Ok, mild spoilers ahead. Nothing major.

I was not looking forward to this one. Just looking at the ads they put out showed this was not aimed at my demographic (I'm in my 50s and have been watching Trek for more than 5 decades). It's definitely aimed at a younger demographic (20s mainly, I would say). The main image on Paramount has the Cadets all lounging on their backs in the grass just chilling. They are all hunky/attractive 20-somethings.

I watched the first episode and saw a LOT of discussion on facebook about it. Reception appears to be weak, and there are a LOT of apologists on facebook saying that "No, it's really good, even though the numbers of viewers is really lame." Or the typical "people are too dumb to realize how good this is" or "conservative males don't like it because it's too progressive" nonsense.

It's set in the Star Trek: Discovery future - about 900 years in the future from the Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) timeline, and about 800 years in the future from the Next Generation/DS9/Voyager. Now, I'll say right away that I hate this future Trek. Discovery was never really that good to begin with, and I really dislike a lot of the stuff about the future timeline. The ships have warp nacelles that are not physically attached to the ships. At the end of the first episode, the main ship (USS Athena) leaves the nacelles in space and deorbits down to San Francisco. It's just too weird for me.

Central to this era is "The Burn." They mention this in the first episode, but never really explained it. In Disco Season 3, it was established that this event (The Burn) happened that caused EVERY SINGLE on-line warp core to just asplode all at once, all across the galaxy. Now, this is a STUPID plot device. The 'reason' for this happening is even more idiotic - long story short, a child marooned in a space anomaly of some sort was sad because his mother died, so his grief caused some kind of space wave that caused thousands of warp cores thousands of light years away to simply explode.

Like I said, stupid.

Starfleet Command has been re-established, and they are trying to start up the Academy again. Hence, they have the young cast members.

The main character seems to be a hunky latino heart-throb, who was (literally) ripped from his mother by Space ICE. They stole food because they were starving, but the mother apparently allied herself with a guy (portrayed by Paul Giamotto - he's actually pretty good in this) who murdered a Starfleet officer. Now, they never went into this dead guy's history, but they over-did how this child was traumatized by the authorities imprisoning his mother. So they locked the mother up and hauled her away screaming (well, duh, she was involved in theft that left a man dead, but hey, we never met him so who cares?) Now, this 5-year old IMMEDIATELY stole a comm badge and escaped from a Federation facility. Yeah, stupid. Like a 5 yr old child could out-smart the ridiculously advanced scanning / transportation tech the future has.

Jump forward 15 years, and Hunky is now imprisoned by some hostile alien race (they admit he is a convicted thief). They, of course, are physically abusing him. The Chancelor of Starfleet Academy (Holly Hunter, who DESPERATELY needs a hair brush) shows up and convinces Hunky to join the Academy. They set sail and we are introduced to the rest of the student cast. Cute girl who has some weird eye lash ridges. I really don't know what her deal is yet. She didn't have much character development in the first episode, except that she's friendly and everybody likes her. She's the ONLY one I like, with the exception of the hunky Klingon. He wants to be a doctor instead of a warrior. I actually like these two characters. Everybody else is two-dimensional and boring (to be fair, I only watched the first episode so far).

Another girl is SO ANNOYING - she is like Cadet Tilley (the young bubbly/insecure girl from Disco) on steroids/caffiene overdose. She is EXCESSIVELY bouncy, bubbly, and desperate to make friends. Turns out she is a hologram, but this only one reason I don't like her. I disliked her before I learned she was not real. I don't like holographic characters, ESPECIALLY the Doctor from Voyager.

AAAAND, he's here. I personally don't have anything against Robert Picardo. He's a decent actor; I just always disliked his character. He was my least favorite character on Voyager, and perhaps my least-favorite main cast member of ALL Trek. Well, he's the ship's doctor on this show. He's older, even though he's practically immortal and over 800 yrs old at this point (the actor is 30 years older, so of course they had to age his character).

They THEN made a MAJOR point about his singing hobby, which was my SINGLE MOST HATED plot line of ANY Star Trek. I dislike almost ALL 'Holodeck Episodes' - where they spend the majority of the episode in the holodeck (gee, it's malfunctioning; we can't end the program; we have to complete the story to leave; oh, and hey, the safeties are off so we could actually die for real. . ...). I cannot express how much I HATE this plot device. They even had one of these episodes in Strange New Worlds (SNW - my favorite Trek series). Well, even MORE hated than those are the 'Let's have the Doctor sing' episodes on Voyager. Granted, he didn't actually sing in this episode, but just that they are prepping for it this early gives me reason to suspect they will. The actor has a good voice, but I've never liked opera.

Where was I - . . . Oh, the hunky jock/douchebag character. He shows up and is immediately in conflict with Cadet Hunky, and I don't know what his 'thing' is yet. He's some alien who can survive in the vacuum of space for 8 minutes. Don't know anything else about him than that.

There are a couple other cadets, I think, but I can't remember them at this point.

Holly Hunter is the Dean/Captain of the school (since the school IS a spaceship). She's not bad, but she's definitely different. She is, in several scenes, lounging on the Captain's chair. Curled up literally reading a book. Curled up with her feet tucked behind her like a teen girl on the Lazyboy watching American Idol. Her hair is perpetually mussed up. She's actually a decent character so far, though. Somebody on facebook referred to this as 'so the Captains' chair is now a chaise lounge.' She is really trying to make her character more casual and different than other Trek captains. There is no 'sanctity' of The Chair - it's like "I need to curl up and take a nap - wake me up if anything happens.". .

There is a Klingon/Jem H'adar woman as the Executive Officer. Now, I don't know how this works. Jem H'adar were genetically engineer soldiers grown in labs. Something like birth to fully-grown in less than a month. There were no females, and there was obviously no reason for them to have reproductive organs, as they were never intended to procreate naturally. She's not too bad of a character. She is loud and aggressive, constantly harping on matters of battle and honor. She is basically like a Drill Instructor. Kind of a one-trick pony at this point. I imagine this will get really boring really quickly unless they give her some nuance.



Like I said, I never expected to like this show. I was never the target audience. To me, this represents the worst of 'New Trek.' I'll still watch it, just to see what they do with the show.



Oh, edited to add:

It seems like they were trying to copy the dynamic of The Orville. They didn’t have the humor, but they did have a LOT of modern (by 2026 standards) language and slang. There were no F-bombs like in Picard (which I hate more than any other Trek show), but it was unlike the more professional dialog in most Trek.


Again, what one would expect from a show trying to cater to the 20-something demographic.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Hound Dog,

I really appreciate your review, I was definitely on the fence about dipping my toe into this one and you’ve literally saved me the trouble.

This is a good review on this steaming pile. Hard pass for me.

I (Almost) Watched Starfleet Academy So You Don’t Have To
STEPHEN GREEN | 11:31 AM ON JANUARY 16, 2026


Gentle reader, I failed you.

Despite all the negative hype from trusted reviewers like The Critical Drinker, or the crews at Film Threat and Nerdrotic, I decided I'd man up and watch at least the first two episodes of Starfleet Academy, now streaming on Paramount+.

Yes, the trailers and previews were groan-inducing. But at least it has Holly Hunter as the Academy's chancellor, Captain Nahla Ake, and Paul Giamatti as the show's villainous foil — could it be that bad, really, with those two signed on?

I wanted to believe, I really did. There's a great show somewhere inside Starfleet Academy, even though it's nowhere near Starfleet Academy.

I failed to finish even the first episode. Yes, it could be that bad, really.

The premise comes from the highly stupid Star Trek: Discovery, where an event called "the Burn" made warp-speed spaceflight impossible for a very long time, ending the Federation of Planets. Flash-forward more than a century to the Burn's dissipation, when Starfleet and the Federation have a chance to become great again. MFGA?

Anyway, the call goes out to the best-of-the-best from across 3,000 worlds to compete at the galaxy's most demanding military academy for the precious few command slots in a struggling new Starfleet as the Federation attempts to resurrect itself from the ashes of the Burn.

Now that's a show I'd watch. Sadly, it's not the show Paramount made.

Instead, Paramount made a 2012-era CW show about pretty young college students with interpersonal issues. But here's the modern twist: they're all gay or autistic or something. The only Klingon on the show, Karim Diané as Jay-Den Kraag, is the sensitive son of a single mom.

I swear I didn't make that up.

THEY NAMED THE KLINGON "JAYDEN."

Somewhere, Worf sheds a silent and very warrior-like tear.

Another cadet is named Genesis Lythe — I swear I didn't make that one up, either — and as the daughter of an admiral, she's considered "Starfleet royalty." There's a scene in a preview of a later episode where she practically shrieks, "I need to be a captain!" in such a way that you wouldn't give her command of a commode, much less a starship.

There's another cadet named Parsec "Pez" O'Flanagan, who dispenses reverse tachyon particles from the opening in his throat. Also, he's gay.

Okay, that one I did make up.

Courtesy of Film Threat's Alan Ng, I got a preview of episode two of the high standards Captain Ake demands from her cadets. "Make your bed," she insists. "Show up on time."

Yeah, Paramount might as well call it Participation Trophy Academy.

I attended high school at Missouri Military Academy, which was just Junior ROTC. They weren't grooming us for actual military service, just providing discipline to teenage guys like me who needed it, while also prepping us for college. Nevertheless, MMA's cadet motto — "Look like a soldier, act like a gentleman" — was more demanding than freakin' Starfleet Academy's.

Not that I'm resentful or anything. It's just that if I'd known I could get a Starfleet command out of it, maybe I'd have done a better job with the hospital corners on my bed at MMA.

Here's where I make a bold prediction where no critic has gone before: there will be no washouts at this Academy.

"Look at the cadet on your left. Look at the cadet on your right. Everybody gets a starship!"

But who knows — maybe Starfleet Academy will find an audience. But enough of an audience to justify spending $10 million an episode?

If I had to describe Starfleet Academy to my GenZ sons, I'd tell them, "This is not your father's Star Trek. This is Jayden Has Two Dads' Star Trek."

Here's where I would have wrapped up this not-quite-a-review by concluding, "In other words, it isn't Star Trek."

Except that I'm afraid it is.

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundi...l&utm_campaign=nl_pm

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
There is a Klingon/Jem H'adar woman as the Executive Officer.

When I saw her on a short clip on X, I thought jokingly that they must have found a chest full of unused prosthetics from DS9. She really IS a Jem H'adar! At least part Jem H'adar. Which leads to...

quote:

Now, I don't know how this works. Jem H'adar were genetically engineer soldiers grown in labs. Something like birth to fully-grown in less than a month. There were no females, and there was obviously no reason for them to have reproductive organs, as they were never intended to procreate naturally.

It doesn't make sense. The Founders bred(grew) them to be shock troopers with a short lifespan with their dependence on Ketracel White to ensure their loyalty to them and their Vorta handlers. They aint starting no families, much less with a Klingon.

The showrunners remember how badass both the Klingons and Jem H'adar were, and decided it'd be cool to crossbreed a new hybrid for this abortion.

Their presence would have made much more sense in Picard S-3, since the Dominion were involved. Sadly, they missed that chance.

it was free on Pluto TV last night,
I watched maybe 12 minutes and stopped,

only because I came into it at the middle of an episode and had no idea what was what

Well, the thing with NewTrek is that they often put cheap gimmicks ahead of staying true to canon.

I am not a canon nazi (complaining about EVERY violation of canon), but Trek has endured so long BECAUSE the original cast and crew payed so close attention to canon and continuity. This isn’t a show like Lost In Space (which was just Gilligans Iand In Space).


Now, it is all about what they think will look cool. They don’t care to stay true to the show’s enduring legacy and continuity.

It looks awful and my FB is full of articles praising it as the Next Big Thing which tells me I’m not touching this with a 40-foot pole.

I give it one maybe two seasons.

I'll see if I can pull it up streaming and watch an episode or 2,

did see a blurb or post on fakebook that showed a character in black/white makeup, and wondering how they managed to have a character that far in the future when supposedly only 2 survived and were hell bent on killing each other (and both male) in ST:TOS

quote:

Originally posted by lyman:

did see a blurb or post on fakebook that showed a character in black/white makeup, and wondering how they managed to have a character that far in the future when supposedly only 2 survived and were hell bent on killing each other (and both male) in ST:TOS

Yeah, I saw her, too. "Only two survivors of a doomed race," yet here she is 900 years later.

To be fair, there COULD be rational reasons for her. She could be a separate species (the TOS dudes had blond hair, whereas hers is split 50/50 bright white and black, so she does have significant differences between the only two guys we saw on screen). They could have just thought there were only two guys left, with others on a colony in deep space, on another spacecraft, etc. It could be a separate species that just happens to look alike (such as hares and rabbits being separate animals, even though most of us couldn't tell them apart by looks. . .). There could have been a legit canon book, graphic novel, or other media that explained this situation. Could also just be lazy writing, too.

Just to show how badly the free premier of Episode 1 on YouTube went:

quote:

here were no F-bombs like in Picard (which I hate more than any other Trek show)

Did you watch season 3?

1 and 2 are terrible, but 3 was basically a final season of TNG. 1 and 2 are absolutely skippable.

quote:

Originally posted by Jester814:

quote:

here were no F-bombs like in Picard (which I hate more than any other Trek show)

Did you watch season 3?

1 and 2 are terrible, but 3 was basically a final season of TNG. 1 and 2 are absolutely skippable.

I watched it. Did not like it at all. The Borg (again). Brnging back beloved characters just to kill them off again (Ro Laren, Adm Shelby). Borg assimilating via 5g wireless/bluetooth. Doing a death star trench run with the Enterprise D. Reset button ending, glossing over the THOUSANDS of dead starfleet crewmembers.

I hated all three seasons of Picard. IMO, of course.

SMDH

Roddenberry must be turning in his grave at what they're done with his show

1996:


2026:


Curled up in the Command chair like a cat lady with a good book on a Saturday night?

The entire show is like that. She also showed up to a formal diplomatic event barefoot. The stuffy military guy (the campus also has The Federation War College, which I’m guessing is going to be a source of tension) called her out on it in front of the Chief of Starfleet, and she just blew him off.

She is also suffering from White Guilt, bringing up several times how wrong it was to separate the kid from his (felon) mother. She is letting Hunky break all the rules in order to keep him there so she can atone for her guilt.

The academic standards are lax. Hunky Latino Guy finally made his bed, and it was treated like a major character development moment for him. They had an assignment to watch a jar of snot, and to fail that assignment you would literally have to die.

There are a lot of alphabet people in this show. Now, Jett Reno from Disco is an instructor. Her character is openly (but not blatantly) gay. I love her character. She is snarky and is all out of F’s to give. She is a great character that just happens to be gay. They don’t even mention it on a regular basis. If you didn’t catch the first episode she was in where she mentioned her wife, you might not even know. This is a HUGE contrast to the gay doctor on DISCO where his gayness was his defining characteristic.

I haven’t noticed any such in-your-face gayness in this show yet.

There is a cadet in a wheelchair. I’m guessing she will be just window dressing, as to feature her more prominemtly could only serve to show how much she CAN’T do. There are stairs everywhere, and how do you teach combatives (judo, fencing, hand to hand, etc) to somebody in a wheelchair?

A lot of people on social media go to the standard “Starfleet isn’t military,” but it most certainly is. The show is a bunch of hunky rebelious youths thrown together without the old farts enforcing boring rules and regs. I worked on the Air Force Academy for several years, and this ‘academy’ is nothing like real life. Heck, the Boy Scouts have more stringent rules than they have here.

There was a lot of negative feedback about the Betazeds in the second episode. They stated that they were empaths (detecting emotions) vs telepaths. But in TNG, Betazeds WERE full telepaths. Troi was an empath because she was half human. She and her mother communicated telepathically several times. The Planet’s leader was deaf, and his children communicated with him via sign language. Dude, you all can read minds - why bother signing. Somebody said it’s like they had AI write the script. Whoever did seemed to forget what Betazeds really were.

They are really hyping this on facebook. I’ve never seen so much hupe there over any other show. The numbers are not good, so of course libs are saying that Republicans are too mysogynostic/racist/homophobic/ignorant to realize how great the ahow is. They are calling the bad reviews ‘review bombing.’ I think the studio is in a panic over the money they spent in this and the weak reception the show has. . .

Betazoid. Betazed is their home world. <nerd hat off>

Yes by my FB feed you’d think this THE greatest TV show that ever existed and we knuckle draggers ought to be grateful for it.

It’s gonna crash and burn hard.

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
To me, this represents the worst of 'New Trek.' I'll still watch it, just to see what they do with the show.

With the description of the show above, why on earth would you continue watching this?

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:

With the description of the show above, why on earth would you continue watching this?

Morbid curiosity. I muscled my way through all 3 seasons of Picard. And it won’t cost me anything since I already have Paramount+….

It is still mildly entertaining, even though it is a bad show. Back in the day, I had to watch 52 episodes of mostly garbage before TNG started to get good in Season 3.

I just can't. I only have a finite number of precious hours on this planet, and many of those hours were devoted to ST:TNG. I've seen all episodes at least once, and I have fond memories of staying after school for cross country practice my freshman year, then walking home, then heating up supper and watching TNG.

I have slightly less fond memories regarding DS9, but only slightly.

I won't spend any time watching this show, outside of any clips that The Critical Drinker or Nerdrotic reviews show.

So the human female and the Jem Hadar-hybrid female are also gay lovers on the ship?

But OF COURSE they are