Last week brought big news for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which has been renewed for a fourth season. But before that, they still need to finish work on season 3, which is currently in production. We have an update on how production is going as well as some new comments from the actor who is playing Scotty in season 3.
Martin Quinn rebranding Scotty
First introduced in the season 2 finale, Scottish actor Martin Quinn has taken over the role of Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, the legendary Starfleet engineer first played by Canadian James Doohan in the original Star Trek, then later by Englishman Simon Pegg for the J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek feature films. Speaking to BBC Scotland about being the first Scot to play Scotty, Quinn says, “It’s the power of representation, isn’t it?” Quinn (who is from Paisley in Scotland) also “jokingly” told the BBC “We are rebranding him, he’s from Paisley now.”
Martin Quinn as Scotty in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 finale (Michael Gibson/Paramount+)
The actor playing the young Scotty revealed how being from Scotland has helped shape the role as they are shooting the third season. From the article:
Since taking the role, he says he has been working with writers to suggest authentic Scottish changes to his character. “They let me put in the word ‘baw-heid’ instead of ‘turnip-heid,” he says. “Maybe they think all Scottish people are farmers? But they were very gracious about it. And [the writers] are wanting to be authentic to Scotland as well, and that’s really nice—not everyone’s like that.”
According to Quinn, his authentic accent has sometimes proven difficult on set. “I’m constantly having to enunciate because I don’t think they know what I’m saying,” he said.
Martin Quinn as Scotty in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 finale (Michael Gibson/Paramount+)
Behind the scenes on episode 7
Production on season 3 began in December, and TrekMovie has confirmed that as of last week, they completed work on episode 7, directed by Sharon Lewis. This was her first time directing for the franchise and in a video posted on Instagram a couple of weeks ago, she took advantage of the quiet during lunch hour to sit in Captain Pike’s chair…
View this post on Instagram
On April 10, Lewis posted a video on Twitter/X announcing she had wrapped production on her episode.
Last day of the incredible journey that is Star Trek Strange New Worlds. Every set is great -cast & crew amazing but there is a special vibe going on here. It’s an iconic show has its roots in me from back in the day rushing home to watch Uhura on the OG Star Trek -ever grateful! pic.twitter.com/RLi91VqxP3
— sharon lewis (she/her) (@thesharonlewis) April 10, 2024
The video features behind-the-scenes shots that indicate her episode included scenes on the bridge, a shuttle, transporter room, and the ship’s bar/lounge.
There are 3 more episodes to complete, so production on the show should be done by the end of May. Paramount+ recently confirmed season 3 will debut in 2025.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
While watching the finale I thought, wait did they get an actual Scottish actor? He is a great Scotty.
Although Jimmy Doohan is beloved as Scotty, and rightly so, the one thing I disliked about his performance was that he was playing an old-fashioned kind of engineer, whereas Scotty as written was clearly a genius. But Doohan didn’t show us that spark of extreme intelligence in his performance, the way, say, Leonard Nimoy did in his. I’m hoping that Martin Quinn can give us that spark and make it more believable that Scotty can come up with brilliant new inventions in just a short time.
Apples and oranges. One would argue that Scotty used his expertise, intelligence and adaptability more than any other to save the day.
You’re talking about the script, and I’m talking about the actor. As you say, that’s apples and oranges. :-)
Perhaps, but in The Original Series (as opposed to in the movies), Scotty was portrayed as a bad ass whenever he was put in charge of the bridge.
Plus he had a drinking problem.
Heh, yeah.
I was going to comment on that earlier. James Doohan breathed personality into the character (almost universally beloved) but the character itself was badly written. Brilliant engineer, bad ass when in command, but also a raging alcoholic, and shockingly bad judgement when personal feelings for a female crew member was involved. He was thinking with his d**k before that was a thing.
….I’m pretty sure “raging alcoholic” is a bit strong of a term, at least from my perspective. To each their own. I’d even stop short at saying the character had a ‘drinking problem.’ Kudos to all teetotallers out there, but in my view Scotty liked to simply take a drink now and again. Yes, it could be concluded he drank more than the rest of the TOS leading characters, but to me that doesn’t constitute a ‘problem.’ Even in Relics he reminded Geordi: “Never get drunk unless you’re willing to pay for it the next day.” That’s called responsible drinking where I come from. If he was a raging alcoholic he never would have become the legend he was, (or shown up to join Geordi that morning). Anyway, I digress.
Not to worry, I’m pretty sure the character will be written as tamer in every aspect for SNW, so as not to offend society. Cheers (or not, apparently).
But then again, I am a person who did use ‘shockingly bad judgment’ and fell in love with a coworker. What do I know. (We’ve been together for 22 years, btw). :)
To be honest he was portrayed as a bit of a stereotype as were the Irish characters. Perhaps a personal prejudice of Roddenberry or simply a reflection of the time. As for his judgement where female crew members were concerned, that could apply to most of the senior staff, especially Kirk.
Oh man, the Irish stereotyping never stopped. “Fair Haven” and “Spirit Folk” somehow managed to be more embarrassing than Voyager’s Club Med holoprogram. We only didn’t get a leprechaun in “If Wishes Were Horses” because Colm Meaney had some clout by then.
If you prefer functioning alcoholic, I’ll concede that point. They had him imbibing on duty, off duty, by himself, and throwing a few back with however was handy.
Personally, it wouldn’t bother me to see Scotty actively working on sobriety. Trek seems wholly unsuited to that level of storytelling, though. They tried with Raffi in Picard, and fandom lost their collective s**t over it. I guess there’s a hypospray for that, too.
There’s nothing wrong with having a boo on the ship. As long as it doesn’t interfere with your responsibilities….which it always seemed to do with Mr. Scott.
To paraphrase Jessica Rabbit – I’m not bad, I’m just written that way.
Can’t say I agree at all with your interpretation. The character was always 1000% reliable when on the job, always ready with a solution to whatever crisis was threatening to cause the engines to blow up that week. I think the scotch drinking was intended to simplistically add backstory to the character in a way that played on stereotypes, as pointed out by others. Chekov and his vodka, Scotty and his scotch, ha ha, funny, in 1960’s TV. Now instead of those tropes, they have the character tragically lose their entire family in childhood to establish a backstory, a la SNW Uhura.
Yeah, except for that time when the fate of galactic civilization hung on his actions and he passed out cold in his quarters next to that Kelvan dude.
The Kelvan knew nothing about drinking alcohol. Scott couldn’t have paced himself a little? Fail.
He succeeded at his mission, the Kelvan was taken out of action. Getting plastered was a logical decision…
Could you please name the episodes were Mister Scott’s drinking interfered with his responsibilities?
Exactly.
“But, Mr. President, Grant is an alcoholic!”
“Find out what he’s drinking and give it to all my generals.”
Is he a raging alcoholic? Or just Scottish?
He did not have a drinking problem. He drank, he got drunk, what is the problem??? 😁
So you say. ;-)
Yes, Doohan was good at showing us the badass side of Scotty, and I liked that a lot. I just wish he’d noticed that the scripts also made him a freaking genius. :-)
Corylea I hear what you’re saying however on TVH, I thought he brought the engineering mastery you alluded to demonstrating practical skills and well as theoretical knowledge on materials science, power generation and complex problem solving.
Yes, those things were in the SCRIPT. I’m talking about how the actor portrayed what was in the script, and it seemed to me that Doohan was caught up in the “crusty old engineer” stereotype from a zillion World War II movies and didn’t notice that the Star Trek scripts made THIS engineer a genius.
Well yes, if you read about Doohan’s original audition, where he read using a variety of accents, his suggestion of a Scottish engineer and Roddenberry’s decision to go with that, were explicitly informed by all those World War II films. It was not a coincidence. That was the producers choice.
Wow I disagree with this. His portrayal as Scotty as a The Doomsday Machine is actually my favorite (not counting the time his accent disappears). He beamed over to the Enterprise and got right to work fixing the transporter.
Think Doohan played Scotty as a gifted, nuts and bolts guy without any pretensions of “intelligence”. He proved how smart he was by his actions.
Agreed.
I disagree. I think he was indeed played as an intelligent old school engineer able to see things in his head and improvise along the way.
To me, I saw Scotty on the applied side of STEM, while Spock was on the theoretical side of STEM. Both men were highly intelligent in their own right.
I’d say it’s more important for Star Trek to humanize certain characters, to give them that Every Man or every person quality so that we’re not overwhelmed with supergeniuses. See also Dr. McCoy, Miles O’Brien, Tom Paris, etc. They’re all highly skilled in their respective fields, but there’s also a casualness with which they execute their duties that connects them to our time.
Personally, I enjoy the contrast where you have this ultra advanced society that still has the occasional Scotsman or Irishman with his sleeves rolled up, nursing a hangover, grumbling about trying to meet a deadline. Hooray, my people are represented on screen!
Respectfully, I don’t see it this way. Doohan portrayed Scotty as an absolute genius. He figured out creative ways out of impossible situations and beat the odds. And when Scotty took command, he was brilliant at that too. None of that happens without Doohan.
It was PEGG that was a joke.
The SCRIPTS did that, but the script is not the actor. People keep telling me what Scotty did in the script, but that is not the same as what the actor imbues to the character.
Yeah, Pegg played Pegg being goofy. There was very little of the Scotty character in his performances in the Kelvin films, imo. Amusing enough though, I suppose.
“Unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent…”
That reminds me, I must re-watch Sir Sean in ‘Robin and Marion’ one day. It had a great cast! – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075147/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_0_q_robin%2520and%2520marion
Which reminds me, I must re-watch Sean Connery in the 1976 ‘Robin and Marion’ movie again someday. Check it out on the imdb(.)com site, as it had a terrific cast!
Nice to see a Scots actor given the role of ‘Scotty’ now. I caught Martin Quinn being interviewed on tv the other day, and he came across well. It’s now piqued my curiosity to give SNW another go, as I never actually bothered with the show after not particularly liking the way the opening episode’s set-up unfolded – due to the fact that my own ‘Star Trek’ canon begins with the excellent ‘The Cage’ pilot episode’s storyline, and skips the events shown in the 2-part ‘The Menagerie’ episodes altogether!
But I’m at a point where I’m ready to ignore that initial SNW introduction now concerning Pike’s supposed ‘fate’, and despite being aware of one or two dubious aspects to come, will check out the rest of the show to see if there’s any storylines I happen to like with the crew already in place, ‘mid-adventure’ on board the Enterprise so speak.
And hopefully, this nu-‘Scotty’ will turn out to be a genius, ‘bad ass’ who happens to like a drink now and then too – no problem!
Did Scotty really have a drinking problem, or was he a hard drinker when appropriate? I hope they don’t pathologize this!
I like that he’s from Paisley. The Patter Bar is a fun little pub. Scotty is brining the Patter by calling people baw-heids.
I hope this Scotty prefers the pub over the club. I suffered major psychic damage when Scotty was shown to be drinking in a nightclub in Star Trek Into Darkness.
Why? Scottish people are people not romantic caricatures. Why wouldn’t Scotty want to go into a club with his friends? I agree it’s cool he’s adding some Scots to the dialog, but I don’t understand this anti-nightclub thing… Very sad that you were damaged by a fictional man walking into a building.
SNW has very highs and lows when it comes to casting. Martin Quinn is great casting of a legacy character, right up there with Ethan Peck as Spock and Celia Gooding as Uhura. Now that Kirk casting though…..
I guess it’s always a matter of perspective. Paul Wesley has single-handedly made me hope that SNW continues through Kirk’s five-year mission.
Please don’t remake TOS
Definitely not a remake, no, but a general larger structure that TOS can fit into would work for me. My past self would consider this blasphemy, so I understand your reply, but that’s just how much Paul Wesley and SNW in general has won me over.
I like Paul Wesley more than I thought I would, but William Shatner will always be Kirk.
SNW is a good show and one of the better outings from the Kurtzman era. However, for me it’s doing stuff I feel was done better previously and I think musicals and Muppets, if done, are too gimmicky and not what I like to see in Trek. The dialogue is also too cringey at times.
Agree with you about SNW. And as far as Paul Wesley goes, I still don’t get the casting on that one. I’d really just rather they’d not recast the original crew at all, honestly. Shatner’s Kirk is the authentic version of the character, Pine was ok, and Wesley has quite a way to go, imo. All three are in separate timelines though, which makes this Nu-Trek medicine since 2009 go down a little smoother.
I found that Paul Wesley did a fine job in his portrayal of Kirk. Don’t forget, he played a Kirk that was before the influence of Spock and McCoy.
Agreed. I like everyone but NuKirk in SNW. Horrible. I even like Pines Kirk next to his and I hated his too.
I would like to see Kevin O’Reilly in SNW hanging out with young Scotty. I think O’Reilly was a lieutenant in TOS. Could be an interesting dynamic similar to Bashir and O’Brien in DS9 😊
Reilly
Wth is with that psycho screen cap of scotty
Scotty is Scottish because of James Doohan. He chose the Scottish accent because he believed Scots made the best engineers.
James Doohan is and always will be Scotty. He inspired many people to become engineers. He was someone not to be messed with, remember when he was in command and faced off against Klingons.
I think Simon Pegg started of as a comic relief and certainly not someone I saw as Scotty but in Beyond he had more of that Scotty charm.
Martin Quinn I think is too young but has the enthusiasm for the role. But he wouldn’t have the role if James Doohan didn’t choose make Scotty Scottish.
But fans seem to forget the legacy of TOS and it’s cast, now many suddenly are critical of cast and are happy for TOS to be rebooted.
This is not the future of Trek I envisioned.
Me neither, sadly.
No one is trying to take Scotty away from James Doohan. Martin Quinn has only one episode on the books … maybe give him a chance.
Regrettably, “ya borgas frat, ya” are not real words in the Scots language. I love to hear what Quinn comes up with.
I hate that they are following JJ verse and rewriting him as being from the Glasgow area. That’s a huge change. They have a very specific Doric accent in Aberdeen and speak Scots much more (which is why people accuse Doohan of doing a bad accent and sounding Irish – Scots in also spoken in Northern Ireland).
The areas are different too. Glasgow is larger and more rough while Aberdeen (specifically Old Aberdeen which Scotty says he is from) is more university focused which fits Scotty’s miracle-doing engineer character much better.
It’s not being authentic to the original character which is disappointing since they managed to undo a lot of the hot headed womaniser changes that had been done to Kirk.