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Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: star trek, strange new worlds
Strange New Worlds: Mount and Romijn on Inebriated Pike & Una Choices
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds stars Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn spoke with us about "Human Best Friend," Pike and Una's antics, and more.
Article Summary
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds stars Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn break down the chaos of “Human Best Friend.”
- Rebecca Romijn reveals why Una’s Klingon karaoke became Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
- Anson Mount shares how he shaped Pike’s inebriated vibe, from face tattoo jokes to chill-tent energy.
- The Strange New Worlds cast teases a wild shore leave episode where the crew’s gas-fueled behavior spirals fast.
Whenever you're on a celebrated, prestigious TV franchise series like Star Trek, everything is always in the details, from how the characters conduct themselves as Starfleet officers, but sometimes as actors, you want to show some range, and episodes like "Human Best Friend" allow you to tap into unfamiliar spaces your character might often go into. In this week's episode, the crew finds themselves traveling to a planet for shore leave when a mysterious gas affects them in different ways, and it's up to the two officers most at odds with each other, Ortegas (Melissa Navia) and Scotty (Martin Quinn), to find out what is happening. As part of a media roundtable, stars Anson Mount (Pike) and Rebecca Romijn (Una), who were also joined by Carol Kane (Pelia), spoke to Bleeding Cool about the scenarios they found themselves in, from an epic karaoke session to a questionable face tattoo. The following contains spoilers, so consider this your fair warning…
Strange New Worlds Stars Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn on What Their Inebriated Counterparts Were Doing
Bleeding Cool: On 403 [Human Best Friend], when the crew is acting out of character in your various wacky scenarios, I was wondering how that ranks on the show, maybe compared to the [season one] classic 'Elysian Kingdom.' I was also wondering, Rebecca, did you pick the song to karaoke in Klingon, or was Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' always the choice? How long did it take you to learn it?
Romijn: I guess to answer the first question, just to get a shore leave episode where you see us, I mean, we say, "at the beginning of the season." Everyone needs a weekend. We're all feeling stressed and overworked, and so it sets up perfectly for this shore leave episode, where we get to see a completely different side of the crew letting loose and going to this planet where the gases make them all inebriated. Everyone's inebriated in a very different way from one another.
No, I did not get to pick the song. It was originally scripted with a different song, which they could not afford to assume. I don't know how this goes, but anyway. I was thrilled with 'Total Eclipse of the Heart,' and it felt a little overwhelming, because I know that there are at least 20 people in the world who speak Klingon fluently, so I worked with the dialect coach to make sure I got all the pronunciation and translation correct. I recorded the song first and sang to playback. It was a challenge that was massive to me I never knew what I wanted, but I was really proud of myself [laughs]. I loved it. I love everything about it.
Mount: You know, at this point, I can't even remember what song we were trying to license because…
Romijn: I can't either, to be honest.
Mount: 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' is THE karaoke song, right?
Romijn: So yeah, exactly.
Mount: I'm sorry…the episodes have been jumbled around a little bit; what are you talking about?
I'm talking about the one when Scotty and Ortegas…
Mount: Yeah, okay, that's 403.
Oh, I'm sorry, the one where you get the face tattoo, everything.
Romijn: The shore leave episode.
Mount: I tried to get them to tattoo Mike Tyson right here, but they didn't go for that. For me, the one real scene that I have in that whole 'Alice in Wonderland' episode we have is that a lot of it was left up to interpretation, because they come to me, "This is what's happening." I say, "Oh, go get the shuttle." Okay, and they go get this shuttle, so I had to go in there and play and figure out what inebriated Pike I wanted to be, and I made the decision that he's the guy at the rave who wants to go to the chill tent and hold your hand and talk. For better or worse, that was my decision, and I went.
New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which also star Ethan Peck, Christina Chong, Jess Bush, Celia Rose Gooding, Paul Wesley, and Babs Olusanmokun, stream Thursdays on Paramount+.
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