Star Trek Starfleet Academy: Season One – Review
The first season of Starfleet Academy is now completed. This is the latest entry of a new generation of Star Trek series that began with Discovery and has included Picard and Strange New Worlds (plus some animated series).
How was this first season?
In many ways this needs to be looked at in the context of Discovery, as it is a spinoff of that series and takes place in the same period. I would say that Starfleet Academy was significantly better than Discovery.
I would also say that it was better than first couple of seasons of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. This is partially due to having shorter seasons and being able to have more of a serialized format.
Starfleet Academy was by no means perfect. I did not like all the characters. I found some of them annoying and even got annoyed at some of the characters I liked.
But then that is the point of something like Starfleet Academy. The same thing would have happened if this series came out in the 1990s and was a spinoff of TNG. College-age kids are annoying and their lives are full of drama and foolish decsions. I definitely was not at my best at that age or stage.
I liked the rivalry of the Starfleet Academy with the War College. I also liked when they worked together and would have liked to have seen more of that.
I also appreciated the ties to the previous series. This includes the involvement of the Doctor from Voyager but also the episode that looked at the fate of Captain Sisko from DS9. There were plenty of other minor connections as well.
There definitely were some powerful episodes in this season, even if a few felt like fillers. In general, this series was much better than I expected.
My thoughts for both superhero and science fiction shows is that they are only as good as the villain. In this case, Nus Braka was a compelling villain masterfully played by Paul Giamatti. He deserves to go down in Star Trek history as one of the best villains in the franchise.
It worked out that some of the characters got more development than others during the season. Hopefully, with another season, we will see the others become more three dimensional.
I would not equate Starfleet Academy with the level of Strange New Worlds but it was enjoyable. Some people hated it but then again, I remember when people hated the innovation of TNG.
I want to conclude by saying that the season finale was one of the best episodes. It was both filled with action but also was character-focused. It highlighted both the staff and the students and gave them all time to shine. It was a satisfying ending to the season and I look forward to the next season.
