9 Ups & 1 Down From Star Trek: Lower Decks 5.5 — Starbase 80?!

Lower Decks is a dab hand at a reversal of expectations. In this episode, it did it standing on one leg. A surprise in the first place, we found out that Commander Kassia Nox was a member of that famous species of listeners.

Of the few El-Aurians we have (formally and previously) met — scattered as they were across the galaxy after the Borg attack on their homeworld — all had been around for hundreds of years. Guinan was on Earth in the 19th century; Tolian Soran was more than 300 years old; and Martus Mazur had to have at least hit the big three digits a bit back. Nox broke the El-Aurian mould as she was only in her 30s.

"A young El-Aurian is just a regular person!" Mariner noted. Be that as it may, and there is still a lot we don't know about the species, the point here is that wisdom and kickassery are not the property of the young or the old. They belong to anyone, as Nox herself pointed out, with the good enough sense to be paying attention.