“Kids These Days”
Written by: Gaia Violo
Directed by: Alex Kurtzman
“Beta Test”
Written by: Noga Landau & Jane Maggs
Directed by: Alex Kurtzman
We’re back! Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience!!
Ep 2 thoughts …
So, in present day history, we’ve got the US Space Force, newly created, with a logo that looks an awful lot like the Star Trek arrowhead. But Trek has gone back many times to remind people that Starfleet is not the military. There’s a lot to unpack here because actually exploring means that you are potentially wandering off into dangerous places, where you need either semblance of order and discipline (think civilian ships where the skipper tells you to do something) or the ability to defend yourself against someone who might not be friendly.
Thus, Lura’s drill sergeant act fits this model. She doesn’t want to turn you into a killer so much as making sure that you can stare death in the face and not loose your shit.
Likewise, if they write the whole plot with the War College and the Academy next door to each other right, there’s the potential to restate the original base idea behind Star Trek TOS but adjusted for the present day. There was a lot of back and forth about the rank braids on people’s sleeves because they wanted something that shows authority but isn’t too military. Kirk’s stripes were two solid stripes and a broken stripe, whereas the navy would have him wearing four solid stripes because emotionally Gene thought that was the right combination of Authority but not Military.
The Vulcan xenomythology class was perfect, for me. You’ve got one of the many great Vulcan deadpan moments as well as keeping to the very Starfleet ideal of understanding.
Given that they did not know what the heck to do with Troi’s powers as an empath and if they had Luxana Troi there the whole time, the episodes would have been boring a.f. as she’d mind-read powers out of everybody, I guess I respect the choice to play with betazeding. I’m interested in the potential for Tarima in the War College with everything just because I like the never-explored idea that Troi as Counselor was supposed to be Counsel and not Therapist.
Tarima’s cinematography is almost cloying? Science fiction, coming from its roots as boy’s magazine fodder, is always a little bit about that eternal quest to find exotic, sometimes alien, women … and bang them. And the camera lingers, kinda obviously. We have had a bunch of scenes with Caleb shirtless in Ep 1 where the colored lights gave him some amazing muscle definition so it’s equal opportunity. It was far better than Alice Eve’s somewhat notorious underwear scene in Into Darkness.
The Namibia instead of Paris for the Federation HQ was a nice throwaway line.
The … international dialogue in front of the Academy was … something. I really like the 1988 play “A Walk in the Woods” by Lee Blessing and they way they showed the process was two diplomats going for a series of casual walks where they do not at all talk about the negotiations over the course of a year. You could have written almost the same story between Caleb and Tarima and migrated a decent percentage of the story beats over as-is but also I think you’d loose the audience. So having the speeches with an audience where leaders make their demands and then following up most of the time with something else got the idea across while keeping things moving. And I do think that Tarima’s primary goal was to be a member of the diplomatic staff where actually liking Caleb was more accidental. Who better to get the real story than the person who is the least Starfleet out of the entire cadet corps?
Also, diplomacy was always one of the things that Starfleet did, not so much being a diplomat at an embassy but understanding how to avoid conflict and make a good first impression on the species you made first contact with.
Caleb keeps chafing at the order of things and that’s good. I’m assuming that Nahla intentionally put Caleb and Darem in the same room. And so there’s his quest for his mother (however they are going to resolve that) and disrespect but at the same time he’s able to put himself second, albeit with effort. One bit I really like is the reference to his mother studying physics. An oft-ignored thread of Trek was the waste of people’s lives in the 20th century on account of them not having access to that which they need to grow on account of today’s capitalist system. And then also Nahla cutting him off with “It’s not about you”
I knew that there was a Red Dwarf reference coming in Ep2 and it still caught me unawares.
I am curious if they are going to reveal anything about Gideon S. Turner. I can’t entirely tell if Caleb is making stuff up and Tarima is playing along or if Gideon S. Turner has a very strange history. It would be cool if it was a brick joke.
Caleb, Ocam, and Darem all in a room has some serious potential to show … 31st century bros, charmingly?
It really got me towards the end, the idea that rebuilding does not mean rebuilding it exactly as it once was.
So, yeah, it’s landing well for me. Nahla keeps serving as my surrogate in the story because … I watched TNG when it was new and I do think about the world we’re handing the kids of new generation. Uniting the galaxy in peace and understanding is what the Federation was supposed to be out and if they can keep the story moving well enough people won’t be yearning for a big battle scene that kills off a bunch of characters?
I enjoyed these more than I thought I would! Most of my own thoughts after watching have been broached here already, but there was one thing that interested me in SAM’s interactions with the EMH Doctor:
Didn’t he seem visibly shaken when asked about the Protostar crew, like he knew something SAM didn’t? I don’t recall the conversation exactly, but could this be a backdoor to giving the Prodigy storyline some closure down the line on Academy?
I’m theorising in part because after “Those old scientists” I could definitely imagine a similar animation-to-live-action crossover. We already had a Brikar walking around on campus, and I’m fairly sure Ella Purnell could pull off Gwyn on camera 🙂
Didn’t he seem visibly shaken when asked about the Protostar crew, like he knew something SAM didn’t?
I didn’t think that at the time, but on rewatch…maybe? At least some of the Prodigy kids are on the memorial wall, but that doesn’t really mean much in context. I’m not sure how the production timelines of the two series aligned when this pilot would have been filming, but they may even have been attempting to do a little synergy.
Is anyone else concerned that they might making the same decision they did with Discovery and making the series into “Star Trek: Caleb Mir”? At this point, everyone else already feel like background singers to me.
I thought the overall story has an interesting concept, with some cheesy writing in some bits, and some comedy littered in so they aren’t taking themselves too seriously. Something that bothered me was the use of a current day wheelchair…
This is set 1000+ years in the future where they can solve people being blind but you’re telling me they can’t even have an professor-X style floating chair at a minimum?!
I thought about this back when they had the wheelchair-using crewman in the first couple of seasons of Discovery - I think I’ve come down on the side of “sometimes the old ways are the best ways” with stuff like this.
You can’t suddenly lose power and crash your wheeled chair. For all we know, it’s got some sort of powered unit for use when the user encounters a steep incline or flight of stairs or whatever.
But for everyday use? Yeah, I’ll stick with wheels.
Protostar mentioned! A little too much Shakey Cam. A little too much swearing. Cuss words still feel weird in Star Trek. Sound mixing in the Xenomythology scene of Episode 2 felt off. So, did they forgo green makeup for some of the Orions(?) because it’s hard to apply? Some of those looked digitally colored. Apparently, they heavily considered making Gamora blue instead of green because of such problems with application, so I don’t blame them. Episode 2 got real cheesy near the end. I’m glad to see a love for what seems to be all of trek, with cameos of species like Brikar from Prodigy, the Exocomp, old style Klingons, DS9, and so on. Overall though, it just seems like the priorities are skewed and much of it looks kind of cheap.
I am overall positively surprised. First of all. I like the setting. The Burn was one of the greatest ideas in Star Trek history (at least its implications, not its reason. I hope we’ll forget about that lol), as it shows how fragile the Federation truly was. So raising a new generation, based on values from centuries ago but that has lived a very different life, is a very intriguing setup. There’s still some stuff I don’t like about the era (like instant teleportation and that memory nano stuff), but let’s see how it works out. I like that Starfleet continued with a “War Academy” which was super fitting, and I can already smell all the conflicts between the two institutions.
The first episode was kind of so so. I understand that you need all that setup and background info, but I think flashbacks would have worked better. Don’t start with showing us the injustice, but leave us a bit in the dark. I pretty much like all the characters, but again, the first episode was a bit too much exposition on “everybody gets one small scene to show what they got”, only for most of them to blend in the background in the second episode.
The second episode left me a bit confused, as the Betazoids were a bit different from what I remember, but ah well. I found it weird that these official negotiations were fully made in front of a school class, with only one person of each faction involved? Imagine on earth, two leaders in a conflict met, each gave a short speech in front of a school, declared their demands, and then ends the meeting? Feels a bit weird. Also, while I enjoy the shift away from a Earth-centric Starfleet, are Betazoids really so vain that the shift of Starfleet HQ is enough to mitigate all their concerns?
Overall, I like what I see. I hope not every episode will be about Caleb’s mom, or his search, and I really hope we’ll also get a bit of everyday school fun. Weird comparison, but in Harry Potter, I enjoyed the everyday school stuff always more than the actual plot. And give me more of that Klingon (even though his voice modulation sounds really bad).
are Betazoids really so vain that the shift of Starfleet HQ is enough to mitigate all their concerns?
“We’re going to move in with you! Make your planet a target for the next Borg attack! And remodel your home! So you can’t easily get rid of us! Isn’t that nice? Doesn’t that instantly make you want to join us?!”
The Borg will be so confused when they come to Earth and find out it’s not important anymore
are Betazoids really so vain that the shift of Starfleet HQ is enough to mitigate all their concerns?
I think this is actually a really big deal, especially since the Betazoids’ concerns were chiefly about security, and the Federation is hardly going to let their seat of government fall.
But “the Federation is too Earth-centric” is a concept that’s been played with since…at least the PIC era, so I thought this was pretty significant.
I was actually kind of disappointed going into this show that SFA seemed to be going back to an Earth centric model for the Federation, so this development is very positive for me.
True, it shows real commitment. Still, considering that their original demand was “We want to have the right to reject any new federation member”, this seems a bit insignificant. It’s more of a gesture than anything, at least to me.
I think their initial demands were ludicrous because the president had no real intention of rejoining the Federation - it was all theatre.
But then why come in the first place? Only to return to Betazed to say “the Federation is still the same and doesn’t want us!” After failed negotiations?
I guess as a response to the youth movement that was pressuring him to negotiate. This sort of thing is unfortunately common IRL.
Ah right I forgot about that
For now, I’ll just share the thoughts I posted to Mastodon while this instance was still on the Genesis Planet…
Overall, a very strong couple of episodes. The cadets are all interesting enough, though Jay-Den and SAM are outstanding. Caleb is the sort of Rebellious Young Person that can grate on people, but I think the show compensates for that by making him a bit of a punchline. His backstory is also compelling enough (I actually thought his separation from his mother seemed very real), and his motivations are clear.
Nahla Ake is fantastic, and Holly Hunter brings a lot to the role. The character is quirky, but grounded, and you can see that she carries multiple lifetimes of experience.
Paul Giamatti is clearly having the time of his life as Braka. Time will tell whether he remains a cartoonish pirate (which I’d be fine with TBH), or if they’ll give him more to do.
I’ve always loved the post-Burn setting, and I’m looking forward to exploring that status quo. The Betazed stuff is intriguing, and I hope we learn more about this “psionic wall” of theirs.
Also, “Discovery is unavailable because X” is the new “the transporters don’t work because X”.
“Discovery is unavailable because X”
Also, did they have what seems to be personal transporters before or is that a new thing? Where they apparently only have to think “I need to go to that room” and they’re instantly transported? That seems like it’ll be a major issue for future writers to come up with excuses why they can’t just put the characters where they need to be.
That seems like it’ll be a major issue for future writers to come up with excuses why they can’t just put the characters where they need to be.
Only a little more of an issue than transporters already were. How often have writers had to add in an exotic atmosphere or cave ore or ion storm or just enemy shields to justify not beaming out of a bad situation?
That has been a thing since DSC season three, and I really hope they explore exactly how that works in this series.
Ahh, I suspected as much, I don’t remember many details from that tbh. Thank you for clearing that up.
Anyone remember the show Breaker High?
Na na, nanana hey hey
Annotations for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x01 are up at: https://startrek.website/post/34296905
Annotations for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x02 are up at: https://startrek.website/post/34297028
Welcome back! I enjoyed both these episodes. I don’t like this time period, the post burn Federation. The rebuilding could interesting but it’s not really aspirational and I really could use some aspirational content in my life, vaguely waves at every thing.
I liked it too, but I find rebuilding to be aspirational. Like maybe the most aspirational thing possible.
Rebuilding in the wake of global disaster (and honestly it’s been one after another my whole life) is exactly the kind of inspirational content I think we need right now. 90s Trek was all about “things have been great, it could be better!” and I think our message today really should be “things have sucked for a bit, but how do we recover the greatness we know we’re capable of?”
I hadn’t really seen that point of view before but I really like it. Shit has sucked for a while maybe some stories about how cool fixing it would be are what I need.
This, very well put. I’ve been struggling to vocalise why I like this to folks and I think you nailed it.
Its a different message for a different era. And one we need. Too many are looking at the near and potentially bleak future, we need them to realise that hope can still lay beyond that.
Totally! I haven’t loved the post-Burn setting but the way this show is already contextualizing it, and the optimism it’s doing it with is already starting to change my mind.
And it’s even carrying over being the shoes into real life, which is one of the things I love most about Trek and its good to have this out there. There’s some nitpicks, as there always are, but so far I can deal with them, especially if it stays consistent. 🖖
I haven’t loved the post-Burn setting but the way this show is already contextualizing it, and the optimism it’s doing it with is already starting to change my mind.
Same. A lot of that stuff just feels more comfortable with time and I appreciate how Star Trek always pushes it a little bit. People FREAKED OUT with the Klingon changes in TMP/TNG. Then FREAKED OUT that DS9 was on a space station with a “politically correct” captain. Now we think of those things as normal, nostalgic even.
Yeah, this. Sci-fi fanbases and especially Trek/Wars fans are constantly flipping out when their sci-fi is socially progressive at all, even if it started that way.
This show is one part Lower Decks, one part Prodigy, one part Discovery, and a dash of SNW… I dig it. Excited to see where it goes.
So far I have only watched episode one. First impression: God, why does everything have to be a dystopian nightmare with these people? Second impression: mediocre plot, mostly uninteresting characters, full of Kurtzman-isms. Gotta give it a chance though.
Annotations for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x01 are up at: https://startrek.website/post/34296905
I had some concerns going in, but enjoyed them a lot more than I expected. Good to see some familiar faces, especially Vance as he was one of the better Disco s3 additions.
Free Coffee in the lounge!
Great show :-)
