That love means also letting fans see the more difficult side of her character, especially as she works through the emotional fallout of the season 3 standout episode “Terrarium,” in which Ortegas survived only by bonding with a Gorn. “The PTSD and grief Ortegas experienced in season 3 is always underneath the things she does, just like everything she does. All those feelings are still there, and you’re going to see tension as she tries to figure out if it’s coming form a place of hurt, a place of anger, or places of things we haven’t seen yet,” Navia observes. “But that’s Star Trek, right? Finding yourself amid the chaos.”

Like Ortegas, La’an has been going through chaos for the past few seasons, dealing with her legacy as a relative of Khan Noonien Singh, recently becoming a Romulan, and navigating her relationships with Kirk and Spock. Difficult as it has been for her character, Chong has one word to describe the experience.

“Fun! It’s fun because I get to express myself more,” says Chong. “In season 1 especially, La’an was emotionally repressed. But season 2 opened her up a little bit, and then she had a romance with Spock in season three. And as I grow as an actor, I’m able to have more fun playing her.

“We’ll see where that ends up later this season,” Chong teases. “You’ll see where she stands in episode nine.”

Even beyond the promise of more development for La’an, Chong’s hint excites viewers because every episode of Strange New Worlds has been so different. But for showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, that’s all part of the franchise, whether they’re making an episode about a courtroom hearing, a battle with aliens, or a musical.

Myers explains, “We start with Star Trek and we end with Star Trek. We look back at TOS and then The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. All along the way, we make notes of the many times they tried and succeeded at doing different types of stories. I think the critical thing is, A) Make it Star Trek, and B) Make sure there is a genuine human story to perform.