Star Trek: Lower Decks showrunner Mike McMahan assures fans that D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) wasn’t written off of the show and will be back to “kick some ass” in Lower Decks season 5. Tendi was promoted to Lieutenant, junior grade along with the rest of her friends aboard the USS Cerritos in Lower Decks season 4. However, in order to secure the help of her sister, D’Erika Tendi (Ariel Winter), in order to save Lieutenant Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), D’Vana agreed to return to the Orions at the end of Lower Decks season 4.
Discussing Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4’s finale with Inverse, Mike McMahan assured fans that D’Vana Tendi will be back in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5. Read his quote below:
“Tendi will return. Tendi is not being written out of the show… this isn’t a bad thing for Tendi. She is going to go and kick some ass.”
McMahan went deeper while speaking to The Mary Sue about why Tendi chose to return to Orion, and what it will mean for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5. Read his quote below:
“Tendi’s been trying to figure out is she Starfleet or is she the Mistress of the Winter Constellations? And, at the end of this episode, she’s like, “No, I’m D’ Vana Tendi. I’m something new that exists in both. And my sister wants me to come back to Orion. Well, she might’ve bit off a little more than she can chew.”
Tendi & The Orions Have Become One Of Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Highlights
Lower Decks developed the Orions better than Star Trek has in 57 years.
D’Vana Tendi isn’t just one of Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ most lovable characters, but she became the gateway to the animated comedy exploring the Orions more deeply than Star Trek has in the 57 years since the green-skinned aliens were introduced. Orions debuted in Star Trek‘s original pilot, “The Cage,” but were portrayed as slave girls who seduced men. Star Trek: Enterprise revealed that Orion women actually run their society, which was reflected in the villainous 32nd-century Orion crime syndicate called the Emerald Chain in Star Trek: Discovery. Tendi, however, offers a protagonist’s point of view, as Lower Decks established that D’Vana hails from one of the most powerful Orion families and is known as the Mistress of the Winter Constellations.
Mike McMahan’s tease of D’Vana Tendi’s arc in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 is certainly exciting. D’Vana is a science nerd who is in love with Starfleet when she is serving on the USS Cerritos, but Tendi re-embracing her persona as the Mistress of the Winter Constellations is bound to be entertaining. D’Vana has shown glimpses of what a ferocious fighter she can be throughout Star Trek: Lower Decks, and season 5 looks like Tendi will cut loose like never before once she is home on Orion. How long Tendi will be away from the Cerritos and her friends in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 remains to be seen, but it sounds like Orion won’t know what hit it when the Mistress of the Winter Constellations returns.
Star Trek: Lower Decks is available to stream on Paramount+.
Star Trek Lower Decks
- Release Date:
- 2020-08-06
- Cast:
- Jack Quaid, Gillian Vigman, dawnn lewis, Noel Wells, Eugene Cordero, Fred Tatasciore, Jerry O’Connell, Tawny Newsome
- Genres:
- Animation, Adventure, Action
- Seasons:
- 3
- Summary:
- The animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks follows the support crew on one of Starfleet’s least significant ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, in 2380. Ensigns Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Boimler (Jack Quaid), Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and Tendi (Noël Wells) have to keep up with their duties and their social lives often. At the same time, the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies.
- Story By:
- gene roddenbury
- Writers:
- Gene Roddenberry
- Network:
- Paramount
- Streaming Service:
- Paramount+
- Franchise(s):
- Star Trek
