With ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; now heading into its second-to-last season, in a recent interview for ‘The Knockturnal,’ the cast and showrunners reflected on a run that’s largely been defined by confidence — in the writing, in each other, and in a willingness to try nearly anything.
The actors at the center of the starship NCC-1701 discussed the chemistry that’s anchored the ship: Anson Mount, playing Captain Christopher Pike; Rebecca Romijn, as Commander Una Chin-Riley; and Carol Kane, as Commander Pelia.
For them, it’s about leaning into the professional relationship on set that they’ve been building for years. Romijn told The Knockturnal there’s an emphasis on mutual support, respect, and a shared sense that everyone is working toward something they’re proud of. So when the cameras are rolling, the trust is already baked into each moment, and every scene.
Kane told us she had no prior knowledge of the Trek world, which helped her approach scenes freshly and distinctly.
“When I got hired, I just said, listen, I have to tell you, I really don’t know anything about this show. And they said, ‘You know what? That’s gonna work really well for your character.'”
Sitting down with the trio doing the emotional legwork, the bridge and medical crew — Celia Rose Gooding, playing communications officer Nyota Uhura; Jess Bush, as Nurse Christine Chapel; and Melissa Navia, as helmsman and pilot Erica Ortegas — the conversation turned to the ways they inspire each other.
Gooding said she’s picked up something from watching each of her castmates work, pointing to their ability to silence the perfectionist within, an instinct that sometimes gets in her own way. She admires Bush’s trust in herself and the confidence Navia brings even in her first couple of takes.
Bush, in turn, singled out Navia’s unmistakable point of view — a fully realized sense of who her character is that comes through in everything she does. She then went on to describe Gooding’s performances as “fearless,” a willingness to “lead with her heart” without hesitation.
All three agreed that the exchange goes beyond technique. It’s less about borrowing craft and more about watching how each of them channels the same emotional honesty differently, in ways that all serve the story.
That trust also extends to how the show handles its most existentially loaded character: Captain Pike. According to Mount, audiences already knowing how Pike’s story ends puts him and the writers in a unique position. As Mount put it, “How do you get on with your life when you know your third act? And the answer to that was the journey is the destination” — leaning into the idea that despite knowing exactly how his story ends, we never know what tomorrow brings.
Adding to this point, Babs Olusanmokun, who plays Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph M’Benga, says “proper human connection” is so different from experience to experience, and that’s what keeps every season — especially Season 4 — feeling fresh.
For the show’s co-showrunners, Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, this has been a recurring theme. They told The Knockturnal that the throughline holding four-plus seasons of wildly different episodes together is an emotional approach to storytelling that reflects the human experience.
Myers added, “We’re actually interested in asking you to feel what someone else might feel, and to understand circumstances through eyes that are not your own. We think that’s a lot of our opportunity, and sometimes our duty as storytellers. So empathy for others, however alien they may appear to be to you, is probably the highest goal of something like Star Trek.”
Their stated goal for any given hour is less about hitting genre beats and more about asking a first-time viewer to feel what someone unlike them might feel — empathy across difference, dressed up as science fiction. They framed that as the highest ambition of Star Trek generally, and the reason the show has been able to jump from a musical episode to a courtroom drama to a new puppet episode without, in their view, losing its identity.
The rule, they say, that has kept that experimentation from feeling like gimmickry: whatever the format, the episode has to work as “a genuine Star Trek episode.” That’s reportedly the bar the puppet episode — the newest and strangest swing yet — was measured against. Using puppets created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, it was a thorough and well-orchestrated performance meant to feel at home alongside the rest of the series rather than like a novelty detour.
For all the showrunners’ insistence that there’s no genre Strange New Worlds won’t attempt, they admitted one has eluded them: a full Western. Despite real interest — and despite believing it’s very much doable, pointing to the original 1960s series as proof of concept — they said they’ve never managed to land a Western pitch that felt fully cooked, and it’s likely to go down as the swing the show didn’t take. With only one season left, whether that changes remains an open question, though the door isn’t fully closed if a script ever comes together.
Amid all the talk of legacy and endings, there was still plenty of room for levity. Martin Quinn, who plays a young Montgomery Scott, lit up recalling one of his favorite moments filming Season 4 — a loose, ad-libbed bar scene that ended up feeling more real for being unscripted. “It came natural and real, and it was nice,” Quinn said, laughing about the memory of a castmate breaking into a bit of Klingon karaoke on set. It’s a reminder that for all the show’s philosophical weight, the cast is still, first and foremost, having a good time making it.
Taken together, the roundtable painted a picture of a creative team and cast entering the final stretch with a clear sense of what’s made the show work: strong ensemble chemistry anchored by its command trio, an emotionally driven writers’ room willing to take real formal risks, and a discipline about never letting those risks come at the expense of feeling like Star Trek. The Western remains the one box left unchecked — a fittingly open-ended note for a show that’s spent its run arguing the value is in the journey, not just the destination.
Season 4 premieres on Paramount+ on July 23.
