, dating back to Leonard Nimoy's first appearance as Spock in "The Original Series." Yet, even Gene Roddenberry himself couldn't have anticipated just how prescient this debate would become as the franchise continually grew and expanded over the long decades. Practically every series has been made up of an ensemble of characters, all of whom are rich and layered enough to demand entire episodes and arcs revolving around themselves. Of course, this was a much easier proposition in a previous era of syndicated television, when networks routinely ordered seasons amounting to upwards of 20 episodes each. Nowadays, at a time when streaming mandates and soaring budgets result in far less runway to tell the same space-bound stories, well, viewers are robbed of the ability to truly get to know each and every individual stationed on each starship bridge.

"Strange New Worlds" may yet prove to be the exception, however. The long-awaited premiere of season 3 has finally creeped up on the horizon and, by the looks of it, fans can safely anticipate a greater focus on the Starfleet officers who've been otherwise kept to the margins. That includes one Erica Ortegas, portrayed by Melissa Navia. /Film recently had the chance to sit in on a roundtable interview with the cast of "Strange New Worlds," where we asked the actor about the notion of pushing the show's creative team for a bigger share of the spotlight — particularly when it comes to the steady, coolheaded helmsman of the USS Enterprise. As Navia put it:

"Yeah. I mean, I know for my part I didn't [push for more screen time] in particular, because I knew since season 1 our showrunners and our writers have been saying, 'We want to write more Ortegas into the show.' But when you have 10 episodes and you have this amazing ensemble cast, and you have legacy characters and new characters, the fact that we get as much out of all of them as we have gotten is a testament to the writers and what they're able to pack into these mini-movies that you guys get."