[UPDATE: Scotty and Sulu have been cast!]
With every day that goes by it seems the casting for the upcoming Star Trek prequel (not called Star Trek 11) is getting closer to competion. We already have Spock (Heroes‘ 30 year old Zachary Quinto), Uhura (29 year old Zoe Saldana), and Chekov (18 year old Anton Yeltsin). The front runner right now to play Kirk is 28 year old Mike Vogel.
So the fact that we’re now hearing that 38 year old Paul McGillion, who played Dr. Carson Beckett on Stargate: Atlantis (and was killed off last season) is in the running to play ship’s engineer Scotty, seems a bit off the mark when it comes to his age.
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McGillion is about 10 years older than the rest of the cast, and if you recall, Matt Damon was put out of the running to play Captain Kirk because he was too old and he’s about to turn 37. I’m not saying that McGillion wouldn’t make a fantastic Scotty… it just seems that he’s outside the curve when it comes to his age. Scotty is about the same age as Kirk in the Star Trek universe, so unless they go out of their way to really try to make him look younger, it may seem odd to long time fans. On the other hand, over at TrekMovie.com commentors are frothing at the mouth in excitement over the possibility of this actor playing Scotty, so what do I know?
Still, I think you could easily cast an actor 10 years older than the rest for the role of Dr. McCoy since he’s always been older in the Trek mythos. Considering McGillion’s heavy association with having played the Scottish doctor on Stargate: Atlantis, I seriously doubt that they’d ask him to dump the accent and play McCoy.
A shoutout to Rope of Silicon for sparking the idea for this post. 
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11 Comments
I’m trying not to take age into account too much, otherwise I might start going off about how in the original series Spock was supposed to be somewhere around 75 to Kirk’s…however old he was.
As I recall, James Doohan and DeForest Kelley were about 11 years older than Shatner and Nimoy. The relative age differences don’t seem like a big deal to me, but then again, I’m not that excited about the idea of reprising characters from the original series.
Brian
Brian, I’ll be damned… you’re right. I never would have known if I hadn’t checked, though.
However I think there’s less of a visible difference between someone who is 36 and 47 than there is between someone who is 28 and 39.
Aside from the age factor, I think he’d be a really good choice. Maybe I’m just nitpicking…
Oh, and regarding the Spock age thing: Vulcans live far longer so he would look like he was in his mid thirties while being in his mid seventies.
Vic
Actually, both Scotty and McCoy were 10-11 years older than Kirk, Spock, et al. So Paul as Scotty age wise is pretty close to Trek history. He is perfect in every way!
Jen, yeah, you’re right. It’s just that in the show I never perceived Scotty to be older. McCoy was always the one that stood out as the older cast member.
Vic
We all have to take in account that men age differently.
Vic pointed out a while back (I think it was you Vic, if not, then I apologize to the creditor now), that Harrison Ford is now OLDER than Sean Connery was when the last Indiana Jones movie was made. Look at Connery then and Ford now, and I’d still think Connery was older.
Personally, I like the pick for cast as it is now.
I think Paul is perfect for the role. He’s got the talent, the look (he really does look like Doohan!), REAL Scottish roots for a spot on accent and a HUGE Scifi fanbase as a bonus. And besides that Scotty was the cheif engineer, so having a 20-something kid play the character is just silly and definately NOT keeping in the spirit of the original character, something they’ve obviously been keen to do with the current castings.
James Doohan himself was 47 when the original Trek started, as apposed to Shatner & Nimoy who were 34. So he had 13 years on them. Kelly/McCoy was also older, but younger then Doohan at 45. James Doohan doesn’t look 10+ years older, but he definately LOOKS older then Kirk and co, and it suits the personality of the character I think, with that world-weary experience essential for a ‘cheif’ engineer.
I hope age isn’t an issue because if they want to stay ‘true’ to the character, most Trek fans will agree they need to have someone like Paul playing the role!
CAST HIM ALREADY!
Appears Simon Pegg has been offered the role:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7041249.stm
Hey thanks, I just saw that elsewhere a few minutes ago. It’s going to take me some time to digest that and determine whether I like it or not.
Vic
I like Simon Pegg.
And as a young version of James Doohan?
Oh yeah. He fits like a dream.
I heard the rumour a while back about Gary Sinise as McCoy: in terms of face, voice and general demeanour he would have been perfect. Mr Pegg as Mr Scott: does this mean that before getting his ashes shot into space he’s also going to have to become almost completely spherical in later life?
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