Urbane Mr Urban

Actor Karl Urban (Dr Leonard McCoy in the new
"Star Trek" movie) signs autographs for fans
at Supanova, Olympic Park, Sydney, Australia.

Mr Urban was one of the celebrity guests at this weekend's Supanova convention.

After signing autographs all day, he then delivered a 45-minute presentation, starting from the aisle to the stage with his McCoy introductory speech from the movie ("Well, you were going to ask me to do those lines, weren't you?" he grinned), and then answering questions from the floor.

According to the charismatic Urban - in his, at times, Kiwi twang - he was in awe at just how funny, intelligent and talented his cast mates were. You can tell he's eager to work with them, and JJ Abrams, again next year.

Apparently, the "... everything but my bones" quip came from Urban himself - he was concerned that the Kirk of the new timeline wasn't the history buff the Shatner version was, so the "sawbones" nickname reference for McCoy was no longer appropriate, and the writers and JJ were thrilled by his suggestion, so it was included in the script.

The last question asked was about Leonard Nimoy. Urban seemed excited to tell this next anecdote, and it was a great moment to finish off with. Urban related the surreal experience of seeing Nimoy arrive on the soundstage in full Spock makeup, with the Vulcan ears and the eyebrows, but he didn't get much of a chance to get to know Nimoy until the rounds of publicity press junkets started.

He said that, after the movie had been viewed by the cast for the first time, Nimoy wanted Urban to meet Nimoy's wife, Susan Bay. She made a point of telling Urban, "You know, when you came onscreen as McCoy and delivered those opening lines, Leonard cried."




"Wait'll you're sitting pretty with a case of
Andorian shingles, see if you're still so relaxed
when you're bleeding from your eye sockets..."