Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1, Episode 1 - "The Broken Circle"Commander Pelia (Carol Kane) is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2's new Chief Engineer, but she's more like Star Trek: The Next Generation's Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) than Scotty (James Doohan) from Star Trek: The Original Series. Pelia replaces the late Lt. Hemmer (Bruce Horak), who sacrificed his life to save the crew of the USS Enterprise from the Gorn. One might have expected Strange New Worlds' next Chief Engineer to follow the Hemmer mode, but the series takes a surprising turn with Pelia which is immediately successful.
In Strange New Worlds season 2's premiere, "The Broken Circle," Commander Pelia, Chief Fleet Inspector, leads her team from Starfleet Operational Services to overhaul the Starship Enterprise's systems while much of the crew is on leave at Starbase One. Pelia immediately recognizes hijinks afoot when the Enterprise's warp core suddenly begins a 'meltdown.' Pelia makes her way to the bridge fully aware Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) intends to steal the Enterprise. The price for Pelia's cooperation is to allow her to substitute as Chief Engineer, a position she shrewdly makes permanent by the end of Strange New Worlds' season 2 premiere.
Chief Engineer Pelia Is Strange New Worlds' Guinan, Not Scotty
It only takes Strange New Worlds season 2 a handful of brilliantly comedic scenes to confirm that casting Carol Kane as Commander Pelia was an ingenious move, and it's similar to Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 bringing in Whoopi Goldberg to play Guinan. Kane is a beloved, Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning actor with gifted comic timing and a legendary body of work, just like Goldberg. And, like Guinan, who is El Aurian, Pelia comes from an extremely long-lived race. Pelia is a Lanthanite, and she has lived on Earth incognito for hundreds of years, similar to how Guinan made Earth her home for centuries and even established her own bar, Ten Forward, in Los Angeles.
Strange New Worlds is still years away from introducing Montgomery Scott as the Starship Enterprise's Chief Engineer, and they could have introduced a forerunner to Scotty to replace Hemmer. Instead, Commander Pelia is a welcome and wonderfully offbeat Chief Engineer who has already proven herself to be more than a match for Spock and the Enterprise crew. Like Guinan, Pelia is a fountain of life experience and knowledge that she has only hinted at, and it will be fascinating to see her forge relationships with the much younger Enterprise crew. Ironically, Guinan was extremely close with Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), but as of the end of Strange New Worlds season 2's premiere, the absent Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) doesn't yet know his Enterprise has a new Chief Engineer!
How Pelia Compares To Strange New Worlds' Hemmer
Commander Pelia is an about-face from Lt. Hemmer, and it was very smart of Strange New Worlds not to replace the gruff but wise blind Aenar with a similar type of character. Hemmer was a surprise breakout character in Strange New Worlds season 1, and he formed a close bond with Cadet Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), who saw Hemmer as her mentor. Hemmer was obviously a skilled engineer whose life's motto was to "fix what was broken," but Pelia may exceed him in know-how considering she has been alive for hundreds of years and was an instructor at Starfleet Academy.
Eventually, Scotty will become the Starship Enterprise's Chief Engineer in Star Trek: The Original Series, but Strange New Worlds is still years away from this. And from a storytelling standpoint, there is really no rush to introduce Scotty. Instead, Strange New Worlds made the bold move to give their Starship Enterprise their own version of Guinan and cast a beloved, award-winning comedienne in the role of Commander Pelia. In turn, Carol Kane instantly creates a distinctive, formidable, and lovable character. Considering how integral Guinan became to Star Trek: The Next Generation, Carol Kane's Commander Pelia has the potential to do the same in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.