SIMON PEGG - PEGG: ABRAMS HAS WORKED A MIRACLE WITH STAR TREK

PEGG: ABRAMS HAS WORKED A MIRACLE WITH STAR TREK

Simon Pegg believes director JJ Abrams has achieved an incredible feat in making the new Star Trek film a universal success.

The Hot Fuzz star, a longstanding fan of the show, plays engineer Scotty in the new science-fiction movie, and paid tribute to Abrams' "miraculous" talent for creating a film that will please both longstanding fans of the original series and newcomers to the franchise.

"When you try to appeal to an existing fanbase and a new viewership, it's a very hard balance to strike and this nails it," he told a London press conference.

"You can watch this not knowing anything about the pre-existing history and love it for the sheer adventure and human story but if you do know it, and you see that the surface of [the planet] Vulcan looks a little bit like Vasquez Rocks in California, then you'll think: 'Fantastic!'"

The British actor explained his love of the original series as a child came from its "cerebral nature".

"[It was] what they had to do because they didn't have the resources, so they did something which was almost like a play every week," he added.

"So to became part of it as a nerd, which is what I am and I'm sorry but it's true, is extraordinary.

"When Chris [Pine] and I were doing our scenes with Leonard Nimoy, it was kind of weird because he was talking to me as the man I've known since I was nine and that's not a man from this planet, it's a man from Vulcan with pointed ears!"

Star Trek is released on May 8th.