One of the core tenants of Vulcans and consequently Star Trek is celebrating our infinite diversity in all its infinite combinations. Star Trek has always been my outlet to unwind after long days of insanity.
I’ve always related to the emphasis on friendship, the wonder of exploration and boldly going to all sorts of strange new worlds. While Star Trek has been embracing more diversity in recent years, certain areas are lacking. One of those areas that I notice is aromantic and asexual representation.
Star Trek & Asexuality
Asexuality is feeling little to no sexual attraction while aromanticism is feeling little to no romantic attraction. People can be one of these labels or both, and people can be different degrees of aromanticism and asexuality such as grey or demi.
These are commonly known as aspec identities. I personally just use the umbrella labels of asexual and aromantic to describe myself, even though my experience probably goes more along the lines of grey ace.
Within Star Trek, there are multiple characters that a lot of aspecs have related to, most notably, Spock. While in The Original Series, Spock is extremely ace coded, refusing nearly every single relationship opportunity coming his way except for when he is under some sort of influence, in the new era of Star Trek he has been portrayed differently.
In the Kelvin timeline, Spock has a relationship with Nyota Uhura, and in one of my favourite new series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the first we see of Spock is him on Vulcan being engaged to T’Pring, his betrothed from the original series, and they seem clearly in love with each other, both romantically and sexually.
In episode five, “Spock Amok”, while showing some of the strains that will cause their relationship to fail, at least for now their relationship is supported by the studio heads. Even though I’ve always considered Spock ace, and there is still a part of me that does, new Star Trek has been trying to prove time and time again that Spock is straight.
While this is not inherently bad, it has denied representation to those who desperately seek it. Characters like Spock, along with Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, have been related to on a deep level by many queer audiences, but a lot of their queerness, and especially asexuality, has been taken away over the years by the studios or has contributed to harmful emotionless alien aspec stereotypes.
But there is a Star Trek show with amazing aromantic and asexual characters
Lower Decks
Star Trek: Lower Decks. Lower Decks is an animated Star Trek comedy series created by Mike McMahan in 2020. Since the beginning of the show, Lower Decks has been filled with colourful characters with a range of identities. And some of those identities happen to be not straight.
The main character Beckett Mariner is openly bisexual and is currently seeing an Andorian ensign, Jennifer. But arguably some of the strongest representation thus far has been the asexual and aromantic characters, Andy Billups and D’Vana Tendi.
D’Vana Tendi is one part of the main quartet of the series, and her journey is one that I identify with as both an aromantic person, but also as a complete nerd. Tendi is a new ensign who is passionate about Starfleet, excited about everything and is one of the most loyal friends anybody could ever have.
She is also extremely sweet and a competent medical officer with a huge heart. When she joins the Cerritos, she quickly makes friends with Boimler, Mariner and Rutherford, the three of whom are her most important relationships in the series.
Throughout the first and second seasons of the show, Tendi, unlike the other three main lower deckers, never has a romantic relationship of her own. She instead is most often helping people around the Cerritos, hanging with her friends, and generally just being Tendi.
Tendi
Tendi’s most significant relationship and the most likely to develop into a romantic one is her relationship with Ensign Rutherford, the half-cyborg engineer. Tendi and Rutherford have a deep friendship, sharing their nerdy passions and being science people together.
While her friends all go on at least one date in the first two seasons, Tendi never has a romantic relationship of her own. She instead is most often helping people around the Cerritos, hanging with her friends, and generally just being Tendi.
She is shown to be slightly distrusting of the concept and is possibly just beginning to show romantic feelings towards Rutherford at the end of season two. I view the evidence before me as an amazing example of an aromantic or demiromantic character.
Tendi is a beautiful little dork of a character with a lot more layers than most people see when they think of her. She is also the character in lower decks that I relate to the most. Her distance from romance and fears for her friends is something I share with her.
Her quirky nerdy nature is something I can truly relate to, and her loyalty and love of her friends and fear of them not liking her is one that I have. I see Tendi as an aromantic or demiromantic character, and I truly hope this will be confirmed in future seasons. If Tendi does prove to be a canonical aromantic representation, she will be some of the first aromantic representations in Star Trek and a sweet and beautiful example of the complexities of aromanticism.
Billups
An even more likely candidate for aspec representation lies with the asexual character Chief Engineer Andy Billups. There is even a whole episode, “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”, in the second season of the show that discusses his pretty much-confirmed asexuality.
There is not much to be seen of Billups in season one and most of the first half of season two, but in Where Pleasant Fountains Lie, we finally get Billups backstory, and in conjunction with that, learn a bit about his sexuality, or lack thereof.
Billups comes from the planet Hysperia, which is populated by ren-fare types and Billups is the prince of the planet. When Billups was old enough, much to the chagrin of his mother Queen Paolana, he gave up his royal titles to join Starfleet. Hysperian law states that if Billups ever has sex, he will automatically become king, so for years now, Paolana has been trying to pressure Billups into sex.
The ship Monaveen from Hysperia calls the Cerritos with engine trouble. Paolana is being suspiciously nice to Billups and after fixing the engine, believing that she might not pressure him to lose his virginity, Billups returns to the Cerritos and immediately, his mother fakes her death as well as Rutherford’s. He almost does the deed, but luckily Rutherford can stop him in time.
Billups is physically uncomfortable through the whole situation and practically jumps for joy at the idea of not having to lose his virginity. This is an extremely asexual reaction, and Billups subsequent speech to his mother telling her she must accept him is very reminiscent of conversations many asexuals have with their parents.
Billups actions easily place him as a sex-repulsed ace. He just isn’t attracted sexually to anybody and values his machines, friendships, and Starfleet more than he ever valued a title or sex.
Billups is not broken; he is just asexual. Some have argued that he is just celibate, but many aces, including myself, have countered that with our own experiences as aces which line up surprisingly well with Andy Billups.
Billups is an asexual icon in all, but their name and this positive representation are so important. He constantly shows platonic love and friendship for others and is one of the most competent officers on the Cerritos. Billups has opened new grounds for ace representation, and I hope Lower Decks and other shows continue to have positive ace rep because it is so important.
It is so important to have characters like Billups and (hopefully) Tendi as they are contributing to a new trend of positive representation of aromantic and asexual characters in the media. While there have been some great canon aro or ace characters like Peridot from Steven Universe, Georgia from Loveless, and Vernestra Rwoh from Star Wars, many of them are quite a niche, coming from animation and books, and Lower Decks is no exception. While there are plenty of suspected ace characters like Sherlock Holmes (it depends on the version), there is barely any confirmed, mainstream rep, and even less of it that is good.
And Me
I was 16 when I figured out that I was asexual and aromantic on the first day of pride month while sitting in a corner searching on my Chromebook in my eighth-period dance class.
It was scary because I knew no one else who was aspec, and I had no characters in movies, TV or books to guide me along my way until I realized that I had who I was waiting for under my nose.
I had Spock, the outsider who is still figuring out who he is and who he wants to be. Data who struggles with emotions. Tendi is the most loyal friend who just doesn’t feel romantic attraction. Billups values his worth and happiness over all the expectations set for him.
They were all there waiting for me, unconfirmed aspecs as they are. They helped me find myself, even though most people think they are just broken or alien.
Characters like Billups and Tendi are so important because so many will be able to relate to their experiences and have more discussions about the “internet identities”.
We must always remember to celebrate our infinite diversity in infinite combinations. I’m not broken, and I am not emotionless, and lower decks helped me realize I can be aroace and still love, and I hope that all who need a character to guide them through being LGBTQIA+ can find what they are looking for free without having to grasp for them.
Article Written by Louisa Favor (she/her)
Louisa is a rising freshman in college. She has a passion for reading, writing, crafting, theatre and all things nerdy and hopes to pursue writing professionally someday. Some of her previous work can be seen on teenink.com under the name louisafavor916 – https://www.teenink.com/users/LouisaFavor916
Louisa can also be found on Instagram
