A key component of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”‘ valiant crew that we’ll be welcoming back when Season 3 strikes beginning on Paramount+ on July 17 includes the terrific trio of Celia Rose Gooding, Babs Olusanmokun, and Melissa Navia, playing communications officer Nyota Uhura, medical chief Dr. Joseph M’Benga, and helmsman Erica Ortegas respectively.
All three have encountered an enormous amount of “new life and new civilizations” while serving Starfleet aboard the USS Enterprise in their previous two seasons, and now that they’ve settled into their characters they’re primed to boldly warp into ten new adventures in the final frontier.
Their ability to cover a wide range of dramatic genres is aided in part by the show’s ample stockpile of wigs, something the whole cast jokes about.
“I’m someone who loves an outward expression of character, whether that be hair, costume, or prosthetic,” Gooding tells Space.com. “As someone who loves big voluminous hair to showcase different aspects of a character or really let audiences know who this character is by something as simple as a change in silhouette when it comes to hair is a really creative and personally exciting way to show growth and change and genre.
“Early in the season we see a lot of different looks for our characters that are well outside of our regular ‘Trek’ universe in the Holodeck. I love a change visually and a wig is always a really fun way to play with expression.”
Likewise, Olusanmokun was provided with a memorable hairpiece in the fourth entry, “A Space Adventure Hour,” that helped transport him into the center of a classic ’60s-era murder mystery.
“Yeah I had a funky wig in the Holodeck episode and I loved it,” he recalls. “It was really fun. It was really nice.”
Navia was not necessarily as receptive to the concept of wearing different wigs for “Strange New Worlds,” but tolerated them in the spirit of the show and her character’s blustery personality.
“I have a different relationship to wigs than Celia,” Navia jokes. “I looked up a number of actresses in Westerns back in the day to kind of see their hairstyles and I had some thoughts. I love that in our teaser trailer that we released you guys got to see all the haircuts that Ortegas wears throughout the season, which I loved.
“For our murder mystery episode, in the space show within a space show, that crazy wig that she wears really did help step into that role and the zaniness opposite Paul Wesley and Jess Bush. So I get wigs. I just don’t know if I GET wigs. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Strange New Worlds'” Season 3 airs weekly on Paramount+.
