Actor Celia Rose Gooding has stepped into the center of one of science fiction’s most passionate fandoms, portraying the iconic character Nyota Uhura in Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.”
“Trekkies are some of the most devoted fans I think in fandom history,” Gooding said. “To be embraced with open arms, reprising an iconic character, they’ve been so generous and so kind to me and so receptive of my take of her.”
The series, the 11th in the Star Trek franchise, takes place a decade before the original show. Gooding plays a young Uhura, a Starfleet cadet specializing in linguistics. Though she comes from a family of Trekkies herself, she admitted she was not very familiar with the franchise before landing the role.
“When they found out that I’d booked the role, I think everyone was ten times more excited than I was,” Gooding said.
She describes her mom as the biggest Trek fan she knows and said she leaned in her mother’s early guidance, from perfecting the Vulcan salute to embracing the show’s spirit.
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“‘Trek’ is all about curiosity and hope and community,” Gooding said.
Gooding explained that she intentionally avoided learning too much about Uhura’s future storylines, since the prequel format means her character doesn’t know what’s ahead.
“She doesn’t know her future, so it’s probably best to not be too, too informed,” Gooding said. “So I’m not playing as if I know what’s going to happen to me, because no one knows what tomorrow brings.”
This week’s episode marks a turning point for Uhura, as she faces scrutiny as she navigates her dual identity as both a young woman in her early twenties and a Starfleet officer entrusted with a lot of responsibility.
“When that responsibility is interrogated, when her contributions to Starfleet are interrogated in a way that she’s not expecting, she has to confront her contributions to the institution that is Starfleet in a way that I don’t think Star Trek has given audiences a lens into before,” Gooding said.
The season also introduces lighter moments, including a budding romance.
“I just was really excited for her to have some levity and some joy and some flirtation,” Gooding said. “A little quasi workplace romance can’t hurt anybody in the fictional world. It’s just fun to play a recognizable, playful version of this character.”
Season three of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” is now streaming on Paramount+.
