Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Melissa Navia On Ortegas' Big Moment & What To Expect In Season 2 [Exclusive Interview]
This post contains spoilers for the "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 2 episode, "Among the Lotus Eaters."
We're only a few episodes in, but the second season of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is teeing up to be another excellent season of "Trek." The show's episode-of-the-week format has already given us time travel, a courtroom drama, and several members of the crew chugging Klingon bloodwine. The season's fourth episode, "Among the Lotus Eaters," doesn't disappoint either, and is centered around the challenges the Enterprise crew faces when they all collectively lose their memory.
While Pike (Anson Mount), La'an (Christina Chong), and M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) face amnesiac challenges on the planet they're visiting, the remaining crew on board the Enterprise also start losing their memories with disastrous results. Much of that struggle is shown through Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), the pilot who has to recover her trademark confidence to save the ship and everyone on it.
"When [her identity] gets wiped, you see what that does to her and what it takes internally to remember for the sake of the lives of everybody on the ship," Navia told me when I interviewed her about Ortegas' storyline this episode. "I loved it because metaphorically, it was something that I think so many of us can relate to when we do not feel like we are up to what is being asked of us, and we feel imposter syndrome [...]."
I spoke with Navia about those crucial moments with Ortegas, from when she and Spock are on the bridge to that emotional scene when a memory-less Ortegas psychs herself up in her quarters, as well as what we might see from the pilot character later on in the season.
Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
'The fact that she did not get to go to the planet was very fortunate in the end'
Ortegas has a crucial storyline in "Among the Lotus Eaters." When you got this script, what did the showrunners or the writers say to you? How was it presented to you, the whole arc of the episode for your character?
Well, when I saw it, first of all, I'm always happy when I have more Ortegas scenes, especially with the fan feedback from season 1. I'm like, "They are ravenous, they want more of my character," and so let's make it happen. But throughout the season, I was dealing with personal grief stuff, and so I was really just in another world. So, whatever scripts were coming, I was just like, "It's cool. Let's do it. Let's rock and roll." And everyone on the set was extraordinary. And when I saw this story, where it requires her to get to a breaking point pretty much, where she forgets what she does, when so much of what we know about Erica is what she does. She's best described by her profession: She's the helmsman of the Enterprise. She's a pilot. She's a soldier. She's Starfleet.
So, suddenly when all that gets wiped, you see what that does to her and what it takes internally to remember for the sake of the lives of everybody on the ship. For me, I loved it because metaphorically, it was something that I think so many of us can relate to when we do not feel like we are up to what is being asked of us, and we feel imposter syndrome, and we are the last person who can do this thing that somebody is asking us to do, when it turns out so often that you're the one who has to do it and who can do it better than anyone else.
So I kept going back to that where I was just like, "This is something that audiences will be able to really relate to and a story that you can continue watching." That's what I love about "Star Trek" episodes: You can watch them over and over again, and each time, depending on where in your life you're at, you're going to get something else out of it. For me, that's how I approached it. And I was very happy with the writers, that they worked this arc into it. And the fact that she did not get to go to the planet was very fortunate in the end.
'The booms! We need the booms at the right time!'
One thing I love about Ortegas that I think this episode really exemplifies is how she's unapologetically confident in her abilities. When she forgets everything, she loses it for a bit, but then finds it in her quarters by repeating the mantra, "My name is Erica Ortegas, and I fly the ship." Can you talk a little bit about filming that specific scene?
Oh my goodness. That scene, I knew that I was ... it was emotional. It was painful. Not physically, necessarily, but you have to get to a place that's all panic, that's raw. And for me as an actor, I love that, especially because you don't see that a lot from her because you do always see this confident, cocky side.
When I approached the scene, I knew that it was going to take me really pulling something from deep inside. But that also requires everyone's help. So, for example, when she's in her room, I remember when the ship is being hit and she has those moments where she's thrown across the bed. We had our AD, and we had our script coordinator, and we had people doing the lines of the computer and doing the boom [of the ship getting hit]. I remember, at one point I was so tense because I didn't want to get out of that headspace, and a boom came at the wrong time. And I remember being like, "The booms! We need the booms at the right time!" And then, I'm always usually so cool on set. And afterwards, I was just like, "I'm sorry for yelling." Everybody was like, "That was amazing," because I just stayed in that place of panic the whole time. And for me, when a scene is over or before a scene or after a scene, I can be me. But for something like this, I had to stay in a place of vulnerability and desperation.
Also, it was cool that it's a scene by myself, but it also makes it more difficult because you have nobody to play off of except for yourself. And the computer is like the god in the sky, and there's only so much you can do. So, for me, that scene, I was looking forward to it. I was very excited to do it. Because you haven't seen her have to ... everyone else is going through this emotional turbulence throughout season 1 and throughout season 2. Everyone's dealing with something, and Erica's just like, "Yo, I fly the ship, and I do it really well." And so, this was an episode where you saw that she was like, "I do not know what I'm doing." And you saw her get to that point and then have to pull herself out of it.
'The Vulcan way of doing things is just not the way that Erica does things'
When Ortegas and Spock are on the bridge and they both lose their memories, Ortegas says to Spock, "I am angry at you." Can you talk about that moment and why you think Ortegas is mad at him? Is it from earlier in the episode when Spock basically benches her? Or is it something more than that?
Anger to me in that moment was, "Something has to get done, and it isn't being done." We don't really see a lot of Ortegas and Spock together alone on the bridge. And I never asked for that scene, but when it came up, I was like, "This is great." Because you see so often that Ortegas and Spock are so the opposite of each other. And we get these instances like we saw in episode 2 where the Vulcan way of doing things is just not the way that Erica does things necessarily all the time. Getting to see them go up against each other, I appreciated doing that. But for me in that moment, it was definitely like, "He's the reason I'm on the ship still." The only thing that she could direct in that moment was emotion. And the emotion that gets you to do something is anger.
There's also the scene later on when Ortegas doesn't have her memory, and Nurse Chapel also lost her memory and they walk by together. Do you think there was any recognition on some level for Ortegas, that she knew Chapel?
I love that you're pointing that out because it felt like, to me, that was such a bigger moment that I don't even know how much we were able to capture. That, for me, was like something registers in her. This is Chapel, where they have a close friendship, and what is it like when the person who you're really close with doesn't recognize you?
'We're definitely going to see sides of Erica that we've not seen before'
I know we can't get into spoilers for future episodes, but is there anything you can say or tease about what's in store for Erica in the rest of those episodes to come?
What can I say? Everything is a landmine. We're going to see more sides of Erica and more looks to Erica. I could say that. We're definitely going to see sides of Erica that we've not seen before. 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. When I booked the role, it said Erica is a pilot and a soldier. 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. But yeah, more sides, more looks, and more Ortegas. But I still feel like fans will not be fully ... not that they won't be pleased, but that they'll still want even more after season 2, which I've been realizing as we're doing all the press, I'm like, "You know what? I think they're going to be like, 'This is not enough.'" So, I'm well aware of that, and that's a good problem to have.
New episodes of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" become available on Paramount+ on Thursdays.