Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Melissa Navia, Celia Rose Gooding Look Back at Season 1

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, spinning out of , made an impression on critics and Star Trek fans. It became the highest-rated entry in the Star Trek franchise on Rotten Tomatoes, and its return to episodic storytelling (mostly) felt familiar for longtime Star Trek fans. It also featured some familiar characters as well, even beyond the versions of Capt. Pike, Number One, and Mr. Spock played by Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, and Ethan Peck. Celia Rose Gooding brought Nyota Uhura to the . There were also plenty of new characters, including the confident helmsman Erica Ortegas, played by Melissa Navia.

ComicBook.com spoke to both stars previously about how their different characters ahead of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ premiere. With Paramount+, CBS Home Entertainment, and Paramount Home Entertainment releasing (and on 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray in April, a first for the Star Trek television franchise), ComicBook.com had the chance to them again as they look back on the season. Here’s what they shared with us:

When you think back on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ first season, is there anything that jumps out in your mind from the process of making that season?

Melissa Navia: When I look back at season one, I think about how often we would all just turn to each other and go, “We’re making Star Trek. We’re on Star Trek. This is Star Trek.” And that excitement for the franchise, for the characters, for the world of Star Trek, has not, in any way, it’s not gone down. If anything, it’s just gone up and up and up. And so, that excitement from that first season of being like, “What are we doing?”

Also, “We have an idea about what we’re doing. It looks like it’s going to be really great. Everybody’s telling us it’s going to be great, but is it going to be great?” And then, for so long, holding that in until the world got to finally see the premiere and got to see what we were working on. I look back at season one, and it was just a real moment of excitement and anticipation, and a bit of shock. And also, just of looking at those scripts and being like, “They’ve done something really extraordinary here, and I’m very, very fortunate and honored to be a part of it.” As a quick look back at season one, that’s what I think, just joy. Just joy and fear, but good fear. The kind of fear that propels you.

Celia Rose Gooding: Exactly. That beginning of the rollercoaster fear. I completely agree.

The first thing that pops to mind is just my first day on set was a bridge day and having to hush the fan within me that’s like, “Oh my God, I’m on the bridge. Oh my God, I’m playing Uhura. Oh my God, that’s Captain Pike. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” and really having to feel those feelings, but also put them to the side to show up as the character that I am. But I had it lucky. I could play a bit of that nervous excitement just for who we’re meeting as Uhura in the first season.

But those first initial days of looking to Melissa and Ethan and Anson and Rebecca, just looking at everyone and being like, “We’re doing Star Trek. The Star Trek. We’re not shooting a spinoff here. This is the real deal. We’re establishing canon every day.” So, having to realize that, that was huge. It still is huge to think about it and to watch it and say that we had our hands in that. It’s marvelous.

Melissa, I’ve seen on social media you sharing panels from the . And then, I’ve got the first novel here that’s just coming out. I assume there’s going to be all sorts of stuff. If you put any stock in Rotten Tomatoes, the show is the highest-rated Star Trek anything on there. What’s it been adjusting to the fact that you are some of the faces of this franchise, and that’s just part of your career now?

MN: Yeah. It’s no words. No words. So, I just got in the second issue of the comic book, and I was opening it last night. I got the physical copy, and I’m like, “This is so weird.” And I’m like, “Celia and I look so good.” And I’m like, “Yeah, I look so great.” But there’s just so much to the world. There’s so much to Star Trek that you don’t have time to be like, “Oh my God, this is –” because there’s just so much coming at you. Before I knew it, I was just like, “I’m in a comic book. We’re in a comic book.”

And then, also, the first comic book, the first issue, the back of it is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and my childhood me is just like, “Did I ever think I’d be on the cover of a comic book with my favorite turtles on the back of that comic book?” So, it’s all been, I mean, I don’t know, 

It’s just been coming so fast. This is our job now. This is part of it. I got into this business because I love telling stories and the ability to tell stories to the world, which is really what Star Trek has afforded me. I’ve been able to jump from auditions and great roles and guest stars, but really just plugging along and pushing and pushing and wanting people to give me an opportunity, and Star Trek has just propelled me to this space where I have this audience where I’m honored to have, and I realize the responsibility that carries and to have to embody all of it and move forward as if this is not all insane. And just act like it isn’t.

And it isn’t really, because when you start to talk to fans, which we’ve done now at conventions this whole past year, you realize how much Star Trek is a part of people’s lives. We know that, even if you’re not a huge fan, you know what Star Trek is. But people who you meet — I hear from people who are becoming pilots, who are taking pilot lessons, they’re saying that Ortegas is the first time that they’ve seen themselves on the bridge. I’ve met engineers, I’ve met teachers, I’ve met all sorts of people, just everything that this character has done for them, I’m just like, “Wow.” And it makes me really take a step back and be like, “I’m a small part of something that’s massive.” And I think that humility is something that I think would do us all well to carry ’til the end. And knowing this cast, we are going to do that.

CRG: Melissa, you said it perfectly. You put words to something that I’ve been trying to articulate for a very long time. So, ditto. Exactly. Thumbs up the comment. It’s just exactly that.

I want you to know, in case you weren’t aware, that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is also a Paramount property.

MN: I know!

So a crossover is, theoretically, not out of question.

MN: I know! I know! Oh, I know! Every time I remember that — See how excited I’m getting, Celia? But yes, I know. Just mind-blown.

CRG: I think you feel the way about TMNT that I feel about SpongeBob. I remember meeting Tom Kenny at Comic-Con and having to sit in a dark corner and weep for a second just to reflect on just the opportunity that we have and getting to share space and break bread with your heroes. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: Words cannot truly encapsulate the vastness of the feeling. It’s just awesome. Then, you have to put it to the side to show up to your space work every day.

We’re talking about comics, and there’s one novel thus far, presumably with more to come. Are there any specific toys, merch, or whatever, that you’d like to see of your characters?

CRG: I want to give my cousins either an Uhura action figure or Uhura Funko Pop, just to be like, “This is me. This is your big cousin. This is your auntie. Enjoy.” That, I’m looking forward to, just to satisfy a very human something that I’ve always wanted to do. And now that we have the platform and opportunity to do it, I’m really looking forward to it because it’s wild to be able to wake up every day and look at anything and say, “That’s me and that’s going to be me forever. Even when I am onto the next, this will be something of mine that people will be able to bear witness to forever.” That’s wild to think about.

MN: Yeah, definitely action figures. Bring them on.

This is the DVD/Blu-ray home media release, which means there will be special features. I don’t know how much of them you’ve seen, but is there anything from those behind-the-scenes looks that you’re especially looking forward to people getting to discover or see or understand?

MN: Right now, the idea of having something physical like a DVD, I don’t think that has ever gone away for me. But I think definitely with everything streaming, everyone’s just like, “Everything’s there.” But there’s just something about having the DVD and having something physical. And as we know with Star Trek fans, I have people that I’ve seen putting up posters of things that we’ve signed for them in conventions, like Star Trek shrines, and I’m all about it. I have a brother-in-law that has a Star Trek shrine, and I’m like, “Yes, do it so that you can now add the DVD to it.”

But in that DVD, the gag reels and audiences being able to see us in uniform, in character on the bridge, but then also underneath that as ourselves, because I think that camaraderie of the crew is one of the many things that makes Strange New World so enjoyable, so likable when people get to see everybody engaging. I saw someone give a shout-out the other day to Babs’ fishing scene in the hijinks episode. Because it’s such a small thing, but just seeing us out of our regular element, and then also with each other, that’s a great episode where I get to play with Babs and Jess for a bit. And so, I’m excited for people to see those different elements of what happens on set. And you will get to do that on the DVD.

CRG: Agreed. I think something that part of me hopes that they kept, and also part of me hopes that it stays on the cutting room floor, my first day on set, my first shot ever was this massive crane swinging towards my face, and I had never been on a set like this before. And so, I remember just being so scared of the camera knocking my head off that I was like, “Wait, wait, wait, wait.” And it was just a very human moment.

Piggybacking off what Melissa said, it’s great to see us in character, but I think it’s even more exciting to see us as ourselves trying to make sense of the world around us, and anything to remind our audiences that it is just as exciting for the audiences to see as it is for us to be a part of. Any opportunity to share that with them is pretty exciting.

How to watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season One releases on Blu-ray, DVD, and limited-edition Blu-ray Steelbook on March 21st from Paramount+, CBS Home Entertainment, and Paramount Home Entertainment. The physical release includes over 90 minutes of special features, consisting of exclusive-to-home-entertainment cast and crew interviews, gag reel, deleted scenes, and more.

Star Trek: Strange New — Season One is also streaming now on Paramount+. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ second season has wrapped filming and is expected to debut on Paramount+ in 2023.