The Most Overlooked Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Character Is Finally Getting Their Time In The Spotlight

Security alert! This article contains spoilers for season 3, episode 3 of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds." 

There are a whole bunch of amazing legacy characters on "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," ranging from Ethan Peck's take on the half-human, half-Vulcan Spock to Jess Bush's bubbly but brilliant Nurse Chapel, and that can make it a little tricky for the characters who are new to the franchise. It's a shame, too, because one of the very best characters in "Strange New Worlds" is also the most overlooked: Melissa Navia's Lieutenant Erica Ortegas. The helmsman of the U.S.S. Enterprise is a cool, confident pilot who can do amazing things, and unfortunately she's mostly taken a (metaphorical) backseat to the rest of the crew when it comes to screentime and storylines. 

While season 2 gave Ortegas fans more of the fabulous flier, it really wasn't enough. Thankfully the show's writers and producers listened, because season 3 finally gives Ortegas a chance to truly shine. In episode 3, "Shuttle to Kenfori," Ortegas must overcome her fears and recent trauma in order to achieve the near-impossible and protect the lives of the entire crew of the Enterprise while attempting a daring rescue. It's a great little arc for Ortegas, with hopefully more to come in the final two seasons. 

After being captured by the Gorn at the end of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 2, Ortegas and several other crew members had to try to survive and fight their way out in the brutal season 3 premiere, "Hegemony, Part II." That's pretty traumatic stuff, even for someone who fought in the Federation-Klingon War. So, it's not all that surprising when she's a little more brash than usual during a staff meeting, and Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) even says as much when Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh points out that Ortegas was borderline insubordinate. While Una is content to take Lieutenant Spock's advice and slowly approach the planet where Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Doctor M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) are in need of rescue so they don't cause an incident with a nearby Klingon ship, Ortegas is worried that their overabundance of caution will get the captain and doctor killed. 

She challenges Una again on the bridge, asking her why she's so worried about offending the Klingons, and it's a clear moment of insubordination. The Klingons solve the issue for her, however, by noticing the slow-moving Enterprise and raising their shields, forcing Una's hand. That means Ortegas gets a chance to use her (admittedly somewhat reckless) plan, and she gets a real moment to shine that feels perfect for the puckish pilot. 

While being argumentative with her superiors isn't exactly typical of Ortegas, there are a couple of great little character moments peppered throughout the episode even before she gets her shot at glory. During the staff meeting, when Una asks her if she has ever actually done the maneuver she proposes, Ortegas replies quickly, "no, but I could." It's pure pilot cockiness and it's perfect, because her confidence in her own skills as a pilot are what get her through the most stressful moments in the episode. Just like she managed to overcome her grievous wounds in "Hegemony, Part II" in order to help everyone escape, she manages to overcome her memories of those moments in order to manuever the ship in incredible ways.

The big heroic moment comes when Ortegas, with an assist from Lieutenant Junior Grade Montgomery Scott (Martin Quinn), warps into planetary orbit and flies along without hitting the thicker planetary atmosphere just below and ripping the ship apart, allowing Scotty to beam the captain and doctor out of danger. As fun as that is, seeing Ortegas kiss her fist and then pound the console twice before telling a fellow crewmate that "it's a ritual" and hearing her friend Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) compliment her flying before telling her to never do that again felt like even bigger moments because they showed so much of Ortegas's character. Hopefully we get to see even more of her in the rest of the season and in the final two seasons, because she's well on her way to joining the ranks of all-time great "Star Trek" characters.