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Starfleet Academy may take place at the furthest point we’ve seen thus far in the Star Trek franchise, but the first clip of the new series points firmly to the past. Set in the 32nd century, after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, the footage finds the show’s hero ship the USS Athena entering a dangerous bit of space called the Badlands. Although we first saw the Badlands in Deep Space Nine, the area is most associated with Voyager, as a skirmish in the region led the ship to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.
Such franchise nods are nothing new to the current era of Trek, nor to Starfleet Academy in particular. In addition to bringing back Robert Picardo as the Emergency Medical Hologram from Voyager, better known as the Doctor, the series features several characters who belong to classic Trek races. But the most exciting part of the Badlands reference in the clip isn’t that the Athena is going to a place we know from before, but rather that it’s going to someplace that the characters don’t know. It’s exciting because the Athena is exploring and gaining information, and the bridge crew is using its expertese to deal with the problem that arises, all qualities in short supply in nü-Trek.
The clip’s emphasis on exploration and expertise goes against much of what we’ve seen so far for Starfleet Academy. As a spinoff of Discovery, Starfleet Academy seemed likely to repeat that series’ emphasis on universe-ending stakes and big emotional moments. Furthermore, setting the story at a school seems to invite wild emotions, lots of romance, and interpersonal drama, qualities emphasized by the newly-released poster for Starfleet Academy.
Don’t get us wrong, there’s certainly room for Star Trek to explore emotions. The primary tension in the Original Series put Kirk between McCoy’s irascible feelings and Spock’s cold logic, requiring the Captain to chart a path that values both instinct and reason. But, over time, logic became the de facto good in Star Trek stories, and emotion was something to be mistrusted.
Discovery and other nü-Trek entries found something new to explore in the Star Trek universe by emphasizing emotional intelligence, but their stories too often featured characters resolving deep-seated trauma with a conversation and a good hug. Not only did that approach fail to honor the truth of those emotions, but it downplayed the reason these characters were in Starfleet in the first place: that they were experts who did their jobs at the highest possible level, people with years of training, not just fuzzy feelings.
Certainly, we’re bound to get some more fuzzy feelings in Starfleet Academy. The primary cast of young stars play characters who don’t yet have that expertise and still have plenty of baggage as they sit under the tree that groundskeeper Boothby planted in the 24th Century.
L-R Zoe Steiner as Tarima, Sandro Rosta as Caleb, Bella Shepard as Genesis, George Hawkins as Daren, Kerrice Brooks as Sam and Karim Diane as Jay-Den of Starfleet Academy streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Nino Munoz/Paramount+
But when we see the Athena search the Badlands for information, or when we see Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) respond to a threat by consulting information from her bridge crew and making informed, professional decisions, we have hope that these emotional kids will have good teachers to guide them, teachers who rely on their expertises and love to go exploring.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026.
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