ship's database, Rush said that the ship had never been occupied, thus making Scott the very first explorer to set foot on the Ancient ship during the several million years after it was launched from Earth by the Ancients. (Stargate Universe: 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.02 "Air Part 2")

Col. Young was thrown with great force by an explosion on the Base through the Stargate and out the other side on Destiny. He had several cracked ribs and a severe head injury. Before he fell unconscious, Young put Scott in command. Suddenly thrust into a leadership role, Scott ably separated the stranded people into groups of three to explore around the ship, making sure to identify hull breaches along the way so as to conserve the ship's air. Even after sealing off most of the leaks, the crew began to suffer from carbon dioxide poisoning because the air scrubbing system was out of the compound it used to absorb it. Scott led an away team to the first planet identified by the Destiny as a nearby place that had what they needed. The team included MSgt. Ronald Greer, Eli, Rush, Jeremy Franklin, Andrea Palmer, and Sgt. Curtis. Scott was the one who found the lime that they needed, apparently with the assistance of a life-form that manifested itself as a dust devil. (Stargate Universe: 1.01 "Air Part 1", 1.02 "Air Part 3", 1.03 "Air Part 3")

Scott's first away team was successful in finding the lime in time before the ship automatically jumped into faster-than-light flight twelve hours after its arrival to the desert planet. Unfortunately, Curtis and Palmer decided to try another planet and mutinied. They were never heard from again and were left behind when the Destiny left the area on its pre-programmed course. Even with this great loss, his team was successful and the survivors greatly appreciated what he had accomplished. (Stargate Universe: 1.03 "Air Part 3")

Spoilers:

After being stranded on Destiny, Scott was given the chance to visit Annie Balic on Earth through the use of Ancient Communications Stones. During this awkward visit in which he disguised himself in the body of an Air Force Colonel, Scott learned that Annie did not have the abortion he thought she had, but instead bore a son who was now eight years old and was given Scott's first name. Balic was a single mother, working hard as a dancer to make ends meet, and she refused to accept any financial assistance that Scott offered. (Based on spoilers that are subject to change; see SGU 1.09 "Life")

Hobbies and Other Interests

• Roman Catholicism - Scott was raised by a Roman Catholic Priest when he was orphaned and at one point considered answering the call to become a priest himself. (Stargate Universe: 1.03 "Air Part 3")
• Vanessa James - Scott and Vanessa James were in a sexual relationship when they were both assigned to Icarus Base. (Stargate Universe: 1.01 "Air Part 1")

Injuries, Illnesses/Sicknesses, Deaths

• Dehydration: Scott nearly succumbed to dehydration and heat stroke on the first planet visited by those stranded on the Destiny. With the guidance of a mysterious life-form that manifested itself as in a dust devil, Scott found the lake bed that contained the lime that was sorely needed as part of the air scrubbing system on the decrepit Ancient exploration spaceship. (Stargate Universe: 1.03 "Air Part 3")

Key Episodes

• SGU 1.01 "Air Part 1"
• SGU 1.02 "Air Part 2"
• SGU 1.03 "Air Part 3"
• SGU 1.09 "Life"

Gallery

• MGM: Character Profile and Gallery

Related Characters

• Annie Balic
• Matthew Balic
• Sgt. Curtis
• Jeremy Franklin
• MSgt. Ronald Greer
• Lt. Vanessa James
• Andrea Palmer
• Scott's Priest
• Dr. Nicholas Rush
• Eli Wallace
• Col. Everett Young

Related Articles

• Ancient Communications Stones
• Ancient Database in Atlantis
• Ancients
• Destiny
• Destiny's Planets
• Icarus Base
• Icarus Project
• Naquadria
• Stargate
• Stargate Program

Further Reading

• "Try and imagine someone who doesn't have aunts or uncles who has no family, his past is absolutely full of loss. He find himself in a situation where he can, I think, re-write the history of his life, he's got a chance to really really help people, to really make a mark as a young man and make a man of himself and find some kind of respectability. There's a lot of his back story that'll come out but I think for him it's a great sense of loss and kind of a sadness about him that makes him incredibly earnest and incredibly driven to do good by his past and by his family on the ship." (Brian J. Smith, Moviehole interview, August 11, 2009)
• "Lieutenant Matthew Scott is a young rookie member of the Stargate team, pretty much just right out of training. He's thrust into a leadership position and he has to pretend that he knows what's going on. He has to maintain some sort of an aura of authority and command in confidence when inside, he's feeling a lot of turmoil. So, for him, the journey, at least in the first couple of episodes, is, I think, learning what it is to be a leader, stepping up when every impulse in your body is screaming to run in a corner and hide. You know, it's that it's fighting that sense of fear and shell shock. He ends up being the kind of go-to guy for Colonel Young. Colonel Young ends up sending him out in a lot of missions. Nothing prepared him for the situation that he finds himself in, because he starts to realize at a certain point that everybody aboard that ship...their lives are in his hands." (Brian J. Smith, MGM Character Profile video)

Actor

• Brian J. Smith

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--DeeKayP 13:06, 21 July 2009 (UTC)