‘Star Trek: Discovery’: Tig Notaro Talks Technobabble

Tig Notaro is one of the new additions to the cast of Star Trek: Discovery in the show’s second season and while she’s excited to be a part of the Star Trek universe she doesn’t exactly speak the language.

Notaro was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote her new comedy special Happy to be Here. She greeted Colbert by saying his theater was “like a room full of pleasant subspace particles wrapped in a tachyon field of good vibes.”

The comment is obviously a reference to her role on Discovery, though she admits “I have no idea what I’m saying on that show…I can’t even picture what I’m talking about.”

She revealed that her character is human and that she plays Commander Jet Reno, a name she got to choose for herself. As for how she got the job, “They just asked if I wanted to do it” she says.

You can watch the full interview above.

Notaro has previously gone into more detail about how she got the Discovery gig, telling IndieWire that it helped to be friends with co-creator Alex Kurtzman.

“In guest starring on Season 2 of Star Trek, I’m in the hands of Alex Kurtzman, who I’ve known for a couple of decades, and he knows my voice really well,” Notaro said. “My character, I’m telling you, the writing that was done for my character is just spectacular. I followed Star Trek as a child and had the action figures. The whole thing is just ridiculously fun and exciting.”

That love of Star Trek fed into her reaction to being offered the job, as she described in a separate interview with the Dallas Observer.

“I was offered the role and said [yes] right away without reading the script and when I read the script, I said, ‘A million times yes,’” Notaro says. “Hopefully, the Star Trek universe will accept me. If not, too bad. I’ve never imagined myself in this kind of world. It’s funny because the way Alex and I know each other. Now we’re meeting up in a whole different world of crazy fandom.”

Commander Reno is the Chief Engineer of the USS Hiawatha. No word yet on how many episodes Notaro is slated to appear in, though she did reveal in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that Reno will be a recurring character.

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery is available to stream in its entirety on CBS All Access in the United States, through CraveTV in Canada, and through Netflix in other international markets. Star Trek: Discovery Season Two is now filming in Toronto.