Spoilers Starfleet Academy: First-Year Review 🎓

[eschaton]

I posted a mini-season review in the general discussion thread, but speaking more broadly, the season was way, way better than I thought it would be prior to release, and yet by the end of the season, it let me down a little bit - which I guess is pretty par for the course for modern-day Star Trek.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

I've come around to liking STA, but I'm not internalizing it and wanting to follow it like I did TNG & TOS and am now doing with SNW.

Insight: Perhaps because SNW is walking on the path TOS left us. The differences, up-to-date sets, SFX and the odd side trips make it more interesting for me. I went AWOL on La Canonistas long ago.

Just so long as Spock doesn't start using the Force. That'll make me reenlist.

 

[BigJake]

What do you think of the characters and their performers?
Pretty strong across the board. It's unfortunate that the streaming format limits opportunities for character development -- cf. SAM's evolution, which doesn't have nearly the space it needs to play out -- and I get the distinct impression that what Tilly was meant to be doing wound up being spread across three different characters. There are characters who were introduced earlier on who seemed meant to pay off later in the season but wound up being largely absent, especially Lura Thok.

But having said that? I really enjoyed all of the characters and the performances behind them. I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I've enjoyed them; I was skeptical at the first episode, but wound up getting really into everyone. The core cadet group really work. So does Nahla Ake -- whom I am happy to watch for as long as Holly Hunter is willing to play her, she's one of those characters who just perfectly meshes with a great veteran actor, she's the true anchor of the business much like Gary Oldman's role in Slow Horses -- and later, Janet Reno (who really carries a lot of weight for the instructors in the season's latter half).

What were standout episodes, moments or scenes in season one?
Everything with Caleb and Tarima. Just about everything with Genesis Lythe; it's weird that her name sounds like it came out of a Stripper Name Generator but she's a wonderful character. SAM's "emissary" episode was really, really beautiful. And I thoroughly enjoyed the Miyazaki episode, and getting to see Tilly again in the "Our Town" episode.

Are you considering yourself a fan of the show? And where do you rank it with the other Trek series?
Surprisingly, yes, I wasn't expecting to be a fan, but I'm really enjoying it, warts and all. As NuTrek goes, the rankings for me are generally DSC in the number one spot, with SNW, PRO and Lower Decks kind of forming a fluid mid-tier, and PIC in last place (much as I enjoy some of its ideas and concepts). SFA joins that fluid mid-tier, I guess it's like a four-way tie for second place.

What do you want to see more / less of in season two?
We have completed Caleb's outcast-to-hero arc with the end of Season One. So I will want to see a strong character arc for them to focus on in Season Two. (I expect everyone will have arcs, but I think it would be interesting to see a new cadet introduced to our established core group and to see Caleb have to grow through mentoring someone else. Just as a for-instance, I'm not specifically demanding that or anything.)

I would like to see us let go of the kind of overarching seasonal villain that has been common in so much of NuTrek, the function served by Nus Braka in S1.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

What are your overall thoughts about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy?

I've always thought a Starfleet Academy series would be a bad idea because it takes the characters away from the dangerous final frontier where anything can happen and puts them in the safety of a school where all they have to worry about are pranks and getting angsty over love triangles. And I think a lot of my concerns turned out to be justified. I found episodes like Beta Test, Ko'Zeine and The Life of the Stars to really test my attention span, and it didn't help that they're an hour long each.

But honestly, it turned out to be a lot less cheesy and cringy than a space cadet university show could've been and I appreciated how the teachers took their jobs as guardians seriously. Even if they rarely taught anything and their own plots turned out to be very jokey.


What do you think of the characters and their performers?

There are definitely things I didn't like. It felt like they had so much fun writing for Braka that once they got started they just never stopped. I think someone in the production crew might have a foot fetish. Jay-Den's voice never really got to a point where it sounded comfortable.

But overall I'd say that the cast was the strongest thing about the series. Either that or the sets. Caleb and Ake are pretty solid leads and I thought their scenes together were often a highlight. Put the rest of the cadets together and they're usually pretty good too. The Doctor and Jett Reno are now two of the best characters on two live action Trek shows.

If I eventually decide to watch season 2, it'll be because I want to see the cadets again and find out how they're doing.

Except for Tarima.


What were standout episodes, moments or scenes in season one?

The standout episodes for me where the ones that the show shouldn't really have. Kids These Days, 300th Night, Rubincon. Stories about space adventure and fighting bad guys. I don't know if this is because they're struggling to come up with compelling stories that fit the premise, or it's just that I'm a Star Trek fan, so I'm going to enjoy the Star Trek-like episodes more than the school ones.

I'm struggling to think of memorable moments, but the first thing that jumps to mind is Caleb coming in and helping Ake get her suitcase closed while she sits on it. Any Captain Jett Reno scene in the finale was fantastic. I liked the cadets going to the club and SAM having all the drinks.


Are you considering yourself a fan of the show? And where do you rank it with the other Trek series?

No I'm not really a fan of the show, I don't think it's my kind of TV series. So I'd rank it pretty low.


What do you want to see more / less of in season two?

I really don't know. I don't know how to make this series more like something I'd enjoy, while still being a Starfleet Academy series.

More training in simulated Star Trek situations might be cool, with the characters dealing with variations on typical Trek plots in a holodeck and getting hilariously terrible outcomes. Something like Prodigy's Kobayashi or Lower Decks' I, Excretus. Except without being a parody of actual episodes.

And I want less Tarima.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

what are your overall thoughts about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy?

This is YA I can watch. It does not satisfy the deeper sense of topical and philosophical discussion that I think Trek normally provides, and more often than not the stakes are low. Even though I can accept that it is "not targeted to me," I find it satisfying, especially for the acting.

I appreciate how serialization is approached. There is a good balance between telling individual stories while advancing an overall narrative.

What do you think of the characters and their performers?

Love the acting in the show, especially from Brooks, Picardo, Hunter, Hawkins and Notaro.

I am not always a fan of Rosta, but I think he was wonderful in the finale. Similarly, I think Kiane is somewhat limited in range, but the scripts are well tailored to fit his skillset. Shepperd is similarly dialed into her character.

The only actor and character I don't like is Steiner and the character she plays.

What were standout episodes, moments or scenes in season one?

Sisko episode was wonderful.

The SAM story in Life in the Stars was lovely--I was crying a little.

The finale, while having some issues with story, had so much great acting I forgive almost all the faults.

Are you considering yourself a fan of the show? And where do you rank it with the other Trek series?

Yes. I would put it behind Lower Decks among the contemporary series, behind DS9, TOS, TNG, LDS, when all series are considered.

Arguably, Enterprise had stronger stories, but I find SFA to be an easier show to watch.

What do you want to see more / less of in season two?

Less magical girl Tarima. More Romeo Carere.

I hope we are done with bad boy Caleb--let him grow in other ways. Maybe he should be a little power-hungry enforcing discipline.

Thok and Reno were great assets who should appear more.

I hope that they are not entirely done with Paul Giamatti. He is basically doing Jack Nicholson's Joker.

 

[Uhura's Song]

I gave up on this show halfway through & cancelled Paramount+.

I have watched the last 4 episodes and thought two of them: "The Life of the Stars" and "Rubincon" were particularly strong. And the A plot of "Series Acclimation Mill."

I adore Holly Hunter and Tatiana Maslany. Kerrice Brooks as SAM was also a joy throughout. Genesis was strong. Reno is a joy. I loved Tilly's return. Most of the cadet arcs made sense.

I thought Nus Braka and Thok were too cartoonish. The non-Reno humor fell flat for me. Crass and boorish and in some cases (the physical strength stuff), made no sense. Some of the srory iseas were also non-sensical. It was UGLY early.

But the second half was better, particularly the last third. The finale stuck the landing and "The Life of the Stars" was a classic level episode for me.

As for ranking it amongst all of Trek? That is tough comparing a 10 ep show to shows with 170, 100, 80, 65, or even 40 or 30 episodes. It is just a baby.

For me, I kinda have upper & lower tier Trek. My upper Tier is TNG, TOS, DS9, LD, PRO, SNW, the TOS movies minus TFF, First Contact, and Beyond.

The 2nd Tier is VOY, ENT, PIC, DISCO, SFA, TAS, and ST. Plus TFF, the remainder of the TNG & Kelvin movies, and Section 31.

But some of my favorites were pretty weak early (TNG, DS9, LD). Especially the front part of S1. And somecin the bottom tier were strong for me early (DISCO).

I am certainly in for S2 at this point.

This review is pretty close to where I am at.

Starfleet Academy’s Season Finale Sticks The Landing, But Is It Too Late For Star Trek?

Starfleet Academy sticks the landing with a finale full of classic Trek drama, a charismatic villain, and emotional payoffs for its cadets.

www.yahoo.com

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

Caleb was a much better character than what I was expecting from the super attractive beefcake character who it seemed would be the focus after episode 1. The lad has buckets of actual cool calm charisma and not just a fake forced type. Real easy to warm to.

Genesis could have easily been a cliche but was also a very well realised and a Ted person. Like Caleb I enjoyed all her scenes even when the plots and scripts she was in were lacking.

Jay Den I get what they were going for but it was badly written and the actor tried too hard to force a weird attempt at a Klingon that wasn't necessary. The actor should have just been themselves like most actors playing Klingons. He did grow into at least as things went on. Side note it was great to see Star Trek do more no drama no fussbi/homosexual characters. It's something I have wanted for a long time and Academy has been better than any other Trek for that.

Sam is just a bad character. Started off okay but just got worse as episodes went on and her premise could have been way way better written

 

[Manticore]

I expected to hate it.

I think that it's the best Trek that we've had since DS9 went off the air.

Likewise, I expected to despise SAM, but I actually ended up adoring her. I'd have liked to see a bit more of post Stars SAM, though.

Even after all these years, I still wonder where all the intense dislike for PIC season 1 comes from, which in my book is one of the boldest and most thematically deep storylines they've done in Trek at least this century, never mind delivering most fully on the 2017 notion of "let's do ST as if it were a modern prestige show". Not that any ST show since then has come even close to attaining the quality of actual modern prestige shows, but IMO Pic 1 came closest.

I think that it was really great up to and including Nepenthe, but it utterly and completely failed to stick the landing, IMO. The Borg ended up completely superfluous, the evil robots were completely underwhelming, and Soji deciding to betray all organic life and then being completely forgiven of attempting galacticide just hurt the entire season.

And the boring dreck of season 2 just completely ground it into the ground.

(On top of that, I hated season 3, but I recognize that many loved it.)

 

[tafkats]

What are your overall thoughts about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy?

Overall, I'm enjoying it, and I find that it is engaging me more than most of the other streaming-era Trek series have. It's not as dark and timey-wimey as Discovery or the first two seasons of Picard. It's building an ensemble cast pretty well, which is especially remarkable given that it actually has to develop two ensembles, the officers and the cadets.

What do you think of the characters and their performers?

I love Nahla Ake and Holly Hunter's portrayal of her. She's just fun to watch, and she's a bit of a "bunny-ears lawyer" but not to an extreme. I enjoy her dynamic with Lura Thok as a command team. Tig Notaro is, of course, fantastic. Robert Picardo is excellent as well.

Among the cadets, Caleb is in some ways the least interesting character — but that's not actually unusual for the hero. Tarima is ... inconsistent. Sometimes she's an interesting and fully realized person; other times she's verging on Manic Pixie Dream Girl or (in the last few episodes) a Broken Bird. Together, I can't stop seeing them as Ryan Atwood and Marissa Cooper IN SPACE!

Jay-Den as the Klingon who doesn't want to be a warrior is interesting. Genesis seemed like she was going to be Tracy Flick IN SPACE! but then got more interesting. Sam's dorkiness was excessive in the first few episodes, but I liked her more as the season went on.

Reymi and Ocam are kind of vanishing into the background.

What were standout episodes, moments or scenes in season one?

I enjoyed "Beta Test" and I thought it really made the most of the 32nd-century post-Burn setting. Seeing the process of the Federation getting put back together is something I wished Discovery had focused on more, and I think it makes an interesting storyline.

"Come, Let's Away" was intense and suspenseful and kept my attention throughout. And unlike many people, I actually enjoyed "Ko'Zeine," which I think was basically this series' equivalent of TNG's "Family." I did not enjoy "The Life of the Stars," and actually felt like "Ko'Zeine" was much better as a post-trauma "breather" episode.

The two season-ending episodes were very strong.

Are you considering yourself a fan of the show? And where do you rank it with the other Trek series?

Yes. In a lot of ways, I don't enjoy the aesthetic of modern Trek very much — it's too cold, too shiny, too flashy, and I have trouble imagining the settings as places where people actually live — but aside from that, I like this show a lot. Not sure I can rank it relative to Trek as a whole, but I would say that it and SNW are probably the two strongest series of the streaming era.

What do you want to see more / less of in season two?

More of: The ensemble cast; the rebirth-of-the-Federation storyline; Jett Reno.

Less of: The early-installment silliness like the prank war; the constant namedropping and other easter-egg references to past shows.

 

[CanAm1551]

What are your overall thoughts about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy?

I loved it! I am not an expert, but in my opinion the first season was just as good, if not better than some, than all of the Star Treks in the past. I looked forward to every episode.

What do you think of the characters and their performers?

Again, I am not an expert and I know nothing about acting. But, I liked all of the characters and the performers of these characters kept me entertained every week. I did think that SAM was a delight and Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti gave stand out performances.


What were standout episodes, moments or scenes in season one?

I especially liked the SAM centric episode, and it was a real treat to see Tilly again!

Are you considering yourself a fan of the show? And where do you rank it with the other Trek series?

I'm a big fan! I hope it is renewed for many seasons beyond the 2nd season! I have to say that I also loved all of the Star Trek TV shows since TOS in their own right too!

What do you want to see more / less of in season two?

I would llike to see much more of Silvia Tilly! I would also like to see guest appearences from characters like Michael Burnham, Saru, Book, Detmer, and Phillipa Georgio in episodes which interact with the Starfleet students!

 

[Tosk]

I am not an expert

No expertise needed to know what you like.

 

[ichab]

I've never been a fan of the premise so I wasn't expecting to enjoy it. But I wanted to give it a fair shot. The first half of the season was purely dreadful.

"I swallowed my combadge"

Was that suppose to be funny? I've pointed out the many other issues I have in other threads so Im not going to regurgitate it here. It was the worse writing I have ever seen in a Star Trek show. The low point was episode 5, which is down there with Spocks brain and Shades of Gray.

The second half of the season starting with episode 6 was a huge improvement and carried thru to the end. Basically the show got better once the cadets left the classroom and started dealing with actual danger and real high stakes. Paul Giamatti is SO good. He clearly enjoys playing a villain and it shows.Its just too bad he is dealing with such a weak character like Ake. If he was dealing with Janeway then it would be up there with Kirk vs Khan.

The strong second half saves it from being worse season one. For me that honor still goes to Voyager. As much as I liked Voyager it was a very middling season with no real standout episodes that I would want to rewatch. At least with SFA, there is a good second half of episodes from 6 to 10 that flow well together and are worthy of rewatch. I can always ignore episodes 1 thru 5 which I will never watch again. TOS still has the best first season and it's not even close .

My favorite characters were Caleb because he had the most fulfilling character arc, and Lura Thok because she is more of what I expect from an academy instructor. Least favorite hands down is Ake and SAM. Ake is basically what Janeway would have been had Bujold kept the role: weak with no command presence and not someone that others would look up to .SAM is way too over the top at important moments. Just way too comical for my tastes

I hope the second season continues the momentum that the ending of season one had. Most of it was shot before they got any audience feedback so who knows.

 

[Uhura's Song]

If I had to rank 1st seasons:

1. TOS
---------
2. SNW
3. PRO
----------
4. PIC
5. VOY
6. DISCO
7. DS9
8. LD
9. ENT
----------------
10. TNG
11. SFA
12. TAS

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Oh, first season rankings, interesting.

1. Lower Decks - Decent season capped off with some great episodes.
2. Original Series - One of the all time greats, but it still has The Alternative Factor.
-------------
3. Disco - I didn't like a lot of its choices, but it was consistently interesting.
4. Picard - Sometimes good, could've been a lot better.
5. Prodigy - I'm not in its target audience exactly but I respect the quality.
-------------
6. Voyager - Okay for a first season but I expected more from TNG vets.
7. DS9 - Didn't know what it was yet.
8. Next Gen - Starts with Code of Honor, gets better.
-------------
9. Enterprise - A few decent stories couldn't save this tedious bland slog.
10. Starfleet Academy - I'm not really into what it wants to be.
11. Strange New Worlds - Was alright, but that season finale was frustrating.
12. Animated Series - I'm not really into goofy fantasy Trek.

 

[Vanyel]

I was surprised by the show. I do give every show 3 seasons to impress me and I was surpised by STA. It had a good start, not the best, but a good one. It was still a bit of a teen drama. I do wish I could see 3 seasons so I could see if i t was going to build off its start.

Spoiler: If you know you know.

Picard could have pulled off what Ake didn't.

 

[eschaton]

First seasons: Interesting question. In ranked order:

• TOS - Not only the best first season of a Star Trek series, but also the best season of TOS. Yeah, there was some early installment weirdness before Gene Coon came on, and the pacing was often languid, but almost everything that made TOS (and Trek as a whole) special - the thoughtful exploration of an idea, a hopeful vision of human nature - it's all here.
• SNW - Similar to TOS, Season 1 is not only a great first outing, but the best season to date. I'm not a fan of The Serene Squall and Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach, but otherwise I like to love the entire season (and I don't think those two episodes are bad either. Honestly, from a sheer percentage of the season being good to great, there's an argument that SNW is better than TOS, but given there's a world of difference between a 10-episode season and a 29-episode one, I'm not sure it's a fair comparison.
• PRO - Like all of the Kurtzman-era shows after DIS/PIC, Prodigy knew what it wanted to be from the first jump. I can't think of a genuinely bad episode here, though I do think it lost a bit of steam in "Part 2" of the first season, which was more miss than hit for me. Ultimately ranks a bit lower than SNW just because what it's doing is a bit less what I'm interested in.
• SFA - Similar to SNW and PRO, it's confident in its identity from the start, and had a mixture of genuinely great and middling episodes. Again, I'm just rating it a bit lower because what it chose to do didn't personally vibe with my tastes as much.
• DS9 - Not anywhere near as good as the show would become, but still a great opening season. Some aspects of the show, like Quark and Odo's frenemy status, were there from day one. Other characters started a bit less likable, in part to give the characters something to grow into. Still, only a handful of stinkers like The Passenger, and the season gave us Duet, so it's hard to not rate it well.
• LDS - It's a good first season, with no genuinely bad episodes (I don't think Lower Decks has genuinely bad episodes in general). However, I think there's a more mediocrity here than in Seasons 2/3, where the show peaked. Still, kudos for the show knowing where it wanted to go right from the start.
• PIC - Hard for me to rank, because it's such a strange mixture, with the dialogue often flipping back and forth between some of the most elevated and subtle in Trek history to utter cheese - sometimes in the same episode. It's a big old mess, and they fucked up the season arc as a whole, but there's a lot of interesting elements within that mess. How this could swing from something as awful as Stardust City Rag to The Impossible Box still amazes me.
• VOY - It's fine. There were a handful of good episodes like Eye of the Needle and Jetrel, and not really any genuinely bad ones. A lot of mediocrity, but the sort of stultifying boredom I get with Voyager happens later in the series, not here.
• DIS - Similar to PIC, it's a mess of a season with a botched arc. However, there's a lot less great stuff mixed in. I don't consider it to be bad, but it's mostly a season of mediocrity, with a few good episodes, and a few stinkers.
• TAS - I've never been a great fan of this show, but the bulk of it was Season 1, and at least it gave us Yesteryear. I sort of feel like it shouldn't be on this list, though, because Roddenberry and company clearly saw it as just a continuation of TOS in animated form, not a new show.
• ENT - Pretty bad, and pretty clearly the worst of ENT's seasons. There were only a handful of episodes I genuinely like (The Andorian Incident, Shuttlepod One, Vox Sola), a lot of mediocrity, and many stinkers. The stinkers are notable here in part because the ideas were just so bad. Trip getting pregnant against his consent? Bringing back the Ferengi? Going to Risa again? They were clearly out of ideas.
• TNG - Clearly the worst of the worst. To be fair much of that is on the opening seven episodes, which are almost entirely dreadful, but an improvement to mediocrity isn't that much of an improvement.

I'm not ranking Short Treks (because it's an anthology) or Very Short Treks or Starfleet Scouts (both because they are non-canon, and because they were one-off experiments).

 

[Elaise]

Prodigy: I finally got done watching the first season, and I have to say it is one of the best openers for a ST series. It is not stumbling out the gate, it has a cleaner goal and nails it in every regard.

DS9: Out of all the 90s era trek this one has the best first season. Few clunker episodes, but overall the story and characters are very interesting.

LD: Was not sure about this one, but fell in love with the characters and humor and found it to be a very solid season.

Voyager: I'm actually a fan of this series, though its first season is a bit rough. It probably has the most character that I do not care about out of the 90s era. Chakotay, Kim, and Kes I find to be so damn boring most of the time.

TNG: This one takes me back, I was pretty young when I saw the first season. This season has some of my most favorite and most disliked episodes out of this series.

SNW: It's a pretty fun show and the stories are interesting. Though one thing that takes this down is I really hate the love scene with spock and his fiance. It just feels so off for the character. The show couldn't figure out Uhura, and she was just so boring to me. Thankfully in later seasons she gets much better. Another one is the doctor, he seems interesting but nothing really catch my eye.

TOS: I did not see this series for a long time, though my mom was a fan. Though watching it again today, the characters were interesting and pretty fun. Though the stories kind of fall flat, probably because of the era it comes from.

Disco: First season had a strong start but felt like it fell apart half way through. It has interesting concepts and good characters. Unfortunately one of them dies off, and bring her back in the terrible way.

ENT: I really can't think of anything great about the first season, it was just bad. It's been awhile since I have seen it, and I just cannot remember anything that I liked about it.

Picard: What a dreadful first season. It has a direction but I just found the story and characters terrible. Only positive part for me was it reminded me of Mass Effect.

SFA: The most directionless and pointless shit I have seen in awhile. Most of the characters were just nothing, the story seemed to go nowhere or just kept jumping all over the place. It really reminded me of how terrible SW Acolyte was. Though I don't think SFA did near same amount of character assassinations that SWA did. But both felt like the showrunner just didn't give a shit anymore.

 

[Set Harth]

Though I don't think SFA did near same amount of character assassinations that SWA did.

By character assassinations do you mean characters that were literally assassinated?