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The Legacy Of Armus, Star Trek's Cheapest, Scariest, Most Controversial Villain

In the first-season "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Skin of Evil" (April 28, 1988), the shuttlecraft carrying Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) crashes on a seemingly uninhabited alien world called Vagra II. The Enterprise goes to rescue her, but finds that Troi's crashed shuttle is being guarded by a mysterious living puddle of black tar. The tar shapeshifts into a vaguely human form and calls itself Armus (Mart McChesney, voice by Ron Gans), the only inhabitant of this world. Armus is seethingly cruel and takes pleasure in the death and suffering of the people it encounters. It refuses to let Troi go, wanting to torment the Enterprise crew members who have beamed down to gather her. 

In one of the most notorious moments in "Star Trek" history, Lieutenant Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) attempts to walk around Armus, and it zaps her with a mysterious psychic blast. Yar is thrown several feet through the air, severely injured. She is beamed back on board and almost immediately pronounced dead. Yar's quick and incidental death is one of the series' more abrupt and shocking scenes. 

Yar was given a touching funeral scene at the end of the episode, but many Trekkies, even to this day, feel that Yar's death was jarring and lacked respect. She was merely murdered by a monster-of-the-week. A monster, incidentally, that wouldn't return to the series until the "Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "The Spy Humongous" (September 16, 2021).

Armus, many also feel, looked absurd. The creature looks more or less like a garbage bag covered in maple syrup. As it so happens, as explained in the 1993 book "Star Trek: The Next Generation: Make-Up FX Journal," the "tar" used to visually realize Armus was made of Metamucil mixed with black printer's ink.

What is Armus made of?

The origin of Armus is mythical in a Jack Kirby sort of way. The "tar" is the physical manifestation of all the negative emotions and psychic impulses of a long-forgotten species of unnamed "Titans" who used advanced technology to literally rid themselves of hate. The Titans then left their world and abandoned their sticky, tar-like hatred. Over the years — centuries? millennia? — Armus evolved from that hate into an intelligent being. Armus is, like Changelings, a living liquid and has no internal organs or skeleton. It can move around and alter its density at will, and also clearly possesses advanced, terrifying psychic powers. Its powers also involved a far-reaching psychic field, which was why the Enterprise couldn't beam Troi to safety.

Armus isn't harmed by phasers, and, at one point, sucks Commander Riker ( Jonathan Frakes ) into its body. While inside, Riker is seemingly reduced to a liquid state wherein he is savagely tortured. Armus then reconstitutes Riker and spits him back onto the desert floor of Vagra II. At a convention attended by this author, Frakes admitted that he actually had to climb into a pool of ink-black Metamucil, an unpleasant experience to say the least. This story, however, was contradicted by the "FX Journal" which stated that Frakes' stuntman was used for the submersion scene. 

As a being of pure anger, Armus didn't behave entirely logically. It had been alone on Vagra II for God knows how long, waiting for torture victims to stumble into its path. When victims did appear, however, Armus did everything in its power to frighten them and scare them off. It longed for company, but only required that company in order to alienate them. In short, Armus was your average Twitter user. 

The existential loneliness of Armus

At the end of "Skin of Evil," Captain Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) was able to mock and distract Armus long enough to beam Troi (and the shuttle pilot) back onboard the Enterprise and flee. Picard knew at that point that Armus, more than anything, required people nearby in order to sate its fathomless bloodlust. Troi realized this as well, stating out loud to Armus that it was, more than anything, unutterably lonely.

The latex costumes for Armus had to be used multiple times over the course of a four-day shoot, and the Metamucil mixture broke down the rubbers in their materials. Actor McChesney was lowered into the pool of glop multiple times during filming (sans oxygen tanks), and his suits developed huge rips. He eventually had to do scenes with his back exposed. The headpiece, curiously, remained intact.

McChesney passed away in 1999 of complications related to AIDS. He was an AIDS activist for years prior. Gans, meanwhile, was a longtime voice acting veteran, having appeared in multiple B-movies since the 1950s and played Eeyore in "The House on Pooh Corner." He passed away in 2010 at the age of 78. 

Perhaps with a bigger budget and more time to film, Armus would have emerged as a greater, more ancient threat. The idea of a being consisting of an entire species' negative emotions could have felt enormous and antediluvian. Like an ancient, bitter god lashing out against his long-dead creators, Armus resented existence. The character possesses an existential element that "Star Trek" didn't have the time to delve into properly; imagine a Sartre-like treatise on existential nausea! On a 1988 TV budget, however, Armus was slight, even silly. 

Indeed, on "Lower Decks," the characters deigned to mock the character to his face. 

A big bag of crap

At the end of "The Spy Humongous," the four main characters — a team of less-than-professional ensigns — lucked into possession of a widget called a submanifold casting stone that allowed them to communicate with any being in the galaxy instantaneously. Because the ensigns knew about Armus and his plight, they decided to contact it and mock it. "Lower Decks" is set several decades after the events of "Skin of Evil," and it seems that Armus has remained alone on Vagra II that entire time. Ensign Mariner (Tawney Newsome) yelled out to Armus and said he looked like a big bag of crap. Armus yelled back in rage, unable to see its bullies. "I am a skin of evil!" it yelled. Armus then tripped on a rock. Not even within "Trek" canon is Armus particularly respected.

In other "Lower Decks" episodes, Armus was dismissed flippantly. A drunken character once yelled out "Tasha, no! The garbage bag is behind you!" Ouch.

According to a 1998 issue of Star Trek: Communicator Magazine , Armus was named after Burton Armus, a writer on "Next Generation." Enterprising Trekkies will likely be able to find early concept art of Armus and find that the character was meant to be far larger and more impressive.  One design , by Rick Sternbach, had Armus looking like a bat-winged creature straight out of "Prometheus," while another , by Andrew Probert, saw it as an enormous screaming face of anguish. 

It's not official canon, but in Dean Wesley Smith's 2004 short story collection "Strange New Worlds VII," Armus eventually escaped Vagra II using pieces of the crashed shuttle ... in the year 26,862. It traveled to the planet of the Guardian of Forever (!) and was killed by an army of hortas (!!). R.I.P. Armus.

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Armus is an antagonist in the Star Trek universe that the Enterprise encountered on Vagra II in 2364. Armus was composed of a black viscous liquid that largely resembled an oil slick and was also a shapeshifter that could also assume a vaguely humanoid shape.

He was physically portrayed by Mart McChesney, and voiced by the late Ron Gans. In Star Trek Lower Decks , Armus is voiced by Fred Tatasciore who also voiced The Mawgu in Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island , Kakuzu in Naruto , Teetsi in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa , Major Force in Batman: The Brave and the Bold , Deathstroke in Youg Justice , Mandarin in The Invincible Iron Man , Tony Alpert in Battlefield Hardline and Helm Hammerhand in Middle-earth: Shadow of War .

Many years later, Armus is shown to be even more bored with no one to hurt and had become more childishly angry when Mariner and his friends made fun of him without him being able to stop it.

• 1.1 Star Trek: The Next Generations
• 1.2 Star Trek: Lower Decks
• 2 Personality
• 3 Powers and Abilities
• 5 Navigation

History [ ]

Star trek: the next generations [ ].

According to Armus, he was born of an unknown race that had left him on Vagra II. This race had purged from within them all the evil and negative attributes, which coalesced into a dank and vile second skin that was full of evil. The species abandoned Armus when they discovered what had happened.

In 2364 the crew of the Enterprise encountered Armus on Vagra II when a shuttle carrying Deanna Troi and a pilot crashed on the surface of the planet. The rescue team encountered Armus, who blocked their way to the shuttle. When Lieutenant Natasha Yar walked towards the shuttle, Armus responded with an energy attack that killed Yar within a matter of minutes.

Returning to the planet, the Enterprise away team tried to reason with Armus. Armus showed his total disregard for any other form of life, and dragged Commander Riker within itself. Armus was capable of blocking the orbiting ship's transporters, trapping the away team on the planet.

Captain Picard traveled to the planet, at which point Armus released Commander Riker and allowed the away team to leave. Armus revealed its interest in leaving Varga II to find and punish the race that had abandoned him there. However Picard declared that he would not take Armus anywhere. He was able to deride Armus enough that the being became angry enraged, which caused its energy output slacken, which allowed the Enterprise to beam Picard and the occupants of the shuttle off the planet.

Following the return of the Enterprise crew to safety, the wreckage of the shuttle was destroyed with a photon torpedo in order to keep Armus from repairing the shuttle and leaving the planet. Picard then placed Varga II under a permanent quarantine, confining Armus on Varga II forever.

Star Trek: Lower Decks [ ]

27 Years after his world was quarantined, Armus is sitting on the edge of his puddle, bored of having no one to torment. Suddenly, he hears Beckett Mariner and his friends using a Submanifold casting stone to communicate with the slimy being for the sole purpose of making him go crazy. Unable to catch these jokers, Armus threatens them only to make himself even more of an idiot and trip over. Armus is seen standing up for the last time and cursing the teens with rage.

Personality [ ]

Armus is a purely malicious being devoid of any compassion or sympathy, and, in fact, despising these emotions. It has no remorse for the suffering and death that it inflicts on others. Its own self-assessment is that it is pure evil. Armus gains pleasure only from killing and causing suffering in other beings.

Armus is also quick to anger. This is seen when Picard reminded him that even if he killed them all, he would still be alone and stuck on Vagra II.

Powers and Abilities [ ]

Armus is a being of immense, though localized, power. It sensed the nearby shuttle craft and drew it to the planet, causing it to crash. It could create an energy field around itself to block transporter beams. It proved completely invulnerable to the crew's personal weapons and it is likely immortal. It could absorb a human being and keep him alive within its mass. It could kill at close range effortlessly. Its only known weakness was its inability to control its emotions, which was used to manipulate it. Armus' powers fade as its anger rises, a vulnerability which was manipulated and exploited in order to escape.

• He briefly appeared in the Shades of Gray episode, part of Riker's memories.
• In an alternate timeline, Tasha was not killed by Armus but instead is found in the main timeline where she fathered a child, Sela , before being executed by the Romulians.
• Since its first appearance in Skin of Evil , Armus has not physically reappeared in the franchise.

Navigation [ ]

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Armus imitating a humanoid .

Armus was a male non-humanoid lifeform , a malevolent and amorphous skin of evil [1] created from the cast-off negative emotions of a race of Titans previously native to Vagra II . ( TNG episode : " Skin of Evil ")

• 1 Biography
• 2 Alternate timelines
• 3.1.1 Appearances
• 3.1.2 References
• 4 External links

Biography [ ]

Armus in 2364 .

Armus was created as a by-product of a procedure in which the planet 's original inhabitants brought out from within themselves all evil and negative attributes that had bound them to destructiveness. The unwanted substance spread and coalesced into a dank, vile, liquid-like second skin. The race rejected this "skin of evil" and abandoned it on the barren planet Vagra II in the Zed Lapis sector .

In the year 2364 , the Federation made first contact with a skin of evil when the Starfleet starship USS Enterprise attempted to recover Shuttlecraft 13 , which Armus had forced to crash on his world. Armus held the shuttle 's crew hostage, and killed the Enterprise security chief , Lieutenant Tasha Yar . Captain Jean-Luc Picard outwitted Armus to rescue the shuttle crew and his away team . A torpedo destroyed Shuttlecraft 13, and the planet was quarantined, leaving Armus in isolation. ( TNG episode : " Skin of Evil ")

Armus salvaged what little he could of Shuttlecraft 13. ( ST - Strange New Worlds VII short story : " Guardians ")

Commander William T. Riker , who had been a member of the away team, relived the memory after falling ill on a mission to Surata IV . ( TNG episode : " Shades of Gray ")

In 2367 , Lieutenant Commander Data informed Ishara Yar of her sister's fate during a visit to Turkana IV . ( TNG episode : " Legacy ")

In 2379 , Q conjured several copies of Armus to combat the crews of Captains Picard, Kirk , Janeway , and Sisko during his God War. ( ST - The Q Conflict comic : " Issue 6 ")

In 2380 , an angry Ensign Beckett Mariner threatened to feed Brad Boimler to an Armus for accepting a promotion to Riker's ship, the USS Titan . ( LD episode : " No Small Parts ")

While performing anomaly consolidation duty on the USS Cerritos in 2381 , Ensign Beckett Mariner found and kept a submanifold casting stone from among Lieutenant Shaxs ' samples. She, D'Vana Tendi , Sam Rutherford , and Brad Boimler later used it to prank call Armus on Vagra II. ( LD episode : " The Spy Humongous ")

Thousands of years later, an automated explorer with a rudimentary mechanical consciousness crashed on Vagra II. Building from its wreckage and Shuttlecraft 13, Armus constructed his own vessel and escaped his homeworld .

In the year 22,862, Armus's ship reached the Rock of Ages , the site of the Guardian of Forever and a Horta colony . Armus fought and killed Hortas who defended the Guardian. Several Horta sacrificed themselves to isolate Armus on a plinth and tunneling towards the planet's core. Armus fell to his death . ( ST - Strange New Worlds VII short story : " Guardians ")

Alternate timelines [ ]

In the Yesterday's Enterprise timeline , Tasha Yar was not killed by Armus, and remained security chief of the Enterprise -D until 2366 . She learned from the psychic bartender Guinan that she had died "a meaningless death" in the prime universe . ( TNG episode : " Yesterday's Enterprise ")

In an alternate timeline thrown into disarray by the temporal anomaly crisis , versions of Armus arrived in local space and joined the Federation as acting Starfleet personnel. These versions of Armus were villainous, desperate, brutal, capable of telekinesis and skilled survivalists. Armus was particularly adept in the field of command , security and science . During away missions, Armus carried Yar's phaser and a modified polaron emitter . ( ST video game : Timelines 2018 mission: "The Gauntlet")

Appendices [ ]

Appearances and references [ ], appearances [ ].

• TNG episode : " Skin of Evil "
• ST video game : Timelines

References [ ]

• ↑ ST short story : " Guardians "

External links [ ]

• Armus article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Armus article at the Star Trek Timelines Wiki .
• 1 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 2 Odyssey class

• Edit source
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Armus was a malevolent entity created by an unknown race. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Lower Decks , Star Trek: Voyager - Dark Realm )

• 2 Attributes
• 3 First contact
• 4 Escape from Vagra II
• 5 External links

Origins [ ]

Armus was born as a by-product of a procedure in which a race of "titans" brought out from within themselves all evil and negative attributes, that had bound them to destructiveness. The unwanted substance spread and coalesced into a dank and vile second skin. The race rejected this "skin of evil" and abandoned it on the barren planet Vagra II in the Zed Lapis sector. ( TNG : " Skin of Evil ")

Attributes [ ]

Armus was physically a black oil-like liquid that could also assume a vaguely humanoid shape. Tricorder scans could not register the substance Armus was composed of. Armus was also capable of enveloping humanoids and incorporating them into the liquid, where they would remain conscious while in liquid form. Armus was impervious to phaser fire, and Data theorized it was, in fact, feeding off of the phaser energy. Captain Picard also assumed Armus was immortal though this hypothesis was never confirmed.

Armus was perpetually in a state of undirected and unfocused rage, which is what he is literally composed of. However, when that rage was focused it could generate a powerful forcefield around itself and part of the surrounding area. With this energy field it was capable of blocking sensor scans , communications , and transporters . It was also capable of using psychokinesis and teleportation on at least humanoid-size organisms within the field. Armus was also capable of inflicting energy discharges that caused synaptic damage to humanoids, killing them. Presumably this field was also responsible for causing the nearby Shuttlecraft 13 to experience a massive systems breakdown and crashland on the planet in 2364. ( TNG : " Skin of Evil ")

First contact [ ]

First contact with Armus occurred in 2364 after the crash of Shuttlecraft 13 carrying Counselor Deanna Troi . The USS Enterprise -D raced to Vagra II in the Zed Lapis sector to rescue the shuttle and beamed down an away team . En route to the crash site the away team encountered a mysterious inky black fluid with the consistency of road tar. When they tried to get around it, the strange pool blocked their path.

Not long after it was assumed that the pool was in fact some sort of lifeform, Armus introduced itself. During this first encounter it generated a field that would kill Enterprise -D security chief Lieutenant Tasha Yar . After killing Yar, Armus believed it would feel amusement and that the rescue effort would be abandoned. This was not the case, however. Armus then realized torturing the shuttlecraft survivors would never be amusement enough. It wanted passage away from Vagra II to find the beings that initially abandoned it there. Eventually, Captain Jean-Luc Picard was able to distract Armus long enough for the energy field to weaken enough to allow beaming the shuttle occupants and himself off the surface. The shuttle wreckage was destroyed with a photon torpedo to prevent any possibility of Armus leaving the planet, and Vagra II was declared quarantined. ( TNG : " Skin of Evil ")

Escape from Vagra II [ ]

After being marooned on Vagra II once more, Armus' rage intensified and was now focused towards the Federation . Vainly it sought a way to seek revenge on the entities that marooned it there. Its chance for vengeance came in 2376 when a lone Dusk Nobody found its way onto Vagra II.

The Dusk attempted to absorb Armus' heart, but the darkness inside Armus proved overwhelming and Armus absorbed the Dusk instead. In doing so, Armus gained the ability to jump from dimension to dimension. Its first contact with the Nobodies and the Heartless lead it to raise an army of the dark creatures to reap vengeance.

Armus' first dimensional jump lead it to an alternate version of Earth circa the year 1985 in a place called Hill Valley . In doing so it would encounter a man named Biff Tannen , the CEO of a waste disposal company called BiffCo. Appealing to Tannen's desire for power and wealth and playing off his fears, Armus influenced Tannen to be his right hand in seeking and uniting an army of Heartless to unleash upon the galaxy.

Armus would first encounter Federation personnel from an away team of the USS Voyager (NCC-74656) when the Delta Flyer was sucked into a spatial rift into one of the dimensions it visited. ( Star Trek: Voyager - Dark Realm )

External links [ ]

• Armus article at Memory Alpha , the canon Star Trek wiki.
• Star Trek Voyager: Dark Realm
• 1 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-H) (Endurance class)
• 3 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-R)

• Armus (Character)

Armus was a malevolent entity created by the former natives of Vagra II, born as a by-product of a procedure in which a "race of titans" brought out from within themselves all evil and negative attributes. The unwanted substance coalesced into a vile second skin; the race rejected this "skin of evil" and abandoned it on the barren planet Vagra II in the Zed Lapis sector.

External Links

• Armus at Memory Alpha
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• Appears in The Next Generation

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Armus  is a malevolent creature that appears in  Star Trek: The Next Generation  in the first season episode  "Skin of Evil".  This aberration was born as an unwanted by-product of a procedure in which a race of "titans" brought out from within themselves all evil and negative attributes that had bound them to destructiveness. This amalgamation of malicious emotion coalecsed into a physical, sentient being that appeared to be little more than a mass of viscous black ooze. The "titans" that spawned Armus rejected it and abandoned the creature on the barren world of Vagra II where it remained for centuries and festered in its isolation.

History [ ]

In the year 2364, a shuttlecraft from the USS  Enterprise-D  crash-landed on Vagra II. The  Enterprise  sent down personnel to conduct a rescue, but the away team was stopped by Armus, who had surrounded the shuttle with an impenetrable force field. As the away team tried to reason with Armus, it simply mocked them and toyed with them for its own amusement. It enveloped Cmdr. Riker within its liquid form (though released him a short while after) and it attacked Lt. Tasha Yar with some form of psychokinetic charge that killed her instantly.

The  Enterprise  crew were only able to rescue the shuttle crew when Captain Picard kept Armus distracted as the two talked about the possibility of Armus leaving Vagra II to find the race that had abandoned it. With Armus suitably distracted, his energy barrier dwindled and the  Enterprise  was able to beam out the shuttle occupants as well as Picard. Armus was left alone once more and the  Enterprise  fired a photon torpedo upon the shuttlecraft to make sure Armus couldn't leave the planet. Warning beacons were then placed around Vagra II to ensure that no other ships would fall prey to Armus.

Abilities [ ]

• Liquid-shifting  - Armus' natural form is that of a pool of black ooze. He can mold himself around objects or take on a vaguely humanoid shape.
• Immortality  - Armus has no definite lifespan and is immune to phasers and other such weapons. He seems to feed off energy.
• Psychokinesis  - Armus can project invisible fields of energy to block people's movements and can even kill enemies instantly.

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Published Aug 26, 2022

The 10 Funniest Moments from Star Trek: Lower Decks … So Far

Go ahead, and beam yourself up some laughs!

StarTrek.com/Scott Francisco

It’s time for the scrappy crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos to resume their misadventures: Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 is now streaming on Paramount+ .

To celebrate the launch of the animated comedy series’ latest season, and the return of ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford, we’re revisiting our favorite gags, lines and sarcastic Vulcan salutes from the show’s first two seasons. And remember: Every season, every episode, and every laugh of Lower Decks is available to stream on Paramount+ .

SUBSCRIBE NOW: Get Paramount+ To Stream Star Trek: Lower Decks

Keep scrolling to read about the 10 times Lower Decks proved it’s one of the galaxy’s funniest shows.

1. Mariner’s “Sarcastic Vulcan Salute”

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In the Season 1 episode, “Moist Vessel,” Captain Freeman scolds Mariner for being disrespectful. Rather than apologize, Mariner doubles down, and gives what Freeman calls a “sarcastic Vulcan salute” on the way out the door.

We’d like to see Mariner try this stunt in front of T'Lyn, the Vulcan from the Season 2 episode, “wej Duj.”

2. “Computer, End Program”

Let’s appreciate that Lower Decks devoted an entire episode, Season 1’s “Cupid’s Errant Arrow,” to Mariner not believing Boimler could have a girlfriend.

The situation was set off by the hilarious moment when Mariner first saw Barbara Brinson run into Boimler’s arms, and cracked, “Computer, end program.”

3. "Move, Jennifer

Mariner’s overaggressive push of an Andorian named Jennifer in “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” is a fan favorite. Jennifer would go on to become a recurring character voiced by Lauren Lapkus.

4. “Please Let Me Shoot Their Warp Core”

Shaxs’ “Please, please let me shoot their warp core” plea in the Season 1 episode, “Terminal Provocations,” is arguably the Cerriotos’ chief of security’s most quoted Lower Decks line. And, honestly, curse Starfleet diplomacy, Shaxs had been good the whole month: Just let him shoot the warp core just this one time!

5. “Freaks Fight Back!”

In the Season 1 episode, “Much Ado About Boimler,” the titular ensign goes from chanting along with would-be mutineers to ratting out everyone. The 180-degree turn is funny – and true to the character: Boimler just isn’t cut out for mutiny.

6. “It’s A Movie, You Can Beam Whatever You Want”

Even though Lower Decks is Star Trek canon, it doesn’t shy away from poking fun at Trek content that has come before it. See: “Crisis Point.”

In the Season 1 episode that pays tribute to the Star Trek films, the U.S.S. Cerritos crashes. When Chief Engineer Billups regains consciousness, he worries his fellow crew members are lost. But it turns out catastrophe was averted because, prior to the accident, Rutherford initiated a rapidly repeating emergency transport sequence, and beamed the rest of the crew to safety. When Billups says what Rutherford did just isn’t possible, the ensign explains that the rules for beaming are, um, a bit fluid in the movies.

7. “Sweet Little Captain Kisses”

In the Season 1 finale, “No Small Part,” Boimler leaves his communications device on while distributing art supplies to the children of Beta III. The bridge overhears him mock Mariner for receiving “sweet little captain kisses” from Captain Freeman, aka Mariner’s mom.

Suddenly, Freeman beams Boimler and Mariner aboard. The scream Boimler lets out when he realizes what’s happened is one of the funniest cold open moments in the series.

8. “What’d You Do, Stop to Debate the Human Rights of a Robot?”

Have you ever noticed that the Star Trek franchise likes to ponder the nature of the universe and other big thoughts? The writers of Lower Decks have, apparently!

In the Season 2 episode, “Kayshon, His Eyes Open,” Mariner joins an away team tasked with categorizing a collection of rare items. The crew members are greeted by a keeper of the collectibles who’s not impressed with their punctuality. “About time, Starfleet,” Chairman Siggi notes sarcastically, “What’d you do, stop to debate the human rights of a robot?”

The fact that this could be a reference to several different Trek episodes makes it one of our favorite meta jokes from Lower Decks .

9. "I Needed The Box”

Tendi and Mariner spend the entirety of the Season 2 episode, “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris,” fighting for their lives as they try to track down a feline-centric family heirloom belonging to the Cerritos’ own Dr. T’Ana.

When the scratching post is destroyed, Tendi is distraught. But it turns out T’Ana didn’t care about the heirloom: She just wanted to play in the box it came in!

10. “Armus Prank Call”

Star Trek fans first met Armus on Star Trek: The Next Generation . It’s an entity that was created from all that was evil and negative within the Vagrans. For the purposes of Lower Decks , however, Armus is the perfect target for a prank call!

In Season 2’s “The Spy Humongous,” Mariner swipes a submanifold casting stone, and she and her fellow ensigns use its voice-transporting powers to, yup, prank-call Armus. It’s hard to think of anyone in the Star Trek universe that had it coming more than this infamous villain.

Season 3 of Star Trek: Lower Decks now streaming!

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Star Trek: Lower Decks streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel. The series will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in the UK, Canada, Latin America, Australia, Italy, France, the Caribbean, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland and South Korea.

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Vagrans were "a race of Titans " who were formerly native to the planet Vagra II . The species, as a whole, departed the planet "a very long time" prior to the 24th century .

Armus: what was left behind by the Vagra II natives

The Vagrans were said to have "perfected a means of bringing to the surface all that was evil and negative within," so that they would free their "bonds of destructiveness."

As these emotions came to the surface, it formed into an entity, a "second skin , dank and vile" – a "skin of evil" identified only as Armus . What remained was then discarded on Vagra II, left alone and rejected by those who created it, where it suffered for eternity, festering in its own anger .

Those that departed Vagra II were later described by Armus as "creatures whose beauty now dazzles all who see them." ( TNG : " Skin Of Evil ")

External link [ ]

• Vagra II native at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works