I was so eager to watch the new Starfleet Academy show, especially since one of the main/semi main characters was advertised as a betazoid. This alien race (which I may be a bit too obsessed with) was due for some much needed love and further expansion of lore and screentime. (At this stage I’m still crossing my fingers that we’ll actually get to see more of the planet than a few measly minutes in one or two episodes way back in TNG.)
Anyway… when episode 2 came round and we got to see Tarima and the Betazoid delegation as a whole, I was greatly disappointed.
Why oh why do supposedly full betazoids not have their signature black irises? The show runners had one job and instead they decided to forgo continuity and strip this empathic and telepathic species of the one external trait that instantly identified and differentiated them from everyone else. In a way, it feels like they’ve been robbed of their identity or even downgraded in status of uniqueness.