Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Actors Unpack Ortegas' Trauma, Uhura's Romance & Unexpected Action For M'Benga

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 brings exciting changes to the lives of Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Lieutenant Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), and Dr. Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), taking their iconic characters in new and surprising directions.

Picking up where Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2's ending left off, season 3 introduces a new romance for Uhura in the form of Erica's baby brother, Beto (Mynor Luken). Meanwhile, Erica copes with the aftermath of her kidnapping by the Gorn. As for Dr. M'Benga, he can't fully move past murdering Klingon Ambassador Dak'Rah (Robert Wisdom) in season 2.

ScreenRant had the pleasure of speaking with Celia Rose Gooding, Babs Olusanmokun, and Melissa Navia at Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3's press junket about Uhura's love story, and the new sides to Dr. M'Benga and Lt. Ortegas in the highly anticipated new episodes.

Babs Olusanmokun Explains Dr. M'Benga Seeing More Action Outside Of Sickbay In Strange New Worlds Season 3

"It's A Journey In The Third Season"

Dr. Joseph M'Benga is a fixture of the USS Enterprise's sickbay as Chief Medical Officer, but Babs Olusanmokun teases that M'Benga breaks free of his usual environment and goes on "just a bit more adventure" in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. "It's a journey in the third season of sort of trying to forget... some of the dark stuff, and trying to live life in the trips off the Enterprise," Olusanmokun reveals.

Dr. M'Benga murdered his nemesis, Klingon Ambassador Dak'Rah, in Strange New Worlds season 2. This is an act that Babs says Joseph is "trying to forget. But of course, we can't forget." Still, Olusanmokun is enthused that M'Benga in Strange New Worlds season 3 "seems a bit more useful, helping out in different places, and not just in sick bay."

Celia Rose Gooding Is Excited About Working With Mynor Luken In Uhura's First Star Trek Romance

"Uhura Is A Very Flirtatious, Playful Woman"

It hasn't escaped Celia Rose Gooding that her predecessor, Nichelle Nichols' Lieutenant Uhura, did not receive a love interest in Star Trek: The Original Series. Gooding is thrilled fans finally get to see Uhura have her first romance in Star Trek: "I'm glad fans get an opportunity to see a side of Uhura that is so quintessentially her," Gooding enthused. "Uhura is a very flirtatious, very playful woman, or that's the woman she grows into being. And so the fact that we get to see flickers of that in this third season is really exciting."

Gooding also has high praise for her romantic scene partner, Mynor Luken: "When we first met in our chemistry read, we became very fast friends. Mynor is such an incredibly open, vulnerable investigative, investigative type of actor," Celia says. "He's very curious, always asking questions, and I think we just have very compatible work styles. And so it was very easy to play opposite him. We joked a lot about how it's very easy to play opposite one another, just because we both describe ourselves as quite charming people. And so to be able to play with someone who is also very dynamic and inspiring and exciting romantically, it worked so, so well."

Melissa Navia Shows A New Side Of Ortegas In Strange New Worlds Season 3

"I Feel Like We've Done Something Right"

Lieutenant Erica Ortegas' desire to go on an away mission backfired when she was kidnapped by the Gorn, an ordeal that left Erica emotionally scarred in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. Melissa Navia teases that "We get to see throughout season 3, the aftermath of that and what that does to her and how she grows from it." Navia adds, "There are times when you realize that you don't have all the answers and that you are not invincible. And so that's really where we find her at the top of season 3. We get to see a different side of her. We get to see how her crew plays into it, and how her family does as well."

Melissa Navia is heartened by the positive advance word she has received from those who have already seen Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. "I feel like we've done something right, because we're hearing great, great, great reviews and things from everyone who has seen the first five episodes."