Martin Quinn made his debut in the Star Trek franchise last year, playing Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and it became a first for Trek. James Doohan, who was a Canadian actor, originated the role of the Enterprise's chief engineer, using a Scottish accent. Simon Pegg, an English actor, took over the role in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboots, but with Quinn's appearance, this is the first time an actual Scot will be playing the role.
Talking to BBC News, Quinn, who will play a recurring role on Strange New Worlds for season three, says he hopes even more people will watch the series because a real Scot is playing the role. He called it the "power of representation."
The actor admitted he was more into Star Wars than Star Trek because of Ewan McGregor. Even though McGregor used an English accent, he's from Scotland. Quinn though that was cool.
""I was always into Star Wars because Ewan McGregor was there. It's because there was a Scottish guy in Star Wars.Martin Quinn
Even though he was doing an English accent, I was like 'that's so cool, he's from here and he's in Hollywood'.
I wasn't as interested in Star Trek because it wasn't a real Scottish person.""
Quinn's admission just provides more proof that representation does matter, and although we don't know how many Scottish people didn't like Star Trek: The Original Series because Doohan was using a fake accent, we do know that having a real Scot playing the character now will make a difference. Maybe Star Trek will pull in more Scottish fans.
Martin didn't know he was auditioning for Star Trek originally as the show used a fake name. While he thinks it was helpful not to know because he didn't put pressure on himself to be James Doohan's version of Scotty, it also had to have helped being in the dark about the franchise itself. One can only imagine how auditioning for a popular series like Star Trek could be intimidating. But he obviously did a stellar job and became the first Scot to play Scotty!. And now that Strange New Worlds has been renewed for a fourth season, it's only a matter of time before he takes over as engineer.