Characters / Star Trek: Lower Decks - Main Crewmates

Star Trek: Lower Decks Main Character Index
U.S.S. Cerritos (Main Characters, Beckett Mariner, Other Crewmates) | Other Starfleet Crews | Independent Characters

Main Characters

Lieutenant (j.g.) Beckett Mariner

Lieutenant (j.g.) Beckett Mariner

"Sometimes, you have to do what's wrong to survive."

Voiced by: Tawny Newsome

A ensign and later lieutenant aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos in the command division, and the daughter of Captain Carol Freeman.

See her page for more information.

Lieutenant (j.g.) Brad Boimler

Lieutenant (j.g.) Bradward "Brad" Boimler

"We all joined Starfleet to dive headfirst into the unknown. We're explorers. Of course we don't always know what's going on!"

Voiced by: Jack Quaid

A ensign and later lieutenant aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos in the command division, fresh out of the Academy.

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• The Ace: As of Season 2, he is slowly becoming this over the course of the series thanks to his time serving as a lieutenant on the U.S.S. Titan. He has become so skilled in fact that in "I, Excretus", not only was he the only member of the crew to pass any of the training simulations, but he was eventually able to increase his score to a perfect 100% and only ended up failing because Captain Freeman ordered him to not finish the program in order to stall for time. This becomes even more impressive when it's revealed that the training simulations were rigged to make sure everyone failed and Boimler was able to not only pass but get a perfect score despite that. Even as early as "Temporal Edict" in Season 1, he was the only one unaffected by the lack of buffer time.
• Affectionate Nickname: Mariner sometimes calls him "Boims".
• Alliterative Name: Bradward Boimler
• Ambiguously Human: A running joke through several episodes now, most notably "I, Excretus", is that Boimler is in fact not actually human, merely some sort of very human-presenting species. Whether this is just a joke at his expense, or hinting at another truth entirely has yet to be seen.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He gets the promotion to the Titan he wanted. But the reason the Titan is so prestigious is because it's essentially a battleship, and being a helmsman on a ship that is in constant combat with a captain who eagerly dives into space anomalies is really stressful. That said, Boimler is still disappointed when circumstances force him to transfer back to the Cerritos.
• Berserk Button: Do not touch his rank pips or insult Starfleet's uniforms to his face.
• Beware the Nice Ones: For the most part, Boimler is very passive and unwilling to engage. However, even Boimler has his limits and he will flip out when he's pushed past them.
• Butt-Monkey: He's on the receiving end of constant humiliation and abuse, mostly because of Mariner.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Fitting for a Butt-Monkey, on the occasions Boimler does try to break the rules, it often blows up in his face.
  • Trying to lie to the Farm attendants about being a freak is immediately exposed, and he's tossed on the next shuttle off-planet.
  • Attempting to use Mariner's status as the captain's daughter for blackmail only results in it being broadcast to the entire crew, rendering the information useless and landing him in hot water with the captain.
  • Lying about being from Hawaii causes him anguish, and he comes clean, causing all the other officers who've been lying about this to do the same... only for them to immediately bond over being from moons and shun Boimler for trying to get in on that.
    Ransom: Modesto is not a moon.
    Benzite: If you were from a moon, you'd know how deeply offensive that is.
  • Even trying to be bold in a tabletop game ends in misery for him; a simple act of confronting a Klingon bartender has his character brutally killed, dishonorably at that, since the bartender beat his character to death with his character's own severed arm, thus technically dying by his own hand.
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Despite Boimler and Mariner's frequently tense friendship, Rutherford notes at one point that Bradward seems noticeably more unhinged without her around.
• Character Development:
  • Boimler gets a great deal of this in Season 2. While he's still something of a nebbish and needs backup often, he's found a spine and is a much more capable character overall. Best demonstrated in "Where Pleasant Fountains Lie", a Mariner/Boimler two-hander away team mission (which made up the plot of several Season 1 episodes) where Boimler successfully comes up with a plan to defeat the episode's villain and executes it on his own without any help from Mariner despite her having him re-assigned so that she could look out for him.
  • In Season 3, he's convinced to take up a new way of thinking when he's being hunted and decides to become "Bold Boimler", becoming more vocal and taking more risks. Despite Mariner thinking "Bold Boimler" is gonna get him killed one day, it gives Boimler more confidence — he blows up at a bunch of hecklers while defending Starfleet's actions, becomes an amazing Dabo player and ultimately gets the entire bridge crew of the Cerritos to listen to Shaxs' idea of ejecting the warp core.
  • In Season 4, Boimler is promoted to the rank of Lieutenant j.g. and saves a museum'd U.S.S. Voyager from being assimilated by both the Borg and the macroviruses (It Makes Sense in Context). Later he's given command of an away mission, which (with T'Lyn's encouragement) he completes successfully, despite temporarily dying at the end. Then in the season finale, Boimler is given temporary command of the Cerritos (choosing T'Lyn as his first officer), and stands up to Admiral Vassery while helping to avert a major crisis.
• Chaste Hero: Boimler is unusual among Trek regulars for his lack of interest in romance. The only time he is ever seen pursuing a romantic relationship is when he is under the direct influence of a neural parasite. Women tend to find him attractive but he's usually oblivious to their advances (if not willfully ignorant). He does seem to be interested in sex since an early episode mentions his series of fake holodeck girlfriends (and we finally meet one in "Crisis Point II: Paradoxus", but unfortunately he's too distraught by the death of his transporter clone to pursue the romance plot he'd written for himself) and he unwittingly acknowledges that he finds Mariner "hot" (to her own mother, no less) but he never, ever acts on his urges, again highly unusual for Trek.
• The Chew Toy: To a literal extent in the series premiere, "Second Contact", where he's bodily employed as a pacifier to calm down a giant alien spider (which is itself livestock).
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: In Season 3, he's completely oblivious to the flirtations of all the vineyard girls, taking their questions seriously, though it's implied later in the season that he is aware of it and ignores it because that would mean being stuck on the raisin farm. It's played straight in regards to fellow Cerritos crewmembers, as Mariner pours herself another round when two of the other girls at Jennifer's sleepover ask whether he is single, something Boimler likely would reciprocate since they're fellow officers.
  • Becomes even funnier when we see him in live-action on Strange New Worlds. Jack Quaid definitely inherited both of his parents' good looks, but Boimler is still the same clueless dork no matter the medium.
• Cowardly Lion: His first instinct in mildly-dangerous situations is to run away screaming, but when his back's really up against the wall, or if someone else is in danger, he'll step up to save the day, even at the risk of his own life. You know, like a Starfleet officer!
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite being The Chew Toy who frequently finds himself out of his league when dealing with aliens, he's a crack shot with a phaser. He's also the only person on the Cerritos who can function perfectly without buffer time (even the captain herself struggles to uphold her own directive). Appears to be drifting slowly towards Hidden Badass as he's pulled the wool over both Mariner's and Agimus' respective eyes.
• Death Is Cheap: Boimler has died three times during the course of the series so far, once per season starting with the second, and is revived with surprising ease.
  • In "First First Contact" he drowns in Cetacean Ops. Tendi brings him back with chest compressions and he seems to have died just long enough to see The Koala.
  • In "Crisis Point 2 Paradoxus" he passes out from heat and dehydration, waking up to talk to Captain Sulu... and then waking up for real, to learn he was clinically dead for a bit.
  • Then he dies when a power terminal facility explodes with him in it, in "In The Cradle Of Vexilon". This time he wakes up in the Prime Universe's version of the Black Lodge, only for The Koala to send him back.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Slowly revealed to be suffering from this over the course of Season 3, which nicely informs his Married to the Job status. It's revealed that he was raised on a vineyard for raisins, which he found unbearable, and tried to find a greater purpose by joining Starfleet. As an ensign he's clearly discouraged by his career seemingly hitting nothing but roadblocks, and tries to compensate by doing his menial job to the best of his ability. This comes to a head when his transporter clone is seemingly killed in a random accident, which sends him into existential despair at the apparent meaninglessness of his life.
• Deuteragonist: As in most Star Trek series, Lower Decks is a clear two-man show, with Boimler as the deuteragonist to Mariner. When he isn't sharing the A-plot with Mariner, he is usually the focus of the episode's B-plot. He even gets an episode named for him ("Much Ado About Boimler"), a rare honor among Star Trek regulars. He turns the trick again in Season 2 (although we only learn this at the very end, when he mentions that "Excretus" is his assimilated Borg identity in the simulation). Season 2 also sees his story arc becoming more prominent at the expense of Mariner, the protagonist, whose arc formed the throughline of Season 1. Boimler is also the focal character of the Crossover episode with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
• Determinator: When Boimler puts his mind to something, nothing will stop him from doing it. Usually through non-violence, though the little guy is more than happy to whip out his phaser when the situation calls for it. Getting beaten up, humiliated, his life threatened is little more than standard operating procedure for this guy.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Played for laughs in the season one finale when Mariner, attempting to act more professional, keeps calling him sir on the grounds he technically outranks her.^note He doesn't, by the way — she's just messing with him. Although he does by the end of the episode, when he's promoted. He finds it gross and disturbing, and keeps asking her to stop.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Downplayed. From the start Boimler's design remained the same from the initial piece of concept art and any changes to his character come through clear Character Development.
• Easily Forgiven: Mariner gladly takes him back into the gang when he returns to the Cerritos, despite having been pissed at him for "abandoning" her by accepting a transfer to the Titan. A few episodes later, she admits that she actually is still upset about it, but once he apologizes for how he handled the situation she accepts it without any further drama.
• Effeminate Voice: Downplayed since it's not his normal voice, but when he's overly anxious, he speaks in a high-pitched tone.
• Endearingly Dorky: Reconstruction! Once people get past the straight laced professional butt kisser persona, this is essentially him. Each and every time Brad has managed to get noticed- not just potential suitors but friends and superiors- they note that his non-violent and friendly nerdy personality does so much for them. Ranging from saving the ship itself to simply brightening up their morning after receiving a bad work assignment. All this in a vast organization where everyone is forced to be an action survivor at the very least just to survive, this allows him to stand out.
• Ensign Newbie: At the start of the series, Boimler is well-read on Starfleet history and protocol, but lacking in practical experience, having only been on five planets (counting Earth, and Mariner does not).
• Fanboy: Boimler is a rabid fan of nearly every famous figure from Starfleet history and can't resist gushing about them whenever the subject arises.
• Fantastic Racism: He's clearly prejudiced against the Ferengi, believing them to be Obviously Evil and Always Chaotic Evil.^note This is probably from being warned about the Ferengi in the academy, a Call-Back to the first episode of Star Trek: Voyager.
  Boimler: He could not be any more Ferengi — the big ears, the beady eyes, the greedy thing they do with their hands. Ferengi are the most untrustworthy race in the galaxy. He probably just wants to lure us over there so he can mug us.
• Farm Boy: His grew up on his family's vineyard, though unlike Picard they produce raisins rather than wine. He utterly hates it and joined Starfleet to escape that life.
• Fearless Fool: In the third season he declares himself "Bold Boimler" after realizing his cautious nature may be slowing his career advancement, but is quite bad at judging the difference between "bold" and "suicidally reckless."
• Fish out of Water: He's great at following the rules, but out of his depth when the situation calls for flying by the seat of one's pants.
• Happy Ending Override: The first season ends with Boimler getting a promotion and being transferred to the Titan, his dream job. He is shown to be much more in his element on the Titan and seems like things are looking up for him. At the start of the second season though, three months have passed and he is constantly freaking out due to the intense battles he finds himself in. A position on the Titan is more prestigious than most other ships, but much more stressful because it is essentially a battleship instead of an explorer ship. This is zig-zagged at the end of "Kayshon, His Eyes Open", when Boimler is forced to return to the Cerritos and demoted back to Ensign: though a bit annoyed by this turn of events, he now has a better appreciation for his old position, with Riker even encouraging him to enjoy it while it lasts, and he immediately reconnects with his old friends.
• Hated Hometown: He hates his family's vineyard in Modesto, and he hates making raisins.
• Heroic BSoD: In "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus", he slips into one when he learns his transporter clone was killed in a freak gas accident and tries to use his holodeck movie to search for The Meaning of Life. When he doesn't find them, he slips even further before passing out and having a dream meeting Captain Hikaru Sulu... or being clinically dead from lack of water, one or the other.
• Hidden Depths: He can play the violin incredibly well, although his songwriting skills need some improvement because he bored the audience during his performance.
• Hypochondriac: A weird Inverted Trope case: Boimler is host to a wide variety of anomalous medical conditions as one of his running gags (lots of allergies, "sensitive corneas," and so on) but he's such a workaholic he pushes through and keeps working in spite of all these weird little problems.
• Informed Deformity: At least according to inorganic beings, Boimler has been described as 'pimply faced' by an evil computer and 'almost human' by a simulation of the Borg queen. Though to everyone else he's rather ordinary, even seen as 'mousy sweet and soft'. Though the latter was under influence from a mating parasite. Of course thanks to the minimalist art style to the show, the viewers can't verify any of this. In live action he is of course played by his voice actor Jack Quaid, who inherited his parents' movie star good looks.^note Though to be fair Quaid often plays nerdy/geeky characters in live action as well.
• The Klutz: While normally Boimler is the epitome of straight laced, he's naturally clumsy and prone to bad luck on a good day. So much so that even the nicest of people and closest of his friends can't help but laugh at his expense. He uses this to save Tendi from her transformation into an angry scorpion by pratfalling repeatedly, making her laugh, which also earns him a compliment from Ransom.
• A Lesson Learned Too Well: In Season 3, he decides to stop being so risk-averse and become "Bold Boimler". This ends up getting him into different scrapes he might've otherwise avoided, much to everyone else's exasperation, with Mariner figuring it's going to end up killing him.
• Married to the Job: Ditches his friends and cuts contact with Mariner following his promotion to U.S.S. Titan.
• Mistaken for Romance: In "We'll Always Have Tom Paris", when Tendi asks Mariner if she and Boimler are a couple, since they're always seen together, she's grossed out by it and insists they're just friends and she sees him as a pet. When we finally see Boimler's perspective in "An Embarrassment of Dooplers", when Malvus calls him Mariner's boyfriend, he, along with Mariner, is also grossed out by it.
• Momma's Boy: For the ship's Talent Night, he performs two violin pieces ("Essence" and "Requiem for a Hug") he wrote about his mother.
• My Hover Craft Is Full Of Eels: He gets his metaphors a bit mixed up talking to Kayshon and accidentally calls him fat (at least that's apparently what happened based on context).
• Naked People Are Funny:
  • In "Second Contact", he and Mariner are forced to strip so that she can use their uniforms as a decoy for the spider, but he's irritated that it only goes after his uniform. Then he loses his underwear when the spider uses him as a pacifier. He returns to the ship in a pair of too-short farmer overalls.
  • In "Cupid's Errant Arrow", Mariner finds him in an orbital platform completely naked, because he was expecting his girlfriend.
  • In "I, Excretus", seeing a simulation of Brad going spread eagle during the "Naked Time" simulation is what starts to break Mariner into a complete failure of her simulation training, where she was previously skeeved out at seeing everyone in a sex frenzy but not willing to quit.
• New Meat: In contrast to Mariner, he actually is fresh out of the Academy, although he wants to be promoted as soon as he can.
• No-Respect Guy: He's repeatedly belittled by Mariner and treated as a worthless non-entity by his superior officers. Subverted toward the end of the first season, when his accomplishments finally pay off and he's promoted and transferred to the Titan. Even after returning to the Cerritos in Season 2, he's treated with more respect than before and Ransom, at least, openly recognizes him for his accomplishments.
• Non-Action Guy: Like many things with Boimler, Reconstruction. While Brad isn't afraid to whip out his phaser when its called for, Boimler is proud to admit that he's an explorer over an adventurer because it allows him to actually enjoy his service in Starfleet, an organization whose job it is to do exactly that. He even inspired the Space Marine types on the Titan to rediscover their love of "boring" Starfleet things and figured out a non-violent way for them to escape certain death. Conversely, his time on the Titan has made him a more capable fighter and officer, which becomes more obvious when he returns to the Cerritos.
• Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Inverted — he dyes his hair purple (one of his log entries mentions that it's not his natural hair color), and he's the biggest stickler for the rules until his Character Development.
• Obfuscating Disability: He pretends to still be a patient at "the Farm" in order to flirt with the attendants, which works until one of the actual patients calls him out.
• Oblivious to Love: Season 3 shows that he may be more attractive to the opposite sex than he realizes. Jennifer's friends ask Mariner if he's single (to her bafflement), and he's completely oblivious to the fact that all the female employees on his family's vineyard want to have sex with him (no matter how overt they get), though it's implied the latter stems from hating being back on the family vineyard.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In "Envoys", Mariner knows something is very wrong with Boimler when he loses the will to carry out their mission.
  Boimler: I don't even care anymore.
  Mariner: What? Oh man, how much blood did you lose?
  • There's also his Rage Breaking Point in Season 3's "Reflections", which occurs after a couple of outpost scientists make fun of Starfleet's uniforms, then take his rank pip and stomp on it. He goes completely apeshit and wrecks most of the other booths at the job fair while ranting at the other booth runners and swearing up a storm. Ransom's taken aback to see Boimler on the rampage and Mariner calmly signing people up for Starfleet.
• Other Me Annoys Me: He's transporter-cloned in the second season and feels betrayed and hurt when his other self does not self-sacrificially volunteer to leave the Titan with him — and also starts sucking up to Riker. That said, Brad DOES experience some intense grief when he thinks William's been killed, though it's up to the viewer if it's actual mourning for his other self or if it he's just been painfully reminded of his own mortality.
• Out of Focus: After three seasons focusing heavily on his Character Development, Boimler takes a bit of a back seat in season 4, with only one real focus episode ("In the Cradle of Vexilon", which is about his first command mission). Otherwise, although he gets plenty of screentime, most of it has him in comedic side plots or supporting another character's storyline.
• The Perfectionist: He desperately needs his efforts to be rewarded, and strives for perfection in whatever task he's assigned. On the one hand, this makes him efficient and he's the only one who can function without "buffer time", on the other, this means he won't stop until he makes a perfect score. This actually ends up saving the ship in the second season; not only does he pass a rigged simulation, his repeated attempts to bump up his score and avoid The B Grade mean that the bureaucrat trying to disband the ship can't submit the crew's score until he's done. This may also explain why he failed the infamous Kobayashi Maru test 17 times, if a line from his rant in "Reflections" is any indication (presumably he didn't realize it was supposed to be a no-win scenario and kept trying it over and over).
• Professional Butt-Kisser: He initially does his best to curry favor with senior officers and dignitaries, though usually without much luck. He cheerfully admits that he's looking forward to kissing Ramsey's ass when she's assigned temporary captain, although he would have phrased it differently. Ironically Boimler is always noticed by his superiors when he's not doing this, particularly Commander Ransom (who hates bootlickers in general and is never impressed by Boimler whenever he sucks up to him). It's also downplayed into eventual nonexistence as the show goes on, as the one thing that routinely separates Boimler from other characters of this trope is Boimler's increasing willingness to succeed on his own merits.
• Prone to Tears: He tends to break down into tears whenever he feels unappreciated or helpless.
• Purple Is the New Black: Averted. "Grounded" confirms that his hair is in fact purple, not just a Hollywood Darkness style of black, and that he dyes it that way to cover up his true hair color. What that color is, however, is conveniently not revealed.
• Rage Breaking Point: In "Reflections", after spending the entire time trying his damnedest to prevent Mariner from going rogue, a pair of scientists mock the Starfleet uniform, then one of them pulls off and tosses away his rank pip, leading it to getting it stepped on. That was the last straw for Boimler and he goes apeshit.
• Rank Up:
  • Gets promoted to the rank of Lieutenant (j.g.) at the end of the Season 1 finale. It doesn't last, he ends up getting demoted back to the rank of Ensign at the end of the second episode of Season 2.
  • Gets promoted to Lieutenant j.g. again in the season 4 premiere, "Twovix", and this time it sticks.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Occasionally prone to this when things are very bad (e.g.: three Pakled ships warping in in the Season 1 finale, or facing death by drowning in the Season 2 finale).
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Mariner's Red, constantly being browbeaten by her into actions he'd rather not do.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: He has a very high-pitched scream when he's in trouble (which is often).
• Social Climber: Of the main characters, Boimler is the most concerned with getting promoted.
• The Stool Pigeon: When the fed-up patients of a medical ship he's on decide to mutiny, Boimler pretends to side with them and immediately tells the captain, although it's mostly out of his belief that they're making a mistake. (Which is—eventually—proven true.)
• Stupid Sexy Friend: Boimler has admitted that he finds Mariner 'hot'... at the worst possible time, during a performance review with the ships captain- Mariner's own mother.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Zig Zagging.
  • After being the resident Butt-Monkey of the Cerritos and having all his attempts at currying favor and advancing himself blow up in his face throughout the first season, the finale has him earn a promotion to and a transfer to the U.S.S. Titan, where he seems to have made new friends and is liked by Captain Riker... Then he gets transporter cloned and his clone steals his promotion and gets him sent back to the Cerritos.
  • Ransom acknowledges his talents at the end of "wej Duj" by recommending him to give pointers to a new cadet who was having trouble maintaining his work schedule.
  • In the aftermath of deciding to be bold in Season 3, it seems to be paying off: his rage-induced rampage, while landing him in the brig for a night, impressed Ransom to the point the latter offered to have a drink with Boimler after he's released. Then, during the crew's visit to DS9, he gets absurdly lucky at Quark's dabo table, to the increasing horror of the pit boss; when the boss offers Boimler a gift voucher for Quark's gift shop instead, Boimler gladly takes it (since as he points out, Starfleet doesn't use money) and gets to walk away with no debt and a bunch of Quark's merchandise.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Boimler (almost) always goes lawful. He knows the rules and regulations of Starfleet forward, backward, and upside down, following each of them to the letter. The problem that it's left him with little real world experience and initiative to think on his own when he runs into something the regulations didn't cover or handle wrong. More than that, because he sticks to the rules so much, he's seen as a wet blanket by his fellow lower deckers and boring by the higher ups to such an extent he's seen as part of the background at best and outright worthless at worst. To be fair, in 'Second Contact', he did choose not to rat Mariner out for giving farmers aid without waiting for Starfleet's approval.
• Took a Level in Badass: After returning from the Titan, one would be excused for assuming that Boimler would backslide to becoming the same nebbish load that he was for most of the first season. And he CAN be... a bit... but also has become a much more capable and well-rounded person during his time on the bigger ship, and is more capable of taking charge, commanding others (including, at times, Mariner herself), deception, trickery and even physical combat. He's also a much more quick-thinking and capable officer.
• Vague Age: Downplayed. In "Empathological Fallicies", Mariner comments that she knew him when he turned 25 (and tried to grow a mustache as part of his quarter-life crisis). He implied in the pilot episode, set in 2380, that he had only met Mariner the year before, aka 2379, meaning that, as of the fourth season (set in 2381), he can be no younger than 25 and no older than 27 (assuming he turned 25 in 2379). 25 is appropriate for an officer who has been out of the academy for two years, assuming that he entered Starfleet Academy at age 19 and spent four years matriculating there.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Downplayed. Beckett at first makes fun of the fact his name is "Bradward", but he treats it as if it's no big deal.
• Workaholic: If it were up to him, there would be no breaks in Starfleet. "Temporal Edict" demonstrates that he excels in a hectic work environment which has strict, jam-packed scheduling, and he effortlessly completes the menial tasks assigned to him in the allotted time (with some tasks even being completed ahead of schedule). He tells Freeman that it has been the greatest week of his life after she eliminated buffer time.

Lieutenant (j.g.) D'Vana Tendi

Lieutenant (j.g.) D'Vana Tendi

"WE are your family! We will always be there for you! And right now we're headed for pile of crazy dangerous space debris. Just trust us!"

Voiced by: Noël Wells

A ensign and later lieutenant aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos in the science department.

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• The Ace: A unorthodox example, but Tendi's natural curiosity and relentless zeal for whatever she's doing means she can accumulate new skills and knowledge very quickly, plus she's far more capable in a fight than she looks.
• Achievements in Ignorance: She started practicing DNA sequencing in her off-time, and she ended up creating a dog that could shapeshift, fly, and speak English. Turns out she had no idea what regular Earth dogs were like since they don't have them on Orion, so she didn't think it was weird to add new features.
• Alien Blood: The show establishes in canon that Orions aren't just green-skinned space babes, but green-muscled and green-blooded as well.
• Audience Surrogate: She seems to be written as this, as her reaction to serving aboard the starship is, at least initially, pure Squee. She's also the Naïve Newcomer, so ship protocols can be explained to the audience through her.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Tendi is one of the sweetest and most helpful members of the Cerritos, but she is fully capable of kicking seven shades of green shit out of fully armed and trained Romulan soldiers with her bare hands. There's some pretty heavy implications that she was once a fearsome pirate, which are confirmed in "Hear All, Trust Nothing." And then it's revealed in "Something Borrowed, Something Green" that she was trained from childhood as her Syndicate pirate family's assassin.
• Blatant Lies: Whenever her Orion background comes up Tendi often throws truth out the window to conceal the facts about her people and her own background. Unfortunately, she's a Bad Liar at the best of times and her friends mostly take her at her word out of friendship despite Tendi having to repeatedly get entangled in Orion situations that gradually reveal that not only was she a Space Pirate, but that her family is one of the most powerful in the Orion Syndicate.
• Boyish Short Hair: Her hairstyle is very short (it's shaved around the sides and the back, so her locks are limited to the top of her head), unlike the long hair that's typically associated with Orion women.
• Break the Cutie: Tendi loves Starfleet. She loves the ship, the crew, the adventures and especially her friends. The green medic tries to pack as much fun as she can into her job. But when Tendi unwittingly volunteered her and her friends for the most demeaning and dangerous job on the Cerritos she was smacked down bit by bit until she had an emotional breakdown and wished she never left Orion. Luckily Boimler was there to give her the slapstick Cooldown Hug she needed.
• But Now I Must Go: Season 4 ends with her forced to return to Orion and resume her role as the Mistress of the Winter Constellations after making a deal with her sister D'Erika to do so in return for her help in rescuing Mariner from Locarno.
• The Captain: Reveals in "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus" that this is her ultimate goal. (Presumably she wants to command a Starfleet science vessel specifically, seeing as her position in Orion culture probably would've made it possible there.)
• Compelling Voice: She may not have the mood-altering pheremones certain other types of Orions have, but she has a "bossing everyone around voice" that she uses on other Orions in "We'll Always Have Tom Paris" and "Something Borrowed, Something Green". It only works on people willing to listen to her in the first place, however, and she's bothered by the cultural baggage of using it. As she grows more confident, however, she learns how to draw upon her more decisive side to make herself a more effective officer.
• Creating Life Is Awesome: As a personal project she engineered a dog from scratch with no prior experience with one. The result is physically identical to a normal dog, with a lot of random extra abilities.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: You wouldn't know it from her quirky, ditzy personality, but she's more than capable of demolishing close to a dozen armed Romulan guards, with her bare hands. "We'll Always Have Tom Paris" implies these combat skills come from a Dark and Troubled Past that she's loathe to talk about. In "Something Borrowed, Something Green" said Dark and Troubled Past come to light: She was literally trained since childhood to be an actual assassin.
• Cultural Rebel: Most other Orions we've seen in the prime timeline has been either a murderous pirate (male) or a voracious sexual predator (female). Conversely, she's a socially awkward medic.
• Curtains Match the Window: Her hair and her eyes are green.
• The Cutie: Big eyes, freckles on her cheeks, a light and sweet voice, and an inherently kind-hearted demeanor; she fits this trope to a tee.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She comes from a clan of feared and infamous Syndicate Space Pirates, and it's implied that she was involved in the family business to some degree before joining Starfleet. She inherited the title of "Mistress of the Winter Constellations" from her grandmother, and presumably her mother, and is fully capable of living up to its fearsome reputation when she needs to.
• Defector from Decadence: As more of her past is uncovered it becomes apparent that she was a prominent and skilled member of an Orion crime family, with all the ruthlessness that implies, that wanted nothing more than to be the furthest thing from that as she pursued scientific endeavors in Starfleet.
• Determinator: Deconstruction. Much like Boimler, when Tendi gets an idea in her head she will not stop until she does it. The problem is when this happens it always results in more danger, bodily harm, and unnecessary complications than are necessary. Ranging from hunting friends down to remove body parts, to visiting violent pirate dens, to even willingly cracking open her own limbs.
• Desperately Craves Affection: Kinda. Tendi NEEDS to be liked by anyone she meets. When someone dislikes her, this cute medic describes it as 'ants on her brain'. Tendi will go to any lengths to making someone like her. It really says something that her more extreme attempts at this start at stalking and end up at (trying to) removing someone's brain to rewire it neuron by neuron.
• The Ditz: For as lovable as Tendi is, she admittedly is this when it comes to Earth-related matters, such as believing that all dogs can shapeshift, fly, and talk.
• The Dreaded: To other Orions, Tendi is known as "Mistress of the Winter Constellations", first daughter of the D'Vana syndicate and trained assassin. Anyone she doesn't personally know is grateful they survive meeting her.
• Dude Magnet: She lacks the pheromones Orion's are infamous for, but according to an old acquaintance of hers on Orion, she never needed them to make men fall at her feet.
• Enthusiastic Newbie Teacher: Though not an educator by trade, Tendi seems to be the go-to liaison for new recruits aboard the Cerritos, and she's nothing if not enthusiastic about it both times.
• Genki Girl: As energetic as she is upbeat.
• Girly Bruiser: She may be bubbly and sweet, but she's devastating in hand-to-hand combat.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Played With. She's a member of the Trope Namer species and is certainly attractive, but she doesn't wear revealing clothing (outside of the movie in "Crisis Point") and endears people to her with her kind, cute, and optimistic personality rather than by being an overt seductress the way Orion women are portrayed as. Tendi is admittedly rather upset by the stereotyping of her species as this trope.
• Hidden Buxom:
  • Tendi heavily downplays the cliché fanservice elements seen in Orions up until now, because she doesn't want to play into the Green-Skinned Space Babe stereotype, and is usually just seen in her Starfleet uniform. However, she's noticeably curvier than Mariner.
  • This is obvious when both women are in uniform, but even more noticable when Tendi is out of a uniform, as in "Crisis Point" when she wears the usual Orion space pirate outfit, or other situations that put her in either civilian clothes or undergarments.
• I Hate Past Me: Tendi is super embarrassed about her pirate past and hates bringing it up. This is easily seen in "Something Borrowed, Something Green" as she tries to deflect everything about who she is.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: In "Moist Vessel" we learn that Tendi has an obsessive need to be liked by everyone; in "Empathological Fallacies" it plays out as wanting to be best friends with T'Lyn. In "Strange Energies", she is willing to extract Rutherford's brain and fix it that way rather than risk losing him as a friend.
• Instant Expert: Well, "instant" may be a stretch, but she dedicates herself to any task she gets with 100% enthusiasm, and takes up numerous side projects in her off-time. She has the same dedication for cleaning the conference room as she does running a secret Black Ops mission with her executive officer. It makes Dr. T'Ana take notice and recommend she take the bridge exam to become Science Officer.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Thanks to the training she received from her pirate family, when Tendi decides to kick ass, she goes hard.
• Living Aphrodisiac: Averted hard. Tendi does not produce pheromones and is annoyed at the stereotype that all Orion women use this ability. (Specifically, she's consistently detested the implication of controlling anyone else that way, and is finally confirmed in "Something Borrowed, Something Green" to not be able to produce them either.)
• Mad Scientist: She shares this role equally with Rutherford. As a member of the medical staff her first day started with her pumping a fully awake patient's heart with her bare hands, creates a borderline eldritch abomination dog in her spare time, and when she's worried about a friend's behavior she tries to hunt him down to remove his brain.
• The Medic: Among the main cast, she started off as a medical officer who assisted Dr. T'Ana in sickbay.
• Minion with an F in Evil: On the occasions she has to pretend to be a bad person, she's not very good at it, using G-rated swears and half-heartedly talking about robbing people. Later we see that she's capable of turning up the heat more, but doesn't like doing it.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Up until now, Orions have been portrayed as vicious space pirates and seductresses. Tendi isn't either of those things and insists that Orions haven't engaged in piracy for, like, five years now (mostly).
• New Meat: She's fresh out of Starfleet Academy and new to the U.S.S. Cerritos in "Second Contact".
• Nice Girl: She's the most consistently kind-hearted and good-natured of the four main characters, aside from perhaps Rutherford.
• Not So Above It All: Tendi is the nicest person on the Cerritos, if not all of Starfleet, and tries to get along with everyone. But even the heart of Beta Shift can't help but laugh when she sees the resident Butt-Monkey make a mess of himself. Because of this and her love of slapstick, she's able to bounce back from her worst day on the job, which sees her tortured by space trash and turned into a man-eating bug.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Tendi is usually cheerful and upbeat, but even she has her limits.
  • After a whole day of suffering injuries handling "Anomaly Consignment Day", and Mariner and Rutherford's complaining, an increasingly frazzled Tendi, influenced by a mood-altering cube, reaches her breaking point and starts ranting about how much everything sucks, alarming her friends. Things get so bad she even yells she wishes she was back on Orion.
  • After Peanut Hamper betrays everyone again in "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption" she goes into a state of Tranquil Fury and is distinctly unamused with Peanut Hamper's attempt to call the Borg to their location.
  • She's considerably more willing to put on her game face when her sister D'Erika is involved, during "Something Borrowed, Something Green". (The whole episode also retroactively makes her Anomaly Consignment Day rant even more clearly out of character.)
• Plucky Girl: No matter how dire the situation is, nothing seems to dampen her enthusiasm.
• The Pollyanna: At the end of the pilot episode, Mariner jokingly asks if she's still excited to be there. Tendi's response is an enthusiastic "Yes!" because she got to hold a heart (as in, one still attached to a patient that she had to manually pump) on her first day! And in the Season 1 finale, she does not despair over Rutherford's amnesia making him completely forget her... she sees it as an opportunity to become his bestie all over again.
• Punctuation Shaker: Her given name contains an apostrophe, as is apparently common for Orion names.
• Rank Up: Promoted to Lieutenant j.g. in the season 4 premiere, "Twovix".
• Red Baron: In her former life (and to members of her family) she was known as "Mistress of the Winter Constellations." May also qualify for Names to Run Away from Really Fast status, as the person who uses this name for the first time seems rather frightened of her.
  • We finally found out why in Season 4's "Something Borrowed, Something Green." Tendi is the eldest daughter of the fifth largest Orion Syndicate family. And eldest or Prime daughters of Syndicate families are trained to be assassins for the Syndicate. Suddenly so much about Tendi makes more sense.
• Ruthless Modern Pirates: Eventually confirms that she grew up in a pirate family allied with the infamous Orion Syndicate. It's ambiguous if Tendi was ever one of these herself (making her a Reformed Criminal) or if she was merely trained by her family. Either way, it's made abundantly clear that just because she decided against going into the family business doesn't mean she wasn't GOOD at it.
• Secretly Wealthy: "Something Borrowed, Something Green" reveals that she's the eldest daughter of one of the most powerful families in the entire Orion Syndicate and grew up on a massive estate. Like everything else in her past, she tries to heavily downplay it when her friends finally find out.
• Ship Tease:
  • She gets some mild teasing with Rutherford throughout the first season, but it's especially heavy in "Terminal Provocations." They connect really well due to them being the two nicest and most pure-hearted crewmembers of the Cerritos, their friendship is clearly healthier and more mutually respectful than Mariner and Boimler's, and Tendi often excitedly hugs Rutherford when she's happy with him. Only time will tell, however, if they'll ever decide to become more than friends. For what it's worth, when Mariner asks her if the two are dating in "We'll Always Have Tom Paris," Tendi's response is an uncertain "Not really?"
    • The pair have spades of this in "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place" where they pose as a married couple as part of an assignment. However, all the talk of romance and erotic activities are way too far outside either of their comfort zones and they end the mission agreeing that the experience was too awkward and they feel more comfortable as Just Friends. They then go back to work blissfully unaware of the chemistry that comes naturally when they aren't under pressure and being forced into acting romantic.
  • There also fans who saw her interaction with T'Lyn as such. Since Vulcan have Touch Telepathy, Tendi grabbing T'Lyn hand is the equivalent of a French kiss... not that Tendi necessarily knew that at the time.
• Space Pirates: The Tendi family, including D'Vana before she joined Starfleet.
• Stepford Smiler: Her insistence on always finding the bright side to any situation means she sometimes tries to force herself to be cheerful even when it's doing more harm than good, and she sometimes pretends to be more okay than she really is after a crisis.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In other words, long enough to get through Starfleet Academy...
  Mariner: Orions are pirates! Pillaging's your whole thing!
  Tendi: Ok, stop! It is not MY whole thing. And for your information, many Orions haven't been pirates for over five years!
• Token Heroic Orc: She's the first Orion series regular in the franchise and the first Orion Starfleet officer seen in the prime timeline. Her species is mostly portrayed as villainous criminals.
  Tendi: And the truth is, a lot of Orions are hyper-capitalist libertarian gangster pirates, just not this one. That's why I'm here.
  • She is also very uncomfortable with how abusive Orion females can get when talking to males.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the Girly Girl (naïve, sweet-natured cutie) to Mariner's tomboy (sassy, forceful Action Girl).
• Tranquil Fury: Implied. While she remains calm after Peanut Hamper reveals that her redemption was a sham and betrays and abandons everyone for a second time, she is visibly pissed and refuses to tolerate the Exocomp's efforts to call the Borg. She even forcibly jams her antenna back inside her body to stop her.
• Visual Pun: Her skin color. In Season 1 she's "green" (short for greenhorn), as in a person who is inexperienced. In Season 2 she's jealous of Rutherford's relationship with Barnes and could be described as "green" with envy.
• Yandere: Verges on this while under the influence of T'Lyn's projected emotions, which have the effect of putting her Desperately Craves Affection tendencies into overdrive. She leads an angry mob after the Vulcan, intent on befriending her by force.
  Tendi: Get her! Make her be my friend!
• You Are in Command Now: Kind of. In "Second Contact", when Dr. T'Ana starts giving her instructions, Tendi protests that she's not qualified and she's supposed to be reporting to a nurse rather than the CMO. T'Ana points out that the growling, slavering, rage-vomiting patient strapped to the biobed is the nurse. And it seems to stick — from "Envoys" onward until moving into the science officer track, she seems to report directly to Dr. T'Ana.
• Youthful Freckles: She's the youngest member of the main cast, and her freckles reflect this. She seems to get them from her father, B'Rt.

Lieutenant (j.g.) Sam Rutherford

Lieutenant (j.g.) Samanthan "Sam" Rutherford

"I belong in the tubes."

Voiced by: Eugene Cordero

A ensign, and later lieutenant aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos in the engineering department.

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• Ambiguously Bi: It's confirmed that he finds Tendi cute and has gone on romantic dates with women, but "Crisis Point" shows hints that he might be attracted to Commander Billups (unless they really are just talking about engineering). Similarly, in "Mining the Mind's Mines", his illusion is Leah Brahms repeatedly trying to tempt him with engineering equations.
• Ambiguously Brown: He's dark-skinned and is voiced by Filipino-American actor Eugene Cordero, but his name does not suggest any particular race. "Reflections" hints that Rutherford is also Filipino, with his past self naming a racing ship Sampaguita after the national flower of the Philippines.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Rutherford, before getting his implant, was actually a womanizing Jerkass who only wanted to race and flouted Starfleet rules and regulations. The Laser-Guided Amnesia that the implant also enforced on him turned him into the sweet and lovable guy he is now.
• Berserk Button: Tendi temporarily becomes one for him while he's under the influence of T'Lyn's projected emotions. This culminates in him being part of an angry mob that chases T'Lyn and Mariner through the ship.
  Rutherford: Hey, don't be mean to Tendi!
• Casual Danger Dialogue: In "Second Contact", he and his date continue asking get-to-know-you questions and flirting after they get caught up in the firefight and emergency evacuation caused by the virus.
• Character Catchphrase: "Okeydokey!"
• Cyborg: He has a Vulcan cybernetic implant that aids his sight, making him somewhat of an Expy of Geordi La Forge and his VISOR (notably, crewmembers actually wearing a VISOR appear in the background a few times). It occasionally malfunctions and tries to suppress his emotions, but only in the first episode.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Thanks to his implant, Rutherford can fight off a simulation of a Borg strike team (the purpose of said simulation being to humble new recruits). Even without the implant, this is a guy who creates homicidal A.I.s in his off time that can destroy enemy flagships in minutes.
• Dark and Troubled Past: In "First First Contact", he deletes redundant memories of Tendi in order to free up his memory. However, he then sees a memory of his implant being installed which suggests it wasn't voluntary. "Reflections" then reveals that he was injured working on a top-secret project, and his supervising officer had his memories of the project erased. "The Stars at Night" finally reveals that he was working on then-Lieutenant Commander Buenamigo's new Texas-class prototype.
• Death of Personality: The ultimate fate of his original personality. When he loses the race with the current Rutherford, he is fatally injured and fades out of existence. Rutherford offers to do a Split-Personality Merge with him, but he declines on the grounds that doing so would essentially kill them both.
• Declining Promotion: Despite having been in Starfleet Academy during the TNG era (a flashback of his shows Admiral Buenamigo with the TNG-style combadge), he's still just an ensign post-Nemesis. Eventually, series 4 reveals that he has actually been offered a promotion, several times thanks to the various things he's done through the series, but he's turned them down simply to stick with his fellow Beta Shifters (particularly Tendi). If he wanted a promotion, he actually could ask for one and get it... a fact he was completely unaware of.
• The Engineer: He serves in the engineering department, so he's this among the main cast. It's taken to an adorkable level when he forgoes romance as he wonders why a red alert would deactivate an emergency hatch.
• Eye Scream:
  • The implant isn't just covering an eye, it's replacing it. Then it turns out the medics who gave him the implant removed his eye. With a drill.
  • The reason he got the implant in the first place? An experimental engine blew up in his face.
• Fan of the Past: When Barnes tells him that she's a fan of a "classical band called The Monkees" (a group that is over 400 years old from their perspective), he responds, "Let's just say I'm a believer." "I'm a Believer" is one of the Monkees' biggest hits.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: His left eye, and much of the left side of his head, is cybernetic. The metal ear is pointed, reflecting its Vulcan origin, while his organic ear is rounded. Also, his right eyebrow has a gap.
• Flawed Prototype: Rutherford is enthusiastic and does have the skill, but his attempts to create or upgrade things independently tend to go wrong, mainly because he tried to run them before they were ready.
• Gender-Blender Name: Samanthan Rutherford.^note Which is especially funny if you know that the name "Samantha" is already a literal Gender Blender Name, originating in the 20th century from blending the names "Samuel" and "Anthea" and devised specifically so there'd be a feminine form of "Samuel".
• Grease Monkey: In "Envoys", he's covered in black stains after working on the EPS conduits. He enjoys completing arduous tasks that other people would find extremely unpleasant.
  Rutherford: Well, if you see an unaligned EPS conduit, don't call me. Mine are aligned as hell.
  Tendi: Wait, aren't there like a hundred of those? How long have you been in there?
  Rutherford: A solid week. Crawling through cramped ducts, prying open panels and adjusting red-hot power cables. Look, look, look, I've got blisters on my blisters.
  Tendi: Oh wow, you must be so relieved to be done.
  Rutherford: Oh, I'm not done. Now I get to recalibrate everything. That's another three, four days in the tubes!
• I Hate Past Me: Having discovered what a Jerkass he was before, Rutherford really didn't like who he was.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: His cybernetic implant allows him to vanquish an entire team of holographic Borg drones in unarmed combat.
• Jerkass: Prior to his accident, Rutherford was an arrogant, womanizing jerk who was rude to everyone around him. Buenamigo having his memories erased to cover up his illegal project resulted in Rutherford gaining his current personality.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: In "No Small Parts", due to his cybernetics getting ripped out, he suffers amnesia and forgets the events of the entire season. By Season 2, he's mostly back to normal, save for a few temporary personality changes (he likes pears when before he hated them). "Reflections" reveals that he was actually hit with this much earlier, his entire personality having been changed.
• Loved I Not Honor More: He chooses to investigate a broken emergency hatch over his hot date who had just passionately kissed him.
  Rutherford: Who has time for romance when there's a level 2 diagnostic just sitting there waiting to be run?
• New Meat: He's been in Starfleet a while (flashbacks show he was a cadet during the TNG days), but post-amnesia he's still figuring out his way in shipboard engineering.
• Nice Guy: Despite his awkwardness, he's always friendly and kind to everyone on the Cerritos. In "Crisis Point", during the movie sequence, when playing the part of one of Mariner's minions, he ominously says that he wants to tell the simulation of Commander Billups "what he really thinks of him" and get away with it, as if setting up a nasty "The Reason You Suck" Speech, only to instead tell the simulation of Billups how much he admires his engineering skills. It's a shame Rutherford thinks he can't tell the real Billups how much he respects him.
• Non-Action Guy: Before he participates in Shaxs' combat training simulation in "Envoys", he panics because he's never fought anyone before ("I don't know how to fight!"). However, his cybernetic implant helps him to overcome his lack of experience.
• Oblivious to Love: In "Second Contact", he doesn't realize that his date for the evening is annoyed by his interest in a broken emergency hatch over her.
• Parents as People: Admits that as Badgey's creator, he is the AI's father and he wasn't a good one for treating him like a science experiment instead of a sapient being.
• Rank Up: Promoted to Lieutenant j.g. in "I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee". He acknowledges that he has been offered promotion several times for his past heroics, always turning them down so he could continue serving alongside Tendi.
• Robo Cam: We occasionally see from his perspective how his cybernetic implant functions.
  • In "Envoys", it has a setting that can analyze potential targets and determine the optimal combat strategy to defeat them.
  • In "Moist Vessel", it warns him of the "Unauthorized terraformation" that's taking place on the ship, so he has a slightly better chance than the average person to move out of harm's way quickly enough to avoid getting impaled by jagged rocks.
  • In "No Small Parts", he breaks off a knob from his implant and finds a button that changes his attitude. We see the various moods as he switches through them.
• Ship Tease: He gets some mild teasing with Tendi throughout the first season, but it's especially heavy in "Terminal Provocations" when he admits to Badgey that he thinks Tendi's cute and wanted to impress her. He doesn't explicitly state that he has a crush on her, but it certainly sounds like it when he says he wants to impress her with something he made in a simulation because she's cute, not that Rutherford would even need to do that, as Tendi already likes him for his good-hearted nature. If this were a crush, it's also unclear if it redeveloped following Rutherford's Season 1 finale mind wipe.
  • Season 4's "I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee" reveals that he's turned down multiple promotions specifically so he could stay close to Tendi.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After having his implant damaged in "No Small Parts," he's notably more irritable and snappy in Season 2, even after Tendi stops trying to bring his old personality back. "An Embarrassment of Dooplers" suggests this is out of frustration for feeling like he's lagging behind where his old self used to thrive.
  • Season 3's "Reflections" clarifies things: The levels in Jerkass he took were his original personality trying to reassert itself, and he Took a Level in Kindness due to side effects of the procedures involved in giving him the implant... and erasing his memories of just what he was involved in that led to him needing one in the first place.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Viewers stopped dead in their tracks when it's revealed his full name is Samanthan.
• Workaholic: Rutherford absolutely loves the endless monotonous tasks that keep the ship running. He's positively gleeful at the thought of spending days in the Jeffries tubes.

Lieutenant (j.g.) (Provisional) T'Lyn

Lieutenant (j.g.) (Provisional) T'Lyn

^{As a member of the Cerritos crew.}

^{As a member of the Sh'vhal crew.}

"Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end."

Voiced by: Gabrielle Ruiz

A female Vulcan crewmember, formerly serving aboard the Vulcan cruiser Sh'vhal, now re-assigned to the U.S.S. Cerritos as punishment for not acting logically enough.

---

• Affectionate Nickname: Boimler calls her "T".
• All the Other Reindeer: The other Vulcans on the Sh'vhal shunned her, interpreting attempts to socialize as insults or acts of insanity.
• Author Avatar: Was originally a cosplay character created by the writer of her debut episode, Kathryn Lyn.
• Big Damn Heroes: Her efforts end up saving both the Cerritos and the Sh'vhal from destruction. Also saved the Cerritos crew from becoming an army of Tuvixes.
• Breakout Character: Originally a one-shot character, her unexpected popularity in Season 2 led to a regular role for her in Season 4 (Season 3 was mostly written by the time her episode was released).
• Cultural Rebel: T'Lyn is more in touch with her emotions and instincts than most Vulcans, and believes her approach to be the superior one. Which is not to say T'Lyn doesn't still appreciate quiet time like any Vulcan. But being less bound by logic and unemotional detachment than her crewmates, is enough to get her kicked off the Sh'vhal.
• Custom Uniform: While aboard the Sh'vhal, she wears her belt as a headband. After being transferred to the Cerritos, T'Lyn wears color-coordinated headbands to match her clothing, since Starfleet hasn't included belts as part of their uniforms since the early 2300s.
• Deadpan Snarker: Practically given for a Vulcan, T'Lyn has quite an acerbic wit.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite being instrumental in saving the crew of the Sh'vhal, she receives no recognition for her efforts, and is in fact booted off the ship because of them.
• Foil: Within seconds of arriving on the Cerritos, her quiet demeanor is immediately contrasted with Tendi's bubbly personality as the latter literally drags her to meet the rest of Beta Shift.
• Gadgeteer Genius: She is quite proficient with technology, as seen when she boosts the range of the Sh'vhal's scanners and later improves its shields. After being transfered to the Cerritos, she easily hijacks the ship's transporter system to save the crew.
• Hot-Blooded: By Vulcan standards, at least. While she is outwardly just as cool-headed and serene as any Vulcan, and she can be logical enough to sway her captain on several occasions, she also has a habit of allowing her emotions to dictate her actions; she pursues personal projects when she should be meditating and relies on her instincts rather than logical analysis, which her captain describes as "outbursts" and accuses her of acting like a child. The rest of the crew also berates her "passionate" actions.
• I Choose to Stay: During the season four finale, Sokel (T'Lyn's former captain aboard the Sh'Vahl) tries to contact her. T'Lyn ignores his incoming transmission, having already chosen to stay aboard the Cerritos.
• Ill Girl: Despite being only 62 years old, T'Lyn has exhibited symptoms similar to Bendii Syndrome, the same disease that affected Ambassador Sarek. Unlike Sarek, however, T'Lyn only affects others when she allows her emotions to get out of control, as opposed to Sarek lacking said control completely and needing external help to manage the symptoms.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: This is initially her attitude upon being transferred to the Cerritos, making it clear her intention is to prove to the Vulcan High Council that she deserves reinstatement in their fleet, and has no interest in establishing personal connections (plus, you know, Vulcan). However, although it takes a while, she does start warming to Tendi's efforts to befriend her.
• Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: She has a tendency to work on hunches and can be impulsive, along with emotional outbursts that are nigh-imperceptible to non-Vulcans. This gets her transferred to Starfleet as this makes her a non-conformist on a Vulcan science vessel, and she keeps a small chip on her shoulder over this development.
• Mirror Character: She is essentially a Vulcan version of Mariner. She's a rebellious young woman whose outside-the-box thinking saves the day, and she even wears her uniform informally compared to everyone else. Unlike Mariner, her violations are minor with a more direct benefit to the ship, but committing them at all eventually gets her transferred, just like Mariner.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: T'Lyn is berated by her peers for exceeding her duties and experimenting with ways to improve the systems on the Sh'vhal, because they're otherwise operational. Even though in both cases her innovations were functional and improved systems, she's still transferred to Starfleet by her captain because she's considered too headstrong for doing so in the first place.
• Odd Friendship: On arrival to the Cerritos, she's assigned Tendi as her liaison. T'Lyn gradually grows to quite like her "science bestie".
• Older Than She Looks: Granted she's a Vulcan, who age slower than humans, but T'Lyn looks to be in her twenties, but is actually 62, which is the Vulcan equivalent of a young adult just like the other four.
• Only Sane by Comparison: Exaggerated since she's the only Vulcan on the Cerritos so she's the most sane and logical by default. By Vulcan standards, she's a hellraiser that had to be assigned to the Cerritos due to her impulsiveness. She's also unusually mellow for a Vulcan (both within the context of the show and in comparison to other Vulcan regulars throughout the franchise), most of whom (from Spock on down) tend to be much more uptight; however she's still quite reserved and withdrawn in general and would be considered so by any other yardstick.
• Power Incontinence: T'Lyn unintentionally psychically influences most of the Cerritos crew as well as a trio of visiting Betazoids as part of dealing with the emotional turmoil of her posting. This is later likened to the effects of Bendii Syndrome, though not as severe.
• Rank Up: Promoted to (provisional) Lieutenant j.g. shortly after transferring to the Cerritos, presumably having taken her service aboard a Vulcan vessel into account.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Despite her saving the day in "wej Duj", the captain of the Sh'vhal has her transferred off the ship, recommending she serve on a human Starfleet vessel instead as punishment for her disruptions. She is eventually assigned to the Cerritos. She initially intended to work her way back onto a Vulcan vessel as soon as possible, but declines her first opportunity to return because she feels more accepted on the Cerritos.
• Sarcastic Well Wishing: Departs the Sh'Vhal on a "Live long, and prosper" so barbed it would make Kelvin timeline Spock proud.
• Sixth Ranger: The show started with the original four ensigns, with the majority of stories pairing Mariner and Boimler or Tendi and Rutherford. With her introduction and integration into the group the fourth season had to divide the characters up a little more often so that she could interact with them individually. She isn't as dominant in every episode like the other four, but being Vulcan she is a little more on top of things than the others.
• Smug Smiler: Downplayed. T'Lyn gives off a smirk when the captain of the Sh'vhal is unable to refute her logic, but is otherwise fairly stoic.
• Sophisticated as Hell: As is typical for a Vulcan, T'lyn's speech pattern is typically very formal, dispassionate and technical, but serving with the crew of the Cerritos has rubbed off more crass language into her vocabulary. A particular example being after an emotional peptalk from Mariner about her perceived failings to live up to an arbitrary standard of Vulcan-ness.
  T'lyn: I suppose by the transitive property I too must be Vulcan as a motherfucker.
• The Stoic: As a Vulcan, T'Lyn is the very definition of the trope when compared to most species. She rarely lets her emotions show, and even when she does, it's not much more than a slight raising of her voice and adding a slight emphasis to her words. However, she's much more in tune with her emotions and instincts than her fellow Vulcans, who regard her as Hot-Blooded.
• To Be Lawful or Good: T'Lyn has no compunctions about disregarding protocols and orders if she believes they are interfering with her mission.
• Workaholic: When ordered to meditate by her captain, she briefly attempts to comply before giving up and returning to her work. This is one of the many marks against her character on the Sh'Val, as everyone questions the logic of working to improve already serviceable and functional systems. (And it seems like a good call, in hindsight; the Cerritos culture has a demonstrated openness towards individual research.)
• What Happened to the Mouse?: T'Lyn's transfer to Starfleet at the end of her debut appearance suggests she'll play a major part in Season 3, but she only makes a small cameo appearance at the end of the season finale, having been re-assigned to the Cerritos.
  • Creator Mike McMahan explained that T'Lyn's absence from Season 3 is because "wej duJ" was written as a one-off episode, with no intention of continuing her storyline. By the time "wej duJ" premiered and went on to become the most acclaimed episode of Lower Decks to date, Season 3 had already been written, with zero expectation that both "wej duJ" and T'Lyn would become so popular.
  • T'Lyn appears in the final minutes of Season 3 to introduce her presence in Season 4, then begins working alongside the the four main characters (especially Tendi) in the show's fourth season.

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