Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, episode 6, “Of Gods and Angles”In its fifth and final season on Paramount+, Star Trek: Lower Decks introduced a new Starfleet ensign descended from the Greek gods. Lower Decks season 5, episode 6, “Of Gods and Angles,” sees the USS Cerritos host peace talks between two warring civilizations. Referred to as the orbs and the cubes, these two factions of photonic beings float throughout the Cerritos, constantly at odds with one another. When the orb leader’s child goes missing, Lt. Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) teams up with the Cerritos’ newest crewmember, Ensign Olly (Saba Homayoon), to search for the orb.

In Star Trek: The Original Series season 2, episode 2, “Who Mourns for Adonais?,” a powerful being claiming to be the Greek god, Apollo (Michael Forest), holds Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew captive. Apollo wants Kirk and his crew to worship him, and he even takes Lt. Carolyn Palamas (Leslie Parrish) as his lover, pointing out that Zeus and the other gods often had human lovers. When Captain Kirk and his crew refuse to worship Apollo, he fades away (to “become one with the wind, or whatever”) just as the other gods did. This connection with Greek divinity has been reestablished thanks to Lower Decks.

Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Greek Demigod Ensign Olly Explained

Ensign Olly Is Voiced By Iranian-Canadian Actress Saba Homayoon

Prior to joining the crew of the USS Cerritos, Ensign Olly had been kicked off of six other ships for causing numerous problems. The Cerritos is Olly’s last chance, but she continues to be a problem, and Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) can’t risk her interfering with the orbs and cubes. When Freeman considers removing Olly from the Cerritos, Lt. Mariner speaks up on her behalf, saying that “people can change, if you let them.” Mariner herself is proof of that. She still flouts protocol occasionally but has ultimately become a good officer, if an unconventional one.

Mariner sees something of herself in Olly and takes it upon herself to look out for the ensign. As Mariner and Olly investigate the disappearance of one of the cubes, Mariner asks Olly about being a demigod, noting that the ensign’s permanent laurel headpiece is a bit of a giveaway. Olly initially claims not to have powers but later reveals that she can produce small lightning bolts. Although Olly has tried to hide her powers from others to avoid scaring them, she keeps inadvertently causing electrical problems. In the end, Olly’s engineering prowess saves the day, but she still spends a night in the brig.

Why Would A Demigod Join Starfleet?

Ensign Olly Just Wants To Be A Good Engineer

Although Star Trek: Lower Decks did not provide much background about Ensign Olly beyond her divine heritage, she says she joined Starfleet so she “could fix and build stuff.” After Mariner learns about Olly’s powers, she encourages the ensign to use them to stop the fighting between the orbs and the cubes. Unfortunately, this only makes things worse. Olly eventually realizes that she’s at her “best when [she’s] in engineering, not trying to be a Zeus.” Olly joined Starfleet for the same reasons many young cadets do — to do what she loves and figure out who she wants to be.

If Olly had the power to alter reality like a full god or a Q, perhaps she would not have pursued a career in Starfleet, but she does not wish to be tied to her status as a demigod. She does not revel in her powers the way god-like beings often do; she simply wants to be a good engineer. After Olly’s modification to the Cerritos’ tractor beam saves the day, Captain Freeman transfers her to engineering. When Chief Engineer Billups (Paul Scheer) says Olly “has a real eye for power systems,” she responds that she’s “never felt so supported before.”

Star Trek: TOS Almost Predicted Lower Decks’ Demigod Ensign

Apollo Almost Had A Child With A Human Starfleet Officer

According to Allan Asherman’s The Star Trek Compendium, the first script of “Who Mourns for Adonais?” had more of a bittersweet ending. In the original ending, Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForrest Kelley) discovered that Lt. Palamas was pregnant with Apollo’s child. Network censors reportedly forced this ending to be cut, but author James Blish kept it for his adaptation of the episode. Considering the strictly episodic nature of Star Trek: The Original Series, it’s unlikely the series would have revisited this storyline even if the episode had kept the original ending.

If
TOS
had stuck with the original ending of the episode, Olly could have been a descendant of Apollo and Lt. Palamas’ child.

Although TOS never got to explore what it would have been like for a Starfleet officer to raise a young demigod, Star Trek: Lower Decks took the storyline one step further by putting a demigod in Starfleet. As referenced in “Who Mourns for Adonais?,” Zeus was Apollo’s father, making Apollo Ensign Olly’s uncle. Olly feels like a logical continuation of Starfleet’s connection with the Greek gods, and Star Trek: Lower Decks developed a hilarious and interesting take on who Apollo’s demigod child could have been.