Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Stars Discuss How Trek’s Legacy Has Affected Them and How Season 4 Holds Surprises For Us All

With the first two episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 in the books, it’s clear we’re in for more strange and more new than we’ve ever faced before.

Recently, TV Fanatic had the opportunity to join other press members in a virtual press day roundtable and chat with many of the cast members about the upcoming season and their characters’ development.

Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, and Carol Kane were grouped for the first roundtable. Ethan Peck, Christina Chong, and Paul Wesley joined us for the second.

Sixty Years of Trek

We started off with a question about Star Trek’s 60th anniversary celebration, a milestone event the cast of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is very much a part of.

Anson shared how he and Rebecca bonded over how they were both introduced to Star Trek as children by their mothers.

“To me, it wasn’t even a bucket list item as an actor because it just never occurred to me that I could be on Star Trek, much less end up the captain of the Enterprise.

“This was my make-believe game when I was a kid, and to suddenly find myself in this position during a celebration like this is stunning.

“Rebecca and I were just in Italy doing press, and somebody pointed out to us that Star Trek, if you do the math, has been around for about a quarter of the history of our nation; it’s just baked into the cake of who we are as Americans, and as human beings. I just feel incredibly lucky.”

[That somebody was none other than TV Fanatic’s own Editor-in-Chief Carissa Pavlica, representing at the Italian Global Series Festival!]

Legacy

Rebecca chimed in with her thoughts about Star Trek’s legacy.

“I think it’s lasted for so long and been important to so many people generationally. As Anson mentioned, having been introduced to Star Trek: The Original Series by our mothers, and now I get to do the same for my daughters.

“I just introduced Star Trek to my five-year-old niece, who’s completely enthralled and cannot get enough. It’s all she’s talking about now.

“I think that it will continue because we will continue to show younger generations a version of the future that’s optimistic and hopeful, and not scary. It’s an honor to be a part of it.”

Carol was asked about Pelia’s not-so-cryptic comments about time-traveling doctors and phone boxes, but she remained canny in her take on the Enterprise’s quirky Chief Engineer.

“I was just a teacher, taught engineering, you know, at the school, and I think I was good at it, and invested in it, and maybe I had some secret wish that I might be a little more than a teacher and maybe work on the ship, and then that came true.

“I also know that Pelia has been around a long time, much like myself.

“So you know, generations of learning have gone into my education, and have gone into what I’m able to pass along. That’s how I see it.”

A Strange New Season

Asked about the pivots the writers made in shaping Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Romijn remarked on how they built on what’s come before.

“I’m guessing they said it’s a bit of a pivot because they had more time to prepare for Season 4. We were caught a little off guard with Season 3 with the strikes and some staff changes.

“I think Season 4 and Season 5 are our strongest seasons of the series. We continue with all of our genre-bending.

“I will say, for my character, ever since Una was court-martialed, she now gets to live authentically, and we’re going to see a much freer, more confident Una who requests more time on planet to lead more missions from Captain Pike.

“We’re going to see her in more of a leadership role, which is a fun pivot for her character moving forward.”

Anson added, “I would say that we hit a stride. We’re so comfortable in our own, in the machine that we built. I feel like we have the confidence and the structure under us now so that when we play, we really play.

“Some of our more fun episodes that we’ve ever done are in these next 16 episodes, as well as the highest stakes that we’ve ever dealt with.”

Turning Points

Asked about the growth and change their characters have undergone, Anson referenced Pike’s experience on the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 finale, “New Life and New Civilizations.”

“[At] the end of season 3, Pike being given this gift of getting to live a complete, fully realized life. That was our goal. We wanted to make it very clear that it wasn’t just a a dream.

“It was a fully realized life, and we took our cues from The Next Generation’s “Inner Light” episode. It was really a callback to that, but perfectly suited the place where Pike was at that time.

“And it completely put him off his footing because he assumed that he had very little time to squeeze a lot of stuff into, and now suddenly he’s alleviated of that pressure.

“There are new questions, particularly how are his decisions affecting those around him, and can you have a complete journey without a conclusion?”

Rebecca felt that Una’s leap forward came earlier. “I would say for Una the biggest shift in character growth was definitely at [Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 2] ‘Ad Astra per Aspera,’ where she was tried and cleared for hiding the fact that she’s Illyrian.

“That completely shifted who she is now as we find her in season 4.”

Letting Loose

In the upcoming episode, “Human Best Friend,” the Enterprise crew goes on a wacky shore leave where they get to act out of character. Rebecca, as Una, gets particularly flamboyant, performing Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in Klingon.

She sets the scene for us as audience members before addressing her specific antics.

“We’re all feeling stressed and overworked, and so it sets up perfectly for this shore leave episode where we get to see a completely different side of the crew, letting loose and going to this planet where the gases make them all inebriated.

“Everyone’s inebriated in a very different way from one another. No, I did not get to pick the song. It was originally scripted with a different song, which they couldn’t afford. I was thrilled with ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart.’

“It felt a little overwhelming because I know there are at least 20 people in the world who speak Klingon fluently. So I worked with a dialect coach to make sure I got all the pronunciation correct and the translation correct.

“I recorded the song first and sang to playback. It was a challenge that was massive to me that I never knew I wanted, but I was really proud of myself. I loved it. I loved everything about it.”

Choices Made

Pike’s shore leave goes in a different direction. Anson explained, “I tried to get them to tattoo ‘Mike Tyson,’ but they wouldn’t. They didn’t go for that. 

“For me, the one real scene that I have in that whole Alice in Wonderland episode… I say, ‘Oh, go get the shuttle,’ and they go get the shuttle. So, I just kind of had to go in there and play and figure out what what kind of a what kind of inebriated Pike I wanted to be.

“I made the decision that he’s the guy at the rave who wants to go to the chill tent and hold your hand and talk. For better or worse, that was my decision, and I went with it.”

A Kirk, a Khan, and a Spock

In the second interview room, we chatted with the three actors who play Lieutenants La’an Noonien Singh, James T. Kirk, and Spock, characters carrying names with great canonical significance.

Not that you could tell from their very open and playful interactions. Christina Chong, Paul Wesley, and Ethan Peck bubbled with enthusiasm about their show and characters.

Asked what worlds they still would like to explore, Chong kicked it off with an intriguing option.

“I wanted to visit some kind of underwater world. I thought that would be cool and kind of pitched that, but it didn’t happen. The idea was that we would get to scuba dive and learn how to scuba dive and film underwater.”

Ethan had a personal bucket list world.

“I keep joking… that we’re gonna go to a RoboCop world just because RoboCop’s one of my all-time favorite movies. Let’s do a RoboCop crossover, which is like not a possibility and doesn’t happen. There’s no spoiler there, but that’s my dream, RoboCop world.”

Paul already got his wish, apparently. “My favorite episode of TOS is “City on the Edge of Forever.”

“That was always my favorite episode, and we got to do our version of that with Chrissy and I with [Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 3] ‘Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.’

“That was always what I was hoping we would do, and we did. So, it’s kind of a bad answer, but yeah, that’s my answer.”

“The Griffin Incident”

On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 2, the trio finds themselves aboard the Griffin, a ghost ship presumed lost years ago.

It’s Star Trek’s deepest dive into the horror genre, an impressively faithful homage to the 1997 film “Event Horizon.”

Asked about the production and what they liked most about it, Christina jokingly offered, “I enjoyed stabbing Paul!” before adding a thoughtful recap of the process of creating tension for the episode.

“It was a challenge because it was hard to find the right rhythm at first. Although it’s Star Trek, we almost had to approach it in a completely different way because of the tension and the suspense of it all, and it felt a bit unnatural.

“[It] took us a while to find our feet, so I enjoyed that challenge of that episode.”

Paul expanded on the horror elements they explored. “There’s horror, and then there’s psychological horror. To me, this was very much psychological horror.

“We have to consistently use our imaginations on Star Trek. But the ship, the Griffin, was an actual character, and the character resembled something different for each one of us.

“As actors, we got to really sort of use our imaginations, and what did it represent for me? The noises that Kirk hears throughout the episode that haunt him.

“We’re consistently having to use our imagination, as I mentioned, because you’re always looking at a blue screen or a green screen, and you’re imagining something in outer space.

“But this was much more contained. It felt like we were doing a small indie horror film, and it was great. And the three of us have discussed this; the pacing was so unique. We had to really adapt to a slower, moodier pace.

Kirk’s Path

Asked about how the show is answering questions about James T. Kirk, Paul had a lot to say, having spent time considering the path he must walk to reach the Kirk we know from TOS.

He began with the personal pieces. “Yes, his relationship with his father and his relationship with his son, and some of the stuff you guys haven’t seen yet.

“To me, your relationship with your father is very important to who you become as a man, and Kirk had to go through some things in order to understand why he is who he is and why he becomes who he is.

“What’s great about Strange New Worlds is that obviously we have this wealth of Trek. It’s now the 60th anniversary. We have so many spinoff, etc. But on TOS, we just meet Kirk, and he is who he is, right?

“He’s this sure-footed kind of man who’s in command, and being able to explore some of those vulnerabilities with his family, I think for me and hopefully for the viewer, provided a lot of information and context as to why he becomes who he is.”

The Joy of Spirk

Moving on to Kirk’s relationship with Spock and, again, how they would come to their eventual TOS dynamic, Ethan and Paul were asked about the possibility of the Star Trek: Year One series.

Ethan answered first. “I think we’d be really excited to continue our relationship on the Enterprise and to portray these amazing characters.

“The way they’ve developed the relationship between Kirk and Spock has been so interesting because there were several times that I got notes while we were filming on the day to not be so — this might be too reductive of a term — but friendly with Kirk as Spock.

“He respects and admires him, but doesn’t quite maybe like him yet. And so I’ve had to kind of hold back because I really think Paul’s wonderful, and we get to bring a lot of that chemistry into our work on set.

Suspicious Minds

“Having to hold some of that back has been interesting as they grow closer. And I think there’s a lot more suspicion on Spock’s side.”

Jokingly, Paul observed, “Yeah, I mean, I’m suspicious of you in real life, but on screen…” to which Ethan retorted good-naturedly, “Well, back at you.”

Paul addressed the question with consideration. “Yeah, I echo that. I really appreciate, for example, on the shore leave episode where Spock conveys his vulnerabilities to Kirk.

“That has now become canon, and that sort of experience that they had is one of the reasons why perhaps they have some sort of connection to one another.

“But yeah, on set, as Ethan mentioned, I joke that Ethan and I have a bit of a Kirk-Spock vibe going in real life, and so to be able to bring that onscreen is great.

“I agree, sometimes, perhaps we’re a little too friendly with one another because we don’t know what the future holds.”

The First Time

“And I remember the first time Spock and Kirk met, I made this whole big thing out of it, and I was all panicked.

“I was like, “How do I do this? What do I do? They’re meeting for the first time, and this is such a big deal.”

“And the director said, ‘Hey, it’s not a big deal yet. It’s a big deal because of what will come.’

“So I have to remember that, and it’s something that I had to always remind myself: they’re still getting to know each other.

“Year One, yeah, we all organically would talk about it, like, ‘Hey, we’re leading to TOS, how is this going to end? Is this going to continue?’

“The conversations were very organic, and we all want it to happen. And if it does happen, great. And you know, if it doesn’t, that’s fine. We created something beautiful.

“Our goal is, when people watch the series finale in Season Five, that people are like, ‘Wow, I wish there was more of this.’ Even if there isn’t, but you still want to leave them wanting more.”

Strange New Skills

Considering the many genres the show has explored and the unique situations their characters have had to contend with, they were next asked what their favorite thing they never expected to do on Star Trek.

Christina enjoyed La’an’s creative outlets. “For me, it would be the ballroom and Latin dancing. I was a dancer, but I’d never done ballroom or Latin, and that’s the last thing I would have expected La’an to do.

Ethan got straight to the point, referencing one of the most anticipated upcoming episodes of Season 4. “Acting with puppets.”

[Fun fact: None of the six interviewees got to keep their puppets. I asked. Rebecca actually wanted Carol’s puppet, not her own. Most people did. You’ll see why. LOL.]

Paul was both surprised and delighted how much he got to play with his role.

“I got to play alternate versions of Kirk in the sort of big swing fantasy episodes. When I embarked on this role, I never thought I would be able to flex my range so much.

“I never thought I would have so much color to play with. It’s just been such a joy as an actor to be able to play one singular role in so many variations. I’ve never experienced that before. It’s usually quite contained, and this show is the exact opposite of that.”

The Heart of Star Trek

The final question asked what each actor believed the secret ingredient was that made Trek always feel like Trek, even when genre-bending and taking big swings.

Ethan threw the question into Paul’s court, and he volleyed it beautifully. “A sense of mission and a sense of purpose.

“I’m not in every episode like these guys, but from what I can tell, at the end of the day, these guys, they’re always committed to a sense of exploration with imagination and the purpose of, I guess, curiosity.

“To me, that’s the thing that connects our show and all of our episodes that may seem like they’re off track, but at the end of the day, there is a sense of curiosity and mission to every episode, no matter what the genre is.”

Christina agreed, “Yeah, I think that may be the hope as well, a sprinkle of hope on top of everything Paul just said.”

Ethan brought it home with his thoughts. “I gotta say, I think it’s in the casting and in the people involved. All of us embody aspects of Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry’s original vision.

“We in our performance, and the writers, the set designers, they all keep us attached to that sort of core feeling of Star Trek. It’s a recipe that they got right with the cast and crew.”

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