Okay, I know, this is not technically a COMIC BOOK SUNDAY post, but it is within the geek sphere and a post I wanted to publish while it's still timely and recent.
Stuff with parents and kids gets to me. But I needed a good cry. Catharsis is healthy.
I won't reprint those stories but here's some links:
https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/star-trek-starfleet-academy-canceled-season-2-1236696816/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2026/03/24/william-shatner-star-trek-starfleet-academy-canceled-woke/89297494007/
Starfleet Academy is the best first season of a Star Trek show ever
That's admittedly not a high bar to clear.
The first season of a TV show is a tricky thing. It has to convince people to watch it and justify the show’s existence to the network (or streaming service) execs. It has to deal with actors and writers who may not have fully dialed into the characters and world yet. There are some shows with absolutely stellar first seasons — Stranger Things, Veronica Mars and Ted Lasso are a few — but many other hit shows stumbled out of the gate, like The Office and Supernatural.
Star Trek is not immune to this phenomenon. The Original Series had a decent first season, with classic episodes like “The City on the Edge of Forever.” But the next four shows all have rather weak beginnings, with even fan-favorite The Next Generation stumbling badly with episodes like “Code of Honor.” That show picked up in season three, beginning a trend called “Growing the Beard,” in reference to how Commander Riker’s new beard coincided with the uptick in quality.
This trend unfortunately continued into the current era, with 2017’s Star Trek: Discovery delivering a first season with an overwhelmingly dour tone and a lot of franchise changes that didn’t sit well with fans. The show made some tweaks in season two (including a change in setting that involved traveling 900 years into the future), and showed a lot of improvement with season three. Picard also floundered horribly, with an uneven first season that killed off some fan-favorite characters and also turned the title character into an android.
Things started looking up after that, with shows like Strange New Worlds all posting strong outings with their first go-arounds. While episodes like “A Quality of Mercy” and “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” may not make the list of all-time classics, there are no outright stinkers. It seemed like the franchise as a whole was finally finding its footing in this new streaming era.
That leads us to Starfleet Academy, which debuted in January on Paramount+. Prior to its premiere, the internet was full of people deriding it as “CW Trek” and declaring that they don’t want to watch a show about “teenyboppers” that wasn’t “real” Star Trek. Now that the show has finished its first season… the internet is still full of people complaining. But many folks who were wary of it at the beginning have been pleasantly surprised — every day there seems to be multiple posts on various Star Trek subreddits along the lines of “Starfleet Academy is actually good?!?” I personally didn’t enjoy the first episode, but episode two turned me around rather quickly, and it seemed that every week brought new converts.
Granted, 10 episodes is a short amount of time to make an impact, but Starfleet Academy did a lot with that number. Four of the episodes are dedicated to the ongoing villainy of Nus Braka, a murderous pirate played with scene-chewing delight by Paul Giamatti. These have all been pretty straightforward adventure stories, which also did a good job of fleshing out not only Braka, but cadet Caleb Mir, whose mother went to prison because of Braka.
The emphasis on Caleb in the first episode made it seem like the show would focus on him, much in the way Discovery focused on Michael Burnham, but he took a back seat as the show explored the other characters as well as its setting. Episode two, “Beta Test,” focused on diplomacy, a long-standing theme of Star Trek, and even shook up the status quo by moving the Federation headquarters from Earth to Betazed.
It’s not that every episode in season one of Starfleet Academy is a masterpiece – “Vitus Reflux” and “Ko’Zeine” are somewhat weak – but none of them are outright bad, making the batting average of the season rather high. That bodes well for word-of-mouth, as it's easier to recommend a show when you don't have to couch it with excuses about how it gets good “eventually.”
It will need that word-of-mouth if it wants to get through a complete four seasons of schooling; season two just finished filming so we're guaranteed at least that, but there's a lot up in the air for not just the show, but the entire franchise. Strange New Worlds season four will debut later this year, and then we have an abbreviated season five to look forward to. But past that, nothing firm is on the horizon: Starfleet Academy hasn't been renewed yet, and projects like the Tawny Newsome-helmed comedy show are still in development with nothing tangible revealed yet.
Newsome played Beckett Mariner on Lower Decks and worked in the writers room for Starfleet Academy — she's an example of how Paramount has been building up a roster of talent behind the scenes for the franchise who, even when a show is new, understand the universe and, more importantly, how to work together to make good TV. And that's going to be important in the next year or so, as Paramount makes decisions about the future of the franchise in the shadow of the recent Skydance merger and the upcoming Warner Bros. purchase. Star Trek has an uphill battle ahead of it, but at least Starfleet Academy’s first season has made it an easier climb.
Starfleet Academy season 1 review — flawed but fascinating
As the cadets of Starfleet Academy finish their first year, here’s our review of season 1 — “Could Do Better”
A franchise as long established as Star Trek has its long history and its many fans. This inevitably means many opinions. The latest (and possibly last for now) new title is Starfleet Academy — it’s a curious hybrid of high-school / young adult and Star Trek action. If Rotten Tomatoes is anything to go by, it’s popular with critics (88%) and less so with the audience (51%). Given a niche audience, longer standing fans have (perhaps) not felt well served by a show aimed at a younger demographic. If you haven’t the time, we liked the show, but felt it really required many more episodes to develop.
This is a long piece, so grab a drink or bookmark for later. Quick review —it could do better. We’ll certainly watch the second season, and in the absence of any other new arrivals would be more than happy for a season 3.
We don’t intend to get drawn into a shallow argument about the show being woke (whatever that actually means) nor the fashionable (in some quarters) railing against the current showrunner. We do wish to note almost as many complaints about Holly Hunter’s Chancellor (and technically Captain) Nahla Ake disrespecting the chair by sitting “strangely”. Yes, it’s a bit odd but clearly part of her character — she’s a Lanthanite with centuries of experience behind her and a mixed relationship with the Federation (and remembers it in its heyday). There’s also the “it’s not Star Trek” complaint. We’ll spend some time on that before getting to the core of the review.
IS IT STAR TREK?
This depends on your definition. We’ll suggest Roddenberry’s original concept of Wagon Train to the Stars covers a ship, exploration and the ability to tell a wide range of stories exploring character. The original series clearly valued what we would term a diverse set of characters with Sulu, Chekov and Uhura placing non-standard characters centre stage. They were then replaced with regular villains, notably the Klingons and Romulans. This trend has continued and is perhaps more to the fore in more recent productions.
There’s no doubt of the science fiction setting in all cases and while Academy makes the campus building part of the starship (USS Athena), there’s little in the way of travel, let alone exploration.
To counter that, let’s recall Deep Space 9. Less mobile even than the USS Athena, the show attracted criticism for its static location, and the need for stories to come to it. In the end it carved out a space in Trek history and in the hearts of many fans.
The show is clearly rooted in Trek lore. One of the stronger episodes is all about Cisco (another nod to DS9). Buildings are named for key characters in the show’s history, with many (most? all?) others popping up on a board of honour. A little OTT, but we do have crossovers from other shows with the Doctor (Robert Picardo) taking us back to Voyager and Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) linking neatly to Discovery. On the subject of Discovery, we have Mary Wiseman back as Tilly in another standout episode — we hope for much more in season 2.
The show is set post-Discovery and we do have to wonder how often that ship can be in dock for refit instead of saving the day with its spore drive.
With extensive preamble out of the way, here’s our actual Starfleet Academy review. Bottom line, a season of ten episodes is too short to allow the show to work. Expense of production means a lot of shows have short runs per season, compared to the broadcast era. In those ten episodes there’s a need for each of the six main cadets (pictured) to have time in the spotlight, the college year has to happen (we suspect the intention is for three seasons), and we need an arc as well. Being Star Trek, that means a villain and a storyline with at least an intro, minor conflict, twist, things looking bad and heroic resolution. That’s a lot for ten episodes.
The show took episodes 1-3 to get everyone together then add a team-bonding tale. Having a rival War College was one complication too many and the story arc of Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) searching for his mother (an excellent performance from Tatiana Maslany in the final episode) drove a lot of episode 1 then became downplayed as soon as Caleb had his hair cut.
We suspect the pilot led to changes. A romantic interest for Caleb (Tarima Sadal played by Zoë Steiner) is dropped into episode 2, they become lovers then she has to use her psychic superpowers to save the day. This all leads to a distance emerging (and to be fair the strong Tilly episode) during which she remarks Caleb and episode 1 fellow cadet Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard) work well together and could be a couple. We can easily see the show could have worked that way and simplified the challenge of fitting ten episodes.
While truncated, the season does have a fantastic villain in the form of Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti) who we learn isn’t in season 2. Even with the constraints noted, the final episode does bring together many of the elements from earlier episodes, have the young cadets save the whole Federation (and a vast number of star systems), some soul searching, pious speeches and declarations of love. There’s even some backstory and elements of reconciliation. What’s not to like.
Ultimately
We can image a simpler version of the same season with more reasons to travel, explore the future galaxy and learn of Braka’s history, building a great arc and still with side episodes for cadet character exploration. Many episodes would work with the ship in space still serving as a college — we wonder if budget is the problem. We suspect it’s as simple as that — following a standard (and successful) formula for high school drama developed for hows with longer seasons left unsatisfactory jumps as the ten episodes also had to serve as a vessel to allow the Federation to be saved by the few. Sounds like Star Trek to us.
Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1's Finale - "Rubincon"
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy remembered that Star Trek was missing something important after 60 years. Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi from a teleplay by Alex Kurtzman and Kirsten Beyer and a story by Noga Landau and Gaia Violo, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1's finale saw Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti) place Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) and the United Federation of Planets on trial.
Nus Braka not only wanted Captain Ake to answer for her crimes against himself and Anisha Mir (Tatiana Maslany), but the Klingarite space pirate wanted to humiliate the Federation in the eyes of the galaxy before literally blowing it up with Omega-47. Of course, Braka's show trial was self-serving and meant to venerate himself as the man to lead the rest of the galaxy.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Pointed Out There's No Starfleet Anthem
Of course, Star Trek boasts many stunning orchestral scores, starting with Alexander Courage's theme music in Star Trek: The Original Series. Jerry Goldsmith composed the theme for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which became the opening credits music of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the ersatz Star Trek theme by default.
Yet in-universe, Starfleet doesn't have an anthem. No definitive music accompanies Starfleet Officers or Starfleet Academy's cadets when they formally assemble for special occasions like graduations, starship launches, or ceremonies like promotions.
Audiences tend not to notice the lack of a Starfleet anthem since the score of whatever Star Trek movie or TV show usually plays, but the music is for the viewer at home and is not necessarily heard by the characters on-screen.
Why Star Trek Doesn't Have A Starfleet Anthem (Yet)
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy leans into Roddenberry's interpretation of Starfleet, with the rival War College created to clearly delineate a military arm of Starfleet meant for combat. Yet it also makes sense for both Starfleet Academy and the War College, especially, to have a rousing anthem for assemblies.
Perhaps Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 2 will follow up on Nus Braka's inadvertent "good idea," and Captain Ake or Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr) will commission a Starfleet anthem, at least for Starfleet Academy, if not for the whole of Starfleet.
It's also too bad that a Starfleet anthem wasn't introduced by Star Trek: Starfleet Academy this year to help celebrate Star Trek's 60th anniversary.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 is over, and season 2 has wrapped. Although there isn't much confirmed information about what the next batch of episodes will look like, the show's inaugural run provides some very obvious clues. In fact, I still find it surprising that one of the strongly implied upcoming events didn't happen in season 1. I'm very confident that season 2 will bring with it what many Trekkies are waiting for, though.
While it did have its own central storyline, season 1 referenced several classic-era Star Trek episodes. Some of these acknowledgements were more prominent than others, but all were pretty much undeniable. Although this could be attributed to the ongoing celebration of Star Trek's 60th anniversary, this generational approach is also an attempt to welcome in new fans. Therefore, I think it's reasonable to assume that this trend will continue. If and when it does, it's pretty easy to tell what's coming.
Starfleet Academy season 1 ended with a string of four Voyager sequels
Starfleet Academy's first seven episodes seemed largely content with having Robert Picardo's Doctor serving as an ongoing reference to Voyager. The character appeared in all seven seasons of the classic-era show, so even just his presence felt like a huge nod. He did occasionally mention parts of his time as a member of Captain Janeway's (Kate Mulgrew) crew, but those moments were few and far between. Then, Episode 8, "The Life of the Stars," kick-started a string of Voyager sequels.
After unexpectedly paying off "Real Life" and "Blink of an Eye" in the space of a single episode, Starfleet Academy's next two installments formed a two-part finale that served as a stealth sequel to "The Omega Directive." Considering the show had been largely drip-feeding Voyager references to established Trekkies for most of Starfleet Academy before Episode 8, fans are lucky they didn't drown after that. Of the three Voyager episodes used as source material, only "Real Life" was particularly Doctor-centric, which is probably why "The Life of the Stars" felt especially poignant. Either way, now I'm especially excited for what surely must happen in season 2.
Starfleet Academy season 2 is more likely than ever to pay off Voyager's "Living Witness"
This 1998 installment was heavily discussed when Picardo was announced as part of the Starfleet Academy cast. Set centuries after Voyager, the newer of the two shows struggles to reference many episodes from the classic show. "Living Witness" isn't just in the minority when it comes to eligibility in this respect, but it's the gold standard. When running the numbers, the back-up version of the Doctor that appears in "Living Witness" should be arriving back at Earth at some point during Star Trek's 32nd century.
As such, Picardo could easily find himself playing two versions of the Doctor in Starfleet Academy season 2. He did this more than once during similar scenarios in Voyager, so it wouldn't be especially new ground. Pair this with the fact that the Starfleet Academy writers have already established their affinity for folding in Voyager lore, and a "Living Witness" sequel becomes almost certain in season 2. I really hope I'm not wrong.
Why "Living Witness" could be trickier to acknowledge than the other Voyager episodes used by Starfleet Academy
Season 1 handled "Real Life," "Blink of an Eye," and "The Omega Directive" very tastefully. While they were strongly referenced, they were also intertwined with the storylines of Starfleet Academy's newer characters, who are the true focus of the show. In fact, "The Omega Directive" isn't even directly acknowledged in Starfleet Academy. It's undeniably a Voyager reference, but the Paramount+ project almost treats the Omega-47 mines as an entirely original concept.
So, even though "Living Witness" feels like an obvious choice for Starfleet Academy season 2 to pay off, it might be difficult to find a place for it. A "Living Witness" sequel wouldn't just need to dedicate most of its runtime to Picardo's character(s), but the concept of the original episode and what it would mean for its continuation is quite high-concept. It wouldn't be easy to establish the premise in just a few lines and then move on, as has been the approach in season 1's Voyager-tinged storylines.
As a result, "Living Witness" may be considered far too Doctor-centric to belong in Starfleet Academy's catalog of tributes to the classic-era show. A parallel connection to one of the younger stars would need to be formulated in order for this to happen. One possibility could be that Kerrice Brooks' SAM is somehow duplicated, which could help Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 2 grant the biggest wish of the Voyager faithful.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 is streaming now on Paramount+. All seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager are also available on the same platform.
Starfleet Academy had a satisfying Season 1 finale, but as I watched, I kept asking myself a blunt question: “why do I like this so much?” Sure, the episode was free of many things I hated from earlier stories, including the vulgar slang and potty humor of earlier episodes. It also focused on drama and characterization instead of terrible comedy, which is a major improvement over the first half of the season. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something else made this episode infinitely better than most of what had come before.
That’s when it hit me: it was the characters. Or, more precisely, the lack of characters: thanks to the season finale’s premise, several characters are left out of the episode altogether, and other characters who appear are sidelined in favor of focusing on a few key storylines. The result was that this episode (“Rubincon”) is a shining example of what this new Star Trek series is capable of. But it’s also proof of a simple fact: Starfleet Academy has way too many characters, and it needs to let some of them go in order to become a successful show.
Starfleet Academy has, to put it mildly, a huge cast of characters. There are 11 main characters who are prominently featured in almost every episode. For comparison, Star Trek: The Next Generation started with nine main characters, but this included Tasha Yar, who died midway through Season 1. It also includes Wil Wheaton, who left after Season 4. This means that for just a little under half of its iconic run, TNG sported only seven main characters, which made it easy for episodes to focus on the entire cast.
In case you’re wondering, Star Trek: The Original Series had only eight main characters. Deep Space Nine had nine main characters, and that’s counting Worf, who joined in Season 4. Voyager also held steady at nine main characters, eventually substituting Kes for Seven of Nine. At 11 main characters, Starfleet Academy is obviously overcrowded by the standards of the franchise, and its limited number of episodes per season keeps us from getting to know everyone.
Star Trek: Discovery began what would become a fairly depressing trend with NuTrek shows: a limited number of episodes per season. While the so-called Golden Age of Star Trek had 26 episodes per season, shows like Starfleet Academy only get 10 episodes per season. That means that even if SFA gets four full seasons (a goal that seems increasingly difficult to meet), it will end with fewer episodes than Voyager got in only two seasons!
That’s important because, each season, Starfleet Academy only gets 10 episodes to develop its 11 main characters. There’s just not enough time to do so, and some characters really get the short end of the stick. For example, Genesis is the only cadet who doesn’t get a solo episode devoted to her; the closest thing she gets is a side story with Caleb, where we learn that her dark secret is that her previous instructors thought she would never be a good captain.
Given the limited number of episodes and the outsized number of lead actors, it’s also bizarre how much screen time Starfleet Academy devotes to supporting characters. We got entire episodes focused on stories with the War College and its frosty chancellor, only for them to all disappear from the narrative in the last two episodes. We also get a lot of screentime dedicated to weird comic relief characters, including Tarima’s beta brother and that one cadet who swallowed her comm badge.
Compounding this is the fact that Caleb Mir is undeniably the main character of Starfleet Academy’s first season. This isn’t inherently a bad thing: Caleb has proven to be a very compelling character, and actor Sandro Rosta has the charisma and magnetic screen presence of a leading man. But every moment spent developing Caleb is a moment not spent developing anyone else. This is to the show’s detriment, but the Caleb focus of season finale “Rubicon” revealed the easiest way to improve Starfleet Academy: namely, Paramount needs to thin this cast out!
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- Days ago: MOM = 3916 days ago & DAD = 570 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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