We’re here with another interview with a newer member of our community. The title of this column is “Lower Decks,” hearkening back to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode titled “Lower Decks,” in which junior officers aboard the Enterprise-D speculate on the reasons for recent unusual actions taken by the command crew near the Cardassian border.
This month’s interview is with the writer behind Lieutenant JG Lhandon Nilsen playing a Human male Asst. Chief of Operations assigned to the USS Octavia E. Butler.
Fairhug: Tell us a little about the writer behind the character — where in the world do you hail from? Anything you’d like to share!
Nilsen: I’m Tom. I’m originally from Manchester, UK, but I’m now living in Milton Keynes. It’s an awesome place to be despite its press and reputation for being the UK’s largest service station. We’ve got so much green space, and it’s so easy to get around. I’m a tutor, and I specialize in supporting SEN students both on a one-to-one basis and in a classroom environment. When I’m not doing that, I’m running afterschool maths clubs aimed at getting kids aged 5 to 11 into maths. We play lots of fun games, and I dress up in silly costumes like a professor who looks like a mix of Albert Einstein and Doc Brown, a magician, and a detective.
Outside of work, I’ve got 118 (obviously) I’m a dad to my adorable labradoodle named lexa, I live with my boyfriend of eight years who has just joined the fleet and got posted to the Gorkon.
What was your introduction to Science Fiction in general and Star Trek specifically?
Nilsen: We have car boot sales in the UK, those in the States might call them Flea Markets, I saw a huge bunch of Deep Space Nine VHS tapes for sale and the person wanted them gone. I think I would have been like 10 or 11 at the time. My Mom let me get them and that was it, I was hooked. Star Trek and those DS9 VHS was my first introduction to sci-fi.
Then I found TNG and watched those adventures. My relationship with my father wasn’t great so I do sometimes joke that I was actually raised by Picard and Sisko. I remember when I was struggling for male role models, those two filled the gap.
What is your experience with roleplaying?
Nilsen: So I was a theatre kid (you can start to put two and two together as to why me and my dad didn’t see eye to eye) and that got me through school and through college (in the UK, college happens before university, typically around the ages of 16-19 years old.) I loved being able to show off on stage, but soon, life would take me in a different direction and I would sadly leave the theatre behind.
Then in around 2018/2019 I was introduced to D&D and after the first game I was hooked, I made a half-elf rogue named Shea, and he was a cheeky sod, always breaking social norms to help the parties goals, like speaking directly to nobels and then stealing whatever they had on them. From there, I was introduced to other TTRPG’s like Call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, Masks ect and I still play twice weekly to this day.
What brought you to SB118?
Nilsen: I wanted to write, I knew that much. Writing was a hobby that brought me joy and I missed doing it. I was reflecting on why I gave it up and I realised it was because my old writing group separated. I need to have interaction with others, for me, writing isn’t a solitary activity. So I tried a few different roleplaying groups online, while there were some lovely people I met along the way, none of them really found any purchase for me. I then realised I hadn’t looked at Star Trek, my first love. I did a google search and there was something about the landing page and the wiki that felt right. I signed up pretty quickly, I don’t know if it was because it was professional, or it was clear a gay guy like me would be welcome but I went ahead and I don’t regret a second
I then did my training and I was hooked, the discord had such a fun vibe too and in July 2023 I was assigned to USS Oumuamua. From there, I’ve seen the ship get decommissioned, was part of an inaugural crew to launch the USS Octavia E Bulter and caused chaos for Commodore Oddas in our blockbuster, the Denal Inivtiaonal (sorry Nick)
Why did you choose this specific character and duty post?
Nilsen: Tom Paris. I love that character so much. He had the best helm station of all of them, and there is something about having the helm spread out around you in the horseshoe that just scratches a part of my brain (with the Defiant and NX-class coming in a very close second). I’m also a big fan of Dax. As I was signing up, I saw that HCO (Helm, Communications, and Operations) was an in-demand role, so I read about it and fell in love with the role. It was literally a case of “I want that.”
Lhandon himself started as one of my D&D characters. I liked who he was, but I switched him out for another character. It’s one of those things that is hard to describe, but it just felt right to convert him from a Rune Knight to an HCO officer. As I was filling out the form, he sort of just came to me, and in the training sims, he came alive. Commander Ukinix (Danny) deserves credit for this—his early feedback really helped make Lhandon feel real in those early stages.
Then, as I settled into the Oumumuma, Helm Comms and Ops felt like they suited me perfectly. I also knew I had to redefine him slightly because of the genre jump. I converted the concept of his large family into the idea that he’s trying to find his place in the world. Then my mentor suggested I start looking at face claims. It took me a while because nothing seemed to fit, but then my boyfriend mentioned “Shameless” when I asked him about characters/actors with large families. From there, I ended up remembering everything I used to love about “Shameless,” and I picked Jeremy Allen White as Lhandon’s face claim. That brought it all together. A lot of Lip’s struggles became inspiration for Lhandon’s struggles. Both Lhandon and Lip are smart and capable of so much, but they both end up getting in their own way, either through dumb choices or self-sabotage. I adore writing (and torturing) Lhandon. I love seeing him make some progress and then pulling that away. My mentor described this as a “try-fail” cycle. Unlike Lip, however, I want Lhandon to eventually move out of his own way.
Where do you see your character five years from now?
Nilsen: So, for out-of-character stuff, how does Commander Nilsen sound? I’ve let my CO know that I want to one day get my own command, and I’ve received nothing but their full support and encouragement in this. Tony, Brent, and Jared have been beyond amazing, and I’m so grateful. They are the examples I try to model myself after in 118.
I still want to be working with the newsies team and have joined the training team, partly so I can pay Danny’s early kindness forward.
In character, I’m also exploring a shift in his career. He’s becoming more and more interested in diplomacy; it’s almost a natural extension of the communications part of his former HCO role. Right now, I’m having fun writing the exploration phase of this, as he (and I) work out if this is somewhere he wants to go. I also want him to really move out of his own way (I mentioned above) and slowly start to mature. He now has a relationship, he’s got a role with authority and he’s seeing that his unhealthy toxic behaviour of the past is not serving him well
Of course, before this, I must torture Nilsen some more first. 😉
Thanks for your time, Lieutenant JG Nilsen!
You can read more about Lieutenant JG Nilsen on the wiki.
