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Paul Giamatti isn\u2019t just one of the big-name, Oscar-nominated stars of the next Star Trek series, Starfleet Academy<\/u> (the other is Holly Hunter). He\u2019s also a big Star Trek nerd himself, and he proved it to me when I chatted with him at the CCXP con in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeven years old, seven, eight years old,\u201d Giamatti immediately responds when asked when his fandom began. \u201cI watched it with my father, who was a fan from the ’60s, watching in the ’60s. So yeah, I go back, way back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cut to half a century later, and the actor is standing in front of thousands of fans promoting his own Star Trek show on CCXP\u2019s Thunder Stage \u2013 the Brazilian con\u2019s version of SDCC\u2019s Hall H. To rapturous cheers, Giamatti unveiled a clip from the latest series (this is the twelfth Trek TV show, give or take).<\/p>\n
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Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Images<\/h3>\n<\/output><\/p>\n
New Starfleet Academy Clip Revealed<\/h2>\n In the new clip<\/u>, the latest starship to take to the heavens, the USS Athena, is under heavy attack from an unknown force that seems to be engulfing the ship in a sort of cosmic sheath. As Hunter\u2019s Captain Nahla Ake gives orders from the bridge, we see the young Academy students running to and fro in the decks below. Also spotted is Robert Picardo\u2019s The Doctor, still swinging some 800 years after his time on the USS Voyager, as he attempts to corral the students (\u201cDon\u2019t panic! Breathe! Breathing is your friend!\u201d) while acerbicly (of course) advising the captain to avoid any further direct hits to the ship. Suddenly a ship emerges in the space beyond the Athena, seemingly putting itself together from different pieces, and who appears but Giamatti\u2019s villainous Nus Braka, who tells Captain Ake she looks \u201cas radiant as ever\u201d before adding that \u201cpayback\u2019s a bitch.\u201d End of clip!<\/p>\nPaul Giamatti\u2019s Star Trek Fandom<\/h2>\n
The actor doesn\u2019t mince words when it comes to what his favorite Trek series is.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite one probably of all of them is Deep Space Nine,\u201d he says. \u201cI like The Original Series. I like Next Generation. I like Voyager actually a lot. I’ve enjoyed Strange New Worlds a lot. Those would be top favorites. But Deep Space Nine’s probably my most favorite one.\u201d<\/p>\n
So then going down the list of other required favorites every Star Trek fan must have\u2026<\/p>\n
Yes, it would mean Sisko is my favorite captain. And the Defiant is my favorite ship. <\/div>\n
\u201cYes, it would mean Sisko is my favorite captain,\u201d he laughs. \u201cAnd the Defiant is my favorite ship. I love that show. I weirdly love that show. The actors are so great on that show. All the actors on all the shows are great, but I really love that one. \u2026 I always admired Colm Meaney on Deep Space Nine because he pretty much\u2026 only 97% of what he says is technobabble. And it’s so good the way he does it. And you can follow it and he looks like he really knows what he’s talking about!\u201d<\/p>\n
Favorite episode?<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, wow. Well, there’s \u2018The Visitor\u2019 one when Jake gets old \u2013 that\u2019s a classic one,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of the stuff with Odo I really like. There’s the episode where Jadzia almost dies on that planet and Worf goes back to save her. That was a great one. Super moving. But anything with Odo in it I really like. All that Changeling stuff is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
See? He knows his stuff.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nPlaying Nus Braka, the Half-Klingon\/Half-Tellarite Villain of Starfleet Academy<\/h2>\n Giamatti was involved in the development of his character\u2019s unique combo of Star Trek alien races. The Klingons, of course, need no introduction, but the other half of his character Nus Braka\u2019s genetic make-up is Tellarite, which is actually a species well known to Trek fans that dates back to the William Shatner Original Series days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had been just shooting my mouth off about how much I wanted to be a Klingon,\u201d the actor laughs. \u201cAnd they were like, \u2018OK, we have a Klingon [character already] and we have a lot of Klingony stuff. What if he’s half? What if he’s half?\u2019 They were like, \u2018We thought we’d bring the Tellarites back.\u2019 And I thought, \u2018Oh, yeah, the pig guys from The Original Series! That’s two really aggressive alien types. I’m going to be really aggressive!\u2019 So it was partially my thing about being a Klingon, but then they brought the Tellarite thing, which I thought was very funny. So I let myself get pretty hairy for the thing too!\u201d<\/p>\n
The actor has had some fun trying to imagine what exactly led to the conception of this half-Klingon\/half-pig-man creature.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you imagine those two races mating and creating this guy? Oh, my God,\u201d he beams. \u201cBut I don’t know which one \u2013 I could never decide who’s the mother and who’s the father. I kept thinking, is the mother a Tellarite, a female Tellarite? I was like, \u2018I like that.\u2019 I like the idea that some Klingon was attracted to this pig woman!\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nNone of which is to say that Nus Braka is a joke. There\u2019s an element of whimsy to the character to be sure, but he will disintegrate you just as easily as he\u2019ll crack a joke about you\u2026 or maybe he\u2019ll do both.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that was the thing that they said to me when they brought it to me,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThey said the one thing that they wanted to kind of throw to at me as an idea was that he was a comedian. He thought he was funny. And he was a very kind of showy, flashy comedian, but underneath it he’s dangerous. And that combination I thought was kind of interesting. Because that’s a kind of creepy thing in a psychopath, is if they’re sort of funny and kind of, \u2018I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding.\u2019 Everything’s just a joke and it’s not really. \u2026 [But] he doesn’t care. He wants to destroy everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Premiere Date<\/h2>\n Starfleet Academy will debut worldwide with two episodes on Thursday, January 15, 2026, on Paramount+, and in Japan on Tuesday, January 23. New episodes of the 10-episode series will be released weekly after that.<\/p>\n
Talk to Scott Collura on Twitter at <\/em>@ScottCollura<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, or listen to his <\/em>Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3<\/strong><\/em>. Or do both!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n