Simon Pegg riffs on 'Star Trek,' 'Tintin' and 'Mission Impossible' in 'Nerd Do Well'

Writer and actor Simon Pegg has written his first book, a memoir titled "Nerd Do Well." (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

Actors Nick Frost and Simon Pegg reunite for the comedy adventure "Paul." (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

Simon Pegg in 2008. (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)

Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, who teamed up for "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz." (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

Simon Pegg (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

There are few actors that have stepped into as many fanboy-favored universes as Simon Pegg.

The British Comedian has beamed Spock onto the Enterprise (as Scotty in “Star Trek“), squared off against The Doctor and Rose Tyler (as The Editor in a “Doctor Who” episode), and performed some technical wizardry to help Tom Cruise‘s Ethan Hunt (as Benji Dunn in “Mission: Impossible III“), not to mention the genre projects Pegg wrote, such as “Paul,” “Shaun of the Dead” and “Spaced.”

In her Friday story about his new memoir, “Nerd Do Well,” Los Angeles Times writer Carolyn Kellogg calls Pegg “as close as you can get to a real-life geek superhero.” Here’s an excerpt from her story:

Fans who are eagerly anticipating reading about [Pegg's] experiences working on, say, “Star Trek,” may be surprised that there are few on-set anecdotes. He steps onto the Enterprise and then — that’s it! What was it like?

“It was an extraordinary thing to be part of that world,” he admits. “I do talk about how weird it was to speak Leonard Nimoy when he was in character. That was super-strange, because he wasn’t just Leonard Nimoy, he was Spock, and to have Spock talking to you is utterly, utterly odd. I’ve known him since I was 9 — and he’s not even real!” He stops and laughs. “That’s hard to put into words, that.”

Pegg will appear in at least three major movies in the next two years, including “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn,” and the “Star Trek” sequel with a title still to be announced. You can read Kellogg’s story here. Also, be sure to check out the outtakes from her interview with Pegg, in which he weighs in on zombie movies, action figures and “Transformers.”

— Noelene Clark

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