It’s not every day you get the chance to sit down for a chat with one of your favorite Star Trek characters. I was fortunate enough to chat with Mary Wiseman, aka my girl, Lt. Sylvia Tilly from Star Trek: Discovery, now making her debut this week on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 episode 8 “The Life of the Stars.” It was such a treat speak with Mary about the episode.
But first things first. What’s Fangirlish without a bit of fangirling? I am a firm believer in telling people how you really feel about them, so I took a moment to thank Mary for taking the time to speak with me and to thank her for her performance as Tilly. Tilly is one of my all-time favorite characters, and honestly, one of the only times I have ever felt seen on TV. Mary told me that it meant a lot to her to hear that, and it meant a lot to me to be able to say that to her. Warm fuzzies all around. Say the thing, fam. Everyone needs to know that they are loved and appreciated.
Our Town in Our Trek
One of the more fascinating aspects of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 episode 8 “The Life of the Stars” is its meta usage of Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town. I asked Mary how her own work in theatre influenced her performance and if she has ever performed Our Town. Mary had many thoughts on this topic! Here’s what she had to say:
“I played Emily in Our Town when I was at Juliard and it was one of my favorite experiences while I was at that school. I love this play, and I have a long history with this play. Read it in high school, and then I revisited it as an adult. I think it’s brilliant; it’s an American classic. I adore the play and have a very deep personal relationship with it. So the fact that I got to come on and work on this play was just mindblowing to me! I was elated!
And yes, I have a lot of experience in the theatre. I still work in the theatre. I was very happy that I got to do such a theatre-forward episode.”
Happy Accidents
Mary’s excitement about the usage of Our Town in “The Life of the Stars” was palpable. Pressing further, I asked if she had any say in including Our Town in the episode. Mary’s response was brimming with joy.
“It’s crazy! Noga and Alex came to me with it. They had already written it. I was just floored. You have no idea how hard you’ve hit the nail on the head. I can’t believe this. I was so psyched to get into it. It was just kismet; it was like they knew, but I don’t know that they did. It was a really happy coincidence, I think. I think a lot of us have a history with Our Town. I think a lot of us read it in high school.”
When a piece of art strikes emotional resonance with a person, it creates an energy and a joy that I find difficult to describe to someone who has not experienced that same feeling. Mary’s enthusiasm in this interview is illustrated in her performance in “The Life of the Stars.”
Professor Tilly at the Podium
Tilly’s arc in Star Trek: Discovery, from uncertain cadet to fully-formed, confident professor and mentor, is inspiring, and for me, felt quite personal because I see so much of myself in her. I asked Mary to tell me more about playing Tilly as a professor in this series.
“For me, it was very satisfying to get to play Tilly in a role that she’s really comfortable and confident in. She spent a lot of Star Trek: Discovery coming in as a cadet, being a little different. [She was] kind of battling a certain kind of imposter syndrome, and dealing with a lot of self-doubt. And so to get to play her in this role, as a teacher, I was really excited to step into that. She really found her place. She really found where she belongs and can work in that with the kind of confidence that she has the skills and the ability to shepherd cadets in a way that uses all of her skills.”
Indeed. In my review of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 episode 8 “The Life of the Stars,” I note how Tilly is an excellent balance between tough love and empathy in her teaching style. This teaching posture can only come from a place of confidence, but also a place of care.
Discovering the Academy
Mary is also careful to note the difference between playing Tilly in Starfleet Academy and playing her in Discovery. She highlighted those differences in our conversation. When I asked if playing the same character in two different shows feels different, she said:
“A little bit, because the show is a little different. You’re mainly seeing her with cadets. I think that there is a way that she feels she has to posture herself or hold the space that might be a little different than she would around a peer. I think there’s maybe a little more classic Tilly when she’s with Jett Reno because she’s able to be herself. Then, when she’s in a teaching space, she’s much more aware of how she’s pushing or testing or guiding and supporting the cadets. It’s just like a little tiny shift, but I think it’s there.”
After watching Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 episode 8 “The Life of the Stars,” I can definitely see the difference between the two performances, and both are wonderful.
Feel Your Feelings
One of my all-time favorite Tilly quotes is “I love feeling feelings,” from Star Trek: Discovery season 1. Here we have Tilly teaching theatre, which is a wonderful way to not only feel feelings, but to process them as well. I asked Mary to discuss how art functions as a healthy emotional and as Ake says, a stealth therapeutic outlet in this episode. Big feels and big thoughts on this topic incoming:
“I don’t think theatre is a replacement for actual therapy, but I do think that in a teaching environment, where Tilly is not a therapist, there are some skills required when approaching theatre that are also useful for moving through difficult situations and moving through trauma and getting on the other side, where you can still function, and you can move forward. A big one, specifically as theatre as an art form, is that performing in theatre and engaging in a theatrical text makes you allergic to having walls up, allergic to presenting any sort of cool. It’s allergic to defensiveness. You have to be earnest, and you have to be vulnerable and let things in.”
Feel ALL the Feelings
Mary elaborated on this idea further. She said:
“You have to think about hard questions and process those through your body. And those are a lot of skills that are required for moving through trauma. It’s not just shutting it down, dissociating, or pushing it away. It’s actually becoming soft, so that things can move through you and you can learn from them and develop resilience. I think that’s why the play is chosen, and that’s why a class on theatre is chosen in this moment to kind of ease the cadets into those skills. Which they’ll really need because there’s no shortage of emergencies or dire circumstances when you’re on a starship or in Starfleet.”
As someone who has often looked to art as a healthy way to process emotions, I could not agree more with Mary’s assessment here.
Guest Lecturers
One of the things I love the most about Star Trek is that it’s very collaborative. Crews work together as a team to accomplish goals. When you are in a collaborative environment like that, you learn your team’s strengths. With that, I wanted to get Mary’s expert opinion on which of her former shipmates would make great guest instructors for Starfleet Academy. These are her picks.
“I mean, they’d all be great! They’d all have something to teach. I know that Sonequa [Martin-Green] actually visited the set during the first season, and I was so happy that the actors playing the cadets got to meet her because she is such a powerful, but also deeply soft and loving leader. I’d love to see Michael Burnham come into Starfleet Academy and be able to show the actual cadets a model of that sort of leadership on the show.
I think Stamets would be absolutely hilarious. His character is so blunt and so funny. It would be really funny for the cadets to have to bump up against his whole energy. Selfishly, I’d love to see Blu’s character, Adira, come back because I think it would be really satisfying to see someone like that who came onto the ship as such a young person and where they are now and how they would relate to being the adult in the room with a bunch of cadets.”
Who would you like for a professor from the Discovery crew? I agree with Mary; I’d be quite happy with any of them, but especially with Michael.
Leaving a Legacy
As I wrapped my conversation with Mary, I considered what it means to me to see her in Star Trek. I wanted to get her take on what it means to her to be part of Star Trek.
“It’s been such a gift. It’s gifted me with an understanding of the long view of television history and how we tell stories in this medium and with a sort of gigantic extended family. People who have done the same job I have, whom I can call upon as resources and friends. It’s just nice to be a part of something that endures. Our journey isn’t over. It continues with other people’s stories.”
I couldn’t have said it any better than that. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 episode 8 “The Life of the Stars” dwells on legacy, storytelling, and family. Being part of the Star Trek universe is being part of a larger family story. Mary Wiseman’s Tilly will go on to leave a lasting impression.
Thank you so much to Mary Wiseman for her time and thoughtful answers. It was an absolute delight to speak with her. Thanks also to the folks at Paramount for inviting Fangirlish to this interview.
If you haven’t watched Star Trek: Starfleet Academy yet, make haste, my friend! You’re missing out on some seriously great Star Trek.
The next episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will air on March 5, 2026, on Paramount+.
