Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Yetide Badaki On How Sisko, Picard, And Others Influenced Her Big Courtroom Scenes
The longtime Star Trek fan shared the inspirations for her character.
Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Season 2 episode "Ad Astra Per Aspera." Read at your own risk!
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiered what might be one of the series' greatest episodes to date with "Ad Astra Per Aspera." Una Chin-Riley's freedom was on the line after the discovery she joined Starfleet and failed to disclose her augmented origins as an Illyrian. The episode called into question Starfleet's long-held restriction on augmented beings and put Una's former friend and Illyrian lawyer, Neera Ketoul, on the stand to defend her. Actress and longtime Trekkie Yetide Badaki knocked it out of the park with her performance and channeled the characteristics of some of Trek's greatest characters, Sisko and Picard, and her other favorite characters into her performance.
CinemaBlend had a chance to speak to Yetide Badaki ahead of fans seeing the episode with their Paramount+ subscription. After reading about how the actress has had a love for sci-fi ever since seeing Star Trek: The Next Generation as a child, I had to rewatch her performance. I asked if part of Neera's performance was influenced by Picard's infamous speeches about humanity, and learned that it was a mixture of that and some other characters that helped bring Neera Ketoul to life. The actress shared:
I highly encourage anyone who loved this latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to rewatch Yetide Badaki's performance with this information in mind. It's so cool to see a fan of Star Trek use the traits of other performances to make something entirely new and become quite possibly one of the most memorable guest stars since Strange New Worlds' beginning.
Yetide Badaki's Neera didn't come together solely with the actress observing Star Trek characters. The actress revealed she also looked to the performances of a star of a former primetime legal series, which might explain some of the most biting jabs delivered by Neera during Admiral April's testimony:
Who better to look to than Emmy-winning actress Viola Davis and one of her best performances to help create an epic character built for a courtroom-style episode of Star Trek? Truly, Yetide Badaki gave us something special with the character Neera Ketoul that I'm upset there may not be not more Illyrian disputes for her to settle in court in future episodes of Strange New Worlds. Maybe if another member of Starfleet finds themselves in trouble, she'll be willing to step up, given how they all stood behind Una even after knowing her augmented origins.
While Neera didn't score a win for all Illyrians, she did get Una exonerated from her crimes and back as second-in-command aboard the USS Enterprise. With Una back on the ship, the season can move on to other big problems on the horizon, such as that big Gorn thing teased in the premiere. As thrilling as a cliffhanger it was, I'm grateful to have the storyline in the rearview and to see what else Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 has to offer.
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Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.