Let’s All Go to School!

A few years back we had an absolute glut of Star TrekOriginally conceived as "Wagon Train in Space", Star Trek was released during the height of the Hollywood Western film and TV boom. While the concept CBS originally asked for had a western vibe, it was the smart, intellectual stories set in a future utopia of science and exploration that proved vital to the series' long impact on popular culture.. Paramount went all in on the franchise, commissioning a bunch of shows to debut on Paramount+ (well, CBS All Access at the time, which then became Paramount+), and it led to what many fans call the “Nu Trek” era. It started with Discovery, and then was followed up by Short Treks, Picard, Lower Decks, and Prodigy. Discovery also gave way to a spin-off, the well-received (and fan-requested) Strange New Worlds, and there was talk of another spin-off, Section 31, which eventually became a (terrible) made-for-TV movie. All of this led to a feeling that Star Trek was everywhere, that you couldn’t navigate a menu on the app without a new season of Star Trek or a new project for the franchise popping up.

That era is over. While some shows lasted longer than others, most of the series launched during this “Nu Trek” era fizzled out. Discovery went five seasons and never felt like it got its feet under itself. Picard only went three, and only its third season was at all liked by fans. Lower Decks was generally loved, but higher-ups overseeing the franchise apparently hated it and killed a show that could have run forever. Prodigy under-performed and then was shuffled off the app to die after just two seasons. Hell, we haven’t even seen any new Short Treks in some time, and while Strange New Worlds is still going, it’s already been given its end-of-life, with the team functionally knowing they have a season and a half to wrap it all up. Where the franchise once felt like it was going to be everywhere, it suddenly seems like it’s withering on the vine.

That puts a lot of pressure on the newest, and currently only running, show in the franchise, the future-set, Discovery-era spin-off Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Set at the titular school for Federation, Starfleet Academy promises to be a different kind of show from what we’ve seen before. It’s set planet-side, at a central location, with the focus not on seasoned officers but the up-and-coming cadets looking to make a difference in the universe. It’s a teen-friendly concept, a YA-style show for the franchise, and perhaps the kind of show that could “make Star Trek cool again” for the next generation. That is, if the show can find its feet.

The series debuted with a double-pack of episodes and these two show both the strengths and weaknesses of the concept right out of the gate. The first episode heavily focuses on Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta), a teen criminal-turned- Starfleet recruit. As a boy he had to watch while his mother (Tatiana Maslany) was dragged off by the Federation for the crime a piracy, a crime she did commit but only so she could feed herself and her son. He fled from the Federation officer assigned to protect him, Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter), and the spent all the years since searching for his mother in hopes of finding a way of setting her free. After his crimes catch up with him, he’s saved by Ake, who has just been put in charge of the newly rebuilt Academy, and she gives him a choice: join the Academy or spend the next however many years in prison. He agrees… grudgingly, only to find that he might just have what it takes to be a solid officer after all.

The first episode has to do a lot of heavy lifting to get us into Caleb’s story. The first ten minutes are all about him and it sets it up as if this show, despite its name, is really: Star Trek: The Adventures of Caleb Mir. In a way it reminds me of Discovery (which, remember, this is functionally a spin-off of). There, too, we had a central lead character, Michael Burnham, who effectively took over most episodes of the show so we could watch her be the magical officer who solved all the Federation’s problems. Caleb feels like he’s dangerously close to becoming the “magical main character”, and not everything in this first episode dispels that notion.

For instance, when a problem does arise for the academy and her crew, it’s not the crew that solves the problem by Caleb. He figures out what is going on with the attack on their systems, and he already magically knows how to solve it without anything in the actual episode providing needed detail. It’s all techno-babble without grounding. Meanwhile, a villain shows up with ties to Caleb’s past, once again adding to the idea that this show really isn’t about the Academy, the other students, or the crew but that it’s really the Caleb Mir show.

With that said, the climactic sequence isn’t just about Caleb. By this point we’ve been introduced to other students at the Academy, all of whom make a bond with Caleb. There’s the Klingon medical trainee Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané), the holographic sciences cadet Sam (Kerrice Brooks), the Khionian command cadet Darem Reymi (George Hawkins), and the Dar-Sha legacy student, Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard), and each of these students has something to contribute when times get tough. They all lend a hand, getting moments to shine, which in turn makes them feel more like a crew. This is good, and the show needs to do more like this.

Unfortunately the second episode, good as it is, feels like it loses sight of the rest of the cadets. Here the Academy ship, now at its home on Earth, plays host to Betazoid diplomats, including the leader of Betazed. After the burn, when every governmental body was reeling, Betazed left the Federation, forced to protect themselves when the Federation couldn’t. Now that the Federation has rebuilt itself, and is a force once more for peace and prosperity, they wish to have Betazed rejoin, but the Betzoid leader, President Emerin Sadal (Anthony Natale), is an isolationist and refuses. Thankfully for everyone, the President’s daughter, Tarima (Zoë Steiner), catches Caleb trying to escape the Academy grounds, and the two bond. Before long they develop a rapport that might cool tensions between the two worlds, and could just give everyone a way to the negotiating table once more.

Like with the first episode, there are good aspects and bad aspects of this episode. On the one hand I do appreciate that this is an episode all about diplomacy. There’s not a single battle, not one Red Alert, seen throughout the whole episode. This is all about talking, finding ways towards common ground, meeting in the middle and letting down walls. It’s no coincidence that the plot hinges heavily on Caleb needing to let down his personal walls so that, in the end, Betazed can let down its planetary walls so that it can rejoin the Federation. There’s a parallel there, and it works on a thematic level.

At the same time, this episode is really all about Caleb. While the other cadets are there, they serve no function in the episode except to deliver an occasional quip and, otherwise, act as set dressing. We have this whole cast of characters there to help each other and lend a hand, to act as a crew, as you’d expect, but they’re all sidelined so that the show can make itself all about Caleb and his trauma. While I get that Caleb has a lot going on, as we saw at the start of the first episode, you have to think that the other characters in the cast had their own personal stories, their own trauma, and giving them the time to reveal themselves would be great. We haven’t gotten that so far, and I fear that this show is going to be all about Caleb in much the same way that Discovery was all about Michael. You don’t want to see it… but it also feels like that’s exactly where the show is going.

So far we have eight more episodes for the season, and then, presumably, at least one more season (that’s already been greenlit, so you assume it will get made) to see where this show will go. It’s entirely possible that while these first two episodes were mostly about Caleb, the show will then shift focus and flesh out everyone else. I hope so because, despite his backstory and all the emphasis the show puts on him, Caleb really isn’t that interesting of a character. He’s brash and headstrong, resistant to being at the Academy, but we already know how his plotline is going to go. He’s going to see that the Academy has a lot for him, that the Federation isn’t so bad, and that he has the makings of a great officer. It’s a story we’ve literally seen in this franchise many times before (Kirk in Star Trek 2009, Dal R'El in Star Trek: Prodigy). Despite what the show tries to tell is, there’s nothing inherently special about Caleb, and that drains some of the fun from the series.

The show has a spark of life in it, though, and that comes out whenever it shifts focus away from Caleb and lets us see the whole ensemble. I think Star Trek: Starfleet Academy could actually be a great show if it can shake off its need to have a central, magical character. Caleb could grow into his own once he’s supported by others, and those others could, in turn, become fantastic leads of their own episodes. This is Star Trek, though, and the show should never be about just one character. Until it can shake itself free of the need to be all about Caleb it’s going to struggle to be the best version of itself.