Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Cast on Season 2's Sneaky Comedy and Filling Big Legacy Shoes

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is boldly going, alright: deep into the psyches of the Enterprise crew.

As Season 2 of the warmly received latest installment in one of television's earliest and most perennial franchises beams onto Paramount+ on Thursday, June 15, the series continues to phaser-focus on the sweet spot between classic old school Star Trek-style adventure and the modern arced-out storylines of the streaming era. For every science fiction high-concept conceit and allegorical socio-philosophical territory the series explores in its sophomore outing, new facets and depths of the characters are being mapped just as thoroughly, both in standalone episodes and lengthier plotlines that gradually unfold. 

Anson Mount notes that while Christopher Pike remains firmly at the center of the Bridge during Season 2, the Enterprise's captain makes a habit of finding ways to enable his crew to discover their fullest potential. "I think that's a big part of what makes Pike, Pike, as opposed to all the other captains that we've seen in canon," Mount explains to TV Guide. "If Pike has one superpower as a captain, it's in turning the crew, particularly the Bridge crew, into a larger brain. I think Pike really sees himself as the microchip — the sorter, the conductor at the center of all of the action — and his job is just to get the brainwaves flowing, and then pick and choose the best ideas."

At the same time, the new season finds Pike struggling to find his footing away from the captain's chair, particularly when challenges to his romance with Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano) arise that force him to reevaluate his path, on- and off-duty. 

"His secret is he's never quite been sure why he was made a captain, so he tends to wear his heart on his sleeve in the way that most of us do when we feel… not so much insecure, but maybe a bit out of place and hoping that other people can relate to our sense of displacement," says Mount. "It provides a wonderful vulnerability to the character that I think makes him endearing to the audience, as well as to his crew."

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Mr. Spock (Ethan Peck) also faces an ongoing series of complications in his personal life, as his growing bond with Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) threatens to disrupt his relationship with his fiancé T'Pring (Gia Sandhu) — and it wouldn't be Star Trek if a sci-fi plot twist didn't offer an additional monkey wrench when the science officer is suddenly cut off from his Vulcan half and completely connected to his human emotions. 

"This season we see a very human Spock, and in the future I hope that we'll get to explore the ways in which he's very Vulcan and the ways in which he's other things that we don't really know about him yet," says Ethan Peck. "The writers have really enjoyed the human qualities of the Spock that I'm portraying."

That included intensifying the attraction between Spock and Chapel, which leads to some unexpected developments. "It was a surprise to me!" says Peck. 

Bush says that she and Peck have had to follow their instincts in developing the will-they-won't-they chemistry that connects Spock and Chapel. "We don't get a lot of time to explore before we are being filmed; it's just happening," she explains. "The key is to just stay really playful and open and be always noticing new things that come up and catching them and accepting them and putting them back out there."

Una "Number One" Chin-Riley's (Rebecca Romijn) journey takes her into a classic, durable Star Trek framework, the kind of Starfleet-style courtroom drama that fueled episodes like The Original Series' "Court Martial" and The Next Generation's "The Measure of a Man," in which her long-hidden status as a genetically engineered Illyrian is put on trial.

"It was a real honor to get to do one of those," Romijn tells TV Guide. "And within this utopian, futuristic Trek world, it was one of these trials where humanity is put to trial — that we still have flaws and these very human themes of prejudice and persecution that still affect people, and it was interesting to explore that and sink my teeth into that episode."

Dr. M'Benga's (Babs Olusanmokun) enigmatic past poses both fresh dangers and unexpected opportunities as some of his mysterious abilities surface. "He came from a heavy first season, and so now we're seeing a bit more of his past, and some challenges he's had, and some perhaps skills he's got that we didn't see before," says Olusanmokun. "We're just peeling the layers and trying to give everything we can with M'Benga, just keeping him really dynamic."

Melissa Navia promises that Erica Ortegas will at last get her own showcase in the new season, offering a deeper glimpse at the helm officer. "You're going to see more of her backstory, more of what brought her to the Enterprise, and more of what makes her this confident, cocky, hotshot, helmsman that we are all falling in love with, including myself," she reveals.

Only Slightly Warped Drive

When Strange New World's debut season concluded, the crew was down a Chief Engineer following the death of Lt. Hemmer (Bruce Horak), but that role will be filled by a new officer in charge of the starship's warp drive and related hardware. Veteran actress Carol Kane (Taxi) joins the cast as Lt. Pelia, who brings a unique backstory and eccentric sensibility along with her.

"I could never imagine that somebody would ask me to be on Star Trek — I just couldn't imagine that!" Kane admits. "It just hit me out of the blue and I thought I got to try it, and I'm glad I did. It's really fun!"

While there are secrets aplenty about Pelia to be unveiled as the new season unrolls, it's safe to say the role, while quirky, is considerably more serious-minded than some of Kane's previous, wackier work.

"I really like the fact that I am someone that feels powerful and feels entitled to show that power and that wisdom, because I've been around a lot longer than anybody else, and that's really a great liberty," Kane says, noting that almost immediately Pelia develops a flinty rapport with Number One.

"I'm butting heads with Rebecca, even though she's like eight feet taller than me," Kane laughs. "The two of us had so much fun with that because I have to look straight up at her. I mean, I'm bossing her around… We did a couple really fun scenes like that and yeah, it's really great to feel entitled to be so powerful."

"I was positively starstruck when Carol Kane walked onto our set, but she does this really funny thing where she acts like she's never been there before, [like] he has no idea how a set works," says Romijn. "I loved playing my height against her. Some people don't like it when I'm tall next to them. She really played it up — I loved the way she reacted to that. I had so much fun with her. She's an incredible addition to the show. And the nature of her character is so different than anything we've ever seen in the Trek world, but it just blends beautifully."

Phasers On Fun

Although the addition of Kane doesn't mean that Strange New Worlds is delving into the sort of outrageousness that the franchise's animated entry Star Trek: Lower Decks specializes in, the new season continues to use comedic moments to great effect throughout. Indeed, a sly sense of humor has long been baked into the DNA of the Star Trek franchise — with The Original Series' "The Trouble With Tribbles," Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, The Next Generation's "QPid" among the hallmarks — and Strange New Worlds leans ever further into subtle but steady character-driven comedy.

"That's just been so much fun," says Mount. "With a show like ours — with any action-adventure — I think you got to know when to pull back the reins a little bit and not be so deliberate, and that's been a really important part of the equation. ... It tends to reveal a lot more and a lot more sides of the characters than if you're just being deliberate and have the throttle to the metal the whole way you're going. So I think it's given us a really good sense of the life of the show over the course of time."

"People forget how funny The Original Series was," adds Romijn. "There was a tremendous amount of comedy between all of those characters that I think sort of got forgotten about in some of the series. And I think as we go back and re-embrace The Original Series with our show and the standalone episodes, we're really able to seek out as much comedy as we possibly can without affecting the stakes. Watching Anson find funny moments just tickles me."

"That's [due to] a really wonderful synergy between the writers and the actors," says Peck. "I don't think they knew exactly who they were writing for in the first season, and they discovered our strengths and our comedic abilities and then began to write to those."

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Bush says she finds that sequences that are lighter in tone help endear the characters to the viewers, and prompt greater investment when the stakes grow serious. "Having moments of levity really open people's hearts to be moved — it's an important tool in touching people deeply," she says. "If you are stepping into comedy, you find out new things about your character in that light, so it all feels like part of a big stretchy excavation process."

Navia says those moments of levity, even in the gravest moments, also mirror how everyday human beings respond to challenging circumstances, "where you're constantly in a state of life or death, and you still can crack a joke, and you can still find the humor in a dark situation."

"When you think about grief — and Season 2 definitely is going to tackle that — if you're in a constant state of everything being dark, that will break you down," she adds. "So you look for those people who can bring levity to a situation, because that's life: Life is death, and it's humor, and it's where we find that blend."

As for the seasoned comedienne Kane, she was pleased to have permission to pepper Pelias with distinctive quirks. "They wrote a lot of stuff that's funny, and then you make choices, some creative choices to support that," she explains. "They allowed me to do an interesting vocal thing with my voice, and that was really brave of them because they could have just said, 'No, no, we want your own voice,' but they allowed me to take a leap there and I think that seems to be good for all of us."

Where Others Actors Have Gone Before

In the first season several of the actors became the custodians of legacy roles long established in the franchise, whether they be characters with rich backstories like Pike or briefly seen blank slates like M'Benga. But coming off the well-received debut, the actors are feeling a greater sense of ownership over their roles.

"It is surreal to me every single day I'm on set that not only am I on Star Trek, but I'm the captain of the Enterprise — It's bonkers!" laughs Mount. "But also, thank God it's happened to me at this stage in my life and not 20 years ago, or I would not have known how to handle it. At a certain point, you've got to be able to compartmentalize [the legacy] and say, 'Okay, what is this scene in front of me about? What needs to happen to realize this piece of the episode?' And just not worry about it, right? Because you can't make that leap with being so burdened with responsibility."

Romijn agrees, adding, "I think those of us who are playing these legacy roles have come a long way from waking up before we go to set going, 'I hope I get this right, I hope I get this right. I can't let anyone down. I hope I get this character right,' to now having enough ownership where the writers are coming to us and asking us for character beats or input. And that feels great."

"Not being fired during or after Season 1 was really encouraging for me," chuckles Peck. "I still felt like this is mine to lose in a way because the rule set of Spock is so determined. And I didn't make the rules and I've got to be as devout to them as his character, because he is so precise. So yeah, it's been a wild ride and every day is a new challenge. Every episode is strange and scary and deeply satisfying once it's completed. And I just do my best to have an experience as the character adhering to those rules."

"I think the writers have done a really wonderful job of trusting us to take the essence of our previous characters," adds Bush. "My situation is different to Ethan's, of course, because his character is much more cemented in the canon. But after Season 1, we've been given so much license to make it our own. And so by the time Season 2 rolled around, we had trust, we built it out, we played."

Journey to Technobabble

Acting in the Star Trek franchise also comes with its own unique set of challenges — the tongue-twisting, memory-testing sci-fi jargon known on set as "technobabble," acting opposite people places and things that will be added later via VFX, and more — few of which have changed since the flagship series debuted in 1966. And the cast admits they've been working diligently to master the nuances necessary to function in a 23rd Century setting.

"The technobabble, that's still difficult," says Mount. "It's like being on a medical procedural in a way — except on medical procedurals, they have registered nurses and doctors there to be advisors, to tell you what it means, that what you're talking about has meaning. In our show, sometimes you have to figure that out for yourself."

"Some of the lines that I have to say as Spock are riddled with scientific jargon, either real or imaginary, and dispensing that in a coherent and understood way is such a challenge," says Peck. "And it's like whenever I get a script and I'm like, 'Oh gosh — this is going to be a zinger for me.' If it's the ship's under threat and Pike's like, 'Spock, explain gravitational redshift,' and I've got to deliver an encyclopedic explanation of what that is under duress, but still as Spock not affected by the emotion — I have not mastered that and I'll continue to work on it."

Bush, too, struggles with casually spouting Chapel's medical terminologies while also acting in character and suppressing her natural Australian accent. "I've trauma blocked it, but I was boxing or something at the same time and the collection of words just was an absolute rollercoaster that I just could not do it!" she laughs. "I mean, most of the time I don't even think about my American accent, but there are times with the medical jargon that it just becomes very apparent I'm not American."

Navia says her biggest challenge was less about delivering mouthfuls of sci-fi speak and more about looking convincing pressing buttons and throwing toggles at the helm. "For me it was flying the ship," she sighs. "Fans are going to be watching everything, and they're going to know if I am flying this ship or not." She internalized the responsibility to such a degree that her co-star Celia Rose Gooding told her she could actually see the physical change the faux-piloting sequences inspired. 

"Right as we're going into some heavy action scene I almost go into 'a football stance,' is what she called it," says Navia. "Where my body becomes one with the helm, which then is what's launching our ship forward. And I don't really think about it that much, but she's absolutely right: it kind of takes over all of me."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premieres Thursday, June 15 on Paramount+. New episodes air weekly.