Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1.01. - 1.06
Feb. 12th, 2026 05:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakBecause there was good word of mouth from various friends and trusty reviewers, I decided to give the latest Star Trek show a go, have now marathoned the six episodes released so far, and can report that word of mouth was correct: this latest installment, which is set in the 31rd century last seen in Star Trek: Discovery, shows none of the weaknesses of the third season of ST: SNW and is actually really good. Mind you, watching the first three episodes I thought, okay, they're good, not not groundbreaking, and some of the reactions made me expect more, but then came episodes 3 - 6 . building on the previous ones and fleshing out more characters, and I went "wow!" myself. And also "awwwww" at certain points. More beneath the spoiler cut.
The reason why I wasn't wowed by the first three in the way I was by the later three is that they included some clichés I never much cared for, such as a Marine, err, Starfleet instructor yelling "give me 100 pushups" . And the only school/school prank war I enjoyed fictionally was Das fliegende Klassenzimmer by Erich Kästner, plus I thought, really, do we need more mean Vulcans. These nitpicks aside (and the prank war did have its plusses as well), the first three episodes do a solid job in introducing the premise, the setting, and some of the main characters. They also showed versatality in format: the pilot episode has more action while the second episode is a classic ST ethical dilemma with lots of debate type of episode (and not the last one of the first six), and the third episode while having some serious character stuff mainly goes for broad comedy. Which is all fine, and confidence-building, but with episode 4, the show simply becomes more than that as we get our first hardcore (previously supporting) character episode which simultanously is an ethical dilemma episode and adds to the overall Star Trek lore because it tells us how the Klingons fared post Burn, something Disco did not. Now after a quiet spotlight on supporting character episode I expected the next to revert back to ensemble or main character format, but no! We got another " (different) supporting character in the spotlight" episode - which also doubled as an unabashed love declaration to one Benjamin Sisko in particular and DS9 in general. Which was great, because while other more recent ST shows did include some nods to DS9, it never got as much love as TOS and TNG did from the new kids on the block. Until now. And it was especially lovely to see because it did nostalgia right instead of going ST: Picard season 3, sigh, or follow ST:STNW's increasing tendency to become ST: TOS in its cast. Instead, it did a Star Trek: Prodigy. By which I mean: The love for the "old" characters as strong and great - but it was used in service of character fleshing out and growth of the new characters of the new show. Complimenting them, instead of replacing them. Homage, instead of a rerun. It was great. And then episode 6 went for a taut space thriller while also using what we learned so far about the characters and sharpening the profile of who seems to be the season's main villain. (And it took me until this episode to finally recall where I had heard the voice before. It was John Adams, I mean Paul Giametti!)
One more general observation: As a Discovery fan, I was delighted to see Admiral Vance again in most of the episodes, being his calm and responsible self, ditto for Jett Reno snarkng and being dead-pan as ever, and a bit surprised that Mary Wiseman has yet to make an appearance because I thought she was supposed to be a regular. Speaking of Discovery, its last two seasons feature a supporting guest star, Laira Rillak, who has both Bajoran and Cardassian heritage, and I thought that was great and that by the 31st Centuy, there ought to be a lot more "hybrids" of spacefaring nations with centuries of interaction . Starfleet Academy thought so, too, and we got indeed not just another hybrid in the regular cast but also several others popping up. And I really like the sheer number of middle-aged women we get in addition to the kids. Oh, and evidently the return to Discovery territory also meant the return to featured queer relationships. Excellent.
I wasn't happy right at the start that after Disco made a point of presenting us from its third season onwards with a Starfleet that was due to the Burn severaly limited in resources but all the more dedicated to helping us, we got in the introduction scene a Starfleet being high handed and separating very young child and mother. (Especially due to this having distinct US regime associations these days.) However, we then got an in-universe explanation and it turned out to be a long term plot point. The pilot was two thirds in the pov of Caleb Miro, the previous six years old of the introduction scene, now 21 years, having lived a tough life and still looking for his mother, and one third Captain Nahla Ake, played by Holly Hunter and also introduced in the opening sequence as the Star Trek official who had to decide the fate of said mother (whom the pilot's and as it turns out likely the season's true villain had involved in a robbery that got one Starfleet pilot killed) and who after this quit her job and now, fifteen years later, is called back to serve as the first Chancellor of the refounded Academy. We also meet characters whom we'll get to know better in the next few episodes, mostly other cadets, and some old acquaintances show up - other than Vance, there is Robert Picardo as the Doctor, the original one from Voyager, last seen in cartoon form on Prodigy and still showing off his operatic skills along with this snark. Captain (and Chancellor) Ake is from the same very long lived species as Pellia from SNW, and like her prone to a flippant manner - but the pilot and also some of the later episodes make it clear there is also a very different side to her, and a very tragic backstory. The dynamic that develops between Caleb and Ake is a key part of the pilot and what emotionally hooked me into it. The school stuff, by contrast, seemed entertaining but basically standard for high school/sports movie/military movie stories. Naturally there is a jock type with whom Caleb is immediately antagonistic, and naturally they end up as room maters. Etc.
It was therefore a good thing when the second episode while still Caleb centric began to flesh out more of the other cast members and also, as mentioned, was an ethical dilemma type of episode which followed up on what Discovery did very well with the N'Var (the reunited Vulcan/Romulan society) storyline and did it with the Betazoids, no less. It also settled some of my early concerns. Because I had finished the pilot saying, yes, it's nice that they're playing "If you're going to San Francisco", and I get wanting to save money on location, but I actually liked that Starfleet had no longer planet bound headquarters in Discovery, and for that matter that Earth isn't even a Federation member anymore until the end of the show. Reviving the Academy there and then also moving the government back to Earth just seemed to press a lazy reset button and take away something I had appreciated in its difference. But no! Turns out, again, this is a plot point, and allows for the compromise found at the end of the episode wherein the Federation government will be relocated not on Earth, but on Betazed. Which is truly a meaningful action to signal a new equality instead of a return to the Earth centric days of yore. This is when I started to relax and trust the show somewhat more.
With episode 3, the fleshing out of the cast started in earnest, though partly because it was also the broad comedy episode, the character getting the spotlight there, Darem Reymi (the erstwhile hostile jock from the pilot), didn't get nearly as much depth as the characters getting the spotlight in the next two episodes: Jay-Den Kaarg, the Klingon student, and SAM, the photonic (= Hologramm) student respectively. Hologramms gaining sentience and what that meant not just for the Doctor had of course been a repeated Voyager theme, but hadn't really been touched upon since then, Holo Janeway in Prodigy not withstanding. And while Klingons had shown up in different degrees in practically every ST iteration, Jay-Den Kaarg is the first Klingon regular since the first two seasons of Discovery, and the first through whom a new status of the Klingons gets addressed. That the Burn affected the Klingons particularly badly, including the destruction of Kronos has echoes of the Romulans, but the Klingons being the Klingons, without the Vulcans as enstranged cousins of ages past, it makes sense that it worked out differently for them, and also that a solution to their situation had to come in a way working with their mentality. Interwoven with this general dilemma we get Jay-Den's particular situation as a young Klingon wiho wants to be a scientist (we had Klingon scientists in previous shows - there's one in TNG and one in Enterprise, for example), but they were one episode type of characters, whereas Jay-Den is a regular character through whom a different kind of Klingon can be explored. (Given the scenes he gets in his focus episode and the others with both Darem and Kyle and with Caleb, it wouldn't surprise me if he gets shipped with all three, btw.) Ake in the supporting plot reuniting with her oldl pre-Burn pal who is now Head of the Houses had overtures of Jadzia Dax with the original three TOS Klingons, and no sooner had I thought that that episode 5 arrived, aka the Benjamin Sisko: A Love Letter one.
SAM (played by Kerrice Brooks) previously had been introduced as cheerful, chipper and evidently the latest iteration of "outsider/alien character trying to figure out what it means to be human" trope Star Trek coined and often did so very, very well. (Also as fannish about the Doctor as a pioneer of her kind, of course.) Connecting her spotlight episode, which shows how much pressure she's under from the photonics back home who want to figure out whether or not the organics can be trusted not to enslave them again, to an exploration of (the legacy of) Benjamin Sisko was inspired and reminded me in a good way in how DS9 used an episode like Far Beyond the Stars, set in the mid 20th century, and the prism of the writer Benny Russell. And of course I sniffled when seeing Cirroc Lofton as Jake Sisko again (looking not a bit like Tony Todd, it has to be said). The question of what whether Sisko's life was predetermined through his origins (insert my usual rant about the Prophets here) or self chosen, whether the guy who loved cooking and baseball and most of all his son or the Emissary was the core of him thus was used to also have SAM wonder what the core of her is, whether she can choose beyond what she was created to be, and so forth - and while this was lovely enough, it got the perfect double punchline by on the one hand the reveal that the full name of the Academy teacher who prompted SAM on her quest and gave her Jake's novel to read was Illa Dax, and on the other with Avery Brook's voice. Sisko wasn't even my favourite character on DS9, I had a lot I liked more, and I still went to pieces. Also: DAX!!! Alive and kicking in the 31rd century. Yes!
Caleb's romance with Tirama the Betazoid hadn't exactly been the most exciting subplot, but it had a good pay off in the most recent episode which also revealed just why Tirama needs to dampen her psychic abilities, and used the "excersise for Starfleet personnel turns unxepctedly real when bad guys show up" formula to great and suspenseful effect, while at the same time returning Nus the ruthless pirate from the pilot, playing mind games with Ake. This offered Holly Hunter very different scenes from the ones in the previous episodes where she had been more in a lightheartedly teasing mode, and retrospectively even made the prank war look differently as it had allowed us to get to know the cadets from the "War College" a bit better. Abilities like SAM's interfacing with computers had been well established, and despite the fact that in theory I knew the show would not kill of its core cast this early into the run, I was on the edge of my seat.
In conclusion: it's a really good first season so far! May it continue to be!
The reason why I wasn't wowed by the first three in the way I was by the later three is that they included some clichés I never much cared for, such as a Marine, err, Starfleet instructor yelling "give me 100 pushups" . And the only school/school prank war I enjoyed fictionally was Das fliegende Klassenzimmer by Erich Kästner, plus I thought, really, do we need more mean Vulcans. These nitpicks aside (and the prank war did have its plusses as well), the first three episodes do a solid job in introducing the premise, the setting, and some of the main characters. They also showed versatality in format: the pilot episode has more action while the second episode is a classic ST ethical dilemma with lots of debate type of episode (and not the last one of the first six), and the third episode while having some serious character stuff mainly goes for broad comedy. Which is all fine, and confidence-building, but with episode 4, the show simply becomes more than that as we get our first hardcore (previously supporting) character episode which simultanously is an ethical dilemma episode and adds to the overall Star Trek lore because it tells us how the Klingons fared post Burn, something Disco did not. Now after a quiet spotlight on supporting character episode I expected the next to revert back to ensemble or main character format, but no! We got another " (different) supporting character in the spotlight" episode - which also doubled as an unabashed love declaration to one Benjamin Sisko in particular and DS9 in general. Which was great, because while other more recent ST shows did include some nods to DS9, it never got as much love as TOS and TNG did from the new kids on the block. Until now. And it was especially lovely to see because it did nostalgia right instead of going ST: Picard season 3, sigh, or follow ST:STNW's increasing tendency to become ST: TOS in its cast. Instead, it did a Star Trek: Prodigy. By which I mean: The love for the "old" characters as strong and great - but it was used in service of character fleshing out and growth of the new characters of the new show. Complimenting them, instead of replacing them. Homage, instead of a rerun. It was great. And then episode 6 went for a taut space thriller while also using what we learned so far about the characters and sharpening the profile of who seems to be the season's main villain. (And it took me until this episode to finally recall where I had heard the voice before. It was John Adams, I mean Paul Giametti!)
One more general observation: As a Discovery fan, I was delighted to see Admiral Vance again in most of the episodes, being his calm and responsible self, ditto for Jett Reno snarkng and being dead-pan as ever, and a bit surprised that Mary Wiseman has yet to make an appearance because I thought she was supposed to be a regular. Speaking of Discovery, its last two seasons feature a supporting guest star, Laira Rillak, who has both Bajoran and Cardassian heritage, and I thought that was great and that by the 31st Centuy, there ought to be a lot more "hybrids" of spacefaring nations with centuries of interaction . Starfleet Academy thought so, too, and we got indeed not just another hybrid in the regular cast but also several others popping up. And I really like the sheer number of middle-aged women we get in addition to the kids. Oh, and evidently the return to Discovery territory also meant the return to featured queer relationships. Excellent.
I wasn't happy right at the start that after Disco made a point of presenting us from its third season onwards with a Starfleet that was due to the Burn severaly limited in resources but all the more dedicated to helping us, we got in the introduction scene a Starfleet being high handed and separating very young child and mother. (Especially due to this having distinct US regime associations these days.) However, we then got an in-universe explanation and it turned out to be a long term plot point. The pilot was two thirds in the pov of Caleb Miro, the previous six years old of the introduction scene, now 21 years, having lived a tough life and still looking for his mother, and one third Captain Nahla Ake, played by Holly Hunter and also introduced in the opening sequence as the Star Trek official who had to decide the fate of said mother (whom the pilot's and as it turns out likely the season's true villain had involved in a robbery that got one Starfleet pilot killed) and who after this quit her job and now, fifteen years later, is called back to serve as the first Chancellor of the refounded Academy. We also meet characters whom we'll get to know better in the next few episodes, mostly other cadets, and some old acquaintances show up - other than Vance, there is Robert Picardo as the Doctor, the original one from Voyager, last seen in cartoon form on Prodigy and still showing off his operatic skills along with this snark. Captain (and Chancellor) Ake is from the same very long lived species as Pellia from SNW, and like her prone to a flippant manner - but the pilot and also some of the later episodes make it clear there is also a very different side to her, and a very tragic backstory. The dynamic that develops between Caleb and Ake is a key part of the pilot and what emotionally hooked me into it. The school stuff, by contrast, seemed entertaining but basically standard for high school/sports movie/military movie stories. Naturally there is a jock type with whom Caleb is immediately antagonistic, and naturally they end up as room maters. Etc.
It was therefore a good thing when the second episode while still Caleb centric began to flesh out more of the other cast members and also, as mentioned, was an ethical dilemma type of episode which followed up on what Discovery did very well with the N'Var (the reunited Vulcan/Romulan society) storyline and did it with the Betazoids, no less. It also settled some of my early concerns. Because I had finished the pilot saying, yes, it's nice that they're playing "If you're going to San Francisco", and I get wanting to save money on location, but I actually liked that Starfleet had no longer planet bound headquarters in Discovery, and for that matter that Earth isn't even a Federation member anymore until the end of the show. Reviving the Academy there and then also moving the government back to Earth just seemed to press a lazy reset button and take away something I had appreciated in its difference. But no! Turns out, again, this is a plot point, and allows for the compromise found at the end of the episode wherein the Federation government will be relocated not on Earth, but on Betazed. Which is truly a meaningful action to signal a new equality instead of a return to the Earth centric days of yore. This is when I started to relax and trust the show somewhat more.
With episode 3, the fleshing out of the cast started in earnest, though partly because it was also the broad comedy episode, the character getting the spotlight there, Darem Reymi (the erstwhile hostile jock from the pilot), didn't get nearly as much depth as the characters getting the spotlight in the next two episodes: Jay-Den Kaarg, the Klingon student, and SAM, the photonic (= Hologramm) student respectively. Hologramms gaining sentience and what that meant not just for the Doctor had of course been a repeated Voyager theme, but hadn't really been touched upon since then, Holo Janeway in Prodigy not withstanding. And while Klingons had shown up in different degrees in practically every ST iteration, Jay-Den Kaarg is the first Klingon regular since the first two seasons of Discovery, and the first through whom a new status of the Klingons gets addressed. That the Burn affected the Klingons particularly badly, including the destruction of Kronos has echoes of the Romulans, but the Klingons being the Klingons, without the Vulcans as enstranged cousins of ages past, it makes sense that it worked out differently for them, and also that a solution to their situation had to come in a way working with their mentality. Interwoven with this general dilemma we get Jay-Den's particular situation as a young Klingon wiho wants to be a scientist (we had Klingon scientists in previous shows - there's one in TNG and one in Enterprise, for example), but they were one episode type of characters, whereas Jay-Den is a regular character through whom a different kind of Klingon can be explored. (Given the scenes he gets in his focus episode and the others with both Darem and Kyle and with Caleb, it wouldn't surprise me if he gets shipped with all three, btw.) Ake in the supporting plot reuniting with her oldl pre-Burn pal who is now Head of the Houses had overtures of Jadzia Dax with the original three TOS Klingons, and no sooner had I thought that that episode 5 arrived, aka the Benjamin Sisko: A Love Letter one.
SAM (played by Kerrice Brooks) previously had been introduced as cheerful, chipper and evidently the latest iteration of "outsider/alien character trying to figure out what it means to be human" trope Star Trek coined and often did so very, very well. (Also as fannish about the Doctor as a pioneer of her kind, of course.) Connecting her spotlight episode, which shows how much pressure she's under from the photonics back home who want to figure out whether or not the organics can be trusted not to enslave them again, to an exploration of (the legacy of) Benjamin Sisko was inspired and reminded me in a good way in how DS9 used an episode like Far Beyond the Stars, set in the mid 20th century, and the prism of the writer Benny Russell. And of course I sniffled when seeing Cirroc Lofton as Jake Sisko again (looking not a bit like Tony Todd, it has to be said). The question of what whether Sisko's life was predetermined through his origins (insert my usual rant about the Prophets here) or self chosen, whether the guy who loved cooking and baseball and most of all his son or the Emissary was the core of him thus was used to also have SAM wonder what the core of her is, whether she can choose beyond what she was created to be, and so forth - and while this was lovely enough, it got the perfect double punchline by on the one hand the reveal that the full name of the Academy teacher who prompted SAM on her quest and gave her Jake's novel to read was Illa Dax, and on the other with Avery Brook's voice. Sisko wasn't even my favourite character on DS9, I had a lot I liked more, and I still went to pieces. Also: DAX!!! Alive and kicking in the 31rd century. Yes!
Caleb's romance with Tirama the Betazoid hadn't exactly been the most exciting subplot, but it had a good pay off in the most recent episode which also revealed just why Tirama needs to dampen her psychic abilities, and used the "excersise for Starfleet personnel turns unxepctedly real when bad guys show up" formula to great and suspenseful effect, while at the same time returning Nus the ruthless pirate from the pilot, playing mind games with Ake. This offered Holly Hunter very different scenes from the ones in the previous episodes where she had been more in a lightheartedly teasing mode, and retrospectively even made the prank war look differently as it had allowed us to get to know the cadets from the "War College" a bit better. Abilities like SAM's interfacing with computers had been well established, and despite the fact that in theory I knew the show would not kill of its core cast this early into the run, I was on the edge of my seat.
In conclusion: it's a really good first season so far! May it continue to be!
