Great Scott, Simon Pegg is engineering a 'Star Trek' career

“I felt damn sexy wearing it," Simon Pegg purred into the phone, "and I took a lot of clandestine photographs in my trailer.”
The 39-year-old British comedy star was talking, thankfully, about his Starfleet uniform, which he declares to be “one of the most iconic uniforms in the history of fantasy,” and who would argue? The USS Enterprise is back in action this summer with a "Star Trek" reboot that has familiar names like Kirk, Spock and McCoy but with new faces in all those iconic roles.
Pegg is on board in the role of Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, made famous by the late James Doohan. The history and that sleek Federation uniform made the usually irreverent star from "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" into an awed fanboy snapping secret photos of himself despite the intense policy of secrecy for the film, which will arrive in theaters May 8.
“I obviously was slightly worried that I’d get caught or I’d lose my phone and somebody would hack into it and there would be pictures published,” said the actor. “We were frisked every night. We had to go through a special props detector. If we were caught stealing, we would be electrocuted.”
The $130-million revival directed by J.J. Abrams explores the earliest space adventures of the iconic crew of the Enterprise, the one made famous in the 1960s television series and then in a series of films that began in the 1970s. It's back to the future, essentially, but it's one with attitude and humor, especially with Pegg as the brilliant but somewhat daft Scotty.
“It’s a ‘continuing voyage,’ to quote the show,” Pegg said. “It very much embodies the spirit and the feel of the original without making it seem kitsch or camp. I think [original creator] Gene Roddenberry created something that was extremely optimistic; a utopian society of us all working together. I think it’s very timely, actually, with Obama coming into power. You have this genuine sense of renewal and hope pervading the world. The film is here at a pressing time.”
It’s the 11th film in the sci-fi franchise but a fresh new gamble since the team behind the film aspires to win over a generation of young fans who don't know "Trek" as well as the nitpicking loyalists from the old days. A behemoth undertaking that holds a risk of alienating the franchise’s built-in audience, as well as not attracting a new one.
“I know the fans are concerned and I understand it’s a beloved thing, but there’s a dialogue in there between the film and fans that they will appreciate,” said Pegg, who also lends his voice to this summer’s "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which will hit theaters June 1. “There’s always the Holy Grail with an existing franchise like a comic book or something that has had a preexisting fan base. You try and bring it to a new audience and please the old one -- and you often fall between the two. But I think J.J. has managed to do both, and it’s a hell of a trick.”
Pegg would know. He’s a self-proclaimed Trek “geek,” who has an “unhealthy” knowledge of sci-fi, horror and comics . As a boy, he would watch the series on the BBC at dinnertime. Nearly three decades later, he was the only member of the cast who didn’t have to audition for the remaking of one of his favorite childhood series. Abrams, a "Shaun of the Dead" fan, who previously cast Pegg as a quirky supporting player in "Mission: Impossible III," simply sent him an e-mail that read: "Do you want to play Scotty?

The most highly anticipated new Star Trek movie since Robert Wise's 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture will be released on May 8, 2009 with J.J. Abrams at the helm. Not a lot is known about the plot as this is one of those most secretive productions in recent memory -- Abrams has a tendency to do that (read: Cloverfield). Sonita Henry, who plays the first person to ever meet James Tiberius Kirk -- as the doctor who delivers him -- joins us to discuss her role, what it is like working with Abrams, some minor spoilers and the possibility of getting her own action figure.

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