Celia Rose Gooding Explains How "Uhura Contains Multitudes" In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4's Finale

Published Sep 25, 2026, 11:20 AM EDT

John Orquiola is a New & Classic TV Editor, Senior Writer, and Interviewer with a special focus on Star Trek. John has over 5,000 published articles at SR, and he has interviewed the biggest names in Star Trek on the red carpet and VIP events, among other beloved shows, movies, and franchises.

Sign in to your ScreenRant account

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4's Finale - "Tomorrow's Enterprise"Celia Rose Gooding rose to her greatest acting challenge to play two versions of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's finale. "Tomorrow's Enterprise" lets the Uhura serving on Captain Christopher Pike's (Anson Mount) USS Enterprise meet herself from Captain James T. Kirk's (Paul Wesley) Enterprise one year in the future.

"It was like being in a funhouse. It's like whoa! It felt like a very funhouse mirror activity,” Gooding told ScreenRant's John Orquiola about playing double Uhuras in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's finale. Celia appeared in every scene of "Tomorrow's Enterprise" as at least one version of Uhura, and it all culminated in the two Lieutenants teaming up to help a "space baby" being born inside a white and black hole, and to save the life of Scotty (Martin Quinn).

"Tomorrow's Enterprise" was also a love letter to fans of Star Trek: The Original Series, and the future that's still to come when Strange New Worlds ends with season 5. "To be in the TOS garb, to be in the scoop neck, with the hair and the earrings, and to see everybody looking like the characters that we are all meant to become" was gratifying and exciting for Celia. "To see everybody in their sort of TOS mode, it was like, ‘Oh gosh, we're really in it."

Image via Paramount+

Uhura was promoted to Lieutenant in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, episode 8, "Orders of Magnitude. Gooding calls that episode "a huge undertaking. I think “Orders of Magnitude” was an order of magnitude."

Lt. Uhura battled a group of Andorian pirates to save the life of her protégé, Cadet A'Sha (Bianca Nugara). This required Celia to perform her own stunts and scenes, working closely with director Sharon Lewis, writer Alan B. McEloy, and Strange New Worlds' stunt team.

Gooding jokes, "I was incredibly intimidated because, despite my incredibly muscular stature, I am not used to doing a lot of stunts. Besides my buffness, my rippling pectorals, it was a lot of stunt practice, a lot of me just doing things with my body that I did not think I was ever going to have to do. I was so lucky to have an incredible stunt team working with me, both the stunt coordinators and my stunt double, Sammy. She's incredible... When I saw [my stunts] for the first time, I was like, ‘Oh, I can go harder! I can go harder! Let's do this!'"

Uhura contains multitudes.

Celia's intense stunt work on Strange New Worlds' AR Wall set was her tribute to Nichelle Nichols and was inspired by Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series' "Mirror, Mirror":

Because Uhura contains multitudes, so much of what we have done with Strange New Worlds is give background to the person that she is in TOS, and we see it a lot. We see pieces of it in the ‘Mirror, Mirror’ episode of TOS. We see her agility, we see her strength, we see her physique, her athleticism, but we don't really see it much more. It felt really nice to establish that ‘Mirror ,Mirror’ didn't come out of nowhere. She's been a badass for a minute, and to be able to do that and to be able to give her that and to honor her strength like that. It just felt right.

All of what I've done with Uhura is a love letter to Nichelle and what she has done, and to be able to honor the strength that she, as a woman, has. It just felt like an honoring of what I saw. I recognized it then, and we're going to make sure that everybody else can recognize it now.

Uhura Learned From Her Failure At Being A Mentor To Cadet A'Sha

Image via Paramount+

Despite saving Cadet A'Sha's life, Uhura is stunned when the young Vulcan chooses to leave Starfleet at the end of "Orders of Magnitude." Celia describes Uhura's complicated feelings of trying to mentor someone who ultimately doesn't love Starfleet the way she does, calling it a lesson "Uhura needed to learn before becoming a lieutenant":

I loved the opportunity to bring someone into a space that you have so much love for, and all you want to do is see them light up the same way you lit up when you first got into it. And while that is a lovely, heartwarming experience, sometimes it doesn't go that way. That doesn't mean that you're a failure. That doesn't mean that you did something wrong. It just means that this person doesn't have the same attachment to it that you do, and that is okay.

Celia Rose Gooding On The Challenge Of Playing Two Uhuras In "Tomorrow's Enterprise"

“Challenge is the word for sure," Gooding says about playing two Uhuras in "Tomorrow's Enterprise." "It was really hard, but I think the hardest thing for me as an actor about that whole experience was existing in that in-between stage of hearing TOS Uhura speak on Strange New Worlds Uhura with experience that Strange New Worlds Uhura hasn't had. No one has seen [what happened in] the time that exists between these two characters. We'll see it in season 5. We'll see pieces of it, but we're not going to see everything that lives between these two characters."

When we originally shot it, it was a three-year difference between the two of them, not just one year, and so it was easier for me to play them as different people. I'm 26 now, thinking of 23-year-old Celia. I don't know what she had going on, but I love her. I respect her. I honor her. She got me to where I am today, but I have a lot more lived experience, and to play that as Uhura between the two of them.

It was a challenge of trust. It really was a trust thing between these two characters, of how Uhura trust a version of herself that she does not recognize, on both ends. How can TOS Uhura be a teammate to a version of herself that she no longer recognizes? What does that mean?

Celia credits the screenplay by executive producer Henry Alonso Myers and Robbie Thompson, as well as being able to lean on Myers, executive producer Akiva Goldsman, and director Chris Fisher to help her understand and make sense of playing the two different Uhuras, with one year of lived experience separating them. In the end, it was about Uhura teaching her younger self to enjoy the now and stop worrying about the future.

Gooding says, "That conversation between the two of them on the bridge, with the glittering lights, [is] much more meaningful when we see TOS Uhura look that younger version of herself in the face and say, ‘You're doing great. You are existing in this really liminal, unknown, uncharted space, and you're handling it great. You're great.’”

Uhura & Scotty's Star Trek V Romance Happens In "Tomorrow's Enterprise"

Image via Paramount+

"Tomorrow's Enterprise" also touches on a relationship between Uhura and Scotty, evident from their shared affection in Nichelle Nichols and James Doohan's performances in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. On Kirk's future Enterprise, Celia Rose Gooding's Uhura and Martin Quinn's Scotty are a couple, and that same potential exists aboard Pike's Enterprise.

“I love Martin as an actor. He is such a collaborative castmate. He is so willing to be in the dark with you," Gooding gushes about Quinn. "He and Jess [Bush] were really willing to sit in the dark with me and help me along this journey. But the thing with Martin that I really enjoyed was [being able to] establish background for canon. In Star Trek V, [they have a] sort of romantic encounter. While it was beautiful to watch, I know a lot of people were curious. Like, ‘Oh, maybe we missed something between these two characters.’ Maybe there was a relationship that happened that was left on the cutting room floor, and that audiences didn't really get to see it."

With Strange New Worlds, what we are choosing to do is give that relationship that exists so much further in the future just a little bit more background and say, ‘You may not have seen it then, but you can see it now.’ As two actors, we definitely had that conversation [that] even in Strange New Worlds, this comes hot and heavy and fast.

When I look back at previous episodes of Strange New Worlds, I think of the holodeck episode ["A Space Adventure Hour"], and the conversation between the two of them working to save the ship. There have actually been moments where the two of them have had looks and little things. It felt good to give that a little bit more background, a little bit more meat on that bone. And of course, I love working with Martin. I tell him all the time. I just adore that Scottish man so much because he's such a man.

ScreenRant: Also, you're both young and hot.

Celia Rose Gooding: Very true. Why not? Shoot, this whole crew is intermingling. We might as well put Scotty and her in the ring. Let them have some fun.

ScreenRant: Season 5 is coming up next year. I’ve got to be honest, I am not ready to say goodbye to you guys.

Celia Rose Gooding: Me neither.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 is streaming on Paramount+

Check out our other Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 interviews:

• Anson Mount
• Dave Foley
• Celia Rose Gooding
• Rachael Harris & Joe Lo Truglio
• Jess Bush
• Rhys Darby
• Diedre Hall
• Paul Wesley
• Christina Chong

• 

  Captain Christopher Pike

• 

  Spock