Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: patton oswalt, star trek, strange new worlds

Strange New Worlds: Patton Oswalt on Going Vulcan, Star Trek's Legacy

Patton Oswalt discussed his live-action Star Trek debut as the Vulcan, Doug, on Strange New Worlds, and the franchise's longevity.

Patton Oswalt didn't have the affinity growing up with Star Trek, as he had its rival franchise, Star Wars. In fact, it wasn't until he was exposed to The Original Series films that it started connecting. Despite already appearing in Star Trek: Picard, voicing Spot 73 in the season two episode "Penance," he made his physical live-action debut as the Vulcan, Doug, who had previous ties to the U.S.S. Enterprise's first officer, Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), in the latest episode of Strange New Worlds, "Four-and-a-Half Vulcans." The actor and comedian spoke to Variety about his background with the franchise and what it was like playing a Vulcan. The following contains spoilers.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Patton Oswalt on His Journey Immersing Himself in the Franchise

To set the scene, the Enterprise encounters a pre-warp civilization that only the Vulcans have encountered before the humans on Earth. To not violate the Federation Prime Directive, as the planet has yet discovered warp technology, Pike (Anson Mount), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), La'an (Christina Chong), and Chapel (Jess Bush) travel to the planet's surface disguised as Vulcans. The caveat is that they can't do it cosmetically, so an experimental serum turns them into full Vulcans. The "half" the episode is referring to is Spock (Ethan Peck), who's half-Vulcan and half-human.

Following the mission, the antidote fails, and the away team decides it's far more "logical" to remain as Vulcans, and we get to find out the lengths and absurdity the afflicted crew takes their Vulcaness. Reluctantly, Number One shares with Scotty (Martin Quinn) and Spock on why she wanted to avoid shore leave, because the Enterprise happened to be nearby Doug, her ex, but he's an expert on katras, and the key to convincing the away team to embrace their humanity once again.

"Ethan is such an amazing actor, and Rebecca is just so loose and real in the scenes," Oswalt said. "It was really fun to play off because I am a very stiff, controlled Vulcan, and she is very passionate. So that was really fun." The Deathstalker star admitted he got to keep his Vulcan ears. Even though he wasn't the biggest Star Trek fan, he embraced the opportunity. "'Star Trek' was always this thing that was on in the background for me," he said. "I saw 'Star Wars' when I was seven, and that kind of fritzed my brain out, so 'Star Trek' didn't really land with me the way that until I saw the movies. It wasn't until 'Wrath of Khan' that I really, really got into it."

As far as why the franchise has endured for so long, "Humans will still always be making mistakes and doing goofy stuff and having to apologize for it, so they didn't shy away from that," Oswalt said. "They very much understood that mankind is fallible and does silly things all the time. And I think that's probably one of the reasons it ties people into the show and captivates them as much as it is, You're watching how humans will act in the future, and, in some ways, they won't act much different than the way we act. And that's kind of comforting."

You can check out the entire interview for more on Oswalt talking about the immersive set. Strange New Worlds, which also stars Melissa Navia and Babs Olusanmokun, streams new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+.

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