Interview: Dawnn Lewis On Why Captain Freeman Is Still Haunted By Starbase 80 On ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’

Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ Captain Carol Freeman has lost a little of her bluster over five seasons, but not the energy that drives her, as evidenced in the latest episode “Starbase 80?!” TrekMovie spoke to actress Dawnn Lewis about the episode, Freeman’s fear of Starbase 80, the captain’s growth over five seasons, and her interest in bringing Freeman to live-action Star Trek.

Why do you think Carol is so obsessed with her alternate’s fate at Starbase 80?

Wouldn’t you be? I would be obsessed if I am an OCD achiever, a leader, a person who always strives to be excellent. It would never dawn on me that an alternate me would be anything less than excellent, and the only reason she would be banished to Starbase 80 is she must have done something really, really jacked up. And yeah, so that doesn’t sit well with Carol Freeman.

Okay, so if she did something that’s really messed up, I wonder what she looks like. I mean, does she look like me? Is she fit? Does she look like a tortoise? Does she have, you know, closet face? I mean, what you know, all of those, those things, especially when all the other alter egos have such cool aspects about them… Well, I want to be cool. You know, the Ransom character is uber buff, the Rutherford character has got all this swagger. Everybody’s got swagger. I want Carol to have swagger and not have done something really stupid.

Mariner sort of changes her view of Starbase 80 by the end of the episode. Do you think Carol has the same shift, or is this going to keep haunting her?

No, I think it’s gonna keep haunting her until she has a face-to-face with her alter ego, and true to form, she’s trying to prove a point: I don’t know what my alter ego did, but I’m here, and I’m gonna save the day, and I’m gonna fix stuff, and I’m gonna beat these bats, and nothing’s going to stop me. And yes, I am captain, hear me roar. So no, Captain Freeman is going to be stuck for a minute.

Stephen Root as Gene, Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman and Jerry O’Connell as Jack Ransom  (Paramount+)

She’s a lot more measured than she used to be, she used to be very impulsive and reactive. So how do you feel about where she started and where she is now, and how have you calibrated your performance over the seasons. And do you ever miss just yelling at everybody?

She yells everywhere, all, all the time. I’ve been telling Mike, she needs to eat a gummy. You need to do something to calm down. But from where she was to where she is now, I believe is an absolute influence of being in the same proximity of Beckett… I think we have rubbed off on each other. Not only has our relationship grown, but we’ve seen the positives in each other’s approach and have taken some of the best of each other and started applying it to ourselves. So it not only made our relationship better, but it’s making us as individuals better. I feel like Captain Freeman has become a better captain, where she’s not just talking at people, but talking with people, and willing to show them that ‘I’m willing to get down in the weeds with you’ to get things done. And Beckett, every now and then shit slips out of her mouth, where she’s willing to be more responsible and more accountable and thinking of other people before she becomes so impulsive and just goes off and ends up pulling everybody else into trouble. So, yeah, so in season 8, when when we land somewhere else, you will see even more growth. And Starbase 80 is going to be a fine-tuned machine by the time we’re through with it, it’ll be everybody’s favorite stop.

What have you enjoyed the most about the way that your characters changed over the seasons? What’s been the most satisfying for you?

Watching us accept who we are and seeing that there’s always room for improvement. We self-criticized a lot, we saw a lot of what was wrong in those early seasons, and rightly so, but now we stop talking about what’s wrong and see some of those things as strengths, and where it can lead us to even greater strengths, which to me, is a beautiful commentary in life and humanity, that none of us are perfect, and so instead of self-criticizing all the time, recognize the good about you and the fact that there’s always room to be even better as you collaborate and cooperate with the people in your circle, in your village, on your job, in your family. Especially in today’s climate, we really need to see the better in more people, and stop self-criticizing and other-criticizing, and figure out  we’ve got one little, small planet to live on. We need to figure this out better. That’s what I love on our show.

Captain Freeman seems to have more confidence now and less of an inferiority complex. Do you think that’s true?

I don’t think she ever had an inferiority complex. I just don’t think it mattered to her that she expressed herself fully before. I mean, I’m the captain. I give orders. Why do I have to explain myself? Right? I told you to do it, so do it. I don’t think that makes her inferior. I think it makes her very confident and able and authoritative. But what she’s learned over the seasons is that there are different ways to lead and participate, and that’s what she is growing into. Now. The words are still there. She’s she’s still on for 14 so a gummy could help that.

Is there anything you can tease about what’s coming up for her in future episodes without getting yourself in trouble?

Probably not, because I got myself in trouble once before by saying something, and Mike says he pulled me aside: “Dawnn, do you remember that was in episode eight?” And I was like, “Oh yeah, that’s right.”

That’s like a rite of passage for Star Trek actors.

I know I shouldn’t have said that, so I try to keep a lid on it, except to say that you will see Carol Freeman continue to do things that you never would have expected her to do, there’s going to be lot of more of that coming forward.

Jack Quaid as Boimler and Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman  (Paramount+)

Tawny and Jack got to bring live-action versions of their characters to Strange New Worlds. Is that something you’d like to do and have you thought about it?

You know what, each and every one of us is entirely jealous and envious of them, and we have little Kewpie dolls that we stick pins in, not their fault [laughs]. But no, we love them. And each and every one of us wants to do a live-action version of our characters. And truth be told, most of us, to a great extent, except, of course, for Dr. T’Ana, who’s a cat, we all kind of look like our characters. So that would be very cool.

Given that this is the final season of Lower Decks for now, do you feel like you got to do everything you wanted to do? Or Is there stuff still on the table?

There’s absolutely still stuff on the table. There really is. The journey has been amazing. I think Mike McMahan did a wonderful job, because we got the notice that this was going to be our last season on Paramount Plus early enough, he was able to craft a season that I think is very, very satisfying, is very, very arc filled, that lands well. So if this had to be the absolute end, it’s a good finish. If it’s not the absolute end, then it’s an amazing bridge to everything else that’s going to be coming afterward. So I’m grateful for that. But no, there is so much more story to tell. So yeah, we could get another five, ten, fifteen seasons out of this show in everybody’s journeys, both collectively and individually.

I know you were a Trek fan before you joined the cast of Lower Decks, and Freeman is a very different kind of Captain. Was there any character or captain in Star Trek that helped sort of bring you into Freeman or inspired you?

Yes and no. Yes in that when we auditioned for the show, we had no idea it was going to be part of the Star Trek franchise. We had to sign an NDA, and it was a nondescript sci-fi animated series. All the character names were changed. I auditioned to be Captain McDuck, and so when I went in to audition, I did my best version of Captain Kirk smashed with Avery Brooks. So it was a combination of the two, the very pragmatic, sure-of-themself captain mixed with the swagger and calm of Avery’s Sisko, and that was what I did, and that’s what got me the job. And then when I knew what the job was, I was over the moon, to your point, because I was born and bred as a Star Trek fan in every machination of the of the series, and had ultimately become friends with Nichelle Nichols herself and Michael Dorn. A lot of those people had become my friends, like Cirroc Lofton. So being a part of this legacy was absolutely huge, and I really had to fight to contain myself. But then, like Mike, let me know that he was absolutely thrilled with my choice to do what I did the way that I did it. So there you go.

Gillian Vigman as Dr. T’ana, Jerry O’Connell as Commander Ransom, Dawnn Lewis as Captain Freeman, Paul Scheer as Lt. Commander Andy Billups and Fred Tatasciore as Lieutenant Shaxs (Paramount+)

The fifth and final season of Lower Decks debuted on Thursday, October 24 on Paramount+ in the U.S. and internationally. New episodes of the 10-episode-long season will drop every Thursday on the service leading up to the series finale on Thursday, December 19.

For more, check out our NYCC interview with series creator and showrunner Mike McMahan.

Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.

NOTE: Interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.