Mary Wiseman: Tilly Will Have to Find “Her Own Way” in Star Trek: Discovery Season Three
Mary Wiseman. Photo credit Sue Kisenwether
Rounding out the coverage of the recent New York Comic Con and PaleyFest New York, TrekMovie.com has published their red carpet interview with Star Trek: Discovery’s Ensign Sylvia Tilly, Mary Wiseman.
Discovery viewers have already witnessed a huge amount of development for the character of Sylvia Tilly; when we first met her, she was merely a cadet serving aboard Discovery. Over the course of the past two seasons, we’ve seen her: face her insecurities in impersonating her fearsome Mirror Universe version Captain Killy, struggle in the command training program, and take a central role on Discovery’s science team, as a new ensign in season two. In that time she has always been motivated by an intense desire to take a command role in Starfleet.
But now that the crew of Discovery find themselves in the 32nd century, how will that shape Tilly’s ambitions? When asked by TrekMovie how she will deal with her career going forward, Wiseman said, “I think it’s a bit unmooring. She’s had this goal for a long time, and I think she still knows that she wants to serve, and she wants to be of use for Starfleet, but what that means in the future is a little bit up in the air. So she’s going to have to start finding her own way and looking for guidance wherever she can get it.”
Putting it into context of her character arc from seasons one and two, Wiseman explained: “I think we’ve seen someone who didn’t know how to hold their own space, somebody who was deeply and profoundly intimidated but had big dreams, get closer and closer to achieving those dreams, and then find a way to kind of stand up straight and hold space, hold power. And I think you’re going to see a continuation of that journey this season. Somebody’s who’s kind of stepping into, if not the Command Training Program, a command mentality and starting to allow herself to be a person who is a leader.”
Wiseman promises that it won’t all be career-focussed seriousness this season, though, and that we’ll get to see Tilly’s fun side that we all know and love: “Tilly always is havin’ fun, she likes to keep it fun,” she said. “But she’ll also get moments of, I don’t know, something more serious, something deeper. But she always loves a party, she loves a group activity. So definitely you’ll get to see her have a little fun and break out of her comfort zone a bit.”
You can catch up on Tilly’s previous adventures in seasons one and two of Star Trek: Discovery, available to stream now, on CBS All Access in the States, and other platforms globally.
This article was written for the podcast Daily Star Trek News.
Alison Pitt is the writer, producer, and host of Daily Star Trek News, on the Roddenberry Podcast Network. A veteran Star Trek podcaster, she started her career on the weekly show Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast in 2015. She has appeared on panels at Star Trek Las Vegas, WonderCon, and San Diego Comic Con.
