Star Trek had a rocky 2025. After 2024 brought significant cutbacks to the series’ streaming slate, including the loss of the delightful Lower Decks, 2025 began with the straight-to-TV movie Star Trek: Section 31. It was very bad. So bad, in fact, that it’s a serious contender for the title of “worst Trek film,” which is saying something given the many existing stinkers. And while the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worldsfared much better, it was still the show’s weakest stretch, as it skewed too far toward goofy self-parody. On top of this, it was announced that the prequel would be coming to an end. There are still sixteen episodes in the works, but with that news, we’ve gone from five ongoing Trek series just a few years ago to a lone survivor with an expiration date.
Enter Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. It’s an upcoming installment in the long-running sci-fi powerhouse and one that has already been met with a great deal of skepticism from difficult-to-please Trekkies. Between its seeming departure from the series’ star-spanning formula and the fact that it’s set in Star Trek: Discovery’s controversial continuity that takes place almost a millennium further in the future, many fans seem to have already made up their mind that this show isn’t what they want.
And at first blush, its initial six episodes seem to confirm some of these worries. Even more so than Lower Decks’ comedic antics, this show is a significant changeup that initially shares more DNA with CW teen dramas like 90210 than Kirk or Picard’s high-stakes missions. But with time, this bizarre mishmash that no one asked for turns out to be an unexpected opposites-attract situation, a deeply sincere series that successfully combines adolescent awkwardness with plenty of sci-fi circumstances: interstellar diplomacy, ethical dilemmas wrought by technology, and nightmare alien cannibals from deep space.
Set in the far-flung 32nd-century timeline established in Star Trek: Discovery (which, for those who aren’t Trek scholars, is around 800 years after past entries), the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet remain in a state of disarray following a cataclysmic event called The Burn. Basically, the main fuel source used throughout the cosmos, dilithium, inexplicably went inert all at once, killing millions as it destroyed infrastructure and spacecraft across the universe.
However, after the Federation shrank to a fraction of its former size following a century of uncertainty and bloodshed that caused it to embrace its militaristic side, the pendulum has finally started swinging the other way with the reopening of Starfleet Academy. The series follows the first class of Academy cadets and teachers in more than a century, an eclectic bunch that includes the half-Lanthanite chancellor Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter), the anti-Starfleet tech whiz Caleb Meir (Sandro Rosta), his pacifist Klingon buddy Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané), the sentient hologram Sam (Kerrice Brooks), and quite a few more oddballs as they learn tough lessons and end up in life-or-death situations.
While there have been plenty of one-off episodes about Starfleet Academy in the past, such as The Next Generation‘s excellent “The First Duty,” this collegiate focus is quite a departure from the series’ usual star-spanning adventures. Thankfully, Starfleet Academy learns from the best by channeling both Trek and largely bygone teen dramas. As for the latter, it gets at the messy, emotional roller-coaster of adolescence with John Hughes-style fun that has these characters bouncing off each other like pool balls. Will-they/won’t-theys and beefs are given the world-shattering importance that tends to come with young adulthood—except in this case, they sometimes quite literally have those kinds of stakes. There are affirming friendships, puckish pranks, sports arcs, reconciliations with bullies, high fives, and a whole lot of teen mess as these budding geniuses figure out their shit. It makes for a very good time and is a firm reminder of what we’ve lost with the general shift away from these unabashedly sappy works of young-adult melodrama.
Perhaps most impressively, the series manages to balance these small-stakes concerns with much bigger ones without diminishing either. These young adults may be staying at a pristine school in San-Francisco, but the wider world is still in a complicated state that naturally sets the stage for compelling conflicts. At one point, the students get wrapped up in a diplomatic mission that will affect billions of lives, while at another, two buddies nearly come to blows over an ongoing Klingon refugee crisis. These harsher times create harsher problems, leading to tense situations and the type of intriguing moral quandaries Star Trek has always been known for.
And while there are only occasional opportunities for interplanetary field trips—the USS Athena, a very high-tech school bus, is part of the campus—the student body brings diverse cultures and perspectives, allowing the story to explore a lot of different viewpoints. For instance, Caleb has a very complicated history with Starfleet, given that they arrested his mother, setting up inner conflicts that he hides with a contrarian attitude (and his 20-inch biceps). Then there’s Jay-Den, who has a testy relationship with his folks and heritage because he rejects his family’s teachings by choosing healing over violence. Each character in the main cast gets at least a little nuance and enough screen time to get by, even the upfront bully, Darem Reymi (George Hawkins), a Khionian who goes from a total jerkwad to less of a jerkwad as he struggles to overcome toxic parental expectations. This kind of mutual baggage creates a deep sense of camaraderie between these characters, a rapport that is bolstered by enthusiastic performances from its cast.
As for the established actors, Holly Hunter jumps between chaotic Lanthanite whimsy and hard-nosed sternness as she balances her roles as an educator and captain. Robert Picardo effortlessly picks up where he left off with his character from Voyager, the Doctor, with a barrage of acerbic wit. The newcomers do a great job as well, particularly Bella Shepard as the charismatic overachiever Genesis Lythe, Sandro Rosta, who gets across Caleb’s inner turmoil without coming across as too sulky, and Kerrice Brooks with her humorous take on Sam the hologram’s eccentricities. And, perhaps best of all, Paul Giamatti hams it up as Nus Braka, the slimiest scumbag this side of Alpha Centauri. At first, he comes across as an ostentatious, albeit dangerous, buffoon thanks to the large performance and over-the-top costuming, but eventually shifts into a more subtle, nefarious mode that positions him as a genuinely compelling villain.
That said, while Starfleet Academy has been a very pleasant surprise so far, it has its shortcomings. Visually, there are strange cinematography choices throughout, particularly during flashbacks, not to mention some questionable CGI that can take viewers out of the drama. The show’s humor can be hit or miss, especially upfront, and it takes a bit to settle into this tone due to some occasionally clunky lines. There’s also an awkwardly paced episode that attempts to stuff way too many monumental geopolitical happenings into a 60-minute one-off.
Still, while the future of Star Trek writ large is uncertain, Starfleet Academy (which has already been renewed for a second season) boldly goes where no Trek has gone before. It expands on this school and time period to discover new avenues and filters this all through heavy doses of teen angst. And it turns out that this brand of coming-of-age fiction’s aggressive sincerity is a great match for this spacefaring series’ similarly hopeful outlook, making for a show that gives the best of both worlds. While it’s understandable to be worried about Star Trek’s future, if nothing else, the kids are alright.
Elijah Gonzalez is The A.V. Club‘s associate editor. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres January 15 on Paramount+.
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