Paul Giamatti "didn't actually think" he'd appear in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Speaking to People, Paul explained: "I didn't actually think I'd ever actually get a call!

"I made no secret about the fact that I loved the show, but I never thought it would actually be something that would happen ... It's a top experience for me. I don't know that much else can top this. I still kind of can't believe that I got to do it."

Paul also rubbished criticism of the Star Trek franchise.

He said: "I don't see it as any sort of differentiation between higher or lower culture or anything like that - it's all the same. I think it's great, Star Trek: it's smart, it's good stuff and it's good writing and it's good stories, and so that's all that matters."

What's more, Paul recalled being "obsessed with Spock" during his childhood.

The actor shared: "I was probably seven, maybe, and I think [my dad] identified me as the one of his three kids who would probably be really into this.

"He was really psyched that was on again, and so he kind of sat me down and I watched it with him, and that's when it started ... I was really taken with Spock, with Leonard Nimoy. I mean, everybody was great, but I really became kind of obsessed with Spock when I was a kid."

Paul joked, too, that he's always been well-suited to playing a Klingon.

He said: "I think even as a child, there was probably some recognition I couldn't pull off a Vulcan, that I was more temperamentally probably suited to Klingons than Vulcans.

"There was something I admired about the Vulcans, but as I got older, the Klingons became more interesting to me."