Even back to the 1980s, there’s been chatter about a “Star Trek” movie or series set at Starfleet Academy, the training center for the crews of the starships Enterprise, Voyager and Discovery.
Many “Trek” fans hated the idea of a Starfleet Academy-set story, fearing it would be more “90210” and less “Star Trek.” The prospect of the training academy setting never bothered me if it could be done well.
Now that Paramount ’s “Starfleet Academy” is upon us, I better understand those who pooh-poohed the notion.
Now streaming its first two episodes, Paramount ’s “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” is set in the far-future in the “Trek” timeline — post-intergalactic disaster “The Burn” and after “Star Trek: Discovery” — which is the first strike against “Starfleet Academy.”
Too many new alien species with too many abilities that diminish plot tension — a new shapeshifter that can survive in space without a spacesuit — are stumbling blocks.
The writers, led by showrunners Noga Landau and executive producer Alex Kurtzman, also opt to make the lead character, 1980 Carnegie Mellon University grad Holly Hunter’s 422-year-old half-Lanthanite Chancellor Nahla Ake, an Earth-mother type who wanders the halls of Starfleet Academy in bare feet and allows some students to talk back and defy her. That’s a far cry from Voyager’s Capt. Katherine Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), who commanded respect.
The 75-minute series premiere begins in flashback as Ake separates a mother and her child, Caleb Mir, after the mom was an accessory in the death of a Starfleet officer at the hands of part-Klingon, part-Tellarite Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti).
Ake leaves Starfleet and starts a school on Bajor, but 15 years later Starfleet Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) shows up and recruits Ake to restart Starfleet Academy, which is now partially housed in a starship, the U.S.S. Athena. Naturally, a restless Caleb (Sandro Rosta) turns up as one of the students alongside Khionian Darem Reymi (George Hawkins), Dar-Sha Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard), pacifist Klingon Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané) and excitable, awkward hologram student Sam (Kerrice Brooks).
The student characterizations are overly familiar collegiate archetypes, which makes the professors/administrators the more interesting bunch, including Voyager’s holographic (now grouchier) doctor (Robert Picardo), sarcastic former Discovery engineer Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) and Ake’s No. 1, snarly half-Jem’Hadar, half-Kilingon Lura Throk (scene-stealer Gina Yashere, “Bob (Hearts) Abishola”).
Early episodes are filled with references to characters from “Trek” lore — Starfleet Academy gardener Boothby (Ray Walston on “Voyager”), the James T. Kirk pavilion, Capt. Benjamin Sisko — with many name-checked in overabundant, grating announcements voiced by Stephen Colbert.
In one episode the Academy crew tries to recruit the Betazoids back into the Federation. In another, Academy students face off against students from Starfleet’s War College. The fifth episode offers an entire plot that’s a callback to my favorite “Trek,” “Deep Space Nine” (the “A” story is great; my eyes glazed over during the college-heavy “B” and “C” stories).
Perhaps it’s telling that my 11-year-old son enjoyed “Starfleet Academy” more than I did, but even he offered that Caleb, as the central character, wouldn’t die due to “plot armor.” (Kids today!)
Although “Starfleet Academy” received a two-season order, there’s also been reporting that suggests season two could be the swan song for this current incarnation of Kurtzman’s streaming “Trek” as new Paramount owner Skydance refocuses on a “Trek” film franchise. Kurtzman called that “all rumor,” in a Zoom interview last week, but he didn’t deny it, saying only, “There’s plenty of reason to be optimistic about the future of ‘Star Trek’ on television.”
If this is the end for now, that’s OK. “Trek” needs a new creative overseer but before that, it also needs a rest, same as the franchise got after “Enterprise” ended in 2005 and until the debut of “Discovery” 12 years later.
Hunter on ‘Trek’
Hunter, who said she still gets back to CMU occasionally to talk to students, recalled watching the original “Trek” with her father in the ‘60s.
“It was on my radar in that way,” she said in a Zoom interview last week. “It probably just genetically lived in my DNA from those couple of years with my dad, but it wasn’t anything on the forefront of my mind. That’s how my professional life is lived with that free-footed, non-anxiety driven pace.”
Landau agreed there may be some similarities between real-world students post-covid and Starfleet cadets post-The Burn.
“What is similar, certainly, is it’s about a generation of young people who are inheriting a world that is very divided and very complicated,” she said, “rife with problems that they did not create, and yet they are expected to solve for everyone else.”
Picardo acknowledged his Doctor is less patient with Starfleet cadets than he was with the Voyager crew.
“After 800 years, how much patience would you have left?” Picardo said, chuckling. “He’s added an aging program, which explains why he looks 30 years older, 20 pounds heavier, and two-and-a-half inches shorter. But behavior-wise, he’s very much the same until you push him, so he might be crankier. You’ll find later in the season that there’s a more emotional level to him as well. He is the same, but deeper and craggier and chubbier, shorter.”
Pittsburgh production
In its annual rankings of “best places to live and work” as a filmmaker, MovieMaker Magazine puts Pittsburgh at No. 11 for its 2026 list, up from No. 17 in 2025. Philadelphia came in ninth this year.
This week the Pittsburgh Film Office said feature films, TV/streaming series and commercial productions generated $300 million in economic impact in Western Pennsylvania in 2025, surpassing previous years. (The previous record was $225 million in 2021.)
The PFO will host its annual “Lights! Glamour! Action!” gala fundraiser on March 14.
Channel surfing
Ratings for Sunday’s “Golden Globes” telecast dropped for the second consecutive year, drawing 8.7 million viewers. … NBC ordered a pilot for a potential reboot of James Garner classic “The Rockford Files.”