Simon Pegg at Star Trek premiere
As disturbing as it is to learn that Montgomery Scott may or may not have killed a beagle belonging to Admiral Jonathan Archer in a botched transporter demonstration, Simon Pegg's portrayal of the lovable Scottish engineer is enormously satisfying. The much-ballyhooed this-new-Star-Trek-is-for-everyone-not-just-geeky-fans business is completely true, but the movie has a great deal more to offer the loyal fandom than we were led to believe. Pegg's Scotty does full justice to the comedic possibilities of the character, while remaining in tune with the original Scotty as portrayed by James Doohan, who died in 2005 at age 85.
Scotty's rapid-fire explanation of his exile following the disappearance of Archer's dog (can't possibly be the Porthos we know, dogs don't live that long) is one of dozens of quick allusions to Star Trek history peppered throughout the new film. If you blink you will miss them; fortunately, fans don't blink. People who are new to Star Trek (who are they? what are their lives like?) will not feel encumbered by not having all the back story, and will not even notice these "Easter eggs" but for the occasional gasps and squeals from more knowledgeable theater-goers.
Best known in America for Shaun of the Dead, Pegg also portrayed the Editor, a quite menacing character, in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Long Game". He is English, not Scottish, and was educated at Stratford Upon Avon College and the University of Bristol. He is currently in the U.S. filming Paul with best friend Nick Frost. Pegg's talents place him very much in the British tradition of comic geniuses who can write as well as act. He will appear this fall in a six-part documentary on IFC, Monty Python: Almost the Truth - The Lawyer's Cut. He and wife Maureen are expecting their first child in June.
Comments
I agree, Simon Pegg did a wonderful job as Scotty; I look forward to seeing more of his work. Thanks for this bio, Gail. Enjoyed it. :)
Thanks, Julianne! :)
"Scotty's rapid-fire explanation of his exile following the disappearance of Archer's dog (can't possibly be the Porthos we know, dogs don't live that long) is one of dozens of quick allusions..."
As a fan of many movies & nearly all genre's, I have to give credit where credit is due... There are perhaps thousands of things that I didn't like about this film in total. Honestly, the movie just wasn't that good!
Specifically, they killed off Vulcan, the planet, and Spock's mom (And Kirk's Dad!), completely contradicting much of what we know about this universe! That produces an infinite number of problems, given most of the rest of the Star Trek universe, but, then again they went nuts & on a roll with this ridiculous movie... They did discuss this after Nero's ship takes off for Earth, at one point during the film, but, what purpose does it serve to write "this" script in the first place unless they, perhaps, plan on recreating TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager & all of the other films?! - "Star Trek - Where we've already been before"??!
That's sad...
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