‘Star Trek’: Tawny Newsome Talks Mariner’s Journey on ‘Lower Decks,’ ‘Strange New Worlds’ Crossover

Tawny Newsome‘s Beckett Mariner had quite the summer in the Star Trek Universe on Paramount+.

She ended up going through a portal for the live-action crossover with Strange New Worlds, following Jack Quaid‘s Brad Boimler. And back on Lower Decks, Mariner was promoted, tried her hardest to fight it, and ended up in the middle of a major conflict in the Season 4 finale that she wasn’t even looking to be part of!

Below, Newsome reflects on those recent events for her character and teases what’s ahead in Lower Decks Season 5.

The Lower Decks Season 4 finale ended up being quite the emotional roller coaster for Mariner — everything vs. Nick (Robert Duncan McNeill), the escape, reuniting with everyone and celebrating that, then Tendi (Noël Wells) leaving. How was Mariner feeling at the end there?

Tawny Newsome: She kind of has a chipper outlook. She’s definitely of the mindset that we don’t have to worry about Tendi leaving. But yeah, she’s been through a lot. I don’t know, the finale’s wild because you saw that Mariner didn’t really know Locarno that well in the academy, and so it’s kind of like being confronted with someone who’s been thinking about you. He’d been obsessing about Mariner, being like, “She’s the perfect piece of this plan,” without Mariner knowing.

She was so confused!

Yeah! It’s like being confronted with someone that’s a little like, “I’ve been thinking about you and watching you.” It’s a little strange to be like, “Okay, well, I haven’t thought about you in 20 years and also now you’re scaring me.” So I think it’s kind of a lot.

Do you think Mariner will keep trying to get demoted, or has she finally gotten past that?

I think in many ways, she’s made peace with it, so I don’t think we’re going to see the same re-trod territory of her trying to get demoted anymore. I think now she’ll have to wrestle with what the new responsibilities of her ranking up mean. But she’s still going to be Mariner. She’s still going to have issues here and there.

Paramount+

We saw her taking risks and going on more violent missions towards the end there. Do you think that’s out of her system now because of everything that happened with Nick? I mean, she ended up in that situation not really even expecting to or looking to.

No, it’s like she ended up in a full Wrath of Khan without even trying. That’s very Lower Decks. That’s very our show. It’s like you stumble into a whole epic battle accidentally. I think that she has moved on from intentionally seeking out trouble. She’s moved on from the self-destructive behavior, but that does not mean to say that she is going to avoid risk. I think baked into her personality is someone who’s willing to take maybe more risks than some of her peers and coworkers are.

Yeah, she’s the one who would say, “I volunteer,” but there’s a difference between volunteering and seeking it out.

Yeah, that’s a good point. Yeah, she’s not going to go seek out trouble just to be contrary. She might volunteer because she’s brave and a little reckless. But yeah, I think it’s like the intentional recklessness that’s going to get tamped down.

Talk about Mariner and Ransom’s (Jerry O’Connell) dynamic because that was interesting this season, especially in the beginning when she was trying to get demoted.

Yeah, I call it a “will they/won’t they kill each other,” and they ended up in a pretty good place. I love what the writers have done with Ransom. They’ve made him a really delightful character. I think from Season 1, you could make a lot of assumptions about his intelligence level or his abilities as a commander, and now by Season 4, everyone’s really seeing that he’s really sweet. He’s actually great at commanding people. Yeah, he’s a good leader. He believes in her. He weirdly was the secret ingredient that she kind of needed to do better work.

The scene with her hitting him and the teeth coming out…

That was gruesome.

It fit their dynamic though.

Yeah, there’s something rough and wild going on between them that I don’t feel qualified to comment on. [Laughs]

Michael Gibson/Paramount+

There was so much to love about the Strange New Worlds crossover for Mariner because it seemed like she really just got to have fun, from the reaction to Spock (Ethan Peck) to trying to get Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) to relax since Boimler was panicking. Did it feel that way to you?

Yeah, I thought the writers did a really great job of giving Boimler this arc of when Boimler comes in, he is an element of chaos that the crew has to deal with. But then when I come in, I am the new element of chaos that Boimler then has to go into management mode and take care of me. So I thought both for Jack to get to play such a wide range within Boimler and then for me to just get to show up and kind of both instigate a little bit of chaos, but ultimately help them find the solution and help Uhura loosen up… I just felt like it was Mariner doing what she does best, which is come in and stir s**t up. That can feel a little chaotic, but on the balance, it always bends towards being more helpful than harm.

Talk about filming and working with the cast because you had great stuff with Celia and Anson [Mount] — I loved your gestures when Pike’s future comes up.

Yeah, I had to mime that crazy chair. That chair is not Star Trek‘s best work, I’ll say it. And so I had to just call attention to it. We’re this far in the future, we can beam people’s biosignatures over to a planet with just light, and yet that’s the best chair situation we can come up with for an injured person? I don’t like this. So yeah, the chair thing was fun.

Celia is so much fun. She and I have just become such good friends. We have a real sisterhood, and getting to work with her was great because she doesn’t believe that she is a comedian. She doesn’t believe that she’s a funny person, and she’s scared of things like improvising and ad-libbing, and I was like, “Oh, I’m here to tell you to stop that and to please let loose because you are hysterical.” So I’m hoping that in the way that Mariner encouraged Uhura to let her hair down a bit, I’m hoping that Tawny also did that for her friend Celia.

What can you say about Mariner in Lower Decks Season 5?

I think we point to this at the end of Season 4 that she is moving away from that destructive for destructive sake tendencies. And so in Season 5, we’re really going to see how she handles the new responsibilities of her promotion. She’s not trying to give the promotion back anymore. But she’s still Mariner. She doesn’t suddenly become this perfect rule follower. She’s still going to find ways to push back. She’s still going to find ways to challenge Starfleet to make them better. Ultimately, that’s what she wants, is for Starfleet to be better.

Related

Inside 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Musical & That [Spoiler] Mention

So we’ve had the crossover, and Strange New Worlds did the musical. And with the animated nature of Lower Decks, I feel like there are many more out-of-the-box things you can do. Is there anything specifically you’d like to see?

I just want us all to get the chance to do live action. So whether that’s one episode or a movie or some kind of event, I want to be able to see Noël get to play Tendi and my dear friend Eugene Cordero, who I’ve been doing improv comedy with for years and years, and to get the chance to play with him on camera would be such a dream come true. So that’s what I’m holding out for.

I want to see the rest of the Star Trek Universe of Paramount+ come to Lower Decks with that tone and atmosphere.

Yeah, yeah. I want all of Star Trek to just be a comedy from now on. That is my secret agenda that’s not so secret.

Star Trek: Lower Decks, Season 5, TBA, Paramount+