Words, Wacky Stuff, and other W's

(Image credit: Paramount Studios, 2026)

While I am a bit behind due to stuff going on, I did finally have a chance to watch the full season of Starfleet Academy.

I will say the following pre-emptively:

• I’ve been a Star Trek fan since the late 80s when I could actually absorb Trek
• Not every Trek is for every Trekkie
• This show absolutely suffers from a lot of politically motivated forced hate, but large sentiment around “forced characters” seems to also be a theme

Most importantly, Star Trek has been, and always will be, a product and reflection of its time. This was absolutely that.

SPOILERS BELOW
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Last chance

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Now that all of that is out of the way, I loved the show and would give it a decent 7.5/10 as a Trek series, however, I give it an 8.5/10 as a sci-fi series.

Acting

The acting was absolutely fantastic. I truly do not feel that any acting was the problem, not even in the least.

The scenes that dealt with Sam understanding who she was, how she fit in, and was distinct from just another Photonic were so perfectly displayed. I think Sam was a character that really stood out at the core of Trek. I equate her largely to characters like The Doctor, Data, and Spock. She worked so hard to define who she was, as someone largely different than the others. She fought to continue to be part of the Academy when threatened with being summoned back. The way they utilized Sisko’s story for her was amazing. Kerrice Brooks did a fantastic job, and I hope we see more great stuff from her in the future.

Lore

A big sticking point with many Trekkies is the continuation of lore, and there were both strengths and weaknesses here. For example, large, looming debates over Lura, a Klingon-Jem’Hadar hybrid, and how Jem’Hadar don’t necessarily breed as much as they are most manufactured. While you can produce a hybrid through this, the science might be kind of messy, considering there are no female Jem’Hadar traditionally, and little expansion on if there are more with the introduction of Lura.

However, there were points were lore was respectfully expanded (going back to Sam’s plight and using Sisko to explore humanity). It wasn’t perfect, but I feel an undo hate was granted by many fans.

Characters

There were some characters that kind of felt like fillers and that they wrote into a dead in quickly.

For example: Going back to Darem, there was a lot of potential that seemingly ended in one episode. Khionian culture sounds interesting, and I would have loved more.

Also, Genesis, we are given a lot of personal info on her, but her Dar-Sha race felt like more of an afterthought.

I really love it when we get to know what makes a character the way they are. I want more culture, more sub-culture. The biggest critique I have when it comes to the characters was how disjointed they felt from their race, and how they were solely showcased with their personal problems. The two could have been blended better together.

And I know I am going to get hate for this, but I think it was actually done really well with Jay-Den. We can disagree about Klingons, skirt, pacifism, etc…but they did tie his struggles in deeply with his race early on.

For me, the standout characters were Sam, Jett (especially in the last two episodes), Tarima, and Caleb.

Writing

I do think that the writing was the biggest problem. Not that you can make everyone happy, nor should you try…but there could have been more balance and a happier medium.

I felt like it was either completely all action and drama, or purely light-hearted, with all tension removed.

The truth is, this show had a metric ton of tension, and I feel like they misused a lot of that tension or kind of wrote it off (if you’re reading this, you’ve been warned about spoilers). For example:

• When Genesis was caught getting ready to alter her records…that tension, that moment, felt like it was just gone after the episode, it didn’t come back or play into her character.
• There is an obvious, even if just surface-level, connection between Caleb and Genesis. Feels like that was brought in for a momentary point and just abandoned.

These are not the only examples, but the ones that come immediately to mind. Honestly, I kind of feel like they did Genesis and the actress (Bella Shephard) kind of dirty. She deserved a better built out series of stories and culture behind the character.

Overall

I think people get tripped up in fiction a lot, for good and bad reasons. They like to see reflections of themselves and their interests in these worlds they love (and it isn’t just Trek). A lot of people felt like they couldn’t relate to or see themselves in this series. I get that, even if I don’t agree.

Here, we have a massively diverse cast and character set, and it pushed the envelope a bit more—again, a fair reflection of our times. But there was also a large group of people, and Trekkies, that DID see something of themselves here, especially the younger generation of fans.

I might not have seen much of myself in the series, but I did see a lot of good things that we should have honest conversations about. I saw that it was for a group of people who are figuring out life in an early stage. I saw a new kind of Trek that is worth exploring and thinking about.

I saw a show that I am sad to hear won’t live past season two.