It's one of the most perilous challenges any crew can take on in the modern Star Trek universe: Building a new series around a bunch of characters who do not include Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock.
The collection of Trek series on Paramount+ have done yeoman's work in that regard — starting with Sonequa Martin-Green's principled Starfleet officer Michael Burnham on Star Trek: Discovery way back in 2017, birthing a bold new universe of characters that also made room for superstar supporting actors like Michelle Yeoh and Jason Isaacs.
Divided as fans could be about that series — originally set years before the days of Kirk and Spock, only to jump from the 23rd century to the 32nd century in a wild recalibration of the story — Discovery set the tone for big swings when it came to rebuilding the world of Trek for a modern streaming audience on Paramount+.
Now fans have another big swing coming their way in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, a series set in the 32nd century that Discovery landed in — a time when the venerated Federation of Planets is pulling itself back together after a massive disaster called "The Burn" shattered the alliance. This new Federation is rebuilding the school for starship officers and staff that produced legends like Kirk and Spock hundreds of years earlier.
Many of the best Trek series revolve around intrepid explorers in a starship stumbling on new adventures in new corners of the galaxy in every episode. Starfleet Academy tries to tell that tale in a different way — presenting the Academy as a school that is also a giant starship with a warp drive that gets waylaid while traveling through space to its home on Earth in San Francisco.
The first episode of the series is among its most action-packed, featuring Oscar-winner Holly Hunter as Nahla Ake, the Academy's chancellor and the starship's captain. At over 400 years old, she's part Lanthanite — a particularly long lived alien species introduced on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — so she remembers the pre-calamity days when the Federation was in full bloom and the Academy was regularly churning out ace starship personnel.
Paul Giamatti chews the scenery as Nus Braka, a ruthless criminal who has history with Ake and attacks the Academy for payback. And new face Sandro Rosta plays Caleb Mir, a well-muscled, rebellious kid who was separated from his mom by Ake back in the day and has agreed to attend Starfleet Academy if the chancellor helps him track down his mother (played by, of all people, Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany; be still my sci-fi geek heart!).
If this sounds like a lot, that's because it is. In fact, over its first few episodes, Starfleet Academy is so stuffed with new characters, subplots and franchise references, it's not clear this program knows what kind of series it wants to be. Is it a rollicking adventure building out the damaged universe first revealed after Discovery's time jump? Or is it a bizarre blend of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Beverly Hills: 90210 set in the stars, featuring an idiosyncratic group of young aspirants coming of age in the most bizarre college on television?
Consider this sampling of storylines: Hunter's hippie-ish leader Ake is struggling to make amends while teaching Caleb the ways of the Federation. Caleb, meanwhile, is on his own journey, trying to find a mom he hasn't seen for many years, who he learns has escaped from a Federation prison.
He's surrounded by cadets with their own odd stories, including a sentient hologram trying to learn if her people can trust humanoids and a member of the warlike Klingon race who seems uncharacteristically peaceful and non-combative. Comic Gina Yashere is particularly entertaining as Lura Thok — the cadet master and second-in-command at the academy who also happens to be a hybrid of two of Trek's most combative races: Klingons and the Jem'Hadar from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
There's also the requisite fan service, including the return of Robert Picardo as the now-900 year old Doctor, the emergency medical hologram he played on the UPN series Star Trek: Voyager back in 1995. Comic Tig Notaro pops up as Jett Reno, an engineer from Discovery who now teaches at this brand new Starfleet Academy.
There are many moments when Starfleet Academy shows promise. Once the first episode gets past the predictable dynamic of a damaged Caleb rebelling against a remorseful Ake, it becomes a bracing adventure that shows off how this new clutch of cadets can excel by working together. The sets are sprawling and lovingly detailed, with special effects comparable to any feature film.
The sixth episode of the season, featuring cadets pitted against a hostile force trying to take over a junked starship, offers similar excitement — along with several powerhouse scenes between Hunter and Giamatti, sparks flying as their characters play a cat-and-mouse game.
As a longtime Trek fan, I love the series' habit of winking at franchise history in key moments. One episode features the holographic cadet excavating the story of Avery Brooks' legendary character from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9), Benjamin Sisko. Given how Trek often seems to treat DS9 like an afterthought, it was particularly nice to see the newest series nod at a program often considered the franchise's most daring departure.
In the Trek universe, the Federation of Planets has often been an allegory for America's belief in itself. During the original series in the late 1960s, that meant the Federation was an unquestioned force for good and equitable order — too many episodes were centered on persuading wayward alien species to just get with the program and join the Federation, already — in the same way real-life American politicians were fighting to keep countries around the world from aligning with Communist systems.
When the Academy teaches these young cadets about the Federation, what values are they passing along?
Subsequent Trek series have interrogated those ideas in all kinds of ways. Starfleet Academy finds itself in a unique position to ask potent questions about the values at the heart of Trek itself. When the Academy teaches these young cadets about the Federation, what values are they passing along?
Do the Federation and Starfleet really stand for an advanced way of uniting life forms across the galaxy? Or is it a collection of myths humanoid species have told each other to justify colonizing increasing numbers of sentient species?
There are hints Starfleet Academy is positioning itself to tackle questions like that in future episodes — Giamatti's Nus Braka gives a speech in one episode that really takes on the Federation's capacity for arrogant condescension.
But, so far, the episodes shared with critics — the first six of 10 in the season — seem more like a promising collection of characters and storylines just setting the table for future achievement, not quite ready to prove its value beyond the legends of Kirk and Spock.
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