When Star Trek: Discovery’s third episode premiered, the series didn’t just unveil its namesake starship—it also introduced the Trek universe to a fresh type of audience stand-in: the lively, jittery, and completely endearing Cadet Sylvia Tilly, Michael Burnham’s (portrayed by Sonequa Martin-Green) roommate aboard a starship with a somber atmosphere and a vague mission. Long before Lower Decks hit the scene, Mary Wiseman’s Tilly quickly won over fans with her one-of-a-kind mix of courage and charisma.
Now, thanks to time travel and an epic journey in Discovery’s later seasons, Tilly is somehow a legacy character. Since Discovery Season 4, when it was revealed that Tilly would instruct a group of new Starfleet cadets, it was only a matter of time before she appeared at
“I knew I was working at the Academy when Discovery ended,” Wiseman tells Inverse. “So I had my hopes!”
Tilly’s guest spot in Starfleet Academy Season 1 Episode 8 isn’t just a random crossover for the sake of it. Similar to Jett Reno (played by Tig Notaro), Tilly resides in the 32nd Century but hails from the 23rd Century—and even served alongside Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Spock (Ethan Peck). Her role as a visiting instructor for Starfleet Academy’s cadets is somewhat analogous to a medieval figure suddenly teaching at a modern local college. It’s a time-bending trick that fits perfectly within Trek’s established rules, but Wiseman points out there’s more to it than meets the eye.
“In the episode, she says to Reno, ‘We are the women that time forgot.’ I think that there is an interesting place that they hold as being part of ancient history that probably feels a little unmooring on some level,” Wiseman says. “But it also gives them some sense of their place in time.”
Since the USS Discovery made the leap to the 32nd Century at the conclusion of its second season, Tilly’s appearance in Starfleet Academy carries double the emotional weight: she’s a symbol of a ship and crew that span multiple centuries, and in our real world, she also serves as a nod to the Trek era right before the current one. In Episode 8, titled “The Life of the Stars,” Tilly is on hand to teach the cadets about theater—specifically Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town—to help them work through the grief they experienced in Episode 6. For Wiseman, this particular storyline was just as meaningful to Tilly’s place in Trek lore.
“I freaked out because I love Thornton Wilder. I played Emily in Our Town at Juilliard, and I did a production of Skin of Our Teeth off-Broadway where I played Sabina,” Wiseman says. “So I know the playwright really, really well, and I love Our Town. I think it was a well-chosen play for this experience because it works as a device about moving through difficult things in life.”
The episode’s title, “The Life of the Stars,” is taken from Our Town, continuing Star Trek’s longstanding tradition of weaving classic past literature into its futuristic setting. While Wiseman believes many viewers likely have some familiarity with the play, she also recognizes that Trek has frequently served as an entry point for younger audiences into theater and literature—from Dickens and Melville in to in The Next Generation. Even going all the way back to The Original Series, the episode “The Conscience of the King” centered on a Shakespearean troupe aboard the Enterprise. As someone with a background in theater, Wiseman hopes this Starfleet Academy episode will spark interest in Our Town among viewers.
“I think you get to hear a lot of the text in this episode,” Wiseman says. “And not just that, but a real interrogation of the text and what the playwright was trying to communicate. I hope that it whets people’s palettes to either revisit the play or read it for the first time, because it is one of our great American plays, and our great American works of literature in general.”