Lower Decks’ Remarkable & Fascinating Vulcan

Gabrielle Ruiz is making sure Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 is remarkable and fascinating for Lieutenant T’Lyn. After officially joining the crew of the USS Cerritos in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, the Vulcan with a dry sense of humor has fit right in with the rest of the Lower Deckers.

In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, T’Lyn works alongside her fellow Lower Deckers, Lieutenants Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and D’Vana Tendi (Noel Wells) as they investigate rifts opening in space that lead to other Star Trek parallel realities. Meanwhile, T’Lyn has shown new sides of her personality as she develops deeper friendships with the Warp Core Four.

Screen Rant had the pleasure of chatting with Gabrielle Ruiz about her experience playing T’Lyn, including her favorite moments, biggest surprise, and what’s still to come in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5.

She Is Both.

Screen Rant: So I guess my first question, and maybe the most important question I’ve ever asked anyone, is: Remarkable or fascinating?

Gabrielle Ruiz: (laughs) I say now that we’re at season 5, remarkable, for sure. Remarkable does take it up a different dimension.

That was such a great gag.

Gabrielle Ruiz: Oh my gosh, I loved it. I can’t wait to add that into all my puns when I comment on fans’ reach outs and at cons, using that word.

Did you know Spock said “remarkable” and “fascinating” in The Animated Series in the same episode?

Gabrielle Ruiz: No, I didn’t.

I saw it last week. That’s where the deep cut comes from.

Gabrielle Ruiz: I can concur. I can totally agree with you that definitely they knew that all along. The writers are so great on our show. I think I know, but I don’t know anything when you compare it to what they have hidden away. For all these beautiful easter eggs for everybody to enjoy.

T’Lyn Fitting Into The Cerritos After Joining Star Trek: Lower Decks In Season 4

Seven Of Nine Did The Same Thing

One of the amazing things about T’Lyn, too, is that it’s not that often a TV show adds a new character to an established ensemble and the new character is immediately accepted. And T’Lyn is kind of like Seven of Nine in that way, because she came out in season 4 and became part of the crew and now is beloved. What’s that been like for you?

Gabrielle Ruiz: Oh, it’s such a gift. It’s been such a gift to be welcomed, not only by the cast, but also by the fans, the entire universe of Star Trek. And I will remember these moments forever and [for[ the rest of my life. My mom’s a Trekkie. I grew up with TNG. I knew who Spock was, and always will. And [it’s] kind of a big deal, and it gets to now be a part of my portfolio, of my career, forever. I’m speechless. It is remarkable. It is quite remarkable. I take the establishment and all of that seriously, but also with so much gratitude. I have so much gratitude to be a part of this world.

You do such a great job, and T’Lyn does such a great job taking the Vulcan character and just making it so funny and so fresh. And it does help that Vulcans are inherently funny. T’Lyn seems to know that she’s funny, and she seems aware that her friends are funny.

Gabrielle Ruiz: She really does. I just told Mike McMahan this last weekend. I said, I don’t know if you ever hear the cuts of me always giggling after we record each line, because it’s so serious. But as a human, because I am not personally a Vulcan, as a human, I laugh and she does it. But I get to at least get my laugh out and they cut it out later. You don’t hear it on TV.

There could be a director’s cut where T’Lyn just chuckles the entire episode.

Gabrielle Ruiz: I chuckle after every single line recording. I’m enjoying her so much.

At its core, Star Trek really is about friendships. And I think T’Lyn is really figuring that out on the Cerritos. She’s really reaching out to the crew to be accepted. And I love how they’re all in with her.

Gabrielle Ruiz: I also love that she’s not a a stubborn perfectionist either. It kind of got in her way in the very beginning, when she got kicked out and was sent to Starfleet. She was pretty stubborn about exactly what she knew she wanted to do. She listened to her instinct, which is so, you know, radical, but her instinct is working in this dynamic at Starfleet and that she’s listening to. I’m glad that she is able to not necessarily just let their friendships affect her and her life, but she’s being able to impact theirs.

For instance, with Rutherford where she wants to do the maintenance on the ship, and then she realizes that she’s kind of in the way. And she’s okay with doing that, and she’s okay with stepping back. And I think that’s a really healthy relationship, a really healthy platonic relationship,

And it was so funny when she took the entire shuttle pod apart. She’s completely dismantled it.

Gabrielle Ruiz: And, you know, she wants to grow. She wants to advance. I would assume she wants to advance in wherever she’s at with her career. And luckily, she doesn’t sleep. So that definitely happened. And then she was so nice to give Rutherford and Tendi that moment as well.

Tawny is the one who said Star Trek is really about competence porn.

Gabrielle Ruiz: (laughs) She would say that.

T’Lyn is all about competence.

Gabrielle Ruiz: She is all about competence. She’s all about, I think, honesty, too. Of just, you know, being scientifically aware of her surroundings and all the people around her. That’s why people like to have her around.

Gabrielle Ruiz’s Favorite Moments As T’Lyn

Playing T’Lyn Was A Joy For Gabrielle Ruiz

What has been your favorite T’Lyn moment so far? Or is it still to come?

Gabrielle Ruiz: So far? Goodness gracious. I remember when I read the script about her trying to reach Captain Sokol again, and she’s creating all this emotional energy on Cerritos. I remember reading that script and praying that she wasn’t leaving the ship. I remember being like, oh my gosh, is this her last moment? Because I have been a guest star, a recurring guest star, many times. And it is also very important to be a great sub character for the main characters. You are an engine, you are a catalyst to help them grow and move.

And I was totally down for letting T’Lyn be just around for the time that she needed to be. But when she stayed, and I remember reading that, I cried. I was so happy that the writers and the team wanted to keep her around a little longer and to be part… you know, to be able to join the Fabulous Four, the core four, whenever she could. That was a moment for me professionally, that’s for sure.

I remember that there was one point where I interviewed Mike sometime in season four, and I really was like, ‘She’s not leaving, is she? She’s staying?’ He’s like, ‘Yes yes.’

Gabrielle Ruiz: Yeah, and ‘wej Duj’ absolutely as well. It was the first. That recording day, the whole team was there. It was important to establish her correctly, and we took time with her. And I never felt like there was this state of pressure or stress. It was fun to create her. And as an actor, it’s a wonderful day. It’s a wonderful day when it really works with you and the team that were both on the same page to brainstorm together, try things together, and create this iconic character.

Gabrielle Ruiz’s Biggest Surprise Playing T’Lyn

There’s Something About That Star Trek Font

What has been the biggest surprise you’ve had about playing T’Lyn or just being part of Star Trek in general?

Gabrielle Ruiz: I have to say, the greatest surprise is seeing my name in Star Trek font.

God, I can’t imagine how awesome that is.

Gabrielle Ruiz: It’s iconic. It’s timeless. That whole moment that you see Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, all of those moments. And again, as an actor, I was first Lieutenant Lemonts in Lower Decks, where she gets killed. After one line, she, like, dies instantly, and I was a computer voice for a hot second in season one or two. And then you hear me as [Ensign] Castro as well. So there were some glimpses.

And those moments, not even T’Lyn, those were the moments when I cried because I got to see my name in Star Trek font, and I got to call my mother and tell her. I was like, this is such a bucket list moment. I’m so thrilled. So it was surprising to see, because you’re not ready for it until you see it.

Looking Ahead To The Rest Of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5

It’s An Exciting Time To Be A Star Trek Fan

It’s not logical to spoil, but is there something you’re excited about that’s still to come in the rest of season five, or just in Star Trek in general? You know, we’ve got Starfleet Academy coming. Strange New Worlds, Section 31. It’s an exciting time.

Gabrielle Ruiz: It is an exciting time for new stories to be told. I do love, like you said, the friendship of everything that Lower Decks has. And I feel like Mike had some time to really button and tie this great bow for our final season of Star Trek and the friendships that you get to see T’Lyn not establish anymore, but dive in and dig into. This season is going to be super fun. Everyone’s going to enjoy it a lot. It’s going to be remarkable.

About Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5

In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, the crew of the USS Cerritos is tasked with closing “space potholes” – subspace rifts that are causing chaos in the Alpha Quadrant. Pothole duty would be easy for Jr. Officers Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford … if they didn’t also have to deal with an Orion war, furious Klingons, diplomatic catastrophes, murder mysteries, and scariest of all: their own career aspirations. This upcoming season on Paramount+ is a celebration of this underdog crew who are dangerously close to being promoted out of the lower decks and into strange new Starfleet roles.

Check out our other Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 interviews:

Seasons

5

Franchise

Star Trek

Number of Episodes

50

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