Strange New Worlds' Rebecca Romijn Has Some Thoughts On Una's 'Great Metamorphosis'

This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

When "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" revealed during the course of its first season that second-in-command Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) is actually an Illyrian, it was obvious that the series' writers had a thoughtful plot in mind. Illyrians, the show tells us, are a genetically modified alien species who became the subject of institutional prejudice after the Eugenics War led to a ban on augmentations. By the time Una is arrested for breaking an archaic rule about declaring her status to Starfleet, the parallels to our own world — to racial segregation, yes, but also discriminatory laws against queer and trans people — are obvious.

This week's episode took the Illyrian plot and made it even more timely and terrifying. During a special tribunal meant to determine whether or not Una was guilty of deceiving Starfleet, the character not only explained her Illyrian nature but also described a childhood plagued by hatred from strangers and necessary closeting for her own safety. It's an upsetting story made all the more upsetting by its parallels to the persecution facing gender non-conforming kids in America, but Romijn herself says that coming clean will have a transformative power for Number One.

/Film's Vanessa Armstrong attended a roundtable discussion of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" ahead of season 2, and there, Romijn spoke about the deep change in her character moving forward. "Just having worked on episode 2 and seeing how Una finally frees herself of having lived inauthentically for so many years," she says, "I think freeing herself from that and moving forward and letting her crew and everyone know who she really is, feels like it's a great metamorphosis for the character." 

The episode ends — in classic courtroom drama fashion — with the revelation of a perfect loophole that lets Una stay with the Enterprise. It turns out she meets all the criteria for seeking asylum, a process she accidentally completed by revealing her status to Captain Pike (Anson Mount).

"It's going to be fun moving on from that," Romijn says of Una's post-trial life. She also thinks the character, who until now has been an assured and kind but fairly introverted member of the team, will have the chance to transform now that her secret's out. "I think after episode two Una really gets freed up and is no longer hiding, is no longer living in shame, with this shameful secret that she's been hiding all these years," she says, "so I think moving forward that's going to be very different for her." While trailers for season 2 of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" have teased plenty of new adventures, they don't reveal too much about what Una 2.0 might look like. They do, however, include a great bit where she teases La'an (Christina Chong) for her apparent attraction to James Kirk (Paul Wesley), saying, "You have an energy ... it's makin' me sweat."

While it's great to see Number One back with the Enterprise, co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman pointed out earlier this year that her return isn't exactly a surprise. The character showed up alongside Pike in the original series episode "The Menagerie," alongside the series' first pilot. Hopefully, newly carefree Una will have a lot of fun this season – before the canon events of Gene Roddenberry's first Trek series make this story a whole lot more serious.

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" streams new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+.