Melissa Navia plays hotshot USS Enterprise pilot Lt. Erica Ortegas on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and her real life will soon imitate her character.
Summary
- Lt. Erica Ortegas is a fan-favorite character on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and actress Melissa Navia is becoming more like her by pursuing a pilot’s license.
- Navia interviewed NASA astronaut Commander Michael López-Alegría about space exploration and revealed her aspiration to become a pilot like her character.
- In Strange New Worlds season 3, Ortegas will face challenges as she is kidnapped by the Gorn, but her experience in the Klingon War will help her survive. Navia also hinted at an upcoming zero-G stunt for Ortegas in the season.
Lt. Erica Ortegas is the hotshot helmsman of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and the actress who plays her, Melissa Navia, is becoming more like Ortegas in one big way. The snarky Lt. Ortegas has emerged as a fan-favorite, and Strange New Worlds season 2 deepened her by acknowledging Erica’s history as a veteran and survivor of Star Trek: Discovery‘s Klingon War. When Ortegas and the crew of the Starship Enterprise lost their memory in Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 4, “Among the Lotus Eaters,” Erica reaffirmed that, “I fly the ship,” and her innate piloting talents saved the Enterprise from disaster.
Melissa Navia interviewed NASA astronaut Commander Michael López-Alegría from the International Space Station in a fascinating exchange about the challenges and hopefulness of space exploration. Navia then revealed she is working to become more like her Star Trek: Strange New Worlds character by becoming a pilot herself. Read Melissa’s quote and watch the YouTube live-stream video below:
In Star Trek, I play this character [named] Lieutenant Erica Ortegas on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and she is the helmsman of the USS Enterprise. And it’s inspired me to also want to get my pilot’s license because I’ve heard from fans who love the character that they’re getting their pilots licenses, so my thought is, well, if they’re doing it, I might as well do it as well.
On Billions, Melissa Navia had a guest role as Elena Gabriel, an astronaut training for a mission to Mars.
Related
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Ending & Cliffhanger Explained
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2’s finale nailbiter brings back the fearsome Gorn and ends with Captain Pike facing an impossible choice.
What’s Next For Lt. Erica Ortegas In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3?
Ortegas has to survive the Gorn
Lt. Erica Ortegas ended Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 a long way from the bridge of the USS Enterprise. Ortegas was among a group of people from Parnassus Beta who were kidnapped by the Gorn in Strange New Worlds’ season 2 finale cliffhanger. Erica’s experience in the Klingon War will be key to helping her survive the reptilian monsters so she and her Enterprise crewmates can return to their starship. During the live-stream, Commander Michael López-Alegría demonstrated a flip in near-zero gravity, and Melissa Navia shared a tiny spoiler for Strange New Worlds season 3:
With what you just demonstrated there, it’s so funny, I’m thinking about a few days ago on set… I was in harness training with our stunts team for something that we’re working on. That’s a little spoiler for the upcoming season… So what you just did, I did with much more difficulty with a harness.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is now in production in Toronto, and they are filming episode 3 directed by Dan Liu, who directed two previous, popular episodes of the series. Going by Melissa Navia’s spoiler, Lt. Erica Ortegas performs some sort of zero-G stunt, which is still relatively rare in Star Trek since starships have Earth-like gravity. Meanwhile, Melissa Navia is also taking control of an aircraft in real life, so she can also say, “I fly the ship.”
