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In the season two Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Peak Performance,” Captain Picard finds his crew playing games and he is not happy about it. Not the fact that they’re engaging in a pastime; rather, Picard takes exception to the game’s purpose and lesson. The game is Strategema, which Riker, Data, and other members of the crew play against the brilliant but arrogant strategist who has come aboard. When someone suggests that learning military strategy would be good for Starfleet members, the Captain does not mince his words. “Starfleet is not a military organization, its purpose is exploration,” he declares.
Picard’s interpretation jibes with those of the man currently in charge of not just Starfleeet, but all of Star Trek. Talking with TrekMovie about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Alex Kurtzman agreed, saying, “The school is actually not militaristic.” But then he added, “But it is not blind to the fact that military is required.” In other words, despite what Picard might declare, Star Trek still isn’t sure if Starfleet is a military or not.
The conundrum of Starfleet’s military status has always been baked into Star Trek. While creator Gene Roddenberry famously pitched the show as “Wagon Train to the stars,” framing it as a sci-fi take on the classic televisions series about pioneers, he also drew inspiration from more military sources. Not only did Roddenberry borrow the naval structure of the Horatio Hornblower novels, but he was a World War II veteran who served in the United States Army Air Corps and worked in public relations for the Los Angeles Police Department, and even based Spock on Chief William H. Parker. One of Roddenberry’s first staff writing jobs was on the show West Point, a series produced by ABC and the Department of Defense about the American Military Academy.
Yet, for all his experience with the military and its arms, Roddenberry wanted Star Trek to be something different. His famous habit of rewriting scripts for The Original Series gave him the chance to remove elements he found too militaristic and warlike. And when Nicholas Meyer took control of the movie that would become Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Roddenberry specifically took exception to he and Harve Bennett explicitly calling Starfleet a naval force. And, of course, Roddenberry had strong creative control over the first two seasons of The Next Generation, which is when Picard delivers his statement about Starfleet in “Peak Performance.”
Whatever Roddenberry’s intentions, Star Trek cannot seem to shake its military trappings, in part because they make for more engaging storytelling. Certainly, Star Trek: The Motion Picture has its fans, but not nearly as many as Wrath of Khan or Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, with its end of the Cold War allegory. The Next Generation only became the classic it is today when an ailing Roddenberry had to cede control, allowing for more conflict in the show, including, yes, military conflict.
Which brings us back to Starfleet Academy. The series gives the main cadets rivals in the form of the War College, an explicitly militaristic school next to the Academy. In addition to the interpersonal conflict arises, the clash of the two schools also allows the series to wrestle with the nature of Starfleet, a continuing question in Nü-Trek (see, obviously, the Strange New Worlds episode, “What is Starfleet?”).
For Kurtzman, the tension ties into one of the primary lessons the students need to learn. “It’s not a game, right?” Kurtzman said of the task put before Starfleet cadets. “It’s Top Gun, right? It’s the best of the best. And if you’re the best of the best, they’re not necessarily going to coddle you through everything. They’re going to prepare you.”
For longtime Trekkies, including some who haven’t loved Kurtzman’s tenure running the franchise, that actually sounds like good news. The affirmative, feeling-focused approach to Starfleet in Nü-Trek has too often forgotten that the series is about highly trained professionals. Many will be pleased to hear that Starfleet Academy puts an emphasis on professionalism, maybe even hurting some feelings in the process. And if that means that Starfleet has to adopt some military procedures to do it, well, that’s nothing new for Star Trek, no matter what Picard once said.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026.
The post Starfleet Academy Will Revive an Age-Old Star Trek Conundrum appeared first on Den of Geek.
