Oscar-nominated actress Carol Kane boarded the USS Enterprise in season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Her casting was first announced during the show’s panel for Star Trek Day in September 2022. If you haven’t seen the show’s latest batch of episodes, then here’s everything you need to know about the actress’ character in the ever-expanding sci-fi franchise.
What is Carol Kane’s role in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds?
Carol Kane portrays the recurring role of Commander Pelia in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. She made her debut appearance in the show’s season 2 premiere episode, The Broken Circle.
According to the character’s official description, Pelia is a highly educated engineer who “suffers no fools” and solves problems “calmly and brusquely, thanks to her many years of experience.”
Pelia is a female Lanthanite Starfleet officer who served as an instructor at Starfleet Academy before being assigned to Operational Support Services as chief fleet inspector, and later transferring to the USS Enterprise as chief engineer, replacing Hemmer (Bruce Horak).
Although indistinguishable from a Human, Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) was able to identify Pelia’s species by her accent.

How many episodes did Pelia appear in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2?
Commander Pelia appeared in six episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Here are some interesting facts about her so far:
1. During the 21st century, Commander Pelia owned and ran an antique and curio shop in Vermont called The Archeology Department.
2. Pelia stayed in Vermont when the New World Economy ended the use of currency on Earth in the 22nd century. She lived in a bunker in case the “no money, socialist utopia thing turned out to be a fad.”
3. Pelia was friends with Amanda Grayson, who was one of the first Humans to whom she revealed her Lanthanite heritage.
4. Although Pelia considered Montgomery Scott (Martin Quinn) as one of her best students, she ended up giviving him some of her worst grades. She also gave Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romjin) middling grades for what she considered “sloppy” work, something that Una bore a grudge over for some time.
5. After learning the gravity of the threat of a continued Federation-Klingon War, Pelia revealed to Spock (Ethan Peck) over bloodwine that her true motivation for assisting the crew was out of boredom, that her current teaching position was no longer challenging or interesting enough. After observing that the USS Enterprise was in short supply of monotony, she volunteered her services to fill the starship’s vacant chief engineer position.
Carol Kane’s movies and TV shows
Kane rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s in films such as Dog Day Afternoon, Annie Hall, The Princess Bride, and Hester Street, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance as Gitl.
Kane also appeared in the sitcom Taxi in the early 1980s, in which she portrayed Simka Gravas, the wife of Andy Kaufman’s Latka Gravas. She won two Emmy Awards for her performance in the show.
From 2015 to 2020, Kane played the series regular role of Lillian Kaushtupper on the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The actress can also be seen on Amazon Prime Video’s Hunters, in which she appears as Mindy Markowitz.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 plot
The second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds picks up where season 1 left off, with Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the crew of the USS Enterprise continuing their exploration missions in the 23rd century, a decade before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series.
In season 2, the crew faces more dangerous situations and confronts more challenging choices compared to season 1. They delve into unexplored regions of the galaxy, encountering fascinating new life forms and civilizations. Fans also see deeper exploration of the existing characters’ personalities and backstories, along with the arrival of new crew members like Carol Kane’s Commander Pelia. The season culminates in a tense encounter with the reptilian warrior race, the Gorn, leaving the crew and a human colony in jeopardy with a cliffhanger ending.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 cast
In addition to series newcomer Kane and returning series regulars Romijn, Chong, Gooding, Peck, and Mount, season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds also stars Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas, Jess Bush as Christine Chapel, and Babs Olusanmokun as M’Benga
Paul Wesley also returned to the show for season 2 to reprise his role as James T. Kirk, a lieutenant on the U.S.S. Farragut. Co-showrunner and executive producer Henry Alonso Myers told TVLine in August 2022 that this younger version of the iconic character is “not yet the person who he is going to be” and “has some stuff to figure out before he becomes that person.”
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 release date
Season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiered in June 2023 and ended its 10-episode run in August 2023.
Where to watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
The series airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada and on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Central and Eastern Europe.