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These days, Cristin Milioti is known to DC fans as the breakout favorite from HBO's The Penguin, in which she played crime boss Sofia Falcone/Gigante. But even before Penguin aired, Milioti already had experience with gritty takes on fan-favorite franchises, as one of the stars of the USS Callister episode of Netflix's Black Mirror, an episode which satirizes the original Star Trek. Now, Milioti is returning to the role, and fans are lauding her performance so much, you'd almost be forgiven for not knowing Milioti strayed sway from the franchise that inspired the episodes.

In 2018, Milioti spoke to The Wrap about her time playing Nanette, the character first introduced in Black Mirror season 4, episode 1, and who returns in Black Mirror, season 7, episode 6. "It was an episode and a role where you get to do everything and flex every muscle," Milioti told the outlet, "It hits on comedy and drama and horror — it’s a bunch of different genres in one, and it was as fun as it looks."

For context - Nanette exists in a VR world controlled by a misogynist who views himself as Captain Kirk. The plot of the first USS Callister episode follows Nanette and the rest of the self-aware characters as the wrest control from their acting captain and virtual jailer.

However, Milioti's training of those muscles she mentioned did not include watching previous Star Trek episodes for inspiration, though she "knew about William Shatner’s Captain Kirk." It wasn't just a matter of not having time to study the series, however, Milioti was very intentional about not letting the gigantic franchise into her preparation for the role. As you know if you've seen Black Mirror season 4, that's because the character of Nanette also comes into the episode unfamiliar with the kind of space-faring that the USS Callister spoofs.

"I sort of intentionally stayed away from [Star Trek]," Milioti said, "when I got the part [...] I wanted to use whatever confusion I might have, because that’s what she might be experiencing as well. So I watched about two minutes of one episode and was like, 'I don’t want to watch any more of this.'"

Eight years later, the version of Nanette that's returning to Netflix is a very different one than we met in the first USS Callister. Though she is as resilient as she's ever been, the character is now more aware of what's going on in the VR world into which she has been digitally cloned, and her motives are very different than last time. However, if Cristin Milioti did end up using different pieces of Star Trek media in her research this time around, she hasn't let anyone know.

Black Mirror season 7 is streaming now on Netflix. 

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