Paul Giamatti isn't just one of the Oscar-nominated stars of the next Star Trek series. Starfleet Academy (the second is Holly Hunter). He's also a huge Star Trek fan, and he proved that to me when I chatted with him at the CCXP conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil this week.
“Seven years, seven, eight years,” Giamatti immediately responds when asked when his fandom began. “I watched it with my dad, who was a '60s fan and watched it in the '60s. So yeah, I've been going back a long time.”
Half a century later, the actor stands in front of thousands of fans promoting his own Star Trek show on the CCXP Thunder Stage, Brazil's rogue version of SDCC's Hall H. To enthusiastic applause, Giamatti presented an excerpt from the latest series (this is, give or take, the twelfth Trek TV show).
New Starfleet Academy video unveiled
In the new clipThe last starship to take to the skies, the USS Athena, comes under intense attack from an unknown force that appears to envelop the ship in a sort of space shell. As the Hunter's captain, Nahla Ake, barks orders from the bridge, we see young Academy students running up and down the decks below. Also seen is Robert Picardo's “Doctor”, still churning around 800 years after his time on the USS Voyager, as he tries to corral the students (“Don't panic! Breathe! Breath is your friend!”) while sharply (of course) advising the captain to avoid any further direct hits on the ship. Suddenly, a ship appears in space behind the Athena, seemingly assembling itself from various parts, and none other than the villainous Nus Braca Giamatti appears, telling Captain Aka that she looks “as radiant as ever” before adding that “retribution is a bitch.” End of the clip!
Paul Giamatti Star Trek Wiki Fandom
The actor doesn't mince words when it comes to his favorite TV series, Trek.
“My favorite is probably Deep Space Nine,” he says. “I like The Original Series. I like The Next Generation. I actually really like Voyager. I really like Strange New Worlds. Those would be my favorites. But Deep Space Nine is probably my favorite.”
So, moving on to the list of other must-have favorites that every Star Trek fan should have…
“Yeah, that would mean Sisko is my favorite captain,” he laughs. “And the Defiant is my favorite ship. I love that show. I love that show weirdly. The actors in that show are great. All the actors in all the shows are great, but I really like this one… I always admired Colm Meaney in Deep Space Nine because he's almost… only 97% of what he says is technobabble. And it's as good as he does it. And you can follow him and he looks like he really knows.” what is he talking about!”
Favorite episode?
“Oh, wow. Well, there's The Visitor, when Jake gets old – that's a classic,” he says. “There's a lot of stuff with Odo that I really like. There's an episode where Jadzia almost dies on this planet and Worf comes back to save her. It was great. Super touching. But everything about it with Odo, I really like. All that changeling stuff is just great.”
See? He knows his stuff.
Playing as Nus Braca, a half-Klingon/half-Tellarite villain from Starfleet Academy
Giamatti helped develop his Star Trek character's unique combination of alien races. The Klingons certainly need no introduction, but the other half of his character Nus Braki's genetic makeup is a Tellarite, which is actually a species well known to Trek fans that dates back to the days of William Shatner's original series.
“I was just babbling about how much I wanted to be a Klingon,” the actor laughs. “And they were like, ‘Okay, we have Klingon. [character already] and we have a lot of Klingon stuff. What if it's half? What if it's half? They said, “We thought we would bring back the Tellarites.” And I thought, “Oh yeah, the pigs from the original series!” These are two really aggressive types of aliens. I will be very aggressive!” So part of it was that I liked being a Klingon, but then they brought in the Tellarite thing, which I thought was really fun. So I allowed myself to get pretty nervous about it too!”
The actor had fun trying to imagine what exactly led to the conception of this half-Klingon/half-pigman creature.
“Can you imagine these two races mating and creating this guy? Oh my God,” he beams. “But I don’t know which one – I could never decide who was the mother and who was the father. I kept wondering, is the mother a Tellarite, a Tellarite woman? I was like, “I love this.” I love the idea that this pig woman attracted some Klingon!”
None of this is to say that Nus Braca is a joke. Sure, there's an element of whimsy to the character, but he'll take you down just as easily as he can make jokes about you… or maybe he'll do both.
“Well, that's what they told me when they brought it to me,” he recalls. “They said the only thing they wanted to impress upon me was that he was a comedian. He thought he was funny. And he was a very effective, flamboyant comedian, but deep down he was dangerous. And that combination, I thought, was pretty interesting. Because that's kind of the creepy thing for a psychopath to do, where he's kind of funny and like, 'I'm just kidding.' I'm just kidding.” It's all just a joke and it's not entirely true. … [But] he doesn't care. He wants to destroy everything.”
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premiere date
Starfleet Academy debuts worldwide with two episodes on Thursday, January 15, 2026 on Paramount+ and in Japan on Tuesday, January 23. After that, new episodes of the 10-episode series will be released weekly.
Chat with Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottColluraor listen to him Star Trek Podcast, Transport Room 3. Or do both!
