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D'Vana Tendi was a female Orion Starfleet sciences division junior officer who lived during the mid-24th century.

Quick Answers

What was the significance of D'Vana Tendi's family in the Orion Syndicate?

The Tendis, D'Vana Tendi's family, held significant status in the Orion Syndicate as the fifth-largest family with their own estate. D'Vana, once styled as the 'Mistress of the Winter Constellations', was the prime daughter expected to be the 'Tip of the Moonlit Blade'. However, she left for Starfleet in the 2370s, leading her sister D'Erika to prepare for her role, despite their parents' continued view of D'Vana as the prime.

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What was the relationship between D'Vana Tendi and her sister D'Erika?

D'Vana Tendi and D'Erika, her sister, were raised in the prominent Tendi family, part of the Orion Syndicate. Their childhood was marked by adventures in a ship graveyard, where D'Vana's Starfleet aspirations were nurtured. A significant event in their relationship was D'Erika's disappearance, presumed kidnapped, and D'Vana's successful effort to find her. Their reunion involved a duel, won by D'Erika, who voiced her fears of not matching up to D'Vana's achievements. This led to their reconciliation.

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What is the story behind D'Vana Tendi's childhood adventures in the ship graveyard?

In her childhood, D'Vana Tendi and her sister D'Erika frequently visited a ship graveyard. They were particularly fond of a wrecked Federation ship, where Tendi would envision a life beyond piracy, often picturing herself in a Starfleet uniform. This ship was also where Tendi announced her decision to join Starfleet, leading to a rift with D'Erika, who felt abandoned.

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Who were D'Vana Tendi's parents and what was their role in her life?

D'Vana Tendi, previously the prime daughter of the Tendi family, was known as the 'Mistress of the Winter Constellations'. She was expected to be the 'Tip of the Moonlit Blade'. Despite leaving the Orion Syndicate to join Starfleet in the 2370s, her parents continued to see her as the prime, even though her sister D'Erika was prepared to fill the role. D'Vana and D'Erika had a close bond, often escaping to a ship graveyard of wrecked, stolen spaceships during their childhood.

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Has D'Vana Tendi ever been portrayed in live action?

D'Vana Tendi, a mid-24th century Orion Starfleet officer, has not appeared in live action. She was represented as a self-aware cartoon character, seen on the USS Enterprise's bridge with Montgomery Scott, Arex, and M'Ress, marking the fiftieth anniversary of their cartoon's television debut.

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Biography

Early life

Tendi was born on Orion to B'rt and Shona Tendi of House Tendi. Her younger sister is D'Erika. At the time, the Tendis were the fifth-largest family in the Orion Syndicate and owned their own estate. (LD: "Something Borrowed, Something Green")

During childhood, D'Vana and D'Erika grew up close and often snuck away from home as children to a ship graveyard of wrecked, stolen spaceships. One of their favored wrecks to play in was a Federation ship, where D'Vana would make a drawing of herself as a Starfleet officer and play pretend that she was exploring space – anything other than a pirate.

As she grew up, and particularly in her teen years, Tendi was trained to be a prime, a Syndicate assassin. She would become a pirate and inherit the title Mistress of the Winter Constellations, which carried great esteem in Orion society and which she was well known for. This particular duty of the Mistress of the Winter Constellations was the title 'Tip of the Moonlit Blade.' Owing to her upbringing and training as a member of the Orion criminal syndicate, she has demonstrated considerable skills in leadership, hand-to-hand combat, use of small weapons, situational analysis, piloting, and problem-solving. She was highly skilled in the use of the Orion multi-key, and her father taught her that every ship has a security fail-safe. (LD: "Hear All, Trust Nothing") Her great-grandmother, Astrea Tendi, had held the same title while serving aboard the science vessel D'Var in the 23rd century. (SNW: "Those Old Scientists")

Tendi decided to join Starfleet upon visiting a recruitment booth. (LD: "Reflections") Prior to her enlistment, Tendi had always wanted to go to the Adashake Center on Orion, but never made the time for it. (LD: "Second Contact")

In leaving that life, she earned the Syndicate's ire. (LD: "We'll Always Have Tom Paris")

Starfleet career

Starfleet Academy

Tendi attended Starfleet Academy and graduated as a member of the sciences division.

Her admission to the Academy was very difficult for her, as the pre-existing stigmas surrounding Orions resulted in most seeing her as little more than a pirate or thief. This made her very sensitive, and prone to frustration when anyone would associate her with stereotypes surrounding the Orions, but also incredibly eager to prove herself as a valuable crew member. She was so focused on her studies at the Academy that she never left San Francisco to see other parts of Earth. (LD: "We'll Always Have Tom Paris", "Grounded")

She strangely never finished the required course unit at the Academy which trains cadets to space walk and was simply given a B grade regardless. Tendi never questioned this until much later, believing it to most likely have been a clerical error. (LD: "Terminal Provocations")

USS Cerritos

One of Tendi's early assignments was a stint at Outpost 79 prior to being transferred to the USS Cerritos in 2380, where she was assigned as a medic under Nurse Westlake. T'Ana was impressed by Tendi's aptitude, but also noted that she tended to lack assertiveness. When she showed more confidence, T'Ana commended her for it. (LD: "Second Contact", "Mugato, Gumato")

On her first day, she met Ensigns Brad Boimler and Beckett Mariner, who gave her a tour of the ship and introduced her to Ensign Sam Rutherford. When the rage virus broke out on the Cerritos, Tendi assisted Dr. T'Ana in treating the infected, and was even ordered to manually pump Lieutenant Commander Stevens' heart with her own hands. In the aftermath of the incident, she, Boimler, Mariner, and Rutherford became trapped in a turbolift when damage to the power relays caused it to break down. The four spent the time bonding until Lieutenant Shaxs came to their rescue four hours later. (LD: "Second Contact", "Caves")

Tendi would be assigned Bunk A12004 on Deck 11 in the LD sleeping quarters, on the wall opposite Boimler's bunk and underneath Rutherford's bunk, on beta shift. She had some skills in either engineering or programming, as T'Ana once requested a time estimate for repairing a biobed. (LD: "Temporal Edict")

Tendi showed a significant proficiency in genetics when she created The Dog, an artificially-created dog made from inert carbon, as a personal side project. She hand-edited The Dog's genetic sequences to make it 5% faster and 6% smarter than the average Earth canine and considered the work to be 'fun', even lying about going to the bathroom in order to use the time to edit the sequences. In addition, The Dog possessed augmented abilities lacked by the typical dog, including shapeshifting, hovering, and spitting lightning. These augmentations were at least partially due to the fact that Tendi had never encountered an actual dog. (LD: "Much Ado About Boimler")

When she was mistakenly tapped for a classified covert ops mission to Romulus, Tendi demonstrated her assassin training with advanced skills in unarmed combat. She stealthily incapacitated a two-man patrol with ease and took down multiple opponents face-to-face that were larger than her and armed with Romulan disruptor rifles single-handedly. In 2381, she revealed that this was a result of her pirate past when she was forced into action once again to prevent a Karemma ship from leaving the Alpha Quadrant through the Bajoran wormhole. (LD: "Veritas", "Hear All, Trust Nothing")

By 2381, T'Ana had become impressed and even a little "disturbed" at how Tendi mastered any task that was set before her. Determining that Tendi was being limited from reaching her full potential by remaining a medic, T'Ana had her transferred from Medical to senior science officer training, thus moving from sickbay to working on the bridge, doing a lot more experiments, and going on away missions. (LD: "First First Contact")

Mistress of the Winter Constellations

During the months working under her sister, Tendi became a captain of a Orion Interceptor. With the interceptor's crew, Tendi was able to steal rare items such as Collector Yorif's Veltan sex idol. She and her crew were then sent to retrieve a 300-year-old Orion medical frigate, originally mistaken for a warship, as Tendi's final debt payment of service to D'Erika. However, they were encountered by members of House Azure, and her reluctance to kill led her crew to nearly kill her before they learned the truth of her attitude and stated their own wishes to not kill and pursue non-pirate professions. The team retrieved the ship, but House Azure declared war on House Tendi because they deemed D'Vana's use of non-lethal tactics to fly in the face of pirate tradition. D'Erika assured Tendi that they could handle the conflict themselves, but Tendi volunteered to stay and help her family for the time being. (LD: "Dos Cerritos")

The war between the two houses ultimately got the attention of Orion Queen Sabor, who ordered the two houses to race solar sailships for a special treasure, the loser having their house's wealth claimed by the winner. Making matters worse was that Tendi learned that D'Erika was pregnant and feared for the child's safety, leading to her to attempt a "cute-iny" to protect her sister and niece, not realizing that Orions tend to go into action even while in labor. Ultimately, D'Erika revealed that she didn't tell Tendi as it meant that she would have to stay on Orion to train her niece and title successor for fourteen years. The sisters and their crew would ultimately catch up to House Azure and Tendi would destroy the treasure to force a tie. However, Sabor was furious at this and confiscated the wealth of both houses, which her parents decided would be a good break. D'Erika convinced Tendi to follow her heart and return to Starfleet, where Tendi learned of the Cerritos' mission to help Targalus IX dispose of their outdated material wealth. At her suggestion, Captain Freeman arranged for House Tendi to become the official wealth disposal service for the entire planet, regaining if not exceeding the wealth it had originally lost. (LD: "Shades of Green")

Return to Starfleet

In 2382, she applied for the position of senior science officer on the Cerritos, competing with T'Lyn for the position. Due to a transporter malfunction and time dilation, Tendi, T'Lyn and Beckett Mariner spent a year of relative time trapped on Dilmer III where they recovered the head of a Lieutenant Commander Data from an alternate reality where everything was purple. After returning to the ship, at the suggestion of Data, Tendi and T'Lyn were jointly promoted to senior science officer. (LD: "Fully Dilated")

Tendi would continue her Starfleet career, eventually reaching the rank of captain. (SA: "Beta Test")

Legacy

In 3195, Captain D'Vana Tendi was listed with other luminaries of Starfleet Academy on a commemoration wall in the USS Athena. (SA: "Kids These Days" set decoration)

Anything but canon

A holo-duplicate of Tendi was in a holoprogram that was malfunctioning. This holo of Tendi watched a holographic program featuring Quark and Elim Garak talking about how to get the Romulan Star Empire into the war. (VST: "Holograms All the Way Down")

In another strange setting, D'Vana Tendi was present on the bridge of the USS Enterprise during their celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the year their cartoon show premiered.

Other people there was Montgomery Scott, Arex, M'Ress, William T. Riker, and Hikaru Sulu. At first things started to turn into a heated argument between Tendi and Scott, Arex, and M'Ress over the misunderstanding that Tendi was trying to make fun of their old cartoon. When Riker and Sulu entered the bridge they quickly settled down, and began playing a song in their unique style.

Tendi even revealed to Scott while he was playing the drums that she thought he was hot. But just then, the ship started to get fired upon by a fleet of D7-class battle cruisers. She quickly told everyone who might have at first thought that the red alert was all part of the song that they were indeed under attack. Still, the others continued playing their music and Sulu was the only person to say anything, which was "Oh my!" After that, an explosion on the bridge occurred. (VST: "Walk, Don't Run")

Personal interests

Tendi was fond of listening to Klingon acid punk rock music and bands of the genre, such as Gik'Tal, having commented on why anyone would wish to listen to Klingonese unless it was "punky or acidic". She kept a personal collection of music files that included cover art that could be viewed when played back on a PADD. (LD: "We'll Always Have Tom Paris")

Tendi was sensitive regarding stereotypes on Orions, but was also genuinely uncomfortable with the less savory aspects of her native culture. Her discomfort was a key reason for her eventual entry into Starfleet, and she did her best to distance herself from her connection with Orion culture and her past as a pirate. When it was brought up, she was noticeably uncomfortable with it and hesitant to talk about it. (LD: "Crisis Point", "We'll Always Have Tom Paris", "Hear All, Trust Nothing")

Tendi loved archival cataloguing and liked to talk about it all the time. In somewhat of the same vein, she also found hand-editing DNA to be fun. (LD: "Terminal Provocations", "Much Ado About Boimler")

Tendi was skilled in playing the drums, utilizing a portable electric drum kit. (LD: "Temporal Edict")

Personal relationships

Family

D'Erika Tendi

During childhood, D'Vana and D'Erika grew up close, and often snuck away from home as children to a ship graveyard of wrecked, stolen spaceships. When D'Vana left to join Starfleet, D'Erika became very upset with D'Vana, believing her to have abandoned the family. While this would mean that D'Vana would forsake her title as the family prime assassin, leaving D'Erika to claim the title, D'Erika was intimidated by the legacy of her sister, and believed most would see her as a pale imitation to D'Vana.

When D'Erika was to be married, she temporarily vanished, leading the family to believe she'd been kidnapped by a rival family. They asked D'Vana to find her, and D'Vana was successful in tracking down her sister, who finally hashed out her frustrations with D'Vana in a brief hand-to-hand duel. D'Erika was successful in besting D'Vana in the duel and confessed her nervousness in not living up to the standard set by D'Vana. D'Vana reassured her that she more than deserved the title, and that her win against her proved she was more than capable, leading the two to reconcile their differences. (LD: "Something Borrowed, Something Green")

Tendi also promised her that she would occasionally train D'Erika’s unborn daughter before leaving to rejoin the Cerritos so the child would be ready to succeed Tendi as Mistress of the Winter Constellations. (LD: "Dos Cerritos")

Friendships

Samanthan Rutherford

D'Vana Tendi was quite fond of fellow ensign Sam Rutherford, with him being one of her first close friends on the Cerritos. When passing by the Trivoli pulsar, Rutherford attempted to switch jobs on the Cerritos so that he could watch the pulsar with her, and not be busy with maintenance in the ship's Jefferies tubes. However, when this didn't work out for him, Tendi offered instead to watch the pulsar with him on a PADD while he worked in the Jefferies tubes. (LD: "Envoys")

After Rutherford was seriously injured in a conflict with the Pakleds, which resulted in the loss of his cybernetic implant, Tendi stayed by his side, and often read engineering manuals to him while he was unconscious. His injury affected his memory, and he did not remember who Tendi was when he woke up. Despite this handicap, Tendi was simply excited, as she believed that they would both be able to become best friends again. (LD: "No Small Parts")

Beckett Mariner

Beckett Mariner was also one of Tendi's close friends, whom she met on the Cerritos on her first day, who gave her the tour of the ship, while Tendi helps her with her shore leave contraband. (LD: "Second Contact") During a mission to retrieve an heirloom of T'Ana's, the two learn new things about each other and found out things about each other, like Tendi learning that Mariner served on Deep Space 9 and Mariner learning that Tendi's first name is D'Vana. When the cargo was broken and several repair attempts failed, Tendi decided to tell Dr. T'Ana the truth until Mariner said that her plan "sucks." Instead, Mariner loudly declares they are friends before ramming the shuttle into the ship, later blaming the destruction of the cargo on the accident, which Mariner tells Ransom was caused by a bee. (LD: "We'll Always Have Tom Paris")

Bradward Boimler

Boimler was Tendi's orientation liaison, and became one of her close friends during their time on the Cerritos. During the orientation, Boimler and Mariner gave her a tour of the Cerritos, showing her places like the ship's holodeck, and using that to see the warp core. They would also be the ones to introduce her to Rutherford during this tour. (LD: "Second Contact")

Tendi at one point volunteered herself, Mariner, Boimler, and Rutherford to work together for anomaly consolidation duty, though Boimler would miss out when he was invited to spend a day with the Redshirts. While Tendi expressed enthusiasm for the task, Rutherford and Mariner were vocal in their disdain for the task, which in turn affected Tendi's mood. This would later result in her being affected by an Ataxian mood shifter, which detected her anger, and transformed her into a scorpion‐like monster, rampaging through the ship. When Boimler saw this, he identified that she had been transformed by the mood shifter, and willingly humiliated himself by having the replicator shoot a bunch of food at him, creating a huge mess and soiling himself in the process. Tendi found the scene amusing, and in a bit of laughter, she was able to revert back to her normal self. She would thank him for helping her through this. (LD: "The Spy Humongous")

After Ensign Vendome received a field promotion to captain after transferring from the Cerritos, much to Boimler's disappointment, Tendi offered advice that Vendome was always putting himself out there and trying new things, getting noticed in the process, and challenged Boimler to do the same, as she theorized that he wasn't taking enough risks, and getting noticed in the process. Boimler reluctant agreed, and began trying new things, which actually worked out for Boimler rather quickly. However, this would also take an unexpected turn when Boimler agreed to be the subject of a Kromsapiod Venarix hunt, before either of them knew that Kromasoid's respected life, and did not kill their hunted targets. Tendi was horrified that Boimler would willingly allow himself to be hunted, and when the hunt finished with Boimler getting injured, she apologized for giving him the idea to take such risks, but Boimler dismissed it, saying taking such risks worked out for him, and that he'd keep taking them. (LD: "The Least Dangerous Game")

T'Ana

While Tendi worked in medical, her relationship with T'Ana could at times be tumultuous. As Tendi was not very assertive when first coming aboard the Cerritos, T'Ana paid little attention to her, and her deeds, and often assigned Tendi tasks that she figured she would just give up on, or even small personal errands. Tendi would also find T'Ana intimidating to work for, and around often got nervous about letting T'Ana down in her work. It wasn't until 2381 when Tendi started to get the attention of T'Ana in better ways, and respect was given. (LD: "We'll Always Have Tom Paris", "Mugato, Gumato")

Eventually, Tendi made such a huge impression in her work and accomplishments, that T'Ana made the decision that Tendi wasn't a right fit for medical, and instead recommended her for senior science officer training. This recommendation shocked Tendi so much, but while this ended their time working together, it cemented their friendship with one another. When her training started, despite being assigned Dr. Migleemo as a mentor, Tendi actually received far better advice from T'Ana when she was scared that she wouldn't be capable of becoming senior science officer, and Tendi looked to her as her true mentor. (LD: "First First Contact", "Mining The Mind's Mines")

O'Connor

For a short time, Tendi became obsessed with Lieutenant jg O'Connor's spiritual ascension. She eventually deemed themselves "best friends" and kissed just before O'Connor began his ascension process. (LD: "Moist Vessel")

Memorable quotes

"Ensign D'Vana Tendi, reporting for duty. I'm a transfer from Outpost 79."
"Deck 4. Follow the yellow line. Take the turbolift all the way down."
"Thank you so much! And can I just say that I'm really honored to be—"
"Keep it moving, lower decks. Next!"

- Tendi and Dirk, after the former boards the Cerritos (LD: "Second Contact")

"Still uh, happy to be here?"
"Are you kidding? I got to hold a heart!"

- Mariner and Tendi, after everyone is cured of the rage virus (LD: "Second Contact")

"Tendi, how long will it take to repair a biobed?"
"Oh, that would take about five... hours."
"Excuse me? That's great!"

- T'Ana and Tendi, lying to the former after learning about buffer time (LD: "Temporal Edict")

"So, hey. Do you want me to call you 'Exocomp', or do you have an alpha-numeric name like 'T-T-3-0-3-1-1'?"
"No, I didn't want to sound robotic, I wanted to be called something normal. So, I analyzed all Federation languages and calculated a mathematically perfect name."
"What is it?"
"Peanut Hamper."
"Peanut Hamper? I LOVE IT!"

-Tendi and Peanut Hamper, on what the latter's name is (LD: "No Small Parts")

[Tendi removes the Karemma's latinum tooth]
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, that thing has a tooth remover?"
"Shh, I'm pirating. Let's go!"

-Rutherford and Tendi, on her pirating (LD: "Hear All, Trust Nothing")

"Guys, I have to come clean about something. I wasn't just a regular Orion teenager. I was trained to be a Syndicate assassin-"
"Tendi, yeah. We know girl. You can't just say you're joking around when you kick-flip a knife out of the air."
"Your upbringing was quite obvious."
"I just hate that you guys had to see the real me."
"Tends, the real you is the one who geeks out about science on the Cerritos."
"But I'm a prime, you know? A... a trained assassin. It's the most piratey someone can be."
"Incorrect. You are who you choose to be. A Starfleet lieutenant, and a loyal friend."
"Don't worry, we know you're a big nerd and not some hot assassin."
"That is the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me!"

- Tendi, Mariner, and T'Lyn, on her true upbringing (LD: "Something Borrowed, Something Green")

"Ahh! This stuff is great! All we have on Orion are like sharp little pebbles."

- Tendi, enjoying sand (LD: "A Few Badgeys More")

Appendices

Appearances

Background information

Tendi was voiced by Noël Wells.

In developing the characters for Lower Decks, Mike McMahan described all four leads in an 10 August 2020 TrekMovie.com interview as a combination of other Star Trek characters, parts of himself, and people in his life. Tendi developed from a suggestion by Secret Hideout that the first episode feature a character's first day on the ship. From there, McMahan took to Tendi as a character that was "all silver lining", relating how he would act on a starship. Tendi was further described as "that voice of enthusiasm... who just wants to know everything and wants to consume all things about the ship and learn and grow... who we will also watch grow throughout the series." [1]

Tendi appears as a duty officer in Star Trek Online.

Tendi is the first Orion Starfleet officer shown in the Prime Timeline, though the first Orion Starfleet officer shown overall was Gaila in Star Trek.

External link

• D'Vana Tendi at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works