Star Trek: Dawnn Lewis on What This Week’s Lower Decks Means for Freeman and Mariner’s Relationship (Exclusive)

The latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks proved a momentous one for Capt. Carol Freeman. (SPOILERS follow for this week’s Star Trek: Lower Decks episode, “Trusted Sources.”) The episode sees a journalist from the Federation News Network coming aboard the USS Cerritos as Freeman’s new second contact initiative launches. Freeman, desperate to protect her image and that of her ship, puts the ship on semi-lockdown, pre-selecting which crewmembers are allowed to speak to the press. Unfortunately, her chosen interviewees end up revealing more unflattering details about the ship’s adventures than she expected. Meanwhile, Mariner goes behind her back to speak to the reporter, saying only loving and positive things about working under her mother, and is transferred off of the Cerritos as punishment, leading to her resignation from Starfleet entirely.

ComicBook.com had the opportunity to speak to Dawnn Lewis, who voices Freeman, about what this episode says about Freeman and what it means for her relationship with Mariner. Here’s what she had to say:

We see another side of Capt. Freeman in this episode, where she’s got the press putting her under a microscope. The side of her that comes out, this one that’s really concerned about her image, do you feel like that is something that is unique to her being on what is thought of as a second-rate ship, or do you think that if you put Picard under that same microscope, he’s going to have a similar reaction to what we see here?

Dawnn Lewis: Oh, no, I definitely think Capt. Freeman has her own very heightened way of handling everything. I think that the reporter coming onto the ship just kicks it up to another level. From the first season, you find that Capt. Freeman is committed to making sure that the reputation of her crew and her ship and their mission is regarded and respected and earned. It’s always been very, very important to her, which is part of her deep frustration with Mariner because Mariner is the direct impediment to her achieving that sense of excellence within the crew and within the mindset of the rest of Starfleet.

So now, they’ve made leaps and bounds and progressions in how things work on the ship and how she communicates with her crew, and it’s getting better, but it’s not there yet. And this now reporter coming on board is likely to put a highlight on all the chinks in everyone’s armor, and pull back the veil and find the dust on the mantlepiece, and just everything that you hope has been kind of polished and pushed to the side, we’re about to uncover what is really still a hot mess when this reporter comes on board. So no, what was already a priority for her has now become a heightened, almost yellow alert for Capt. Freeman now.

It makes sense, too, since in Star Trek, Starfleet, or the Federation anyway, it’s a moneyless society. So, reputation is everything, right?

Yeah, it is, because it determines what assignments you get set on, it determines all kinds of things, I can imagine, in Starfleet.

If you had your pick of a planet to visit for a project swing-by mission, one we’ve seen in a past Star Trek episode, is there one, in particular, you’d like to go visit? One that stands out as, “I wonde, whatever happened to those guys in that one episode from that one show”?

I would want to go, and I don’t remember the name of the planet, but the one where they had the large eyes and the large heads and they talked to each other telepathically, and see what we can do to get inside their heads, to use their powers for good and stop messing with folks’ minds.

Are you talking about the Captain Pike episode?

Yes.

The Talosians.

Yes, yes.

We also get to see the Breen come back in this episode. As a fan of the franchise, were you excited when you saw that in the script?

I was, I was. I love all of the little Easter eggs and callbacks to all of the shows and finding that, how the fans and the viewers of the show react to that as well. It’s just really exciting. I think it’s really, really clever how Mike McMahan, our show’s creator, finds ways to drop little nuggets in and around each and every episode, and they don’t really put a spotlight on them, but they’re just included as though this is now part of our everyday life until you notice it and go, “Oh, wow, that was really, really cool.” So yes, I think it’s great, but it also to me sets up an opportunity for us to dig a little deeper because we knew what it was then, we knew what the Breen was then, but what is it now, now that it seems to be kind of a taken for granted piece of the puzzle here?

You mentioned how Capt. Freeman’s relationship with Mariner has improved a bit over the past few seasons. What can you tell us about Capt. Freeman is taking Mariner exiting Starfleet? Is that going to set them back?

Well, I think any parent to a child — I was a teenager with a mom that I didn’t always see eye to eye with, and the distance between us when I left home and went away to college actually improved our relationship. And right away, we saw each other differently, we spoke to each other differently, we engaged with each other differently. The difference with the scenario between Captain Freeman and Mariner is that, yes, we have come quite a distance from where we first started, continuously biting each other’s heads off. We now speak to each other differently, better, we interact better, we are more supportive of each other. So when I push the button and jump to conclusions and her knee-jerk reaction is to be, rightfully so, wounded and hurt and exit Starfleet, it doesn’t feel like it’s because things are about to be better or we’re making these choices in order to continue to grow our relationship.

So there’s a real deep sense of regret and discomfort, particularly for Capt. Freeman, as the exit is made that way. So I would imagine her next course is going to be, “What can I do to heal this? I really messed up. I can’t even blame where we are now on her. This is all me, and what can I do to make this right?” Which causes her to ask herself some questions about herself and her style of not only leading but of parenting.

Next week is the season finale. Can you tell us anything of what viewers should expect from that?

Well, let’s see, this episode, 309 leaves us in a, like I said, a real kind of a painful place, in, “Oh my gosh, how are we going to fix this?” Or, “This has to be fixed,” or, “Can this be fixed?” So I would say in 310, you got to watch and see if and how we fix it, because, after 310, it’ll be the wait until we see how season four starts. So at the end of 309, I think for 310 we’ve just got to believe people are going to do their best to do the right thing, but the question is whether or not that’s going to be enough.

Have you started working on that at all? Do you know it starts? Are you in there yet?

Yes, we have, and yes, I do. And that’s all I’m going to say.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is streaming now on Paramount+. Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ third season finale debuts next Thursday.