We’re just a week away from the Season 2 return of Star Trek: Lower Decks, and in the lead-up to August 12’s premiere, we had a chance to chat with the stars of the show as Star Trek fans get ready to beam back to the USS Cerritos.
TrekCore, along with a group of other media outlets, had the opportunity to sit down with Lower Decks stars Eugene Cordero (Ensign Samanthan Rutherford) and Noël Wells (Ensign D’Vana Tendi) to talk about how their animated alter egos were set to grow in the show’s upcoming season, the announcement of upcoming Lower Decks action figures, and more.
One of the main points of discussion was how the Rutherford and Tendi characters grow from their start last season into Season 2 — especially after Rutherford’s memory loss, caused by his injuries in “No Small Parts.”
EUGENE CORDERO: I mean, the biggest development for Rutherford is that we took away some development — and then we added it back in.
For him, it’s finding out what he doesn’t know [because of his memory loss], finding out some new information — and then, like, learning to trust what he does know from the past now that he has some of that information again.
NOËL WELLS: In the first season, Tendi was very wide-eyed and was soaking up everything like a sponge; she was a bit naïve… she wasn’t like a ‘yes woman,’ but she was definitely like, the kid, right? She had that sort of vibe of like she’s just along for the ride.
In the new season, she maybe has her bubble burst a couple of times — but because of that, she gets to sort of take herself to the next level. You’ll see her pushing back a little bit more, having a little bit more agency — and not only taking more risks, but standing up for herself more too.
She has to run some things herself, and take a little bit more control – and you get to see a little bit more of her dark side; her capacity to fight.
You see that she’s a three-dimensional, if you couldn’t already feel it from the first season. A three-dimensional, 2D-animated character.
Last season, Lower Decks predominantly kept Ensigns Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Boimler (Jack Quaid) together in episodic storylines, while for the most part, Rutherford and Tendi had their own separate stories — a fact that we remember commenting on it in some of our review.
This year, the actors teased a bit of a shake-up for the new batch of episodes, promising that the now-familiar format will be more varied as the season progresses.
CORDERO: Well, in my contract it says that I’m only allowed to do scenes with Noel, because that’s all I want to do. [Laughs]
I think we set up a great rapport with each other in Season 1 — so we want to keep that going — but because we now have that background of all the Lower Decks crew together, yeah, you’ll see us all paired up a little bit more.
The Boimler–Rutherford duo happens a bit, and there’s some Mariner–Rutherford pairing too; they all mix great. And now that you see those dynamics, it just sets us to do about a million seasons, so we can keep mixing it up!
WELLS: We’re swinging! We’re swapping up the characters. There are new dynamics forming!
CORDERO: There’s a bowl with keys in it… and we just do various scenes!
While they may be a common pairing, there’s definitely some differences between the two overly-enthusiastic young ensigns, as the actors described.
CORDERO: Well, as excited as they can both get, I think the biggest difference between them is how they approach other people. There’s a positivity that they have with each other, but if you watch them interact with, let’s say Mariner — or even the captain — they have a very different kind of a way in to a conversation.
I think Rutherford comes in with an attitude that’s not cocky, but confident — that he knows how to do everything that he needs to do.
WELLS: Tendi walks into a room, more of a people pleaser — “Can I show you that I can do this?” — which is, you know, it’s not as confident. When she’s with Rutherford, though, she’s able to be her more true, confident self because he’s someone who sees the real her.
Speaking of character dynamics, though, the topic of “unresolved sexual tension” between Tendi and Rutherford came up, as the pair showed signs of awkward — but adorable — attraction to one another in Season 1.
CORDERO: I don’t know [about sexual tension]…. The weird thing about them — and the great thing about the Tendi-Rutherford relationship — is that it is a kind of intellectual love they have for each other, in a way that you might with a coworker, or somebody who’s just as passionate about the work as you are.
I think that happens in college a lot, where you’re like, “Oh, we both love the same things!” And then you think that you are in love, but you’re ultimately just like in love with the person – as in, what they grew up to be, and how they continue to live their lives.
Who knows what it is? I think sexual tension within a cartoon is always kind of weird, so I don’t know!
WELLS: [Laughs] That’s funny. I mean, there’s a lot of sexual tension on Lower Decks, and I don’t know how HR would, recommend they, um, navigate that. But you’re right, it is interesting to have sexual tension with animated characters — but it is there, and we’re not denying that it is… what it does is there’s a lot of possibilities.
CORDERO: Listen, people out there have drawn it themselves — and we’ll let THEM keep doing it! [Laughs]
After last month’s surprise announcement that Playmates Toys was returning to the Star Trek world, bringing action figures and accessories to market in 2022 for the new shows — including Lower Decks — we had to ask the pair about their thoughts on seeing Tendi and Rutherford come to toy form.
CORDERO: Oh, man… I’m so excited about the action figure thing! I had an action figure once — from ‘Kong: Skull Island’ — and it didn’t even come close to looking like me. I was almost offended. [Laughs] I’m like, “That’s me? I hate this!”
But for Rutherford, man, give me anything! I think the implant is going to be so cool. I hope it lights up! I hope there’s a button on the back so you can see it light up, because if that’s the case I’d be stoked.
I’m probably going to line this whole wall [gestures behind him] with a million of them, and everybody else’s – because I want a Shaxs figure too!
WELLS: I don’t think I’ve ever played a character that had its own action figure, but I just hope the Tendi one is very versatile, so you can, like, make her dance and stuff. [Laughs] She needs a lot of articulation!
CORDERO: I want Rutherford to be light a wrestling buddy, where he’s just one big piece of immovable rubber. [Wells laughs]
Finally, the discussion turned to the characters’ unique traits among the Lower Decks crew — Rutherford’s cybernetic implant, and Tendi as the lone, green-skinned Orion aboard the Cerritos.
While Cordero noted that last season’s running gag of wacky, implant-based personality changes wouldn’t be featured as much in Season 2, Wells noted that we would get to see some of Tendi’s Orion heritage come into the forefront this year.
WELLS: With Tendi, I think we see her as this like very nice naïve sort of character, and you just assume that she’s like fresh from some really nice place — because of the way that personality is. But I do think we get to see a little bit more of what she has going on underneath her, and that she has a lot more levels than the bright-eyed, easily-excitable, really friendly person that she is.
She does have a backstory; she does come from a very specific place, and she has different tools of her [Orion] personality that to pull out that are kind of… well, I don’t mean to pigeonhole her or anything, but it’s kind of hot!
CORDERO: We just talked about sexual tension, and then you’re saying how hot she is?! Well, you know what? Rutherford’s hot too!
WELLS: Rutherford is hot! He’s got like a 10-pack! [Laughs] He’s got way more muscles than are normal.
CORDERO: And his action figure is going to be the hottest toy you’ll ever see.
This interview has been slightly edited and condensed for clarity.
We’ll have more from the Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 press tour in the coming days, including highlights from our conversation with the other lead actors on the show — Tawyn Newsome (Mariner) and Jack Quaid (Boimler) — along with coverage from Wednesday night’s premiere event in Los Angeles!
#StarTrekLowerDecks' Eugene Cordero, Noel Wells, Dawnn Lewis, showrunner Mike McMahan, Tawny Newsome, and Jerry O'Connell pose for photos.#StarTrek pic.twitter.com/Dzq72E7EpD
— TrekCore.com 🖖 (@TrekCore) August 5, 2021
Star Trek: Lower Decks returns for its second season on August 12 on Paramount+ (USA) and CTV Sci Fi Channel (Canada), followed by its international debut on Amazon’s Prime Video service (in select regions) on August 13.