Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Season 2 episode "Ad Astra Per Aspera." Read at your own risk!
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiered what might be one of the series' greatest episodes to date with "Ad Astra Per Aspera." Una Chin-Riley's freedom was on the line after the discovery she joined Starfleet and failed to disclose her augmented origins as an Illyrian. The episode called into question Starfleet's long-held restriction on augmented beings and put Una's former friend and Illyrian lawyer, Neera Ketoul, on the stand to defend her. Actress and longtime Trekkie Yetide Badaki knocked it out of the park with her performance and channeled the characteristics of some of Trek's greatest characters, Sisko and Picard, and her other favorite characters into her performance.
CinemaBlend had a chance to speak to Yetide Badaki ahead of fans seeing the episode with their Paramount+ subscription. After reading about how the actress has had a love for sci-fi ever since seeing Star Trek: The Next Generation as a child, I had to rewatch her performance. I asked if part of Neera's performance was influenced by Picard's infamous speeches about humanity, and learned that it was a mixture of that and some other characters that helped bring Neera Ketoul to life. The actress shared:
Absolutely! There were actually quite a few people that I was leaning on. One was Guinan because Guinan had that smile that always kind of hid what was going on behind her…And also those moments where you see me actually being more warm. I took that from Guinan. Also, some of Sisko’s impassioned speeches. I took his diction from those speeches because it works so well. It kind of drums in the rhythm, and the way he uses those consonants really drums in the point…But to your point, there was a lot that I leaned into, and then like you said, Picard. When he really gets those impassioned speeches about how we can be better, how we can do better. He always came to mind in this moment.
I highly encourage anyone who loved this latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to rewatch Yetide Badaki's performance with this information in mind. It's so cool to see a fan of Star Trek use the traits of other performances to make something entirely new and become quite possibly one of the most memorable guest stars since Strange New Worlds' beginning.
Yetide Badaki's Neera didn't come together solely with the actress observing Star Trek characters. The actress revealed she also looked to the performances of a star of a former primetime legal series, which might explain some of the most biting jabs delivered by Neera during Admiral April's testimony:
I was taking from as many people as I can within that world, and then there are also people from outside the world somewhat. I put some Annalise Keating in, because, I mean, come on, you have to have some How To Get Away With Murder, Viola Davis.
Who better to look to than Emmy-winning actress Viola Davis and one of her best performances to help create an epic character built for a courtroom-style episode of Star Trek? Truly, Yetide Badaki gave us something special with the character Neera Ketoul that I'm upset there may not be not more Illyrian disputes for her to settle in court in future episodes of Strange New Worlds. Maybe if another member of Starfleet finds themselves in trouble, she'll be willing to step up, given how they all stood behind Una even after knowing her augmented origins.
While Neera didn't score a win for all Illyrians, she did get Una exonerated from her crimes and back as second-in-command aboard the USS Enterprise. With Una back on the ship, the season can move on to other big problems on the horizon, such as that big Gorn thing teased in the premiere. As thrilling as a cliffhanger it was, I'm grateful to have the storyline in the rearview and to see what else Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 has to offer.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds releases new episodes on Thursdays. Now is the time to subscribe to Paramount+ and catch up, or if you're already caught up, kill some time watching some other Trek shows before the next episode.
