Red Alert! This interview contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 episode 4, “Among the Lotus Eaters,” now available for streaming on Paramount+.
It’s no secret that Strange New Worlds season 1 swiftly became a fan-favorite Star Trek series. However, after the inaugural season had concluded, Trekkies made one demand for subsequent seasons clear: more of Melissa Navia’s irresistible USS Enterprise pilot, Lieutenant Erica Ortegas! Fortunately, a significant role for Ortegas in “Among the Lotus Eaters” may serve as an overture for sating the insatiable demand for “Moretegas.”
The Beat leaped to Warp 5 to catch up with Navia over Zoom. We asked her about what instruction she got for piloting the Enterprise, what she knows about the character’s currently clandestine backstory (hint: plenty), and which of the awesome costumes worn by Ortegas over the course of the first one-and-half seasons of Strange New Worlds are her favorites.
AVERY KAPLAN: What’s it like to pilot the Enterprise? Were you given any formal instruction or direction, or are the movements all you?
MELISSA NAVIA: Answer one is: the best job in the world.
When I first got to the bridge and I sat at the helm, they must have thought I was really great at my job. Because they said, “We’re just gonna let her wing it and figure it out.” And then we would finish takes, and I was like, “Did I miss a course? Everyone is just assuming that I know what I’m doing here?”
So I really started to dig into starships and piloting. I’ve told this story before, but I remember sitting at the helm one day. Anson Mount (Captain Christopher Pike) was behind me in the Captain’s Chair, and asked, “Melissa, have you ever seen Galaxy Quest?” And I said, “Yes, I think about it every day.” There’s the scene where he says, “sucks to be the Captain,” and then he has to fly the ship and the whole movie almost ends before it begins.
So yeah, flying the ship is no joke. So I worked with the graphics team, and I worked with all of our members on the back-end team. John Van Citters, who is wonderful. We had Zooms and we had phone calls. I would text and ask, “What does an evasive maneuver look like?”
I think I’ve gotten more confident in doing it. Just wait for season 3! Or, asking questions to figure out how to do what I’m doing to the best of my ability. That requires knowing what I’m looking at when a scene is happening – to know where the ship is going. Essentially, like we’re going into battle. So that requires the directors to be able to explain to me what’s happening, and my fellow cast members to be in on it as well.
And then, me too: for me, it’s really what’s happening – obviously, what I’m seeing, and what’s happening at the helm. So I have sequences to go to warp, I have sequences when we’re flying manually. If it’s real to me, then I can make it real to the audience.
And the feedback I’ve gotten is that it looks like Erica Ortegas is flying the ship. So, cool, let’s just keep doing that.
KAPLAN: Obviously, Ortegas gets more screentime this season. However, she has felt like a fully fleshed-out character from the start. What goes into your portrayal? Do you have a personal headcanon for the character’s backstory?
NAVIA: Yes. When season 1 happened, I spoke with our showrunners and our writers. I knew Erica’s backstory as a soldier and a pilot. And we spoke about where she comes from and her family. So for me, we kind of already had all these stories percolating.
The fact that she’s Latina really spoke to me, because that’s my background. And so I was so thrilled that our writing team has made it really easy for everyone in the cast to infuse the characters with bits of themselves. For me, I definitely have an idea of where she’s been, I have an idea of what happened to her as a soldier and how she was able to come out of it as a version of herself that is so confident and capable and fun-loving. And very calm under pressure, or seemingly calm under pressure, when the situation is dire. For all those reasons, that is why Pike and her crew trust her so much.
In season 1, we come in the middle of everything happening, and we already see a crew that works so well together. I think the audience really saw that and felt like “the crew had always really existed, and we could be a part of the crew.” And Ortegas kind of feels like the audience, saying what we think on the bridge and telling Pike that he’s crazy, but executing what he wants anyway.
So for me, there’s definitely a backstory, and there are things that I have in mind for the character. But I love that we don’t see her in Star Trek: The Original Series, so really, her future is open, and I love that. We don’t know where she’s going. That can be a scary thing for some fans, which I’ve heard, but… never fear. Or maybe fear! We’ll see.
KAPLAN: Well, there’s always the Black Mountain, so even if the worst happens…
NAVIA: There you go. There you go.
KAPLAN: Do you have a favorite Ortegas moment (so far)?
NAVIA: I’m trying to think, I love them all so much…
I mean, I really love last year that she got to play a knight, Sir Adya. I would still like to one day talk to all the writers and ask, “How did that come about? Did my own weapons/kung-fu background play into the fact that she was a swordfighter? Did you know that I wanted to be Indiana Jones one day? How did this happen?”
I loved every episode in season 1, but “Memento Mori,” where the Enterprise is being chased by the Gorn… It was pitched to us like a submarine film, where the fear is in what you can’t see. So I loved that. I watched all these submarine films to get ready for the character. And then I have that great line where she says, “Dive, dive, dive!”
I had seen Harvey Keitel in U-571. I kept trying to do it like you actually would on a submarine. That episode I really dug, because you got to see Ortegas doing what she does so well, and trying to evade, really, what is the unknown, and coming for you. But in season 2, I definitely think “Among the Lotus Eaters” is a highlight, because you get to see her, on her own, rediscover who she really is, in order to save the ship.
KAPLAN: Speaking of “Among the Lotus Eaters,” we get to see Ortegas’ quarters. Are there any details you can share with us that we might not be able to see from home?
NAVIA: Her quarters were so cool because I feel like they were exactly what I had envisioned. She has her little gold Enterprise. There were aspects too in there that you’ll see: there’s a lot of both aviation and also her Latina heritage. I don’t know how much it plays in the scene, but it all played to me because I saw it.
So I’m absolutely hoping that we’re gonna – (I mean, we will – maybe – I don’t know – again, I can’t say anything. It’s all a landmine.) But that we get to see more of her quarters. When I walked in, what I saw was a design that was put together with full knowledge of who Erica is and what makes her who she is. And so much of that is her background, is her family, and is her skill as a pilot.
And the bed was made, which I’m pretty sure was something that gets done automatically. I don’t know if she would be making her bed every day.
KAPLAN: I notice from your social media that you have an affinity for birds. What interests you about our avian friends?
NAVIA: [laughs] So the bird thing is that I’m always like, “They’re dinosaurs. That’s wild.” Everyone’s always like, “Let’s go back to dinosaur times.” And I say, “They’re right here! Birds are dinosaurs.” So every once in a while, I just post, “This is your monthly reminder that birds are dinosaurs.”
You see some of them, and I can totally see “dinosaur.” And there was the show recently, where they redid dinosaurs in their full glory, where you actually feel like you’re watching a David Attenborough special. You’re watching dinosaurs. And so many of the largest ones, I say: “That’s a giant chicken, and it will kill you.”
I’m absolutely fascinated by birds, and I hope that my platform as an actor on Star Trek, there will be some connection where someone will bring me on a bird show.
KAPLAN: In addition to the Starfleet uniform, Ortegas has had some very interesting alternate costumes. Do you have a favorite?
NAVIA: My Sir Adya costume was kind of awesome. I would in the future not have as many ruffles. There were ruffles on the wrist and neck, and just for continuity, it drove me mad. But definitely, leather and metal – you can’t go wrong, you know what I mean?
And I love the Starfleet uniform. And we will see another version of that, of her in it… so Ortegas definitely likes her outfits. We will see a really cool jumpsuit coming up in season 2 that was made specifically for me for season 1, and we didn’t get to wear it.
But for everything that she wears, the costume department is really great about asking, “Do you dig it?” And if I don’t dig it, I don’t wear it. So everything that you see Ortegas wearing, Melissa Navia approves of.
KAPLAN: What would you, personally, order from the food replicator?
NAVIA: Oh my goodness. So, I’ve been asked this question before, and I would absolutely do this: empanadas; specifically, Colombian empanadas. Because there are different types, but for me, Colombian empanadas are supreme.
They’re nice, delicious food for on-the-go, which I feel like is the thing that Erica would want, you know? “I need to eat and I have no time.” You know, because we’re at war with another ship.
New episodes of Strange New Worlds are released on Thursdays on Paramount+.
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