"Starbuck" was a nickname commonly used, in reference to Dana Scully, by her father, William. (TXF: "Beyond the Sea", "One Breath", "Quagmire") According to Dana Scully in 1996, the use of the nickname was originally inspired by her father repeatedly having read to her from Moby Dick during her childhood and, in turn, she would traditionally refer to her father as "Ahab". (TXF: "Quagmire") Dana Scully and her father kept these traditions up to the death of her father, shortly after Christmas, 1994. (TXF: "Beyond the Sea") Additionally, the use of these nicknaming traditions would influence Dana Scully to name a dog she had in 1995 and 1996 as "Queequeg". (TXF: "Quagmire", "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose")
History of Uses[]
Shortly before his death, William Scully concluded a visit with his wife, Margaret, to the home of their daughter, Dana, by wishing his daughter, "Goodnight, Starbuck."
Soon after William Scully died and Dana then saw a vision of him, Luther Lee Boggs twice used the nickname "Starbuck" to refer directly to Dana Scully, while he was apparently channeling the soul of her late father. On the first occasion, Boggs asked her, "Did you get my message, Starbuck?" and, when he again used the nickname, the word was the only one he said to her before he apparently struggled to regain control of himself, obliquely refusing to allow anyone to talk to any of the souls he claimed he could channel until he got a deal to save him from the electric chair. (TXF: "Beyond the Sea")
During Dana Scully's recovery from her abduction in 1994, another vision of her father apparently appeared to her while she was comatose, greeting her by saying, "Hello, Starbuck" and ending his subsequent soliloquy to her by telling her, "We’ll be together again, Starbuck. But not now. Soon." (TXF: "One Breath")
In 1996, while Dana Scully was stranded - with her FBI partner, Fox Mulder - on a rock in Heuvulmans Lake after having been shipwrecked there aboard the Patricia Rae when they had been searching for the mythological Big Blue, she recounted to Mulder how her father had traditionally referred to her as "Starbuck." (TXF: "Quagmire")
References[]
- TXF:
- "Beyond the Sea" (Season 1)
- "One Breath" (Season 2)
- "Quagmire" (Season 3)