Summary
- T'Lyn, the new Vulcan character in Star Trek: Lower Decks, has become a fan-favorite due to her deadpan humor and wry one-liners.
- Creator Mike McMahan wanted a Vulcan character who isn't a villain and fully embraces Vulcan traits, unlike characters with mixed human-Vulcan backgrounds.
- T'Lyn's role as a Lower Decker without significant authority or agency allows for exploration of Vulcan characteristics in a comedic setting while still maintaining her straight man persona.
Star Trek: Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan explains the inspiration behind Lieutenant T'Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz), the show's new Vulcan Lower Decker, and her similarities to T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) from Star Trek: Enterprise. T'Lyn quickly became a popular breakout character in Lower Decks season 4. The Vulcan Lieutenant and her deadpan wry one-liners add a hilarious counterpoint to the USS Cerritos' cast of Lower Deckers like Lt. Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Lt. Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid).
Appearing on The 7th Rule podcast, Star Trek: Lower Decks showrunner Mike McMahan told hosts Cirroc Lofton and Ryan T. Husk about his love of classic Vulcans in Star Trek, how T'Pol inspires T'Lyn, and the key difference T'Lyn brings as a Lower Decker. Check out his quote and watch The 7th Rule video below:
I just love Vulcans… Lower Decks loves Star Trek, right? How can you have Star Trek without a Vulcan? … Adding that dry humor, that wasn’t something I came up with. We saw a lot of that with Spock, we saw a lot of that with T’Pol. I like a Vulcan who’s not a villain. A non-Vulcan villain, you know what I mean? And I like a 100% Vulcan. I think we’ve had a lot of human/Vulcans. People that were one parent is human, one parent is a Vulcan, and they’re torn between worlds. That’s been covered a lot. But just a Vulcan that doesn’t like people, that’s a classic. I like exploring that. And there’s a lot of T’Pol in T’Lyn. I really like that character. I think that Jolene Blalock played her in a really cool way.
Getting to do our own Vulcan, and seeing how a Vulcan Lower Decker who isn’t in charge of stuff, and isn’t second-in-command, doesn’t have the ability to just go and talk to the Captain, and is in a position with less agency, that hasn’t been seen as much… It was an opportunity to have a Vulcan that feels like you recognize her from Vulcans you’ve seen, but plugging into these fast-jokey, loud, comedy characters, but still getting to be Vulcan as a straight man… that style of kind of dry humor… I love writing lines for T’Lyn. You can hear Gabrielle’s voice when you’re writing it on the page.
