Unusual New Worlds Star Melissa Navia Discovered One Ortegas Scene All Too Relatable [Exclusive]

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Safety alert! This text incorporates spoilers for “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” season 3, episode 9. 

One of many greatest challenges going through any science fiction or fantasy sequence helps audiences droop their disbelief and really put money into the a number of the extra outrageous concepts introduced. Fortunately, a bit of bit of excellent character writing and an earnest efficiency can go a great distance towards doing that, creating relatable characters in a very unrelatable setting. On the Paramount+ sequence “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds,” one character who fairly commonly feels relatable is helmsman Lieutenant Erica Ortegas, performed by Melissa Navia. The hotshot pilot and former soldier within the Klingon Wars has develop into a significant fan favourite, and for good purpose, however what helps Navia actually get into her character’s head? 

I had the prospect to speak with Navia through Zoom and requested her all about moving into Ortegas’ headspace within the season 3 episode “Terrarium,” because the character ended up stranded on a abandoned planet on the opposite aspect of a wormhole from the Enterprise, trapped with a downed Gorn pilot. Given the truth that the Gorn had beforehand captured Ortegas after which almost killed her throughout her escape, she has some severe baggage with the monstrous-seeming aliens that is performed out all through season 3. That half is admittedly sort of arduous to narrate to, however Navia identified a second earlier within the season, after the disrupted wedding ceremony in episode 2, the place we are able to actually see (and really feel) what Ortegas goes by means of. 

Within the somewhat enjoyable and foolish “Wedding ceremony Bell Blues,” the crew of the Enterprise find yourself coping with the godlike alien Trelane (Rhys Darby) and virtually have a marriage between Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) and Spock (Ethan Peck). Whereas the marriage will get known as off, the partying would not, and everybody has a superb time dancing to Wham!… aside from Ortegas, who smiles sadly and watches from the sidelines. She’s solely considerably just lately recovered from her bodily wounds from the Gorn escape and the psychological ones are nonetheless therapeutic, as Navia defined:

“I like that scene as a result of it is so painful, and I may relate to Ortegas in that second. I do know lots of people can, the place it is like, one thing is happening with you the place you can’t rejoice. And she or he’s watching all her buddies and he or she’s so completely satisfied that they are having such a good time, however she simply can’t take part. And also you see her take off to go hit the punching bag, and what’s behind her is basically what she’s been dreaming of and he or she feels prefer it’s the factor that nearly took her out, and it did not, but it surely’s nonetheless haunting her.”

Whereas Navia has by no means handled being a Gorn captive, she tragically misplaced her associate Brian Bannon to acute leukemia between filming the primary and second seasons of “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds,” and he or she has famous that the loss and “Star Trek” are inextricably linked, binding her to Ortegas by means of trauma. She as soon as wrote that she and her character “are actually extra alike than I ever may have imagined – greater than I ever needed,” and you’ll see it in these small however very important moments. There’s actual vulnerability in Navia’s connection to her character, and it makes the efficiency that a lot stronger. However there’s extra to it than only a shared understanding of trauma, nevertheless, as a result of Navia additionally feels connections to Ortegas as a pilot.

Lt. Ortegas is not the primary time Navia has performed a pilot, having starred as Co-Pilot Eva Schafer on “New Amsterdam,” and he or she shared that she had all the time needed to attempt flying for herself, even taking an introductory flight round 15 years in the past to see if she needed to get her pilot’s license (she did, however could not afford it on a working actor’s finances). In attending to play Ortegas, nevertheless, she’s making a few of her pilot goals come true, and famous that she’s spoken to pilots at “Star Trek” conventions who “say that Ortegas will get it proper,” which is vastly validating. What’s even higher, nevertheless, is how her character may have an effect on the way forward for aviation as she investigates its previous:

“To see little children coming as much as me, [saying] that they wish to be pilots due to Ortegas, that has made me look into the historical past of feminine aviators. So proper now, I am studying a e-book known as ‘Fly Ladies,’ which I extremely advocate, in regards to the early days of aviation and specifically feminine aviators. It is so fascinating that in taking part in the position, I’m now changing into impressed by the historical past and by the ladies who got here earlier than me, and naturally all of the Star Trek actors who’ve been helmsmen and -women earlier than me.”

I grew up in a U.S. Air Pressure household and even did Air Pressure Junior ROTC in highschool, and Ortegas is the primary helmsman on a “Star Trek” present that actually appears like a pilot in perspective and depth. Typically an individual is simply excellent for a task, and the writing has helped by leaning into Navia’s personal experiences and strengths. Not solely that, however seeing a Colombian-American lady be such a badass pilot is actually inspiring, as she follows in a protracted custom of ladies in “Star Trek” who impressed real-life heroes to chase their goals. 

“Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” is obtainable to stream on Paramount+.