Mistress Of The Winter Constellations: What Tendi’s Orion Star Trek Title Means

Before deciding to join Starfleet, Lt. D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) of Star Trek: Lower Decks was an Orion pirate known as the Mistress of the Winter Constellations, but what exactly does this title signify? As one of the few Orions in Starfleet, Tendi strives to change the perceptions many carry about her planet and its people. Although D’Vana was born into a family of pirates who were members of the Orion Syndicate, she chooses to embark on a different path. With her bubbly personality and enthusiastic approach to pretty much everything, Tendi already defies Orion stereotypes, and her Starfleet career makes her even more unique.

With Tendi, Star Trek: Lower Decks has not only made the Orions a more interesting species, but has also made them more important to the Star Trek franchise. As one of the earliest species introduced in Star Trek: The Orignal Series, the Orions were initially thought up by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry himself. In the unaired TOS pilot, “The Cage,” Vina (Susan Oliver) briefly turns into an Orion slave girl in an attempt to seduce Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter). Initially, Orion women were often depicted as scantily-clad slaves, but Star Trek: Enterprise took the first steps to redefine the role of women in Orion society. Lower Decks has taken it even further, deeping Orion society and presenting three-dimensional Orion characters.

What Tendi’s “Mistress Of The Winter Constellations” Title Means For Orions

Tendi is a powerful figure in the Orion Syndicate.

Tendi’s Orion title of Mistress of the Winter Constellations has come up a few times over the course of Star Trek: Lower Decks, but its origin and exact meaning have yet to be fully defined. However, Lower Decks has offered some clues as to its meaning. In the Star Trek: Stange New Worlds crossover episode with Lower Decks, Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the USS Enterprise encounter an Orion ship. When the Enterprise crew members meet with the Orions, Ensigns Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) point out that one of their fellow Starfleet officers and best friends is an Orion.

After Mariner refers to Tendi as the Mistress of the Winter Constellations, the Orion captain recognizes the name, revealing that an Astrea Tendi serves aboard his ship. Astrea is Tendi’s grandmother, who also went by the same title. This suggests that the title could be a family one that passes from mother to daughter. As the prime daughter of the fifth-largest family in the Orion Syndicate, D’Vana Tendi and her title command a great deal of influence and respect wherever she goes. When D’Vana returns home to Orion for her sister D’Erika’s (Ariel Winter) wedding in Lower Decks, season 4, episode 4, “Something Borrowed, Something Green,” nearly every Orion she encounters reacts with awe and even fear.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Made Orions Matter More Than Ever Before

Orion culture shockingly hasn’t been explored with Lower Decks’ level of depth in 57 years.

Not only is D’Vana Tendi the most interesting and developed Orion to appear in any Star Trek show, but her story has also single-handedly redefined Orions as a species. After the problematic depiction of “Orion slave girls” in TOS, Star Trek: Enterprise updated Orion culture by establishing that the Orion males were actually the slaves. Enterprise also established that some female Orions could emit pheromones that affected males of various species. While these changes were an attempt to update the Orions for a more modern audience, the results are questionable at best and still reduce the Orions to overly sexualized pirates and slavers.

Lower Decks finally gets the Orions right, establishing that not all Orion women can emit pheromones and redefining Orion society. Until Tendi, the depiction of Orions in Star Trek lacked nuance and there had not been any three-dimensional Orion characters. The Orions have not only become a more interesting species, but they also matter more to the greater Star Trek universe. The Orions have come a long way from their problematic TOS origins, and Tendi and the Orions in Star Trek: Lower Decks are a big part of that change.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is available to stream on Paramount+.