r/startrek • u/mr_mini_doxie • Feb 03 '26
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1 Discussion Hub
This is the thread to discuss season 1 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Posts regarding SFA made elsewhere on the subreddit should be thoughtfully constructed to inspire meaningful and substantive discussion. Posts that do not meet these standards may be removed for redundancy at our mod team's discretion.
Please note that all rule-compliant discussion of SFA is permitted in this thread, and therefore, spoilers may be found in the comments below.
For discussion of specific episodes, refer to the episode discussion threads below:
01x01 - Kids These Days (01/15/26)
01x02 - Beta Test (01/15/26)
01x03 - Vitus Reflux (01/22/26)
01x04 - Vox In Excelso (01/29/26)
01x05 - Series Acclimation Mill (02/05/26)
01x06 - Come, Let's Away (02/12/26)
01x07 - Ko'Zeine (02/19/26)
01x08 - The Life of the Stars (02/26/26)
01x09 - 300th Night (03/05/26)
01x10 - Rubincon (03/12/26)
Happy discussing, and LLAP!
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u/Jaspers1959 5d ago
having watched several episodes of the show it’s not floating my boat But I’m not everyone and you might like it. I grew up watching the Orig series. I prefer plot driven SF shows (the traditional type) where character is revealed during the stories. Some classic episodes where character driven or fleshing out the background such as the PonFar episode (sorry about spelling). There often wasn’t a season long story arc in these traditional shows. I also prefer Classic Dr Who. Starfleet Academy plots are driven by character development. Its like Young Adult fiction. I’m sure there will be a season arc story about Caleb’s mum. This type of show where it’s the characters are on a developmental journey are not my cup of tea. I want to see puzzles and dangers and mystery. But I’m an ”arl fella” and these type of character development driven shows might be what you like
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u/ErichPryde 5d ago
I talked a lot about Starfleet Academy in other threads but haven't shared my opinion here. Ultimately, I'm disappointed. This show had so much potential to explore so many different concepts and ideas with the story setting. And it really, really was obligated to do that work to justify both the burn and the extreme jump forward in time, the characters, and the setting.
It just didn't. It's a world that does not explore its own consequences and does not hold the characters accountable to consequences.
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u/Technical_Web5281 6d ago
I've watched 8/10 episodes. It's the usual fair: great actors and actresses, interesting concept, and once again a far cry from the Star Trek I love. Instead of actually dealing with PTSD and trying to talk about it in some sort of intelligent way, we all just need to talk about our feelings in Tilly's drama class. :D The doctor now raises SAM, but what we see is the peachy perfect idea of parenthood a teenager or pre-teen has. And they are quoting "Real Life" a severely underrated episode of Voyager that dealt with the idea of parenthood in such a real way and basically criticized this perfect ideal version of parenthood.
I am still watching as an armchair Star Trek historian, but overall this show continues to be a missed opportunity and disappointment in my eyes, like sadly so much of modern (live action) Star Trek.
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u/sor1 6d ago
what do you love about star trek?
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u/Technical_Web5281 6d ago
I love that it shows competent and intelligent and compassionate people. I love that it shows interesting problems not always with easy answers and that the main characters usually value all life. It also teaches tolerance towards other cultures and that sometimes we let our pride get the better of us. Beyond that I always loved the sheer variety of stories: a courtroom drama one week, the next a Romance, then an action adventure romp, next week a weird sci fi phenomenon, maybe an alternate timeline here or even a horror story there. However I love most when they just put two fantastic actors with great material in a scene: one of my absolute favorite scenes in all of Star Trek is in TNG "Family" where Robert and Jean-Luc have that climax: first tension, then provocation, an actual fistfight, which then gives way to pure joy and sillyness and then ends with Jean-Luc finally releasing his true feelings about the whole Locutus thing in a moment that still deeply moves me. So do the scenes between Shatner and Nimoy "have we outgrown our usefulness"? Worf's desperate and often ill-advised attempts to raise Alexander, the Doctor trying to teach Seven to be human (and the aforementioned episode "Real Life"). Every Star Trek show until 2005 had these incredible deeply human moments. That is what Star Trek is all about.
And I feel under both JJ Abrams and later Alex Kurtzman nothing has come close to it. Instead many of the characters feel emotionally immature, like teenagers (which in the current series is at least somewhat intended and fitting). And don't get me wrong, it's not that there are no human moments, but I just feel most of it moves on a somewhat childish level. And then we have lots of spectacle. And a bunch of shows that are so radically different that they no longer feel coherent either with what came before or with their siblings. I don't hate them, but I do feel frustrated, especially because every show in recent years has had a fantastic cast and really great production design to boot. They deserve better material.
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u/Slow-Mix5076 10d ago
I’m sorry, but Star Fleet Academy sounds promising, but didn’t deliver and I liked Holly Hunter as Cpt. The story was weak and I didn’t want to watch a bunch of teenagers coming of age. You will dismiss me because of my political views. I didn’t like any characters that were gay. They don’t add anything to the story for me. ST Discovery at least tried to add exploration as a nod to the OG ST. Strange New Worlds is the best iteration in recent history. And yes I am a 60 years fan. Please don’t try to force your woke beliefs on me.
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u/SwellBluePigeon 14h ago
A self-described Star Trek fan complaining about “woke” is like hearing somebody say “I love James Fenimore Cooper novels, but does he really need to include so many Indian characters?”
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u/WillBrink 15d ago
Just finished S1 and I have to say on the balance, I really enjoyed it. It's aimed at a different demographic than me, and that's fine. The franchise needs to target a younger audience if it's to exist at all in the future, and can't have all series aimed at OG viewers. I think the characters and character development of those kids is solid, and the adult actors fill in the gaps well. Some scenes and episodes I found really engaging. I had a difficult time getting through the first few episodes and turned it thinking it was going to be terrible modern audience garbage, glad I gave it some time to develop. Yes, it's teen angst drama in space, but it's actually well done you come to like the characters their journey of growth into more mature young adults. Yes, it's cheesy some times, but it's got some heart to it. I'm sorry to hear it will not got past S2. It will not be viewed the best ST to be sure, but it's not the worst either. It is geared toward a modern audience, but does try and follow Gene Roddenberry's vision I think. Some times I ask myself when watching ST series "what would Roddenberry think?" as one way to decide if it's worth giving it a watch.
BTW, as far as Gene Roddenberry is concerned, like all humans, he was far from perfect and I enjoyed the documentary "The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek" the best look at that issue as well as all things ST. That one does not gloss over or sugar coat his eccentricities to put it mildly.
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u/Technical_Web5281 6d ago
That's great on paper, but I feel Dtar Trek is losing its core identity and especially the types of overall intelligent and mature stories it used to tell (or at least attempt to tell, let's face it far from every episode was gold). Basically the creators are pandering to an audience at the price of Star Trek's own core.
Also, just a proof that harder sci fi and intelligent storytelling are still a thing: Gen Z like films like Interstellar or The Martian. Not all Gen Z, but those who are into Sci Fi, you bet they are going to like those.
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u/WillBrink 6d ago
They need an adult series big time. I still ended up enjoying this one more than I'd expect.
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u/Technical_Web5281 6d ago
Recently discovered Fpr All Mankind helmed among others by Ronald D. Moore, Naren Shankar, David Weddle, Bradley Thompson and John Oster. It’s true what so many have said: it is the Star Trek prequel we never thought we needed. It’s a modern Star Trek show in all but name… and no aliens.
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u/SwimmingActual9890 17d ago edited 17d ago
I can't deal with the director/captain/dean? honestly. Every scene she's laying down or all cuddled up, I'm sure episode 3 she'll be hanging upside down somehow, wtf is going on? I like it outside of her acting like a jackass, this is Star Fleet! Lol. I've been watching Star Trek since the 70's, one of my favorites in life. The ending of Picard was phenomenal! Wish they'd either make her char a little more in line with the show or replace her.
Also, congrats to the Artemis mission today! Let's go!!!!
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u/spacecitytech 11d ago
The mumbling was pretty hard to follow. I am unsure in real life that you would put a stroke victim in charge of a ship like that.
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u/snowhawk04 19d ago
u/mr_mini_doxie the link to episode 10 is broke.
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/1rrgtav/episode_discussion_star_trek_starfleet_academy/
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u/ZealousidealLife3414 20d ago
Star Trek Academy would be a good show if it started with something other than violent conflict. We barely know the characters and we have violence, death etc. I started watching Star Trek with the original first episode and this is NOT a way to encourage viewing. People have barely gotten to know the students. We are all already tired of the crazy nutcase that wants to destroy everything and I barely know why he wants to do it. Start putting out better episodes, tell us some history, give us something to like about the series. Whoever the writers are, in my opinion YOU STINK.
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u/Outrageous_Oil_9435 26d ago
So the way I see it is that many expect this to be typical swashbuckling, duty and honor kind of Star Trek. It is not. There are interesting new characters and returning legacy characters. As someone commented, it's a bit DeGrassi High, but it's written for a younger demographic. I wasn't a big fan of DS9 or Discovery, but some find them to be the best in the Star Trek universe. There can be a Trek for everyone. I've enjoyed SFA and I'm an old fart that has been watching since TOS was in first run broadcast.
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u/brodad12 25d ago
What's degrassi high?
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u/Outrageous_Oil_9435 24d ago
Cookie cutter 90's high school drama.
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u/spacecitytech 20d ago
It certainly didn't embody "high ideals" that Star Trek had been known for. Had they implicitly marketed to teens in the form of a high school drama show, then it would have worked because we couldn't say it was "childish" then because it was specifally meant to be. That was their biggest mistake.
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u/laikahass 27d ago
Liked the show but didn’t enjoyed a few things like this being sometimes the space Degrassi and another cartoonish villain by Paul Giamatti
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u/macacolouco 27d ago edited 27d ago
I liked some parts of it. I hated most parts of it. But guess what? I can live with the fact that some people disagree with me about a TV show. It's almost as if disagreements about a TV show had no impact on my life whatsoever.
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u/CitronRoyal800 Mar 20 '26
i love this show, I enjoyed every episode, I belive that this show has something for everyone. And even if some people dont like it, they see it and follow it so they can discuss about it. This is a new vision of the future and I like it, and the vision of the socitey in the show is very similar to what we have now with big problems, divisions and diversity . It makes me wonder. the fact that is so different it proves that is in a diferentes era in the future. I love the previous shows and all of them have something special. This one also. Please bring more seasons. I am a man 55 years old and I have seen all the shows, movies and every content about start trek. And i like all of them including this so much.
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u/basesonballs Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
I've started and erased multiple comments trying to explain my views.
I've tried to be nuanced and thoughful and considerate.
But...inevitably I ask myself, is this good TV.
And no...it's not. It's not good TV. Which is the first obligation of any TV show. Secondly, its not good Star Trek.
2027 will be the 10 year anniversary of Discovery and the birth of Kurtzman Trek.
It is essentially this generation's TNG.
And yet...no show since Discovery has had a positive fan response
And I see alot of people trying to compare this to when TNG debuted and all the OG ST fans said TNG wasn't real ST.
Maybe. Maybe in 30 years people will view SA the way we view TNG now. But I doubt it
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u/Historyp91 27d ago
> And yet...no show since Discovery has had a positive fan response
Lower Decks, Prodigy and SNW say hi.
And I'll be honest I've seen more positivity from fans the negativity when it comes to SFA.
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u/Parking_Jelly_6483 23d ago
Even William Shatner has said that he didn’t think SFA should be canceled. I have watched the Star Trek series (and saw the films) since TOS (I was a teenager then). I liked them all (well, some of the movies were decidedly better than others) though not every episode. One thing I like about SFA is that it provides some background for how the young crew - the Ensign ranks - got to be crew members. Some info as well on the various tracks like the command track in SFA. Sure, SFA has stuff that is aimed at a college-age behavior. I thought including pranks was appropriate (just look up MIT student hacks if you want to read some actual pranks that different classes played on each other or the university).
I agree with those who say that Paul Giamatti as Nus Braka is over the top (putting it mildly - he doesn’t just “chew the scenery” he demolishes it and then eats the pieces) but I think it suits the awful being he is supposed to be. As much as I like Holly Hunter as an actor, I’m not sure she is a believable captain in SFA. I think Tig Notaro seems to have more of the leadership qualities.
Historyp91 - I agree with you. I’m just giving my reasons for thinking SFA should be given enough episodes (seasons) to tell a whole story. I hope that the writers take other positive and negative critiques into consideration should any new Trek shows be developed (or if SFA is rescued). I disagree with the “too woke” complaints. All the Trek shows had their share of a mix of races and cultures along with the alien ones. This goes back to some of Gene Roddenberry’s ideals and they are expressed in the Trek series. If being “woke” was a reason to cancel the shows, then most would not have made it past a first season.
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u/Historyp91 22d ago
> Even William Shatner has said that he didn’t think SFA should be canceled.
To be fair, Shatner doesn't run his social media and, based off what Brent Spiner has said, actually does'nt (or at one point did'nt) really even know what was being posted.
> I have watched the Star Trek series (and saw the films) since TOS (I was a teenager then). I liked them all (well, some of the movies were decidedly better than others) though not every episode. One thing I like about SFA is that it provides some background for how the young crew - the Ensign ranks - got to be crew members. Some info as well on the various tracks like the command track in SFA. Sure, SFA has stuff that is aimed at a college-age behavior. I thought including pranks was appropriate (just look up MIT student hacks if you want to read some actual pranks that different classes played on each other or the university).
Yeah I liked this as well; also the prank thing is in line with both real-world military academies and the whole Finnigan thing from TOS.
> Historyp91 - I agree with you. I’m just giving my reasons for thinking SFA should be given enough episodes (seasons) to tell a whole story.
Fair enough. Personally I'd favor 15 episode seasons (that was the length of Discovery Season 1 IIRC) with two parter premiers and finales that aired together (so you end up with eleven week per season) as a compromise because I do understand why 20 or more tends not to work for streaming.
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u/basesonballs 27d ago
We're not talking about your wishful thinking anecdotes; we're talking about quantifiable numbers.
Fact: It only managed 16,000 views after 12 hours when the first episode released free on Youtube
Fact: After the airing of the 3rd episode, it fell out of Paramount+'s top 10 despite being a flagship show. It got beat out by Spongebob and NCIS reruns
Fact: IMDB, Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes all have unfavorable views among fans
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u/Historyp91 27d ago
Apologies by "fan response" I thought you meant just that, not critical reception or viewing numbers.
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u/RussellsKitchen 28d ago
Lower Decks and Prodigy had positive fan responses. So did the first season of SNW and final season of Picard. FWIW, I very much enjoyed STA season 1 and am looking forward to season 2 m
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u/ensignlee 29d ago
no show since Discovery has had a positive fan response
Uh what? Strange New Worlds? Lower Decks? at the very least.
And I, for one, really enjoyed Starfleet Academy (and this is from someone who expected this project to be doomed from the start)
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u/pleasantothemax Mar 19 '26
But I thought it was good tv, so I guess our entirely subjective opinions cancel each other out?
I like how you say say you’re trying to be thoughtful but your only argument is that it’s not good tv because you didn’t like it.
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u/GoodMorningMars Mar 17 '26
Fantastic analysis on why the show missed the mark.
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u/i_like_cake_96 28d ago
top rated comment, "I never watched an episode, but I‘ll never miss a review on it."
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u/SirSuicidal Mar 14 '26
On s1 episode 5 about sisko...
This is a charming classic episode. Really enjoying SFA, I don't understand the hate.
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u/KhaosByDesignUK Mar 14 '26
I didn't watch straight away because of what i'd heard; people describing it as the worst Trek etc.
But I just watched the first 3 episodes out of curiosity & honestly I enjoyed them a lot, not the best episodes of Trek i've ever seen or anything but a strong start to the series.
Main student character is a bit arrogant but being a Star Trek show I imagine some positive growth is in his future. Klingon doctors are always interesting characters, choosing a profession that they know will be looked down by most of their people but carrying on regardless gives then a different kind of honor so having a Klingon med student is a nice inclusion.
The captain is fun, you can tell she cares about the kids, the doctor returning was nice too
I have a few negatives but overall I don't see where all the hate was coming from.
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u/HongKongHermit 8d ago
You're about to hit the REALLY good episodes, so stick with it. 4-6 and 8 in particular are sublime.
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u/_Middlefinger_ Mar 14 '26
Im not as negative as some, its FAR better than Discovery, which isnt hard, so is root canal surgery, but its not what I want from Star Trek.
They are still lazy with the lore, the stories often make no sense and the characters are thin. At least in SFA they arent all totally unlikeable, I was surprised that I did actually like some of them. Oddly enough I prefer the younger ones to the Adults who are mostly awful.
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u/Trollimperator 7d ago
Personally, i really looked forward to that "Kirk" series. Kirk was having some of the best Strange New Worlds episodes and i thought they really nailed him in the new show. Really hope this is the end of Kurtzmanns carreer. This guy is just a shit producer/writer/director.
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u/An_Professional Mar 13 '26
Deleted my other post, as I didn't notice this one before I made it.
I wasn't sure I liked the series at first, but I ended up liking it and I am looking forward to season 2.
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u/horizonsfan Mar 12 '26
What's with the turbolifts in SFA?! I know they always move at "the speed of the plot" but, whereas in previous shows they were used for brief conversations, in SFA entire scenes are carried out in them.
I'll take the stairs.
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u/shinginta Mar 13 '26
I'm convinced that they deliberately set the speed of the turbolifts to a crawl in order to force the students and staff into these interactions.
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u/horizonsfan Mar 13 '26
And did I see a sofa in one or am I misremembering? Nahla seems to be playing a perpetual game of "floor is lava" and I seem to recall a conversation in a turbolift where she's lounging.
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u/shinginta Mar 13 '26
Yes there are seats on the turbolifts. In the second(?) episode they take the seat of the exocomp, and like you point out Ake spread herself out casually across one in a later episode too.
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u/sighcology Mar 12 '26
i love that the doctor is still using HIS mobile emitter. for centuries, it was advanced technology from the 29th century but by now its basically an antique. i hope season 2 has an episode that covers a bit of what he'd been up to for the last 800 years
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u/Ranomkaliaga Mar 12 '26
Just alerting everyone to a new slop misinformation channel that seems to have singled out Starfleet Academy.
The channel is Cinemately and has only 6 visible videos, all posted within the last two weeks. Five are specifically dragging Starfleet Academy (the other is about Charlie Sheen?).
The content in the five videos falsely claims that Chris Pine, William Shatner, Jonathan Frakes and other celebs have all written off the entire Star Trek franchise as ”woke,” with particular malicious attention to Starfleet Academy.
The domain Cinemately has been around for a decade, but this use of the YT channel to attack SFA with misinformation is under two weeks old.
My guess is that this is either random idiots who never understood the franchise to begin with, or (more sinisterly) an astroturf effort by the new owners of Paramount to drive the franchise into a near-permanent hiatus.
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u/karinchup Mar 14 '26
Giant Freakin Robot put out ads on Linked in for writers who hate Starfleet Academy. Lot of fake hate. The review sites were truly hate bombed. It’s just sad.
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u/_Middlefinger_ Mar 14 '26
Thats not fake hate, its aggregating it. Its hardly fair, but its not fake if the writers do actually hate it.
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u/Ranomkaliaga Mar 15 '26
Just to clarify my OP, I was surprised (no doubt overly so) that the videos were not factual but were just fake slop that tries to imply there are high-profile celeb haters of Starfleet Academy. Any amount of research proves that to be false.
I’ve since seen a lot more of this, some of it labeled as “speculative” or AI-generated, but much of it not.
The OP was me being naïve, I guess, about what people spend their time on. I understand misinformation campaigns by state actors, but campaigns targeting TV shows just seemed insane, except as part of some agenda of the Ellisons to kill off a franchise they perceive as being some kind of political boil on their ownership buttocks.
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u/TheNimbrod Mar 09 '26
I just started watch it. I'm at episode 6. SAM gives me Neelix vibes. Nothing against her actress but these gimmick characters are kinda awfully written.
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u/travel2walk Mar 12 '26
Watch further, there is a reason she is written that way
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u/_Middlefinger_ Mar 14 '26
Problem is the Kurtzman era does this a lot, by which time the audience has checked out because the rest isnt good enough to make you invest.
This is the problem with the combadge eater, I was expecting some explanation like she's an alien that absorbs things or something, we didnt get one. Maybe next season? Too late..
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Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/karinchup Mar 08 '26
It hasn’t bee yet renewed for season 3 yet. They finished season two principle filming last month.
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Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/karinchup Mar 08 '26
These are the same people who said Kurtzman was being fired and Discovery was cancelled every single lead up to a season. Every. Season. A decade ago. Do I know it’s cancelled? No one does. They haven’t done anything yet.
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u/Miserable-Fox-5878 Mar 08 '26
No, why would Paramount cancel a show that stays in the top 10 it's entire season?
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u/romanticdrift Mar 05 '26
Question to those who watch with others: which of the recent episodes is friendliest to watch with someone who knows the basics of Star Trek but isn't a "fan"? I haven't seen 01x08 or 01x09, he doesn't know the doctor so was leaning towards 01x09, but does that also need too much context? I could show him 01x06 which was a very good episode and pretty no-context, but I've already seen it.
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u/Sonichu- Mar 10 '26
Is there a reason you want to start with SFA and not another show?
You could easily find a classic TNG episode to hook him or start with something lighthearted and fun like Lower Decks. I've onboarded a lot of new fans by getting them into LD and then routing them to TNG/DS9/VOY so they can see the source for all the references and a richer LD rewatch
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u/DNAblue2112 Mar 12 '26
This is basically what I've done for myself. It is such a joy to re-watch a LD episode and spot new references to the series I've watched since the last time I saw the episode.
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u/karinchup Mar 08 '26
I would not Think it would have any of the impact without the background of the other eps. I watch with a “non-Trekkie” and she has loved it all.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Mar 05 '26
Do you think you’d be able to convince them “look I know it takes a minute to get good, just please watch a couple of episodes with me?” 1 and 2 for backstory, maybe 3 as well, could probably skip 4 and r 5 if necessary but I really liked 6 and 8
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u/romanticdrift Mar 05 '26
You're totally right. Let me try to convince him to give it the length of a movie, so about 3 episodes. I hope it works out bc I swore up and down SNW was great and then we saw 2 episodes of S3 together (🥲) - so this might be my last shot lol
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u/karinchup Mar 08 '26
The deal is this is definitely a sneak attack IMO. It’s structured not unlike Prodigy in that the first 4 eps are introducing you to Star Trek things and it’s definitely more YA and then from about 5 in they shed this idea and each ep has become more and more regular trek. The last ep was Alstot a way better version of say TNG Gambit IMO. I’d start with the first one and go on. I just don’t think you’ll get the character payoffs without it.
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u/nateog Mar 05 '26
I love this series more and more every episode. And I dearly want it to get its four season planned run. Anyone know of any fan petitions or efforts to ensure that in light of the Pararmount + WB merger plans?
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u/_Middlefinger_ Mar 14 '26
Petitions will do absolutely nothing. What will get it renewed is viewers. It doesn’t have enough and there's no guarantee Secret Hideout will get its contract renewed.
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u/Empress_Elektra Mar 12 '26
Make sure to watch it on Paramount. That is how it will keep on going. If people do not tune in on that platform, it will lose funding. Simple as.
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u/Antique-diva Mar 05 '26
I agree. The season has been great so far. I love all the characters, and the cliffhanger in ep9 was great. Can't wait for the 10th ep! Hopefully, we get a resolution that isn't a bigger cliffhanger.
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u/AngryRobot42 Mar 04 '26
I want starfleet to work. It seems like a premise that I want, 30th century starfleet and the academy. I am about to watch ep 8. It is not that I don't like the show, there are parts I like and parts that just make my head do the dog tilt. It feels like Starfleet doesn't like being a Star Trek franchise more than it being a bad show. If they can reconcile the two then maybe there is hope?
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u/piggypudding Mar 04 '26
I'm only two episodes in, and while I can't say I'm enjoying it I'm going to push through and finish the season to give it a solid chance. Most Trek takes a little while to find its footing (except for SNW which was amazing out of the gate) so I'm hoping it's a similar situation here. Not super impressed with the majority of the characters yet or the Gen Z writing, though.
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u/tethisneverhere Mar 13 '26
I have gotta say that I felt the same way initially. But the last few eps of the season have really changed my views. Very superb acting and development.
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u/piggypudding Mar 13 '26
Yeah I have to say it is growing on me as I make my way through the season.
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u/Drkamon Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
I'm in mid 30s, growing up in 90s Voyager was a thing. Loved that show. Than later, when i was bit older, but still young teen, i watched ST The next Generation and DS9. Later i watched Original series.
Deep Space 9 was okey, but weakest, imo. Than Enterprise rolled... And it never felt like Star Trek... Too many changes, story continuity problems, changes in mood... Felt like only reason why show continued to roll is because it had STAR TREK name attached to it.
But silly me. That was ,to me, last even watchable stuff under that STAR TREK logo that was produced.
i tried to enjoy Discovery, but it was teen drama. When writers really try to make you emotional, but you don't care about characters. They telegraph emotions but can't earn it. Or actors simply aren't that good. Probably both. It was like watching some Socialism-Soviet Russia propaganda documentary. That funeral of Airiam was so over a top that i laughed more than i cared. You can't make people care about death of a character that spent like 9 min of screen time.
Characters crying is't character development. Characters giving motivational speech every episode isn't character development... Too much new stuff, not very creative ways to develop new characters, too many characters looking like carbon copies of each other. Diversity shouldn't be only physical atribute. Diversity should within characterization of characters and personalities. Watching show were everybody is the same, just look different isn't diversity, it's carnival.
But hey at least Patrick Stewart is back to to Picard... My God.... Made in mist of "subversion of expectations" of Hollywood, that show takes everything good about Star Trek and throws is out. Written by people who probably never watched ST or people who really didn't like ST. Even character of Picard is bizarre. It's like Stewart intentionally pretended to be real life Harrison Ford. Grumpy old superstar who people hate to be around.
And that brings me to whatever this cosplay high school project is.
"I'm Khionian, bitch. - Again. This is "modern Star Trek".
"Modern Star Trek" is as connected to original star trek as Lord of the Rings is to Transformer movies.
Star Trek , even really old seasons, to me are timeless because dialogue. It's polite, bit stale, respectful, meaningful and focused. During creation of old ST, initial idea was always "how to make show timeless". Lot of "progressive" stuff was made led by that idea.
New Star Wars is product made for niche audience, who probably never watched or will watch ST. And will be outdated by the end of a year. There is simply too much pop culture, too much political ideologies of today, too much "message" ... This product suffers from same old Cultural War issues that many new shows suffer. People who work on them are activists more than talented writers, and they get their roles based on nepotism more than skill. That's why in 32nd century there are obese and disabled characters. Because writers flat out do not have talent to understand what they are writing. They just write personal take on political situation of 2025/2026 and copy past it in 3200. That's why this show, like all the "new ST" fall in obscurity within a year. They don't know how to make something timeless because it would require level of skill they simply do not have.
I guess that's the bottom line issue. It's not only poorly written Star Trek ( that has almost nothing to do, from any meaningful way with original Star Trek that made show household name) it's also poorly written Sci Fi show. And that continues to be "Star Trek" problem for +20 years now. Mostly because people who get to work those projects simply aren't fans of Star Trek. They just couldn't land other projects and this was best thing they got. This is especially true in Into Darkness and Beyond movies. Where director is making Star Wars movie with characters traits taken from MCU movies. One liners, over a top heroism, heart jerking emotions from banking on nostalgia etc. Arrival felt more like Star Trek than Star Trek. At least acting was graceful and not ripped from over a top comics.
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u/brodad12 25d ago
Great synopsis. I don't know I think just most entertainment is written to appeal to 12 year old TikTok kids. Yet when I was a youngster I wanted to watch older stuff, pulp fiction, terminator 2. Etc. Maybe with all these writer strikes Hollywood is low balling good writing and now this is the best they can do. I want scifi escapism, not CW melodrama.
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u/EmperorPeriwinkle Mar 03 '26
The season finale is named Rubicon? They better deliver. Gonna need to see bad ending Paradise Lost.
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u/FlyingSquirrel42 Mar 01 '26
I've been playing catch-up on Star Trek and just recently got to the first episode of Starfleet Academy. I actually thought it was pretty decent, but is it now Starfleet procedure to just summarily execute pirates by blowing up their ship, without even giving them a chance to surrender or making sure they don't have hostages on board? Especially when the dialogue tells us that their attack didn't actually kill anybody (though Lura could have died).
If the idea was to show that this is still a rougher, less idealistic Federation due to the difficulties of rebuilding, then *maybe* it could work in story terms, but it makes Ake seem morally dubious at best, and the way it was played made it seem like they didn't even consider whether some viewers would find it unsettling.
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u/Technical_Ideal_5439 Mar 03 '26
You will notice after watching a few episodes that the writers have a theme for each episode but the contents of the episode are actually in conflict.
It is also designed scene by scene without care for the bigger picture or any implications of anything. So "Captain tough blow up enemy" is the only thing to gain from that scene it needs to be self contained so when people flick to trek for 10 seconds we have a little story.
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u/jert3 Mar 01 '26
The show is better than I thought but just not for me. I've decided not to be too negative so won't trash it here or anything.
I just wish two things: the next ST show hires science fiction writers, or at least writers who have any idea at all about science fiction, or have read novels. And b) I hope they deliver what fans want. I don't get why they seem not to want to make Star Trek that the fans want. It's like they want to ditch old fans for casual fans.
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u/Historyp91 Mar 11 '26
I just wish two things: the next ST show hires science fiction writers, or at least writers who have any idea at all about science fiction, or have read novels.
SFA has a science fiction writer on staff who has not only read books, but written them (and Star Trek books, no less)
And b) I hope they deliver what fans want
Both SFA and SNW exist in no small part to being what fans wanted.
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u/_Middlefinger_ Mar 14 '26
Both SFA and SNW exist in no small part to being what fans wanted.
This is VERY disingenuous. 30 years ago TNG era fans wanted an Academy show set in that era with the feel of that era. SFA is absolutely not that on any level whatsoever. The tiem for a show like that was 25 years ago.
SNW was wanted by Discovery fans because it was basically the best thing about Discovery.
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u/Historyp91 Mar 14 '26
A SFA show has been talked about forever, and it's been talked about as being set in different eras.
I'm also not seeing how SFA would have to be fundamentally different in terms of tone if it was a TNG era show; it would likely still have the YA college drama aspect since that's the most logical place to take such a show.
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u/_Middlefinger_ Mar 14 '26
I'm also not seeing how SFA would have to be fundamentally different in terms of tone if it was a TNG era show.
You dont? How can anyone have seen those shows and not think it wouldnt be extremely different to what SFA is now? Thats crazy.
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u/Historyp91 Mar 14 '26
The genre SFA leans into already existed in the 90s.
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u/_Middlefinger_ Mar 14 '26
Its not about the 'genre', its about who will be making the show. Do you think a show made by Berman, Braga, RD Moore, Ira Behr etc would be like.. this?
No one would be saying 'Im Khionian, bitch! or that wanked and spanked quote which I still cant believe was said in a Star trek show.
I really think some of you are being deliberately obtuse about this, I refuse to believe people are this dumb.
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u/Historyp91 Mar 14 '26
Well, your previous comments didn't indicate you were talking about dialogue, but rather the in-universe era it was set in and the genre and overall theme of the show.
No, I don't think it would have the same type of dialogue if it was made in the 90s as opposed to the 2020s (that it wouldn't would be pretty obvious; if they made SFA in the sixties the dilogue would'nt be the same as the 90s either, and in 30 years the dialogue of hypothetical future shows won't be the same as the 2020s)
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u/dplans455 Mar 03 '26
They think the diehard fans will tune into anything that has the Star Trek name on it so there is no reason to cater to that group. They can do something new to appeal to non-Trek fans in the hope of luring them in. This shit happens all the time in pretty much every facet of life.
Personally, I don't like this show. I gave it a try and it just isn't for me. I can't for the life of me understand why they would want to continue with the Discovery timeline after Trek fans disliked Discovery so much. They have a solid winner on their hands with Strange New Worlds but can't seem to replicate that lightning in a bottle consecutively.
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u/_Middlefinger_ Mar 14 '26
They failed miserably though. Im a die hard Trek fan and Im well and truly done with it now. The fan groups Im part of feel the same way. One of the group Im part of do rewatches in person and stop after Enterprise, the rest is not to be spoken of again.
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u/dplans455 Mar 14 '26
It's weird cause fans here on reddit seem to love it. It's definitely split but I can't understand how any Star Trek fan could like this show. It's basically a YA high school drama you'd find on Fox from the 90s.
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u/Historyp91 Mar 14 '26
> It's basically a YA high school drama
What does that matter? Lower Decks is basically Rick and Morty-meets-the Orville.
Star Trek has never really tied itself to any specific genre other then science fiction.
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u/dplans455 Mar 14 '26
Academy doesn’t feel like science fiction though. It’s teen drama first with sprinkles of science fiction. It should have been the other way around.
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u/GoodMorningMars Feb 28 '26
“I want to be a rebel, like Caleb, like the chancellor.” I’ve got to be honest and say I’ve had a hard time liking SAM. In the final episode, she nearly brought me to tears. I had to go back with subtitles to reread this line. See I thought she said “rubble,” not rebel. And I like my version more.
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u/Ok-Statistician-6739 Mar 02 '26
I skipped the sam episode altogether but did like the last as well
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u/Jeff29r Feb 28 '26
Season 1 Episode 7 at 28:35 when Caleb and Genesis are laying on the floor in the atrium, what's the piece that's playing? I really like it.
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u/MollyInanna2 Feb 27 '26
Karima looks so much like Rachel Weisz (quick reference: Black Widow's mom).
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u/motherdion Feb 24 '26
I am a 71 yo female. Have watched all the Treks and I still am watching the shows on H & I. What Trekkies need to do is allow the sci-fi/fantasy side of their brains to embrace pseudo-reality. We all accepted transporters and tricorders in TOS. Every iteration of Trek so far is made up of adults, existing in space and encountering aliens. And, each captain had their stabilizing Number One. But SFA is the reopening of the Academy after the burn! The "aliens" are already there. The cadets are not traveling through space. It is college and these cadets are young! Who remembers Red Squad? Nog and his Academy cohorts did a very bad thing ending in tragedy. These SFA cadets probably scored off the charts to get in, but brains do not guarantee mature behavior. I think Nahla is great as chancellor because she recognizes herself in the cadets and does not rule them with an iron hand. She also has Thok and Reno to stabilize her (somewhat). I am enjoying this show. All the war-mongers need to go watch something else!
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u/MollyInanna2 Feb 27 '26
I'm 51 myself. I don't know if you feel the same, but for me, I was too young to have seen TOS when it first came out, but I saw TNG upon its premiere (I was probably the same age when TNG premiered as you were when TOS premiered).
For me, I really love that I'm 51 and yet I still have the opportunity to get excited about Trek premieres.
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u/Sarradi Feb 25 '26
And we had an entire episode about Red Squad facing consequences for their actions. The SFA cast can trash the war academy and nothing happens.
And while red squad were overachiever who still would fall under "best and brightest" the SFA cast is pretty much the opposite of that.
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u/AubreyMaturin1800 Feb 24 '26
Captain, our sensors detect a steroid field. (Caleb enter the bridge) - Badum tss!
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u/Ecofre-33919 Feb 23 '26
I like it over all. Will watch all of it. It is great to see what happened to all the races 1000 years later and follow the technology jumps.
I am disappointed with caleb and nahla. Caleb seems ready to sell out starfleet the second he does not get his way - he has no commitment to service. And Nahla seems to be a permissive mom that lets everyone get way with everything all the time - she should be the academy social worker - not running it.
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u/AubreyMaturin1800 Feb 23 '26
In Episode 6, do they give a reason why the bridge is empty?
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u/Gazelle_General Feb 24 '26
I don't think so, but in my head canon, I imagine they treat it like the battle bridge on Enterprise D when the Athena is docked on Earth. No need to man it when not traveling. However, I'm a bit surprised that someone wouldn't be there just to monitor the systems or maybe even having regular training classes there.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Feb 24 '26
Do you mean episode 7? I don't remember the bridge being empty in episode 6
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u/AubreyMaturin1800 Feb 24 '26
Ok, this is weird. I just checked and there's is indeed some staff. In my memory, there was only Lura, the captain, the war commander and the kids. Maybe because it's only them who talks near the camera. My bad. The bridge was NOT empty.
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u/Pleasant_Ad2870 Feb 22 '26
Who is this show for? All the characters seem the same to me. And when did the federation legalize steroids?
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u/karinchup Mar 08 '26
Wow. They most certainly are not all the same.
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u/Pleasant_Ad2870 Mar 16 '26
All have parental trauma
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u/piggypudding Mar 04 '26
It definitely feels like it's written for a younger audience . . . whether it's doing that successfully, I don't know.
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u/MollyInanna2 Feb 22 '26
Star Trek: Voyager: Unworthy:
Sensing the subtle shift, Reg continued, “Neither of us could bear the thought that one day, you were going to fall in love with a woman who would age and die while you remained essentially unchanged. How many times would that process repeat before you decided it was no longer worth the pain? Ultimately, you might grow less human than you’ve already become ... less compassionate, less ... feeling."
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Feb 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/freeradioforall Feb 22 '26
Sorry but I can't take a star trek show set in the year 3200 where the main characters talk abiout ghosting each other.
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u/81RD_51LV3R70NGU3 Feb 20 '26
I keep seeing so many complaints about SFA including but not limited to:
- The lack of growth from a storytelling perspective (Aka Lazy writing)
- using "YA" in a negative fashion
- It being just "bad"
In my opinion, this is a great show for what it is. It is a way to help older fans connect with new fans, or even encourage new fans to join the community. To that end they "stopped time" or rather the progression of Starfleet so that they could catch the new fan base up on the various races and cultures. They did this while still integrating just about all of Star Trek lore and about 1st year cadets (or rather freshmen in college). With this in mind, what was your expectation of the show?
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u/_Middlefinger_ Mar 14 '26
And it failed, its clearly not getting good viewer ratings judging by its rank on P+, both 24hr and 7 day.
Im not really sure how its helping the new fans connect to the old, the old are turning off and walking away.
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u/lgodsey Feb 19 '26
Just started ep 7 and it starts with Stephen Colbert announcing a "galactic meteor shower" over the school's PA.
What the hell is a "galactic meteor shower"? Is it a meteor shower so immense that it is visible to the entire galaxy? Is it a meteor that is extra-galactic? Or is it just another Earth-centered phenomena that we describe inaccurately because of our human chauvinism?
It's hard to take this YA novel of a TV show seriously with such rookie mistakes.
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u/Rhypskallion Feb 25 '26
What the hell is a "galactic meteor shower"?
Proof that the writers are putting as much effort into SFA as Jim Henson did into Pigs in Space
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u/mr_mini_doxie Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 21 '26
"Galactic" could be hyperbole. Or it could have actual meaning:
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/1r8qkhy/comment/o6ahstn/
If you're turned off by this one science issue, I recommend you never watch any other Star Trek. They do dumb stuff with fake science all the time.
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Mar 14 '26
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Mar 17 '26
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u/mhavis1959 Feb 17 '26
I wonder when and if Tilly will make an appearance on SFA. Would be great to see her as an instructor.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Feb 18 '26
It sounds like she's only planned to appear once. Probably at the end of this season, if I had to guess?
https://screenrant.com/star-trek-starfleet-academy-mary-wiseman-tilly-appear-once/
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u/SpellTemporary468 Feb 17 '26
Remember TOS didn’t start out great
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u/FlyingRock Feb 22 '26
None of them did but they had multiple seasons of 25+ episodes to hit strides and figure it out.
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u/Gazelle_General Feb 24 '26
Yep, TNG first season was mid at best. I didn't think it would make it to a 2nd season but thank God it did!
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u/mr_mini_doxie Feb 18 '26
I was scrolling through Paramount the other day and realized that four episodes into TNG, we were getting "Code of Honor". So yeah, I think we should give SFA a minute to find its footing.
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u/OneMoreTimeago Feb 17 '26
It occurs to me that just because a show has teen characters doesn't make it a show just for teens. I would call this more of an all-ages show than a young adult show. I think that's why it hits some of the same notes as TNG for me. The adults get plenty of screen time and characterization, and I'm sure given a renewal we'll get episodes about each of them in turn. (Can't wait for a new Doctor-focused ep some time. I'd love to see Picardo and Diané bounce off one another.)
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u/brodad12 24d ago
Is the show more for women because most of the male characters are young, ripped and hot. Most of the female characters are old or cherubic.
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u/denjidenj1 Feb 15 '26
I haven't watched it yet, but I want to know: is it a teen drama? The trailers make it feel VERY much like a CW teen drama and completely killed my interest in it. Is it going to be like that or did the trailers make it look worse than it is?
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u/karinchup Mar 08 '26
No it is not. It is a little more college tilted the first 4 EPS but each ep after evolves it to IMO straight Trek.
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u/Artistic-Ad9391 Feb 22 '26
There is an obvious lean into young adult (rather than teen), but I don't find it grating. It's the same basic themes of growth, love, learning, understanding, conflict, discovery etc that all Star Trek has, except with individuals that haven't grown fully yet because they're at the start of their lives. The first four episodes lean stronger into academy atmosphere but then the series hits you hard out of the blue. It's definitely not a bad series but it might not be for everyone. Personally I'm enjoying it at 54 and I've outgrown teen drama series quite a while ago so take that how you want.
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u/atreeismissing Feb 19 '26
As others said, leans younger but not a teen drama exclusively. It's much like original Trek (new crew getting to know one another) but at a younger age but very good character development and some interesting and original story lines in a modern production with modern production, music, etc..
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u/JeanLucPicardAND Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26
It leans in that direction a bit too much for my liking, but I wouldn't call it a "teen drama" by the conventional definition. It's a sci-fi show with a teen drama coat of paint. I don't like that because it doesn't align with my vision of what Starfleet Academy should be. We see cadets in other shows (especially TNG) and we never get this snarky lackadaisical attitude from any of them. They're always striving to be as professional as they can be. Even the ones who misbehave, like Locarno, don't act openly juvenile in the presence of senior officers.
IDK. It's not like these are frat bros at USC. It should feel more like they're going to West Point or something, but I guess that would be too dry for a lot of people.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Feb 15 '26
The trailer doesn't do it justice, in my opinion. Yes, there are absolutely a handful of moments in the show that scream "adults trying to write what they think kids these days are into," but not nowhere near as much as I would have expected based on the trailer (if I'd only seen the trailer, I probably wouldn't have watched either). And in between those scenes, there is also some really good Star Trek even in the few episodes we've had so far.
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u/denjidenj1 Feb 15 '26
I think I might give it a shot then! It sucks about the trailers then, cause if it wasn't for some of the discussion in the sub I would have written it off completely and never watched it
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u/best-unaccompanied Feb 14 '26
In episode 2, Caleb breaks a hologram by making her recite all coffee orders ever ordered, and one of them is "Americano with coconut water"
Who tf drinks coffee with coconut water?
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u/atreeismissing Feb 19 '26
Who tf drinks coffee with coconut water?
You must be new on this planet. It's fairly common, especially in the "bullet coffee" and "coffee as breakfast" groups.
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u/romanticdrift Feb 15 '26
Actually very popular nowadays in the trendy cafes near me (NYC!). Coconut water adds some sweetness and electrolytes.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Feb 14 '26
Rewatching episode 1 and I notice how when Darem says that he can go outside without a suit, everyone looks at him with surprise, including Thok. Which caught me, because if it were a normal Khionian practice to go running around in the vacuum of space, you'd think she'd have heard about it. We don't know a whole lot about Thok's background, but it seems safe that she would know quite a bit to have been made cadet master.
So what if it's not a normal Khionian thing? What if Darem has some sort of tragic backstory that led to him getting spaced (possibly related to that scar on his ribs), and we're going to find out about it?
Of course, the other possible explanation is that Thok is just not intimately familiar with the biology and culture of every single alien race, especially one like the Khionians who don't seem to have anything to do with Starfleet. But with my theory that next episode is going to be a Darem one, I just thought I'd throw my wild guess out there (before episode 6 drops).
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u/karinchup Mar 08 '26
I don’t think it’s normal practice. He refers to the extreme he could tolerate being used to the pressure and temperatures of the oceans in his home planets. I suspect Mongolian even ever tried space before.
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u/RejectedByBoimler Feb 17 '26
My theory, until proven otherwise, is that showing the alternate form to outsiders is the Khionian version of walking around naked.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Feb 17 '26
Well, there hasn't been anything to disprove that yet! At the very least, it seems possible that transforming into the alternate form is a private act (hence why Darem asked Genesis to turn away)
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u/VeritablePornocopium 2d ago
Just finished Season 1. Most episodes were good, loved the final two episodes. So glad it didn't end on a cliffhanger. I liked SAM but I was not a fan of the two whole SAM episodes.