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"Starfleet Academy" is a bumpy but bold evolution for the franchise, successfully trading some sci-fi polish for a scrappy, 32nd-century teen drama that isn't afraid to take big swings.
One of the things I love about “Star Trek” is its sense of history. That’s not the same as the rote devotion to continuity that can make watching the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe production feel like homework. The world of “Star Trek” has an expansive scope that gives it the grand sweep of actual history, with hundreds of years of progress and development, conflict and setback.
Yes, a substantial amount of that history conveniently involves the main characters from the various “Star Trek” movies and TV shows. But it also conveys the larger context, the way that the tides of history carry people along, with change as the only inevitable constant.
The longer “Star Trek” goes on — and the franchise celebrates its 60th anniversary this year — the more that gets added to that history, and the new series “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” smartly builds on what came before, while adding its own new chapters. It makes sense that a show set at a school would have a strong interest in learning from the past, while also preparing its young characters for the future. The six episodes provided for review are sometimes uneven, but they represent “Star Trek” doing what it does best, depicting a hopeful but challenging future with creativity and excitement.
‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ charts a new course for the sci-fi franchise
While my favorite series in the current streaming era of “Star Trek” (“Star Trek: Lower Decks” and “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”) have been set during periods in the franchise’s past, I’m happy to see “Starfleet Academy” move further into the future, taking place in the 32nd-century time period that follows the events of “Star Trek: Discovery.”
That allows the show to take bolder swings as it chronicles the rebuilding of the United Federation of Planets and its exploration force, Starfleet, following a galaxy-wide disaster known as the Burn. A key part of that reconstruction is the return of Starfleet Academy, the training facility for future Starfleet officers.
So “Starfleet Academy” isn’t just about the latest class of cadets to sign up for starship duty, but also the first class at the school in more than 100 years. The show efficiently establishes the consequences of the Burn for anyone who hasn’t watched the later seasons of “Discovery,” then shifts the focus to the ways that Starfleet can move past it. As Chancellor Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) frequently emphasizes, these students have all grown up during a time of great turmoil, and that angst gets added to the typical teen angst of a YA drama.
Not only does “Starfleet Academy” take on a new “Star Trek” time period, but it also takes on a new “Star Trek” genre, leaning into the conventions of teen soaps without leaving the sci-fi behind. While “The O.C.” and “Gossip Girl” producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage were attached to an early version of the show, creator Gaia Violo delivers something a bit more traditionally “Star Trek,” even finding a way for the characters to continue traveling the galaxy while attending classes.
‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ is a character-driven spectacle
The Academy itself is split between its traditional Earth-based campus in San Francisco and the U.S.S. Athena, a starship that allows for hands-on training. The episodes reflect that balance, with a mix of high-stakes action and campus hijinks. In one episode, the cadets face off against the deadly threat of sadistic intergalactic pirate Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti), while in another, their biggest challenge is a Capture the Flag-like intramural game called Calica.
Established stars Hunter and Giamatti are clearly having a lot of fun with their performances, and “Starfleet Academy” brings in some familiar “Star Trek” characters in recurring roles, including Robert Picardo reprising his “Star Trek: Voyager” role as the holographic Doctor, and Tig Notaro returning from “Discovery” as engineer Jett Reno. Both of them are Starfleet Academy professors, and they serve more as mentors and sounding boards for the teen characters than as central figures.
The younger characters who anchor “Starfleet Academy” are a bit loosely defined in the first six episodes, which suffer from excessive focus on cocky bad boy Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta), a former fugitive who is frustratingly talented at nearly every discipline he attempts.
The rotating episode structure eventually gives other characters more screen time, and there’s plenty of potential in Caleb’s fellow students, including exuberant holographic life form Sam (Kerrice Brooks), intense yet paradoxically pacifist Klingon Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané) and headstrong Starfleet nepo baby Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard).
‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ holds promise for the future
Unlike the episodic storytelling of “Lower Decks” and “Strange New Worlds,” “Starfleet Academy” is more serialized, and these six episodes are a bit bumpy as the creators work out their approach. The soapy YA elements are sometimes cheesy, and the sci-fi isn’t always as crisply defined as on other “Star Trek” series. In particular, the interiors of the campus and the Athena look almost identical, making it less meaningful when the cadets travel off-planet on a mission.
Still, with a second season already ordered, “Starfleet Academy” should have plenty of time to get its unique mix of tones and styles right. It’s not the best launch of the current “Star Trek” era, but it makes the most of a potentially dicey concept, writing worthwhile new chapters in the vast “Star Trek” history book.
“Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” premieres January 15 on Paramount Plus
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