Starfleet Academy: S1E2 – Beta Test

The basis for this episode’s story was truly started in the vein of a familiar Federation subject – diplomacy. In the post-Burn world, we learn that Betazed, feeling abandoned bythe Federation, broke ties and put up a psionic wall around their section of space (curious how that works). Now the Betazoids are visiting the Academy for a diplomatic negotiation to possibly rejoin the Federation.

I found that at times, the comedic interactions and clumsy dialog with the students distracted from a truly promising story arc. That being said, it was interesting to see this new, more distrusting angle from the Betazoids, a historically diplomatic voice of reason in the Star Trek universe. The Betazoid President’s hardball negotiating position was refreshing – willing to walk away at the drop of a hat (as if youthful flirting isn’t common).

Speaking of the budding romance between our “deeply troubled” but rebellious hero Caleb, and our alien Princess (technically alien First Daughter), that arc did make it through, but not very gracefully – I found myself feeling awkward, and not for the good reasons, but for the corny lines (do they know what an old prospector is anymore?).

Overall, this episode felt a little more closer to traditional Star Trek storylines than the first episode. While I don’t want to suck all the fun out of episodes, I think having EVERYONE try and be a comedian or provocateur in their role does take away from the plot a little.

I appreciated the threat in this episode – having lost the Betazoids once must have been a serious blow to the Federation, and the chance that they could be further alienated from their once close-knit partners? Unimaginable – at least if it were better explained. I think a big miss here was having the audience understand why getting Betazed back on Team Federation was so important – most of what we know was gleaned from interactions with Deanna Troi and her mother, Lwaxana Troi, which of course included the concept of naked weddings (also raised in this episode). Had the show taken some time to explain what the Federation had really lost by losing Betazed the audience could have really felt the severity of the situation.

We’re introduced to our first Betazed primary character since Sirtis’ Deanna Troi, in this episode. Tarima Sadal is the daughter of the Betazoid President and also a part of his youth delegation (along with her bro-ther – more on that later). Since we haven’t seen much of Betazoid youth in Trek, Zoë Steiner’s performance will effectively set the norm. She’s introduced to us as a possibly overpowered Betazoid (because of her wearable inhibitor) – but we don’t yet know why that is, so perhaps the writers are hiding some emotional baggage under there for later character development. Her portrayal can be a bit odd at times, quickly flipping from calm and knowledgable to jittery along the way.

Lura Thok is really running the risk of becoming a one-dimensional character, I’m afraid. The half-comedy, half-shouter second-in-command is an example of how Star Trek is effectively holding back this role. Two honour-driven cultures in the Klingons and Jem-Hadar can’t simply be relegated to loud comic relief.

A performance I really can appreciate is Tigg Notaro’s Jet Reno – now her brand of comedy seems to work for me (maybe for you as well). She’ll keep a straight face while pulling some great insult humour out of her bag. So far, she’s the only one I’ve found whose jokes are hitting. Also nice to see someone from Discovery on board, and probably the best option for an engineering professor.

Chancellor Ake gave us a bit more of the same in this episode, and while I can see how she is relatable in some ways for the cadets, I’m not sure I’d put her in front of serious negotiations while she’s in “casual mode” – there was a missed opportunity to see her show that diplomatic finesse Starfleet Captains have demonstrated time and time again. A bit of a letdown here.

It’s one of the big Star Trek themes here – diplomacy and the art of negotiation. Admiral Vance led the negotiations with Betazed (thankfully), and we saw a much more formal lectern-style negotiation. I think this made it feel more like a presentation rather than a collaborative discussion in a typical boardroom-style format (Jean-Luc Picard has spoiled us) but it give us that Romanesque senate vibe.

While the interactions between Caleb and Tarima were a bit clunky, they reinforced a great message of how youth involvement is impactful in foreign relations, and how diplomacy isn’t always between two people, but the entire team. Truthfully, I would have liked to see some representation from the War Academy youth, but perhaps there’s some negative feelings there from the post-Burn fallout.

This episode kept things primarily on-campus, which kept the storyline focused. The cadets start settling into their classes and learning to co-exist, with room assignments being an interesting dynamic unique to Academy. The story, however does seem to erratically bounce around between areas of focus – while the rooming situation was not critical, if they were going to explore it, it would have been better to see all the other room assignments. It was a missed opportunity to introduce team cohesion and conflict. By only touching on campus matters at a surface level, it was a bit more distracting than contributing to the story – again, this is likely an are the show needs to settle into a balance between Star Trek show and Saved by the Bell.

The show stumbled a bit in the beginning to refocus on the diplomatic visit, but I was expecting more of a backstory than “their kids are saying – let’s rejoin the Federation” – considering that Betazed has not been a member for 120 years, understanding their perspective for coming to the negotiating table would have been interesting.

The War College plot is confusing in this episode – a highly important diplomatic event is happening on campus and the War College’s involvement seems to be relegated to feedback – there could have been a good opportunity to see who could “bring home” the successful negotiation and show how the Academy was able to prove its worth.