Last Sunday, 30th September, The Sunday Post, Scotland’s biggest Sunday newspaper, followed up TrekMovie.com’s scoop on Paul McGillion’s audition and ran an article about the excitement around his possible casting as ‘Scotty’ in the new Star Trek movie. You can read a color scan of the article here in our gallery.

The momentum continues to build, and this weekend more articles made print in four of the UK’s national papers. The first was on Saturday, 6th October. The Daily Express ran this article, which is great in spite of the funny gaffe about Paul’s character’s name on Stargate Atlantis. They used the name he played in one SG-1 episode, Ernest Littlefield. The writer, Gavin Docherty also wrote a similar article which appeared in The Daily Star that same day.

What is especially encouraging is that it’s not just Atlantis fans who want Paul as Scotty, but Star Trek fans in general! As this article in today’s Scotland on Sunday says, the field of possible actors is getting smaller now, one month before shooting is scheduled to begin:

The role has previously been linked with a string of Scottish actors including Chewin’ The Fat’s Greg Hemphill and Martin Compston, the much-lauded star of Sweet Sixteen.

But the field is narrowing. Agents for James McAvoy, star of Atonement, and Henry Ian Cusick, who plays a Scot on the TV series Lost, both categorically dismissed reports that their clients might play Scotty.

However, Hemphill’s representative said he had auditioned, while a family member confirmed young Compston was also up for the part.

But an opinion poll on the website trekmovie.com makes McGillion hot favourite.

A galactic 67% have backed McGillion, while Hemphill and Compston have only managed one per cent each.

Brian Pendreigh also wrote a similarly great article in another of Scotland’s favourite national papers, The Mail on Sunday which you can read in the gallery here.

Let’s hope fan response and Paul’s perfect fit for the role will overcome any doubts JJ Abrams has about the best man to play Scotty!

**Photomanip of ‘Paul as Scotty’ envisioned by TrekMovie.com community member Skippy2k