Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Will Explore Ortegas' Soldier Background [Exclusive]
This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."
In its second season, "Star Strek: Strange New Worlds" has been letting its crew take the lead. Not only have Enterprise teammates gotten the chance to contribute voiceover personal logs in the tradition of great captains of the franchise's past, but a few of them have also tried their hand at running the ship –- literally. In the season premiere, Spock (Ethan Peck) took over for Captain Pike (Anson Mount) while he was away, and this week's episode sees pilot Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) find her confidence despite losing her memories, steering the ship to safety while the rest of the crew is reduced to near-catatonic confusion.
That the "Star Trek: The Original Series" prequel is so adept at sharing the love is one of the best things about it, and season 2 is set to continue doing so with upcoming episodes that will apparently include some enlightening character backstories. Nurse Chapel actor Jess Bush told /Film last year that a future episode is set to share her character's backstory, and now, Navia is dropping hints about a similar dive into her own character's origins. In Ortegas' case, we already know that she has some military background, and in a season 1 episode, she wore a pin commemorating colleagues she had lost when working on a previous ship. Still, the scrappy, talented, and lovable pilot hasn't opened up about her military service yet, and apparently will in season 2.
'That was always a big part of what I put into the character'
In an interview with /Film's Vanessa Armstrong, Navia gave just a slight hint of what's to come during the rest of the season. "We're going to see more sides of Erica and more looks to Erica," Navia shared, after noting that talking about the show without spoiling anything makes everything feel like "a landmine." "We're definitely going to see sides of Erica that we've not seen before," she explained. "And we're also going to see more about her as a soldier, which as I've said before, everyone, the writers and the showrunners, they knew about that in season 1."
Although the detail has rarely come up in the show so far, Navia says she knew about Ortegas' background from very early on. "When I booked the role, it said Erica is a pilot and a soldier," she told Armstrong. "That was always a big part of what I put into the character, and how we created her was that she has this military background, and so we definitely will touch more on that, for sure." While obviously all soldiers are different, I can see how Ortegas has some qualities of a military serviceperson. She's great at following orders, staying engaged, and prioritizing, but she's also always game to try a daring maneuver with the Enterprise if needed, as if she's used to finding ways out of a scrape.
Give us more Ortegas!
Navia says the rest of season 2 includes "more sides, more looks, and more Ortegas," but she also acknowledges that fans of her character will probably be left wishing the show would include more storylines about Ortegas. While doing press, the actor says, she's realized that it's "not that [fans] won't be pleased, but that they'll still want even more after season 2." Alas, that seems to be the nature of all the best Trek shows, and it's something that's perhaps best remedied by a long and exciting run that lets each character shine several times over the seasons. Hopefully, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" won't be short-lived like "The Original Series," but get several seasons to let us get to know these characters slowly, like "Star Trek: The Next Generation" or "Deep Space Nine."
Regardless, Navia knows that she's lucky to be able to say fans might be left wishing for even more Ortegas. "I'm well aware of that, and that's a good problem to have," she says. Tune in to "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" on Paramount+ each Thursday for new streaming episodes.