Star Trek: Lower Decks | Who is D’Vana Tendi?

As we head into the Season 3 premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks on August 25, we’ll be looking at those serving aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos, a California-class starship.

The Lower Deck of the Cerritos is comprised of the “cool, scrappy underdogs of the ship” — Ensigns Beckett Mariner, Bradward Boimler, D’Vana Tendi, and Samanthan Rutherford. Through their adventures, we get a look at a side of Starfleet we’ve rarely seen before.

We’ve covered Ensigns Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler, and now we’re going to look at fellow Lower Decker, D’Vana Tendi (voiced by Noël Wells)!

Scientific Pursuits

The exuberant and unflappable D’Vana Tendi is the freshest pair of eyes among the Lower Decks crew. Upon transferring to the U.S.S. Cerritos from Outpost 79, Tendi couldn’t contain her excitement at the honor of reporting to duty aboard a starship.

Upon transfer, Junior Science Officer Tendi is assigned to Nurse Westlake and Dr. T’Ana in Medical. There, she gained experience tackling a rage virus, manually pumping a Starfleet officer’s heart with her bare hands, genetically-engineering a dog with abilities to shapeshift and conduct lightning, and recoding DNA.

Mistress of the Winter Constellations

The young Orion walked away from her past as a pirate with the Orion Syndicate to enlist with Starfleet. In a moment of vulnerability, she shared with Ensign Beckett Mariner that she’s unable to make the same kind of mistakes the captain’s daughter can and the difficulty she had getting into the Academy as an Orion. Tendi noted, “There’s still a lot of stigmas around Orions. A lot of humans think we’re all thieves and pirates.”

Standing up to her friend, Tendi often called out Mariner for her stereotypes and assumptions of Orions. She also addressed her reservations at letting others getting to know her due to her innate eagerness to “[make] everyone else happy that [she] never opens up.” With Mariner’s support, she’s interested in getting in trouble with her Lower Deck friends.

Starfleet Career

Tendi’s strengths extends beyond medical sciences. She was also exceptionally adept at engineering with the ability to repair a biobed as well as hand-to-hand combat.

While serving on the Cerritos, Tendi was accidentally pulled into a classified covert ops mission in the Romulan Neutral Zone by Commander Jack Ransom as she was cleaning out a conference room. At completion of the mission, Ransom commended Tendi for her contributions to the team.

With the “unsettling” yet impressive skill to master anything she puts her mind to, Dr. T’Ana moves Tendi from Medical to senior science officer training so she can further her experiences beyond Sick Bay, such as going on away missions.

Lower Deckers for Life

Tendi values her friends for seeing beyond her Orion nature. Her closest friend on the starship is Ensign Sam Rutherford. They often watched the pulsar with one another while Rutherford worked. Tendi even learned how to spacewalk thanks to Rutherford’s simulation on the Holodeck.

In addition to their love of science, Tendi and Rutherford took pride in their tasks at hand, sometimes engaging in friendly competitions. While on assignment on the U.S.S. Vancouver, they competed with one another for the ability to take home a T88, the latest state of the art diagnostic tool, back to their respective medical and engineering departments on the Cerritos. Unbeknownst to them, Lt. Commander Docent planned to transfer them to the Vancouver for their commendable work. They refuse to leave the Cerritos and their friends despite the Vancouver’s prestige.

However, following Rutherford’s loss of his cybernetic implant and his memories, Tendi remained at his side determined to help him recover, even reading him engineering manuals at his bedside. Seeing the silver lining in the situation, she marveled at the opportunity to rebuild their friendship all over again!