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Is space really the final frontier? For Celia Rose Gooding, the answer got a little complex in 2025. Not only did Gooding reprise her role of Nyota Uhura when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds came back for its third season, but the Broadway actor also got to explore a "strange new world" by taking part in Critical Role's Exandria Unlimited: Divergence liveplay series that wrapped in March. And though the two projects are wildly different in terms of genre (and medium!), Gooding's experience preparing for the latter couldn't have happened without some friends made in the former.

In case you aren't aware, the liveplay campaign that Gooding took part in was part of the Exandria Unlimited series, which are campaigns that explore the titular realm but are not part of the major Crtical Role cast campaigns, or "core campaigns" as they're known. Exandria Unlimited has seen its share of nerdy guest stars, including Gooding and, in the case of Divergence, DM Brennan Lee Mulligan, who will lead CR's Campaign 4.

"Getting into the world of Exandria was unlike anything I’ve had the opportunity to do before," Gooding told The Fandomentals of the experience, "I haven’t originated a character in a long time, let alone building an entire person from the ground up. [...] Brennan helped a lot with wrangling my ideas, and Liam [O'Brien, CR cast member] gave Erro [O'Brien's character] such depth; he was a fantastic lead to follow. Everybody at the table was so welcoming of my beginner energy."

Gooding is maybe being a bit modest here - though this is their first liveplay, they weren't exactly a newbie to playing Dungeons and Dragons. In fact, to prepare for being a part of Exandria Unlimited, Gooding sought the help of their own Star Trek community.

"I’ve played some D&D with other Star Trek actors," Gooding said, "With the incredible Todd Stashwick as our DM. I also played a one-shot Star Trek adventure with friends in the Trekkie community."

Trekkies know the name Todd Stashwick from a couple of different places in their favorite space-faring universe. In 2004, the actor portrayed Romulan spy Talok in Enterprise's fourth season. Then, in 2023, Stashwick took on a slightly larger role in Picard's third season as Captain Liam Shaw, who commanded the USS Titan-A after William Riker. Now we know that, alongside those roles, Stashwick is also the person to call whenever the Trek gang needs a DM.

But even after Stashwick, Mulligan, and a whole host of others, Gooding still had one more person to thank for their experience into the strange new world of D&D liveplay: Critical Role lorekeeper Dani Carr.

"Those games familiarized me with the basics of D&D," Gooding concluded. "The team at Critical Role gave me tons of resources to familiarize myself with the world. But, given the circumstances of our campaign, a lot of that was knowledge my character didn’t have. I definitely needed to refresh between episodes. Our lore keeper Dani Carr was a godsend with her episodic summaries."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is streaming on Paramount+ now. Exandria Unlimited: Divergence is on Critical Role's Beacon, YouTube, and Twitch channels.

Space may be the final frontier, but there's no end to Popverse's love of the Star Trek universe. Hop aboard the starship Enterprise with our Star Trek watch order, explore strange new worlds with our upcoming Star Trek TV shows and movies list, seek out the new life of the franchise, and boldly go where no Star Trek film has ever gone before - with Quentin Tarantino?