He is boldly going where no man from Paisley has gone before. But Star Trek favourite Martin Quinn has revealed how he took inspiration from a surreal corner of Scottish comedy to help him navigate deep space.
Martin, who plays Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott in the latest incarnation of the intergalactic drama, drew on one of his favourite TV sketches for a scene in Star Trek: Strange New World, currently screening on STV.
The 31 year old said: “I managed to get a Burnistoun reference into episode six. Scotty was stuck in a lift, and he was speaking to the lift going, ‘engineering, engineering’ and it wasn’t moving. He thinks it’s his accent, so does it in an American accent.”
The scene, shot last year in Toronto where the big budget series is filmed, is a direct reference to Burnistoun’s classic talking elevator sketch, where show creators Iain Connell and Rab Florence lose their temper with an AI lift which doesn’t understand their Scottish accents when they ask for the 11th floor.
The sketch has been seen millions of times on Youtube and was even debated by linguistics academics in an American university, as well as voice technology experts at Microsoft.
And now it has inspired the goings on aboard the Starship Enterprise.
Martin said: “I messaged Rab Florence to check it was ok to put it in. Rab was buzzed. I got his blessing. He’s a Trekkie.”
It’s not Martin’s first flirtation with Scottish comedy from the 2010s. The actor, currently featuring in the National Theatre of Scotland’s Future Acts series of short films, got one of his first telly slots on BBC Scotland’s BAFTA winning comedy series Limmy’s Show.
He said: “I’d been going to PACE ( Paisley youth theatre) since I was 10, and they got me a part in Limmy’s Show when I was 14, playing John Paul’s wee cousin John Paul Junior.
“After that, any slagging I got about wanting to be an actor stopped. Overnight it was cool to be going to drama, after years of taking pelters.”
Since then Martin has appeared in a variety of shows including the 2023 revival of The Celtic Story, comedy smash Derry Girls as well as touring internationally with the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of Let The Right One In.
His current NTS project is part of their latest collaboration with BBC Scotland, Future Acts, a six-strong strand of short films which imagines the near future in Scotland.
In Bed To The Future he plays one half of a couple shopping for a bed in Glasgow, before being swept forward in time.
He said: “We are all worried about the future for various reasons, artificial intelligence, climate change, these are all things we are worried about, and it’s interesting to have these films look into the future at those issues.”
Future Acts films are screening across Scotland in select cinemas during October, with televised screenings due on BBC Scotland early next year.
Martin’s also been busy making online sketches for social media with filmmaker Conor Reilly and music videos for the likes of Glasgow songwriter Michael Cassidy.
He’ll also feature in an adaptation of Frankie Boyle’s novel Meantime with James McAvoy, closer to home than international galaxies on the USS Enterprise, or Toronto.
He said: “I spent most of last year over there. I get terribly homesick, I’m always glad to be back.
“I remember it raining in Toronto one day and I was like, ‘Great! I’m home.’ Ridiculous, I know. Especially as there are so many Scottish people in Toronto. But I even get homesick in London. I just like Paisley, I just like Gallowhill.”