Strange New Worlds: Carol Kane “Didn’t Ever Imagine” Star Trek Role

Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, streaming, TV | Tagged: Carol Kane, paramount, Pelia, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds star Carol Kane discusses joining the streaming series, never imagining being part of the franchise, and more.

Carol Kane’s got a bit of a storied career on stage and screen from her Academy Award-nominated performance in 1976’s Hester Street, scoring several memorable comic roles throughout her career, including Annie Hall (1977), Taxi, and The Princess Bride (1987). She’s still much in the limelight these days in some of the biggest IPs in DC’s Gotham for FOX and now as new Enterprise chief engineer Pelia on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. A Lanthanite, a race known for their longevity, she succeeds Bruce Horak’s Hemmer, who was lost in the penultimate episode of season one after an encounter with the Gorn.

Star Trek: Carol Kane’s Strange New Job

“I had not really seen [Star Trek before I was cast], and I told that to the producers when they called,” Kane told Collider. “And when they called, I thought, ‘They must have the wrong number,’ [laughs] because I thought, ‘Of all people to be on Star Trek.’ I didn’t ever imagine such a thing, but it was so much fun. But I really was not in the Star Trek world, and to tell you the truth, I didn’t watch a lot of it because I just kind of wanted to stay where we were in Strange New Worlds, so I just wanted to be present with that and not compare it to other things.”

Kane is certainly not the first notable screen veteran to potentially chew up every scene she’s in. Another comedy veteran, accomplished actress, and current host of The View in Whoopi Goldberg found her way to be cast as the wise bartender Guinan in a recurring role on The Next Generation during its early years. Of what little Kane can reveal about Pelia, “Well, I could say who I am, that I have taken over being the engineer on the ship from Hemmer, who was my student, years ago, and I guess I could say that I’ve been alive for centuries. So I have quite a background, and I know a lot about everyone there, and I know my job, and I think I’m very opinionated because I have been around much longer than anyone else, and I think I claim that territory. I get pretty straightforward and opinionated.” For more, including her struggle with the Trek technobabble, if she’s seen the season & more, you can check out the video below. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

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