Star Trek: Lower Decks Finally Revealed More About Its Most Original Species

This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Lower Decks" season 5.

After dropping hints about his origins for years, the fifth and final season of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" has finally revealed the details surrounding Dr. Migleemo (Paul F. Tompkins). Migleemo has always been one of the funniest characters in "Lower Decks," in part because his ship psychologist tactics and personality are so strange and in part because Tompkins is incapable of being anything but funny in a comedic role. Migleemo has also been a fan favorite thanks to his cute, avian animation design and his status as part of a mysterious, invented-by-"Lower Decks" alien species that's never been named.

Until now. In this week's episode, "A Farewell To Farms," we don't just meet more members of Migleemo's species, but we also visit his homeland and learn the actual name of his kind. In classic "Star Trek: Lower Decks" fashion, the whole thing is a bit of a dirty joke; it turns out Dr. Migleemo is part of a race of food-loving bird-beings called the Klowahkans, whose home planet is named the Klowahkan Nestworld. Of course, this means that the planet is called Klowahka, which sounds like "cloaca," the word for the hole animals like birds use to mate, give birth, and go to the bathroom in. For all the love the Easter egg-filled show gives previous one-off "Star Trek" species, it rarely creates them from scratch, so it's extremely on brand that when the writers finally did dig into Migleemo's background, they went down the silliest route possible.

This episode includes a lot of new information about the Klowahkans, who aren't just casual foodies. Taste and eating seem to be their primary form of cultural exchange and favored past-time (not to mention, in the case of the "scholarly" food critics like the two we meet here, a popular and expected career track). The pair of revered food critics — whose work Migleemo compares to scripture, and who bear the titles of Sir and Madame — are a sharp contrast to Migleemo right off the bat. Where he's warm and friendly (if eccentric), they're wildly pretentious and openly rude.

They're also apparently not representative of the rest of the Klowahkans, as the final scenes of the episode make clear. When the team heads to the Nestworld, the Lower Deckers trick the two haughty food snobs into eating replicator poop in order to reveal that they're frauds who literally have no taste. It's a cheeky jab at critics, but it's also an excuse to visit the planet, where the rest of the bird folks seem pretty nice in contrast.

There are a few more tidbits of Klowahka lore revealed in this episode, too. The critics are shocked to hear that Migleemo is in Starfleet, saying that he should be off "discovering new soups and stews" instead. We also see that Klowahkans carry shiny golden tools with which to taste tiny bits of food, and learn that every visit to Klowahka comes with a traditional amuse bouche serving. There's also something called the Book of the Flavorless, and something else called The Great Seating Chart, and one is definitely better than the other. (Flavor Prison is probably worse than both, for the record.) Silliest of all, Migleemo expands on his claim that his species invented space travel, explaining that "We Klowahkans invented warp travel in the hopes of discovering strange new meals."

Despite their ridiculous name, I'd love to see the Klowahka expanded upon in future "Star Trek" canon. The beauty of the "Star Trek" franchise comes in part from its collaborative, ongoing nature, and the ability of each new series and generation to build on what came before it. This episode does that well with its A plot, which spends plenty of time in the world of the Klingons (who have been an ever-evolving "Star Trek" mainstay since the original series). The Klowahkans are zany, but they're also great, and Migleemo is one of the most underrated "Lower Deck" characters. What I'm saying is, I hope I live long enough to one day see a "Star Trek" movie with live-action bird-people who send each other to food jail and go on planet-hopping snack discovery expeditions.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" drop Thursdays on Paramount+.