Who Plays The Orion Captain And Commander In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4?

This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 4, Episode 5, "A Level 5 Transporter Accident."

A teaser for the latest "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," shared by Paramount+ Mexico via Twitter/X, buried the lede of the episode's premise. The first two-thirds of this 30-second teaser show Orion pirates taking over the Enterprise and attacking Spock (Ethan Peck). It's only towards the end that we learn why the Enterprise is helpless: everyone except Spock has been turned into a puppet by, well, "A Level 5 Transporter Accident."

The Orions go back to the very beginning of "Star Trek." In the unaired pilot episode "The Cage," Captain Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) sees a vision of Vina (Susan Oliver) dancing before him as a green-skinned Orion slave girl. Season 3 episode "Whom God Destroys" featured another sexy dancing Orion, Marta (Yvonne Craig, best known for playing Batgirl on the 1960s "Batman" show).

Orions have largely been depicted since as interstellar pirates and criminals, but later "Trek" shows have tried to revise them into something more complex than brutal criminals. The "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode "Bound" revealed the "slave girl" thing is an act — Orion women actually control men with overpowering pheromones. Animated series "Star Trek: Lower Decks," which featured the first Orion main character D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells), ran with the idea that Orion society is a matriarchy. Now, too, does "Strange New Worlds." The captain of this Orion raiding party is a woman (played by Rachael Harris) leading a crew of men, including her commander played by Joe Lo Truglio ("Brooklyn Nine-Nine").

Rachael Harris has been acting in film and TV since the 1990s and has built a prolific resume, mostly but not exclusively in comedy. Some of her most recognizable film roles include "The Hangover" as Stu's (Ed Helms) girlfriend Melissa, or the first three "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" films as titular wimpy kid Greg Heffley's (Zachary Gordon) mom, Susan.

On television, Harris was part of the main cast of the DC Comics fantasy series "Lucifer" as Dr. Linda Martin, therapist of the Devil himself (Tom Ellis). She also had a major recurring role on "Suits" as Sheila Sazs, wife of main character Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman), not to mention numerous one-off guest roles on shows like "Modern Family," "Desperate Housewives," "The Office," and more. But Harris' latest role as the Orion Captain brings her career full circle. One of her earliest parts was in the 1997 "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Before and After" as Martis, mother of series lead, Kes (Jennifer Lien).

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Unlike Harris, this is Joe Lo Truglio's first appearance in a "Star Trek" production. However, you'll likely still recognize him from his role as the neurotic Detective Charles Boyle on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," as well as his supporting film roles in comedies like "Superbad" and "Wet Hot American Summer." You might have noticed that both Harris and Lo Truglio have strong backgrounds in comedy, which was the right fit for this episode. While the Orions are brutal space pirates who throw prisoners out of airlocks, this is still an episode about the heroes being turned into puppets. For a story like that, guest stars with training in comedy was the right call.

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is streaming on Paramount+.