She’s the most enthusiastic crewmember on board the USS Cerritos but science officer Lieutenant D’Vana Tendi grew up in a very different environment to the Federation. She hails from the fifth biggest pirate clan in the Orion Syndicate, and — after the events of the “Lower Decks” season 4 finale — she’s reluctantly returned to the family business.
In season 5 premiere “Dos Cerritos” — as her crewmates’ find themselves trapped in a parallel universe a mere 0.327% different to their own — Tendi leads a salvage mission that could earn her passage home. In follow-up “Shades of Green”, she’s plunged into the heart of the Orion turf war she inadvertently started by being a little too, well, Starfleet.
Both episodes offer a chance to explore the culture of the Orions, an alien race whose origins stretch all the way back to the earliest days of “Trek.” Here’s everything you need to know about the Alpha Quadrant’s greenest residents.
Who are the Orions in “Star Trek”?
Hailing from the Alpha Quadrant world of Orion, the green-skinned Orions are almost as old as “Star Trek” itself. In fact, having appeared in unaired pilot “The Cage,” they’re second only to the Vulcans (first represented by Mr. Spock) in the longevity stakes.
In “The Cage”, a human survivor from a crashed spacecraft on Talos IV is given the illusory form of an Orion woman, as the telepathic Talosians attempt to seduce Captain Christopher Pike. Those scenes also appeared in flashbacks in The Original Series two-parter “The Menagerie” (1966). Another Orion woman, Marta, crossed paths with the Enterprise crew in “Whom Gods Destroy” (1969).
We didn’t see a male Orion on screen until Animated Series episode “The Pirates of Orion” (1974), and the species skipped the “Next Generation” era entirely, aside from a reference to the Orion Syndicate (an organized crime network) in “Deep Space Nine.”
Prequel series “Star Trek: Enterprise” (2001-2005) revealed that the species developed warp flight long before humans, and Captain Archer’s voyages went on to feature several Orion encounters. In the alternative Kelvin timeline of J.J. Abrams’ 2009 “Star Trek,” Uhura had an Orion roommate at Starfleet Academy, Gaila. And Osyraa, the morally dubious leader of the Emerald Chain in the distant future of the third season of “Star Trek: Discovery” was also Orion.
But no previous “Trek” has given the Orions as much screen time as “Lower Decks”. Not only is junior science officer D’Vana Tendi the franchise’s first Orion lead, the animated show has done for Orions what “The Next Generation” did for Klingons and “Strange New Worlds” is doing for the Gorn — expanding the mythology of a classic “Star Trek” alien.
What are the Orions known for?
It’s a stereotype that Tendi works hard to disprove, but Orions have a reputation as criminals and pirates in the Alpha Quadrant. Indeed, their favorite pursuits tend to involve stealing, pillaging and trafficking, with exploration, science and traditional Federation values usually way down their list of priorities.
“Enterprise” episode “Bound” (2005) set out to retcon the “Orion slave girl” image perpetuated by the Original Series, revealing that some Orion women have pheromones so powerful they can manipulate people — and that the three women seemingly presented to Captain Archer as a “gift” were most definitely the ones in charge.
“Lower Decks” later confirmed that Orion is a matriarchal society, while “Lower Decks”/”Strange New Worlds” crossover episode “Those Old Scientists” showed that it was Orion scientists (they do exist) rather than Starfleet officers who discovered an ancient time portal on Krulmuth-B.
“Star Trek” has also made numerous references to an ancient Orion civilization so advanced that it’s an archaeologist’s dream come true.
D’Vana Tendi’s never seemed the outlaw type. Why’s she off pirating in “Lower Decks” season 5?
It turns out that the Tendis are the fifth largest family in the Orion Syndicate — in other words, if this were “The Godfather”, they’d be sitting at organised crime’s top table. As the elder daughter of Shona and B’Rt Tendi, D’Vana bears the poetic title “Mistress of the Winter Constellations”, and spent her formative years being trained as an elite assassin. But the pirate life was not for her, so she left home to join Starfleet, allowing younger sister D’Erika to assume her mantle.
In season 4 finale “Old Friends, New Planets”, D’Vana invoked “barter by combat” with D’Erika to save her friend Beckett Mariner. By the rules of the “game,” D’Erika would have lent Starfleet a battleship had Cerritos’s champion won. A loss, however, would mean the Cerritos becoming the property of D’Erika.
Alas, in a moment of misplaced celebratory hubris, the Cerritos’s unlikely champion, counsellor Dr. Migleemo, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. D’Vana then made an alternative deal — instead of surrendering the Cerritos, she would go back home to work for the family.
Who are the blue Orions?
As the name suggests, this patriarchal group of Orions have blue, rather than green, skin. They dress in the same bargain-basement supervillain outfits as the pirates Kirk and co met in the Animated Series, and pronounce “Orion” in an unconventional manner. D’Vana and her pirate crew encounter K’Levin and his band of blue meanies when they compete to salvage a crashed 300-year-old spaceship.
During the mission, the Mistress of the Winter Constellations tries to persuade her three associates to be a little less stabby, and they gradually concede that they’d rather be baking, dancing or teaching ethics, respectively. D’Vana then hatches a plan to use laughing gas to overpower their rivals. It wins them the ship, but her unorthodox methods prompt the blues to declare war on House Tendi.
Why does D’Vana Tendi go back to the Cerritos?
After months working for the family business, D’Vana is pining for Starfleet. So D’Erika offers her a deal – if she can recover the aforementioned warship, her debt will be satisfied and she’ll be free to go. But when the blue Orions declare war, D’Vana vows to stick around until she’s cleaned up her mess.
Orion pirate queen Sabor subsequently demands that House Tendi and House Azure — “it’s better than big blue losers,” points out D’Erika — settle their costly feud in a sailship race through the Excellon Nebula. It’s a high stakes tussle, too, because the first to recover the hidden treasure will win every penny of the loser’s wealth.
After some dirty tricks from the blues, D’Vana gets Team Tendi back into contention, before destroying the treasure. She believes that the compromise will allow both families to keep their assets, but the queen doesn’t see it that way and bankrupts them both for not acting like pirates.
There is a happy ending, however. D’Erika is pregnant and admits she wants D’Vana to return to Starfleet — otherwise her sister will be duty bound to spend the next 14 years training her daughter as the next Mistress of the Winter Constellations.
Besides, there’s plenty of spare treasure floating around the Cerritos after the crew helped new Federation inductees Targalus IX to transition to a post-wealth economy — and Captain Freeman is more than happy to redirect the funds to House Tendi. Good fortune all round…
New episodes of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” season 5 debut on Paramount Plus on Thursdays.