Spoilers Starfleet Academy General Discussion Thread

[Campe]

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Is The Greatest Argument For The Return Of Long TV Seasons

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 clocked in at only 10 episodes, but the contours of its story would have greatly benefitted from a much longer season.

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Is it absolutely necessary to show every mundane detail?

No, but there were definitely a lot of shortcuts taken and honestly not a ton of Academy-ing done in Academy.

 

[Danja]

No, but there were definitely a lot of shortcuts taken and honestly not a ton of Academy-ing done in Academy.

Professor: "Who can tell me about the Eugenics Wars?

"Caleb? Caleb?

"Caleb?"


All we need now is a cameo from Ben Stein ...

 

[eschaton]

No, but there were definitely a lot of shortcuts taken and honestly not a ton of Academy-ing done in Academy.

Yeah, IMHO it's pretty unforgivable that out of the ten episodes, 1 takes place before school starts, 1 takes place on spring break, and 2 after the academic year is over.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

To me it felt simultaneously rushed, because of them covering a year in 10 episodes, and dragged out, because of the hour-long run time. Tarima and Caleb's romance arc got a whole episode to start it off, so it had an eternity of time dedicated to it, while 17 year old SAM's arc was so rushed it was practically introduced in the same scene it was resolved.

Part of the problem is that it's set in a school and it's hard to come up with really great stories for your science fiction show when the characters are just learning fictional science. Off screen. But I'm sure the writers can come up with more than 10 ideas a year without hitting the bottom of the barrel.

 

[Tallguy]

and honestly not a ton of Academy-ing done in Academy.

I haven't watched the end but I thought the pacing was above average. And there was enough Academy-ing. Could I use more? Yes. But many standout episodes were based around some kind of academic interaction. Heck, the Our Town episode was built around a class. It was actually more than I expected.

I could do with a little more Paper Chase and a tiny bit less Hogwarts. (I've never seen The Paper Chase.)

I simultaneously love Caleb as a character (to my shock) and I hate his extended pirate mom subplot.

 

[Danja]

I haven't watched the end but I thought the pacing was above average. And there was enough Academy-ing. Could I use more? Yes. But many standout episodes were based around some kind of academic interaction. Heck, the Our Town episode was built around a class. It was actually more than I expected.

"Don't kill the instructor ... Don't kill the instructor ... Don't kill the instructor."

 

[Fateor]

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Is The Greatest Argument For The Return Of Long TV Seasons

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 clocked in at only 10 episodes, but the contours of its story would have greatly benefitted from a much longer season.

www.yahoo.com

Is it absolutely necessary to show every mundane detail?

No, but it's very clear the show suffered from it's 10 episode season length.

2 part opening + 2 part season finale means we basically had 6 episodes to get to know the cast as people instead of character tropes.

2 of those episodes were focused on Sam, 2 and 1/2 of those episodes focused on Caleb, 1 of those focused on Jayden, 1/2 focused on Darem.

The first season of DS9 had 19 episodes, and all 7 members of the main cast had multiple focus episodes to connect you to their characters stories.

The first season of VOY had 15 episodes, and all 9 members of the main cast got focus episodes. (Hell, they literally wrote a holodeck episode just so they could give the Doctor one.)

And like it or not you do need those focus episodes.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

Is it absolutely necessary to show every mundane detail?

Of course not but sometimes you can get a lot out of the mundane moments, dive into characters' feelings and motivations without the pressure of making it relevant to the adventure at hand. Academy did unfortunately feel like it rushed some things, Darem's development is very uneven and feels like key moments have been skipped over.

Using the framing of classes could have given us some lore deep dives for the time period. Trivia on 32nd century classes, how do tricombadges and programmable matter actually work.

Academy is the first show squeezing nearly a whole year into just 10 episodes and it would have greatly benefitted from more.