Ensign Wheaton, reporting for duty.

As many of you know, I absolutely love Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Many of you also know that since 2019, I have had the pleasure and privilege of hosting The Ready Room, your home for all things Star Trek Universe. It’s one of my favorite jobs I’ve ever had. Top three, for sure. Maybe top two. I’m so grateful that I get to do this thing that brings together my love for all things Star Trek, my 30ish years of experience being part of all things Star Trek, and gives me the opportunity, if I do it right, to be a Trekkie who brings my fellow Trekkies into the room where it happens. I do not take a single second of it for granted.

There’s INSANELY COOL Ready Room stuff coming up that I can’t talk about. In fact, I’ve already said too much, and you should probably forget I said anything. But there’s also an INSANELY COOL thing that I can share right now.

If you’re in the Ready Room audience (thank you for watching!), you have already seen this, and you know what it means to me. For y’all who haven’t, here’s me, Wil Wheaton, drawn by an actual Lower Decks animator, as a Lower Decker. Please note this is NOT Wesley Crusher. This is me. Like, this is how I would look if I were part of the Lower Decks. This is Ensign Wheaton, of the USS Cerritos:

That guy TOTALLY hangs out with Tendi and Rutherford. They are buddies. I just know it.

I doubt very much this is as thrilling to anyone else in the world as it is to me, but I’ve been dying to show it off since I got the images from production. I’m stoked to share them today. I feel like I should wrap this up with a thousand words about how special this is, and how happy it makes me, but I just can’t find the right way to express it. All I can get out is something like, “I just love this, and I am so grateful it exists.”

I think maybe that’s enough.