Dawnn Lewis has voiced Star Trek: Lower Decks' indomitable Captain Carol Freeman for five seasons. The mother of Lieutenant Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Freeman perpetually has her hands full captaining the USS Cerritos and corralling her rebellious daughter.

In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, the USS Cerritos investigates rifts in space that lead to alternate dimensions. Captain Freeman found out that her alternate reality self was sent to Starbase 80, the worst space station in the galaxy. Carol then travels to her own reality's Starbase 80 in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, episode 5, "Starbase 80?!", where Captain Freeman finds out whether it's as bad as Mariner and everyone in Starfleet says it is.

Screen Rant had the pleasure to chat with Dawnn Lewis about her five seasons as Captain of Star Trek: Lower Decks, the dysfunctional but loving mother-daughter relationship between Mariner and Captain Freeman, and her hopes to bring Star Trek: Lower Decks to live action (and even play a Klingon!).

Dawnn Lewis Goes Deep Into Captain Freeman & Mariner's Mother-Daughter Relationship

Mariner Will Eventually Turn Into Her Mother

Screen Rant: I want to start by giving you your flowers as Captain Freeman. I love Sonequa. We all love Sonequa. But Michael Burnham became captain a year after Lower Decks premiered. So Captain Freeman is the first black female captain of a Star Trek series. I just wanted to you to know that I knew that.

Dawnn Lewis: Ah, thank you so much. Fully pipped! Fully pipped, that's going to be my new license plate. Fully pipped.

Captain Freeman and Mariner also have the best mother-daughter relationship in Star Trek. I mean, it's dysfunctional, but it's also the best. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

Dawnn Lewis: It is kind of reminiscent of mine with my mother, being a teenage girl raised by a mom. My mom came from a completely different country in South America, with completely different values and traditions. Raising me and my three brothers, my mom put herself through school, got a job, she survived a not-successful marriage, and raised us on her own. She is and remains the ultimate achiever. My mom is 91 years old.

When I was growing up, my mom and I, all we did was bump heads. We loved each other. I just didn't think we liked each other. And once I went away to college, our relationship changed, and we learned to not only love each other, but actually like each other, and that's the relationship I see growing between Captain Freeman and Mariner.

They love each other out of respect because they're mother daughter, but when the series first started, all they did was bump heads. But the longer they're in the same space together and learn to see each other and respect each other, you're watching them actually start to like each other. Sometimes they're mad that they actually like each other, but it works in their favor. Just watching that dynamic grow, it just feels like a real, live mother-daughter relationship. It really does. I love it.

It's beautiful. And I feel like, 20 years from now, Mariner will be a lot more like Captain Freeman than she thinks she will be.

Dawnn Lewis: And she's gonna hate every minute of it. Every other word out for mouth is gonna be, 'Oh, my God, I sound just like my mother.'

When season 5 started, we found out Mariner is Beckett's middle name, and so, she's Beckett Mariner Freeman. I love the idea that Captain Freeman gave her daughter the initials BMF on purpose, because she is a BMF.

Dawnn Lewis: She is. Carol Freeman is always thinking, Nothing gets past her. I love it. I love it. She saw into the future what this young girl's personality is going to be, and it's almost like she had no choice. You know how the preacher's kids are often the worst kids in the church? They are the most misbehaved. Well, there you go, coming from me and the iral, my husband, it's like it was her responsibility to rebel. That was her responsibility, and she lived up to it fully. And she'll be us before she knows it.

What's funny is, I saw Mike McMahan last weekend, and then I asked him about BMF, and he says he didn't realize it and that it was a coincidence. I was like, what? How do you not realize when it's so perfect?

Dawnn Lewis: He doesn't even know he's a genius. Mike is a genius.

What's your real life relationship with Tawny like?

Dawnn Lewis: When I first met Tawny, we hit it off so well, and originally we were able to record a few episodes together right before I went to New York to start working on Broadway. And then the pandemic hit, and then everything became isolated. Everybody recording on their own during the pandemic. Tawny had a podcast, and her mom was on the podcast, so I got to meet her actual mom and found out we had so much in common. So now me and her real mom kind of fight over, who's the legit mom?

So yeah, Tawny is hilarious. She's so funny, she's so smart, she's such a talented performer, writer, director and producer. She just makes you very, very proud, and she's just a joy to collaborate with. I really, really am glad that we got to go down this journey together.

Dawnn Lewis Discusses Her Hopes For Star Trek: Lower Decks In Live Action

Dawnn Also Wants To Play A Live-Action Klingon

On Strange New Worlds, Anson Mount's hair gets talked about so much, but I love Captain Freeman's hair. I love the white streak. Her design is so good.

Dawnn Lewis: I absolutely agree. I think it is very reminiscent of Nancy Wilson, one of my absolute heroes, and who ultimately became one of my favorite aunties before she ed away. So yes, Captain Freeman is built like an athlete with hair and swagger, like Nancy Wilson. I am a happy girl and can't wait till I get to be a live-action version of Captain Freeman. I'm ready. Yes, I'm ready to rock it.

I know Mike has said he wants to do a live-action version. I think the whole cast wants to do it. It would be incredible to see all of you fully in uniform, fully playing these characters.

Dawnn Lewis: Thank you. And I think so many of us actually look like our characters, like when Tawny and Jack did Strange New Worlds, they actually looked like Beckett and Boimler. They really do.

Has Tawny mentioned anything to you about her live-action show? And if you weren't playing Captain Freeman, would you want to be an alien?

Dawnn Lewis: I would absolutely want to be an alien. And Tawny has sworn us all to secrecy about her live action show, except that she's excited about it. You're talking about Starfleet Academy, right?

She's developing something else as well, a comedy show.

Dawnn Lewis: Oh, that one for sure, I can't say anything. But yes, I would love to put on prosthetic foreheads, nose, ears, teeth, get a bat'leth in my hand and go after somebody. I want to be a warrior.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Goes To Starbase 80

Nicole Byer Guest Stars As Commander Kassia Nox

Lower Decks went to Starbase 80, which we've heard so much about. And we found out that the alternate universe Captain Freeman got sent there. Nicole Byer was the guest voice, and she was so great. I think "Starbase 80?!" might be my favorite episode of the season so far. It's so good. I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.

Dawnn Lewis: I love that. And you're right. Nicole is hilarious, and she kind of plays against the comedy, which makes it even funnier. And it's something in her voice that you just know it's going to be hilarious. We didn't get to record together, but I've met Nicole a number of times. She and Tawny are good friends. She's just as funny with this dry wit. You can't help but be like, 'Wait, did she just say that?' Really, it's hilarious. She's hilarious and just a really lovely person to boot. All of our guest stars have just been really, really wonderful to have around. And like I said, sometimes we're as surprised as the fans are when they see the show, simply because we don't record together. So it's great for us, too.

It's so seamless, the way it all comes together. You'd never know you're not in the same room.

Dawnn Lewis: You're right. We have amazing editors. Between Mike's writing, and Mike, over the years, has really gotten to know our individual voices. So he knows our timbre, he knows our rhythm, and between the way he writes, the way he lets us improv on the mic, and then the editors taking each and every line, each and every sound and call out, and putting it together, it sounds like we're finishing each other's sentences. So it really is an amazing collaborative effort.

What Dawnn Lewis Is Proudest Of About Star Trek: Lower Decks

Lower Decks Exemplifies What Star Trek Is All About

Season five is the final season on Paramount+, but we're all hoping there's more in some fashion. Looking back over five years, five seasons, what are you proudest of about Lower Decks?

Dawnn Lewis: I am proudest of -- And thank you for saying that, by the way, because we're all hoping for life beyond this present circumstance -- What I'm most proud of is the way our show brings to the everyman this amazing Star Trek legacy. Star Trek is defined by its diversity, by its inclusion, by its expectation of excellence from everyone. No one is better than anyone else. People have different cultures, different genders, different species, different all of that. But what is expected is that everyone you see on that screen is coming with excellence, and it is respected by everybody else that they are surrounded by.

Lower Decks is the same thing. The only difference is, is that whether it's the bridge crew or the Lower Deckers, we're flawed human beings. On those other franchises, everybody's excellent. On our show, we've got your next-door neighbor. We've got the other guy at work who always seems to get on your nerves. We've got the people who do their best to do their best, but never seem to get it quite right. But there's nothing but respect, and appreciation, and diversity, and a real humanity about each and every one of us that I love I'm so proud that in our own way, we continue to carve out that path of 'see me, respect me, appreciate me, let's get it done together.'

I absolutely agree. Even though it's an animated series, it's the most human crew, I think.

Dawnn Lewis: We don't always get it right, but our hearts are in the right place.

About Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5

In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, the crew of the USS Cerritos is tasked with closing “space potholes” – subspace rifts that are causing chaos in the Alpha Quadrant. Pothole duty would be easy for Jr. Officers Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford ... if they didn’t also have to deal with an Orion war, furious Klingons, diplomatic catastrophes, murder mysteries, and scariest of all: their own career aspirations. This season on Paramount+ is a celebration of this underdog crew who are dangerously close to being promoted out of the lower decks and into strange new Starfleet roles.

Check out our other Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 interviews:

• Mary Chieffo
• Gabrielle Ruiz
• Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Cast Junket
• Star Trek: Lower Decks Cast At NYCC

New episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 premiere Thursdays on Paramount+.