Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Offers An Update On A Voyager Character We've Been Wondering About

In the "Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "Dos Cerritos," the premiere of the show's fifth and final season, Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) was thrilled to receive the latest issue of Fleet Magazine on his PADD. Boimler is excited because this was the periodical's annual 30-Under-30 issue, meant to highlight the career accomplishments of Starfleet's younger officers (I assume it's 30 people under the age of 30 Earth years, or their homeplanet's equivalent). In the show's previous episode, Boimler briefly took command of the U.S.S. Cerritos, a rare privilege for junior-grade lieutenants, and his actions warranted a write-up. Recall that there is no money in Starfleet, leaving prestige as the only currency. Boimler thinks he's going to be rich. 

But as Boimler thumbs through the magazine, he doesn't see himself. It seems that his interview was cut. He is doomed to remain in obscurity despite his heroism, always earmarked to lose. He complains that other, ostensibly less worthy officers are getting write-ups, including a 10-year-old named Naomi Wildman, who was one of the magazine's 15 honorable mentions. 

The name Naomi Wildman, of course, will cause the ears of "Star Trek: Voyager" fans to perk up. Naomi Wildman was a character born on board the U.S.S. Voyager early in the show's second season. Naomi's mother, Ensign Samantha Wildman (Nancy Hower) boarded the Voyager while pregnant, shortly before the ship was forcibly whisked across the galaxy to the Delta Quadrant, seven decades from Earth. While Samantha was giving birth, the infant became lodged in her birth canal, thanks to a series of spikes on its forehead; Naomi's father is a Ktarian. The Doctor (Robert Picardo) cleverly uses the transporters to beam the infant out of her body. 

Years later, Naomi became a regular character on the series. She was played by actress Scarlett Pomers.

Because the U.S.S. Voyager was so far from Earth, it faced the very real possibility of the crew spawning a new generation of cadets before it returned. Naomi was meant to represent the grinding passage of time, as seeing a child grow up on the ship and never knowing a planet of her own would merely stress to the rest of the crew how long they had been away from Earth. Also, when Naomi was born, Kes (Jennifer Lien) was still a member of the crew. Kes, recall, belonged to a species that only had a lifespan of nine years, and the showrunners likely included her in the hope that audiences would see her age from her 20s to her 90s before the show's planned seventh season. Naomi, also a child, would prove a counterpoint to Kes, another child that Kes would serve as a sister to, then a mother, then a grandmother. 

Sadly, Kes was written out of the series in its third season, long before she had a chance to interact with Naomi. Instead, Naomi returns in the show's fourth season, already resembling a nine- or ten-year-old due to her Ktarian genes. Ktarians, it seems, age to maturity more quickly than humans. As a bigger kid, Naomi first appeared in "Mortal Coil" (December 17, 1997), and proceeded to appear in 16 additional episodes of the series. 

In most cases, Naomi fell into the care of the jolly Talaxian Neelix (Ethan Phillips), or the Borg officer Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Naomi was amused by Seven's robotic demeanor, and, in turn, Seven learned how to be human again by interacting with a guileless child. Naomi and Seven played a complicated game called kadis-kot, and Seven eventually became something of a big sister to Naomi.

The name "Naomi Wildman" was drilled into the brains of "Voyager" fans, as Seven of Nine typically referred to Naomi by her full name, often calling her a "subunit of Ensign Wildman." Naomi kept her cranial horns throughout. 

"Dos Cerritos" was the first canonical mention of Naomi Wildman since the end of "Voyager" in 2001, although "Lower Decks" take place only a few years after the U.S.S. Voyager returned home. Naomi Wildman is still a child, and, it seems, ambitious enough to have a write-up in Fleet Magazine. If one goes to non-canonical expanded-universe "Star Trek" novels, Naomi grew up and entered Starfleet, becoming an officer and rising quickly through the organization's ranks. In both the "Star Trek Online" video game and the book "The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway" (actually by Una McCormack) the adult Naomi is said to have served as the second officer on a ship called the U.S.S. Hathaway, and eventually reached the rank of Commander and was put in charge of Space Station K-7. That's an impressive position to hold. 

Naomi's experience on the Voyager is nothing unique, however, as babies are born on starships all the time on "Star Trek." Molly O'Brien (Hana Hatae) was born on the Enterprise-D on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," for instance. Upon arriving on Earth, all Naomi would get to see is where her mother grew up, and she'd get to meet her father for the first time. Also, because she was partially raised by the machine-like Seven of Nine, it's likely Naomi had an interest in the sciences, and might have wanted to pursue a career in a scientific field, either with Starfleet or as an independent scholar. 

Whatever she's been doing, however, the editors of Fleet Magazine felt she was impressive enough to write up.