| November 20, 2025 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 15 comments so far

One of the more talked about (and controversial) season 3 episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was “Four-And-A-Half Vulcans.” It dropped on Paramount+ less than 3 months ago, but people are still talking about the wacky premise of members of the Enterprise crew being transformed into generally unpleasant Vulcans. The episode also featured actor and comedian Patton Oswalt playing a genuine (but somewhat unusual) Vulcan. When Oswalt was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this past Wednesday, the host brought up Star Trek.

Doug?

Oswalt was on Colbert to promote a new Audible comedy special, but after a brief chat about fellow guest (and fellow Trek actor) Benedict Cumberbatch, Colbert immediately brought up Star Trek, bringing out a prop to show the Variety headline “‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Guest Star Patton Oswalt Breaks Down Playing a Sexy Vulcan.” Colbert wanted to know what makes a Vulcan sexy, but when Oswalt revealed his character’s (not very Vulcan) name, Stephen was taken aback, repeatedly asking “Doug?” Watch the moment below.

As explained by Oswalt, in “Four-And-A-Half Vulcans,” his character, Doug, was named by parents who were fascinated by human culture, as he grew up to be as well. Doug also had a spicy past relationship with Number One (Rebecca Romijn), hence the “sexy Vulcan” headline from Variety. Playing a Vulcan was actually Oswalt’s second connection to the franchise, having previously voiced AI cat “Spot 73” in Star Trek: Picard.

L to R Ethan Peck as Spock, Rebecca Romijn as Una, and Patton Oswalt as Doug in season 3, episode 8 of Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Marni Grossman/Paramount+

Academy getting the Colbert bump

Unlike he did a few weeks ago when Tig Notaro was a guest on his show, Colbert didn’t mention his new connection to Star Trek as as the Digital Dean of Students on Starfleet Academy to Oswalt. When Benedict Cumberbatch—Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek Into Darkness—was on the show the previous night, Colbert also did not bring up their shared Star Trek connection, as he was far more interested in their shared connection to another 2013 film, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

If you want to get a taste of what to expect from the morning announcements at Starfleet Academy, check out the Colbert reveal from last month’s NYCC below.

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 Toronto.