Assessing Starfleet Academy’s First Season
This year, the Star Trek franchise is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary. The celebrations began with a brand new series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Set in the 32nd century, this show follows the first class of cadets to enter Starfleet Academy on Earth since the Burn about 125 years earlier. The ten-episode first season introduced new characters and brought back characters from Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Discovery. It also established a conniving antagonist, who was well-received by fans. How has the series fared otherwise?
Status Report
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy started strong with the pilot episode, “Kids These Days”. In addition to establishing the cadets and the antagonistic Nus Braka, the episode introduced viewers to Captain Nahla Ake, who was appointed as the Chancellor of Starfleet Academy by Admiral Charles Vance and took command of the new Academy campus, aboard the USS Athena. A few legacy characters were meanwhile brought back, including The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager as well as Admiral Vance and Jett Reno from Star Trek: Discovery. This first episode set up the main characters in quick succession, bringing the cadets together to begin their journey to become Starfleet officers.
As the season progressed, some episodes focused more on individual cadets. The show was plagued by a couple of weak episodes before regaining the strength of the pilot.
The second episode, “Beta Test”, continued the arc from Star Trek: Discovery of persuading former Federation worlds that had seceded after the Burn to come back into the fold. During Discovery’s run, United Earth, Trill and Ni’Var (formerly Vulcan) rejoined the Federation. This episode concentrated on negotiations to bring Betazed, which had hidden itself behind a psionic wall, to rejoin, as well as establishing another educational institution: the War College.
The title of the third episode, “Vitus Reflux”, was intriguing but turned out to be the name of a space-age Venus flytrap. The episode provided a moment of light-hearted comedy when the Starfleet Academy cadets played a prank on their War College counterparts using the titular plant. As the series progressed, this would prove to be the only moment of comedy in the entire season, as the stories gradually became more serious, with darker themes and higher stakes.
The fourth episode, “Vox In Excelso”, told a moving story which depicted the tragedy of the Klingons. Despite their dire straits, they have to be admired for the pride and determination they displayed by rejecting what they saw as charity. After all, it wouldn’t have been honourable if the new Klingon homeworld had been handed to the Klingons on a plate rather than fought for. The story treated their culture with deep respect, as was made clear by the solution. The fourth episode was both uplifting and tearjerking at the same time.
At the point in the season when the fifth episode – “Series Acclimation Mil” – was released, the Starfleet cadet and Kasqian emissary SAM was endearing and naïve, having been created just before coming to Starfleet Academy. The fifth episode didn’t just focus on SAM but was also a treat for long-time fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, paying fitful tribute to another emissary: Benjamin Sisko, the Emissary of the Bajoran Prophets. The episode treated Deep Space Nine with the respect it deserves. What was lovely was to observe Cirroc Lofton reprise his role as Jake Sisko, fulfilling a subtle pass of the torch from one generation of emissary to the next. It was also nice to see how Dax was incorporated into the episode, which turned out to be the ultimate tribute to one of the best Star Trek series of all time.
The sixth episode, “Come, Let’s Away”, brought back Nus Braka, who had been absent since the pilot. The cadets experienced trauma during this episode, which set up the major arc of the season. The arc gave them adequate time to process the tragedy of a fellow cadet dying as well as the general trauma of their first class in space. By grounding the arc in realism, the show managed to transcend the generations.
The seventh episode, “Ko’Zeine”, didn’t just continue that arc but also provided an insight into Khionian culture, with regards to marriage and rulership succession. In general, however, the episode was a mere bit of filler, which didn’t seem to add much to the story of the cadets.
Scenes of The Doctor raising SAM on Kasq in the eighth episode – “The Life of the Stars” – were tearjerking and portrayed beautifully by Robert Picardo and Kerrice Brooks. With Jett Reno already having become a recurring character in the series, the eighth episode also brought back another character from Discovery: Sylvia Tilly. She was tasked with helping the cadets come to terms with the trauma they suffered earlier in the season.
The ninth episode – “300th Night” – was the first of a two-part story which brought the first season to a close. It built up well to the finale.
This first season ended with a bang! The highlight of the entire season has to be Paul Giamatti’s performance as Nus Braka, a masterclass in portraying a complex villain, and he returned with vigour in the season finale, “Rubincon”. Braka’s arrest at the end of the season makes it hard to figure out how he can come back afterwards, but a good villain doesn’t stay down for long. Even though Nus Braka won’t be in the next season, his story doesn’t feel anywhere near complete.
Conclusion
On the whole, this first season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – despite a few weak points and the filler of the seventh episode – was very promising. The impressive pedigree of Season 1 bodes well for the show going forward. The rest of Starfleet Academy certainly has the potential to be a worthy successor, if the high quality of writing presented here continues into the next season and beyond.
