Starfleet Academy: S1E1 – Kids These Days

I thought the prologue was interesting – focusing on Caleb’s childhood story to demonstrate how far Starfleet had fallen after the Burn. It reminded me of a similar tool Star Trek employed in Nemesis, explaining the plight of the Remans.

Even though this episode had a long run time of well over an hour, at times the story felt rushed – trying to explain each and every thing at and about the Academy, along with each character’s dominant personality trait. I think they could have explained things over more episodes – think of TNG – we didn’t know about the separating saucer section till MUCH later, so there’s no real reason to try and explain everything in a single episode.

The story flowed pretty well, but again, it was a lot of content for the first episode. The crisis was thankfully pretty minor so it could be solved quickly, but I wonder if this first episode could have been better served by focusing on an issue which didn’t attempt to jump back into Caleb’s backstory. I would have been happy saving the massive crisis for episode 2 or 3 and death with inherent challenges from initially bringing the Athena to the Academy.

It’s not easy writing up a new story so the flow will likely smooth out as the season goes on, though maybe they could have taken a page from Voyager’s book and tried a two-part premiere.

The crisis here was understandably manageable – it is the first episode after all. Caleb’s use of his secret message system, and hacking the ships consoles to do so, exposes the whole crew to Braka, allowing him to threaten the ship and the crew. The programmable matter was a pretty vague threat and again, I would have preferred some simplicity – you know, maybe have Braka kidnap Caleb, or something along those lines.

When Braka’s ship attacked though – I had my mouth open – I thought that this would be the point where the ship was REALLY at risk. Forgetting about this secret programmable matter stuff and focusing on a simple attack scenario would have been fun to watch. The cadets would have had a much better opportunity to work as a team and I think it may have been easier to digest.

I did find it odd that Braka managed to pull off the attack with such force and sophistication so quickly after intercepting Caleb’s message – almost as if he had been waiting for this exact moment. This particular story line would’ve benefitted from simplicity.

I think the show did a great job starting with Caleb’s backstory, giving him a rich foundation to understand how the thinks. I’m certain we’ll get into the other cadets details over the season, but I think a great effort was put into giving us a flavour of each cadet up front – hopefully not running the risk of turning them all into stereotypes.

Nahla Ake is a classic Star Trek take on a new kind of Captain – just as it was done with other captains. Her longevity not only gives her wisdom, but the ability to not take herself too seriously, which is probably a good disposition when trying to relate to diverse cadet personalities. The Chancellor is probably just what Starfleet needs in this capacity’s and I think Holly Hunter did a good job of instantly making the audience comfortable with her. In terms of the “chilled out” vibe, I think this may have been taken too far in some areas, like curling up in the Captain’s chair with her feet up. I think you can still be approachable and professional at the same time – maybe it’s just me but it gives me beatnik vibes.

I was a bit confused at how the show initially introduced us to Lura Thok – both Klingon and Jem’Hadar are warrior cultures and have a lot of potential, but it seems like she’s also been relegated to some kind of comic relief. I think there are other characters better suited to this, and it takes away from her authoritative stance – I couldn’t take her screaming seriously. It’s easy to consider Michael Dorn’s Worf, who was very serious and stoic, but had a tremendous sense of humour in DS9 – it was just much more nuanced. I think this might hurt Lura’s character development over time. Another gripe was that Jem’Hadar couldn’t procreate but were “grown”… so how did Lura happen? Perhaps a better backstory would have been a Jem-Hadar orphan adopted by a Klingon family.

I thought introducing a fully photonic student was a nice touch – S.A.M. opens up a lot of possibilities introduced in Voyager – photonic rights, culture, and even mentorship which can give The Doctor a new dimension. They’ve used TNG’s approach on Data, so we’ll see a lot of learning opportunities for S.A.M. for sure. This is a difficult role to play, but can really add depth to a character over time.

Kudos for bringing in Paul Giamatti into the Trek fold, I just would have preferred it wasn’t as the villain Nus Braka – he plays intelligent maniacal very well, but I think it comes off a bit cheesy. There were hopes that he would be a serious villain with a more carefully crafted story. I’m curious how his arc will develop and impact the show over time.

The episode explores redemption versus institutional trust through Caleb’s recruitment from the penal colony, asking whether Starfleet can truly rehabilitate its “lost generation” after the Burn’s societal fractures.

Classic Trek morality shines in the Chancellor’s dilemma—uphold Academy standards or bend them for potential? The theme lands with sincerity, though the “second chances” message occasionally feels scripted rather than earned.

I think well see trust prevailing across many characters throughout the series as there are so many opportunities to explore it – youth, intergalactic relations post-Burn, a new Academy. I’m also interested in seeing how Starfleet’s ideals hold up in this new world – a Prime Directive moment will surely hit us soon.

I felt torn in this section – having two primary areas of focus. The first would be the whole concept of Starfleet Academy – I’ve ben looking forward to this kind of story for a VERY long time (and even wrote my own show concepts). So I spent my focus on the little details about the academy itself, such as the building, seeing San Francisco again, the backdrop of Starfleet HQ. I also was curious on how they show would blend the classroom concept, and the professor choices – high fives to Stephen Colbert for voicing the Academy’s Digital Dean – just a fun choice. I felt like I could have used more of the immersion in the Academy itself. As a long time Star Trek fan and avid watcher, I really enjoy seeing some familiar concepts in Trek history past (welcome back Robert Picardo), but was really thrown off by the overuse of the SFX – things just felt too-CGI to immerse myself into the story.

The other half was focused on this new story with new characters and personality dynamics. I’ll admit that I haven’t been fully captivated yet, but that’s ok – for me it will take time to adopt these characters as my own, and I’m sure I’ll find my favourites in this series.

Had the show focused entirely on the nostalgic, I think it would have lost new audiences – and Trek’s existing audiences are aging right along, so it’s important to appeal to new demographics. I’m leaning towards the optimistic here because I think the fans are a force to be reckoned with and if they feel slighted, the won’t be silent about it.