Tig Notaro and Stephen Colbert Reveal What It’s Really Like Teaming Up in “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy”.NH
A big surprise at the Star Trek Universe panel at New York Comic Con earlier this month was the announcement that CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert had joined the series, providing his voice for “morning announcements” at the Academy. Last night, Starfleet Academy regular Tig Notaro (who’s reprising her Discovery role as Commander Jett Reno) was a guest on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and their Trek connection came up.
Stephen asks for advice joining Star Trek
Notaro was on Colbert’s show to promote her new documentary film Come See Me in the Good Light about her friend, poet and activist Andrea Gibson. In addition to that, the pair talked about being Starfleet Academy “co-workers.” They both joked around about not knowing what they’re doing, with Notaro admitting she doesn’t understand most of what her engineer character is talking about. Colbert asked for advice, indicating he may not have recorded his dialogue yet. You can watch the exchange below.
Colbert knows his job…
Notaro ribbed Colbert after he expressed some confusion while describing his role, saying “You sound like you don’t really know what your job is.” He defended himself, saying:
“I know I am the voice, I’m like the voice of the computer on the ship at the Academy… I know what I’m doing.”
At NYCC, Colbert was described as the “Digital Dean of Students,” and the official announcement said he’d be “giving daily announcements to the students and alerting them of anything that needs their immediate attention.” So his suggestion that he is playing the voice of the computer on the ship (the USS Athena) could just have been some talk show banter or confusion. That said, the nature of how the Athena is integrated into the Academy gives other characters dual roles, like Holly Hunter as chancellor of the Academy and captain of the USS Athena and Gina Yeshere as the ship’s first officer Lura Throk who is also the “cadet master” of the Academy. So it’s possible the Digital Dean of Students is also the voice of the ship.
L-R: Gina Yashere as Lura Throk and Tig Notaro as Jett Reno in season 1, episode 3 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: John Medland/Paramount
Here is the official announcement video Colbert made for NYCC, where he described one of his morning announcements.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy debuts on Thursday, January 15 with a 2-episode premiere. The 10-episode first season will run exclusively on Paramount+ through March. The second season is currently in production in Canada.
