There is zero indication an Academy series must be set on Earth.
Yeah, there is no indication that it "must" be set on Earth. But with the "reopening" phrasing and the fact that Trek has only ever talked about "The Academy" as being the one campus near San Fran (which was not practical in my opinion, you need more officers than that each year), it is likely.
I would be much more interested in a space station-set Academy series. Have them build a new, expansive Academy station to celebrate the "rebirth" of the Federation. WOuld be cool.
But I can also see the advantages of having it planet side: ability to use outdoor settings, cheaper sets, and maybe we would get to see some actual non-Starfleet Earth/city culture (I always enjoyed the small glimpses we saw of civilian life, mostly in TNG/DS9 and a tiny bit in VOY/ENT).
Missing the point, as most complaints around tears do.
I work with adults and coworkers who regularly cry. Sorry to say they don't fit the Trek evolved standard.
Man, I don't think I have ever seen a coworker cry.
To be fair..........
The Diversity is the only thing I like about this concept, but I expect the showrunners to fail at it.
It's the bloody 32nd Century. There shouldn't be many full-blooded Humans anymore. We've been living with aliens for 1000 years.
Hell, there shouldn't even be human genders for the most part. Babies born in labs. Women no longer carrying them.
Less physical differences between the genders and most people should appear non-binary. It should look very alien to us today.
They played it way too safe and unimaginative with Discovery's take on the 32nd century.
I agree that the worldbuilding in the 32nd century has been sorely lacking. The showrunners in S3/S4 just clearly were not at all interested in that. If you took out a few small changes like the visual look of the programable matter and the insta-transporters, you could easily convince me that S3/S4 were set in the 25th century of Trek. The 23rd century crew of the Discovery certainly seemed to make the transition with not a single hiccup or cultural roadbump.
Hopefully, the new showrunners and the setting of a single, primary location (like a station or planet where, as in DS9, the people and problems from last week's episode are still around such that you have to deal with the consequences of actions and have to consider long-term issues) will make worldbuilding (with the appropriate technological, sociological, and biological changes) more front-and-center.
...I just really liked the idea of a group of disparate beings coming together as part of the inaugural class of Starfleet Academy, being the first ones trying to figure out how to make this whole new integrated Starfleet work and all the stumbling blocks they'd encounter along the way.
I will say that if it couldn't be set in the 22nd century, then the 32nd century is definitely the next best thing. Given the state of the galaxy at this point, with the academy only just starting to come back online after a century or so, should offer up a lot of the same vibe I was imagining for a 22nd century Starfleet Academy.
I like this idea: working together to define what the new Academy should be/what new officers in the expanding fleet should be is a good idea.
I always thought that was a good idea for the first season of ENT: show Earth building out the concept of what a starship crew should be, but the powers that be killed Braga's pitch for that for S1 and instead had them all ready to go into space in episode 1. (I was also very disappointed in ENT that the ship itself and all the technology basically worked exactly as it would about a century later, just with "hull polarization" instead of "shields" and "phase pistols" instead of "phasers". Another missed opportunity for both worldbuilding and storytelling. Huh, kind of like the lack of technological innovation for the 32nd century time period.) I would have really liked that. Maybe this Academy idea will have some of the same things. I really doubt it, but there is a chance.
