Tawny Newsome says she was “blown away” by one particular Star Trek: Strange New Worlds cast member, and that the entire company of actors are comedians. Newsome and Jack Quaid guest starred in Strange New Worlds’ comedic crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks, which was directed by Jonathan Frakes and written by Bill Wolkoff and Kathryn Lyn. Tawny and Jack brought their manic chaos to Strange New Worlds, and they became fast friends with the cast, who matched their humor and then some.
At TrekTalks 3‘s “Those Old Scientists” panel that helped raise over $108,000 for the Hollywood Food Coalition, Tawny Newsome, Jonathan Frakes, Bill Wolkoff, and Kathryn Lyn celebrated the rousing success of Strange New Worlds‘ crossover episode. Newsome reflected on how genuinely funny Strange New Worlds‘ cast is, singling out Christina Chong, who Tawny says is an “epic straight man” who “should be doing half-hour sitcoms.” Check out Newsome, Frakes, and Wolkoff’s quotes and watch TrekTalks 3‘s “Those Old Scientists” panel at time stamp 51:27 below:
Tawny Newsome: They’re all funny, too. The characters may not be written always funny, but they all [are]… I was blown away by Christina Chong. I was like, ‘You should be doing half-hour sitcoms. Whenever this job is no longer for you, go do sitcoms. You are so funny’… I don’t feel like she’d ever been told that. She had this career in England doing pretty serious sh*t. I was just like, ‘You do this epic straight man.’
Jonathan Frakes: She’s great when she would reprimand Boimler.
Bill Wolkoff: There was an entire think piece written about her one improv line about the grapplers.
Tawny Newsome: Yeah! It’s so hard to deliver limited lines of dialogue that are not one-liners, really. Just like point of view, character-driven things and have them be funny. That’s such a talent that you cannot teach. I could go on and on. And I think Celia [Rose Gooding] is one of the funniest people on Earth. She also doesn’t think that she is. And I’m just like, ‘Everyone here’s a comedian! Let me just tell you. I’ve worked with enough people who think they are who aren’t. And y’all are.’
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Star Trek: Enterprise’s grapplers have fans in Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh and Ensign Brad Boimler, but what is this 22nd century Starfleet technology?
Strange New Worlds Deftly Shifts Between Comedy And Drama
“This crew can do anything.”
Early in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1, Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) remarked, “This crew can do anything,” and her words were prophetic. In terms of Strange New Worlds‘ cast’s ability to seamlessly shift between comedy and drama to perform any type of genre the series requires, this company of actors led by Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike really can do anything. In just 2 seasons of Strange New Worlds, the series has executed comedy, action, fantasy, horror, and even Star Trek‘s first-ever musical episode with skill and boldness that showcases the immense talent of the actors, writers, directors, and crew.
Strange New Worlds‘ capacity for comedy was glimpsed in season 1, episode 5, “Spock Amok,” which had a body-swapping A story between Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) and his Vulcan fiancee, T’Pring (Gia Sandhu), while La’an and Number One (Rebecca Romijn) also had a funny B story as they learned the USS Enterprise’s Lower Deckers play a game called Enterprise Bingo. Strange New Worlds season 2 took numerous big swings that paid off, from a classic Star Trek courtroom drama to the musical to that flat-out comedic crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks. Hopefully, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 will keep proving how funny Christina Chong and the rest of the cast really are.
- Cast
- Melissa Navia , Babs Olusanmokun , Ethan Peck , Jess Bush , Celia Rose Gooding , Rebecca Romijn , Bruce Horak , Anson Mount , Christina Chong
- Seasons
- 2
- Streaming Service(s)
- Paramount+
- Franchise(s)
- Star Trek
