During the “Star Trek Universe Panel” at New York Comic Con 2025, which took place on Saturday, October 11, 2025, attendees were treated to a first look at Season 4 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Immediately following the panel, the four-minute Strange New Worlds clip was dropped on the franchise’s official social media channels for Trekkies worldwide to watch.
The first-look clip shows Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) leading the U.S.S. Enterprise into what looks like a space storm or an interdimensional portal, where the crew gets stranded. At the center of this mission is the Enterprise‘s Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), who must do some fancy flying to get the ship out of harm’s way.
Check out the clip for yourself below:
Since Ortegas was first introduced to the Star Trek Universe in Season 1 of Strange New Worlds, fans have clamored to see the franchise explore the character with more episodes dedicated to the pilot’s personal journey. In the wake of the social media rally for #MOrtegas, it seems like the Strange New Worlds showrunners listened to fans, bringing to life several Ortegas-centric episodes in Season 3.
From the jump, we have known that Ortegas is queer (unfortunately, her queer identity was not explored in Season 3) and struggles with PTSD due to serving as a Starfleet pilot in the Federation-Klingon War and the Enterprise’s battles with the Gorn (fortunately, explored in Season 3). In the show’s first two seasons, Ortegas struggled with PTSD symptoms that were probably obvious to any trauma survivor watching the series, such as reliving the event, avoiding things that remind you of the event, hypervigilance, marked feelings of shame and/or guilt, and maladaptive thought patterns that see danger where none exists.
While Ortegas slowly challenged her PTSD-related beliefs in the first two seasons of Strange New Worlds, it wasn’t until the Season 3 episode “Terrarium” that she experienced post-traumatic growth, defined as a positive psychological changes that occur as a result of processing your sh*t, a.k.a. trauma. In “Terrarium,” due to circumstances beyond the Enterprise crew member’s control, Ortegas essentially must endure exposure therapy (directly facing something that someone fears) when she is stranded on an abandoned planet with a female Gorn pilot. With her life depending on working side-by-side with an alien species that her experiences have taught her to fear, she’s forced to examine how her past traumas have informed her current prejudices–and we get to witness a beautiful moment of growth (similar to the growth we see from James Kirk in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country when he is forced to challenge his belief that all Klingons are untrustworthy).
So far, nothing from the Strange New Worlds team has indicated that we will see more queer storylines in the upcoming seasons of the show. However, now that Ortegas has experienced PTG, I hope that I am wrong, and we will see the character engage in more romantic relationships, as one of the Enterprise‘s resident queers. PTSD can make it difficult to trust and connect with others, and in Season 3, we saw the pilot challenge those beliefs and open up her heart more to others. So, I am excited to see where the show takes the character next, and I hope that there is a story reason for the lack of on-screen queer representation in Season 3 (rather than the more nefarious reasons that I have previously mentioned in other Star Trek coverage).
Season 4 of the series wrapped production earlier this year, and it’s currently in production for its fifth and final season. Paramount+ describes the fourth season of the series as:
In the upcoming season, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise—led by Captain Christopher Pike—embarks on a series of thrilling and emotional adventures across the stars. As they journey to strange new worlds, they will battle inner demons and external threats, encounter colorful new characters, reunite with familiar faces and confront terrifying aliens. Through it all, they strive to embrace a bright, hopeful future.
Strange New Worlds stars Mount as Pike, Navia as Ortegas, Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley/Number One, Ethan Peck as Spock, Jess Bush as Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as La’an Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura, Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. Joseph M’Benga, and Martin Quinn as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, along with guest star Carol Kane as Commander Pelia and special guest star Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk, in his pre-captain days.
The first three seasons of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds are currently streaming on Paramount+.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage from NYCC ’25.
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