The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3, Episode 10, "The Stars at Night," now streaming on Paramount+.

Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Starfleet's ultimate junior officer who has seemingly seen and done everything, went through an emotional rollercoaster across Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3. Assigned to report directly under Commander Jack Ransom (Jerry O'Connell), she continued to work with her mother, Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis), on the USS Cerritos. As Mariner and her best friend, Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), cruised across Federation space to complete various missions for the good of Starfleet, she was falsely accused of providing negative information about the Cerritos to an investigative journalist and exiled from the crew. Fortunately, Mariner's good name was cleared just in time for her to return to Starfleet and save the Cerritos in the explosive season finale.

In an exclusive interview with CBR, Newsome recalled her own origins as a lifelong Star Trek fan, discussed the upcoming crossover between Lower Decks and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and detailed Mariner's journey across Lower Decks Season 3 and beyond.

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CBR: Tawny, I know you're a huge Star Trek fan, and Lower Decks is a whole bucket list item for you. What was your introduction to Star Trek?

Tawny Newsome: My introduction, I'm sure, was probably being way too little and watching "Encounter at Farpoint" with my parents. I probably don't remember that memory, but I know they watched the pilot when it aired because they were big Trekkies, and they were so excited. They were too young for The Original Series and had seen it in syndication, so they were just excited to have new Star Trek. I know that we sat down as some kind of a family and watched it. I don't know that I fell in love with it because I was very tiny, but I bet that was it.

What was the moment when it clicked for you?

I don't know, I just know that by the time I was old enough to understand The Next Generation, it was probably Season 4 or 5. I just started watching it with my dad and mom separately, and I was a kid, but it was the adult show that I was allowed to watch. It just felt like this is what we do as a family. It was that, The X-Files, and my dad would watch Married with Children, but I wasn't allowed to watch it. [laughs] It was rare to think I was allowed to watch something that my parents also liked because they weren't going to watch Sailor Moon with me.

I was surprised how emotionally vulnerable Mariner was this season; top to bottom, she really goes through the wringer. How was it exploring those dimensions to the character?

Back when we recorded it, I remember being nervous that I wasn't being funny enough because I didn't have the full scope of her journey. I had read all the scripts, but I didn't have the ability then to zoom out and see what Mike [McMahan] and the writers were really very smartly doing, which was setting her up with more heart and emotional intelligence. My first instinct was, "Oh no, I'm not as funny as Seasons 1 and 2!" not in the writing but in my performance.

I never ask to go back in and do additional ADR days or any other additional recording, but I considered asking, "Hey, is it okay if I take another pass at [Episode] 305," or whatever because I felt like I wasn't doing as many alt takes or riffing as much, but that's not true. I was. The riffing and the alt takes that we were doing were just coming from a different place. They were less jokey. Seeing it all altogether, it really made sense, and I was so glad that they steered me in that direction.

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You've been working with Mike McMahan for four seasons now. How is it working with him to develop Beckett?

He gives me way too much free rein. He really needs to rein me in; he's created a monster. I just went and did ADR for the Strange New Worlds crossover, and I called him afterwards to nitpick about a joke and ask him if he was okay with the delivery that I gave and if they ended up using that take, and he was just like "Shut up." [laughs]

I'm far too involved, and he always picks up the phone whenever I call, even if he's literally in the middle of an edit or the Solar Opposites writing room. The number of times that I call, talk to him for 20 minutes nonstop, and then he goes, "Okay, I have to go. My child has set something on fire," or some other pressing thing, and I go, "Wait, why did you pick up the phone if you were in the middle of this?" and he says, "Because I can't say 'no' to you!" My answer to that is, "Mike, I think it's time you need to start."

I know you can't go into specifics about the crossover itself, but how bananas was it to be on the Strange New Worlds set, take Mariner into live-action, and physically play in the Star Trek Universe?

It's so fucking cool. I've talked at length in interviews about how many things I broke on set because I was just playing with stuff. I've been looking at these sets my whole life on television, so in a way, in my mind, they're real. When I stepped on set, my first instinct is to flip the things that should flip, press the things that look like buttons, and pull on levers. Half the time, this shit is just plywood, so I'm just ripping things off the wall like some sort of monster running around the Enterprise. [laughs]

It was so incredible, and Jonathan Frakes was there. Jonathan Frakes yells "action" while you're in a Star Trek uniform, and you say and improv Star Trek words. The writers for that episode are incredible, and they let us improvise so much that I was like, "I am writing Star Trek on my feet as I'm acting Star Trek being directed by the King of Star Trek." I do think we're all in a simulation, or I died 30 years ago -- those are the only options right now; this isn't life.

I guess that makes me a holographic construct in this scenario.

Yeah, do you feel like a construct?

It depends on the day, honestly.

That's an honest answer. [laughs]

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I love how the cast feels like a family, even if you don't record your performances together. Do you remember meeting the rest of the cast in person and seeing how that chemistry translated in real-time?

We did have one in-person table read for the pilot, and it was just for the in-house studio people, and it was small. Dawnn Lewis brought her mom, and it was really sweet to meet her, but Eugene [Cordero] wasn't cast yet, so he wasn't there. Most of the rest of the main cast and crew were there -- maybe not Paul Scheer. Jack [Quaid] and I had met before, but I remember being like, "Now we're buddies, and we sit at the center of the table! We're the leads of this thing!" It dawned on both of us that we were the leads. We sort of didn't understand that.

I just remember, from that moment, really bonding with Jack and getting to record with him a couple times. Season 1, we got to do a little bit of in-person stuff, and I felt like we cemented this bond right away. I remember he very sweetly was in the recording booth and was like, "Tawny, may I have your number in case I want to text you things?" We were learning about Star Trek, and he wanted to dive in and learn about a bunch of stuff, and he asked if he could text me Star Trek questions. It was very sweet, like kids on a playground going, "Could I come hang out with you?" and I was like, "Yeah! We can go hang out, buddy!" [laughs]

Speaking of Dawnn, the emotional core of Lower Decks is Mariner's relationship with her mother, Captain Freeman, and that is put to the test this season, especially in Episode 309.

She does such a good job in 309. That's a real good Carol episode. I think a lot of people are stressed about Carol's behavior right now and see where it's all going. It's been nice getting to know Dawnn, seeing her work, and getting to know her story. She's got an incredible story. She's done so many things. Did y'all know she wrote the A Different World theme song? Before she was cast on the show, she was hired to write the theme song, and then she got cast on the show. She's just an incredible, all-around performer, creator, and artist, so just getting to know her through this process has just been such a gift.

After everything that happened at the end of Season 3, are things back on between Mariner and Jennifer or is that a done deal after everything they've gone through?

I'll be honest with you, I legitimately don't know because I don't remember how 401 starts with them. I will say that Jennifer is not leaving the ship, so anything could happen. I like to think that space romances in the far future are hopefully a little more evolved, so maybe there could be a revolution, or they kind of de-escalate and become friends again. I like to think that it's not a huge issue going forward, but I truly don't remember, so if it is, sorry to Mike and the writers for leading everyone astray.

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How wild was it getting to visit Deep Space Nine?

Well, I barely did! I wasn't in that plot at all until I yelled at Mike. This is why I should have less access to him, and he shouldn't pick up the phone because I did have to yell at him. "Why would you not put one of the biggest DS9 fans on DS9?!" He was like, "Your character isn't a DS9 fan," and I was like, "I don't give a shit! I want to be on DS9, and you put me in a candle party!" He fixed it and put me in at the end with Quark and Kira, two of my faves, which was very cool. Just hearing Armin Shimerman say Mariner's name was extremely cool.

What are some of your favorite Star Trek Easter eggs across Lower Decks Season 3?

I love 301 so much because I love First Contact. It might be my favorite Star Trek movie, so I love how it just feels like a little sequel to First Contact. I love all the Zefram Cochrane bits. I love Lily's salmon being there. This is technically a Season 1 Easter egg, but speaking of Kira, my Vindicta from the first "Crisis Point" movie, that vocal quality was totally based on Intendant Kira from the Mirror Universe. It was a full Nana Visitor inspiration, so it was very cool to also have her come in and say Mariner's name too.

Tawny, what can you tease for Mariner's journey in Lower Decks Season 4?

She's been trying to find her place in Starfleet, and at the finale here, she's decided to stick it out in Starfleet. I love that we have that bookend to the end of the pilot from Season 1 where she was grabbing Boimler in a headlock and saying she was going to be his mentor, and now she's willingly taking a mentee position with Ransom. One of the things I love about this character is that she's equally annoying when she's bumming around people as she is when she's like, "Teach me! I am clay! Mold me!" [laughs] All that energy is coming from a place of her wanting to learn and get better. I love a character that wants to better themselves, even if they're annoying sometimes.

Created by Mike McMahan, the first three seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks are available to stream in their entirety on Paramount+. The series has officially been renewed for a fourth season, currently in production.