Office Hours: "Do Not Kill Your Instructor On Day One" (Starfleet Academy 1.01 Recap)

Good morning, cadets, and welcome to “Office Hours!” This is a series by your favorite Starfleet Academy TAs, Anaum Hussain of “Sirens, Singers, and Mirages” and Sinéad McDevitt of “My Fair Neadie!” Office Hours will be recapping and reviewing each episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. This covers Episode 1 “Kids These Days.” If you want to see Episode 2, visit “Sirens, Singers, and Mirages”

Lecture Notes

Starfleet Academy opens with a narration by Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) getting newer viewers who skipped Discovery up to speed on what Starfleet Academy is and why the Federation sucks now.

If there was any doubt about that second point, we’re then introduced to Anisha Mir (Tatiana Maslany) and her six-year-old son Caleb. Anisha had accepted help from Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti), unaware that his plan to obtain the food involved killing a Starfleet officer. Braka is sent to prison while Anisha is sent to a penal colony, leaving young Caleb a ward of the Federation for about thirty minutes before he manages to run away.

We cut to 15 years later, with a now adult Caleb (Sandro Rasta) being transported to prison. He takes control of the ship and attempts to find his mother, but she’s not in the system. At the same time, on Bajor, Ake has resigned her commission out of regret for what happened to the Mirs, but Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) coaxes her out of retirement and into a position as Chancellor of Starfleet Academy by telling her Caleb is alive.

Ake tells Caleb his mother escaped from prison a year ago, but she hasn’t contacted him. In exchange for help finding his mother, Caleb agrees to attend Starfleet Academy’s first new class in centuries.

Aboard the USS Athena — Starfleet Academy’s main teaching vessel — the audience meets a whole host of new characters in rapid succession, including:

• Lura Thok (Gina Yashere), Ake’s first officer aboard the Athena, combat teacher, and a half-Klingon half-Jem’Hadar with the personality you’d expect

• Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané), a Klingon cadet who wants to become a doctor.

  Sam (Kerrice Brooks), the first holographic (or photonic) student to attend Starfleet Academy. Physically 17, she’s only a few months old and so has trouble interacting with other students.

• Genesis Lythe (Bella Shephard), the sarcastic daughter of a Starfleet Admiral who raises the sass level of a given scene by about 30% just by being there.

• Darem Ayemi (George Hawkins), the first Khionian cadet at the academy, and he won’t let you forget it.

• The Doctor (No, not that one) (Robert Picardo), a 900-year old hologram who served on the USS Voyager when it was trapped in the Delta Quadrant, and usually fills the sarcasm quota for a scene if Genesis isn’t around.

The main cast introduced, it’s now time for something to go catastrophically wrong that can only be resolved through cleverness and teamwork from our Interstellar Breakfast Club.

Caleb tries to send a message to his mother on their secret frequency, but it’s intercepted by Nus Braka, who attacks the Athena. With the power and several other key systems shut down by Braka’s programmable matter, the main characters and Throk are in the same general area when Braka fires. Throk ends up severely injured by debris, so the cadets take her to the nearest functioning sickbay.

Jay-Den and Darem help Throk while Caleb attempts to figure out how to hack the programmable matter, preventing the ship from working. Sam, being a hologram, is naturally much faster at the technobabble, but they still need a sample of the matter from the hull. Darem goes because he’s a Khionian, bitch, and able to survive in the vacuum of space long enough to get the ID code of the matter.

Darem almost dies getting the key, but Genesis saves him, Jay’Den successfully does emergency surgery on Throk, and Caleb enters the code to free the ship before fighting Braka, who mentions his mother was last seen on Goja V. Your classic Star Trek climax.

The ship then arrives in San Francisco as “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” plays, and the credits roll.

Discussion

This could be a fine opening on another series, but it doesn’t quite work as an opening to this show. I know that’s a rather bold statement when we’re two episodes in, but bear with me.

There are a ton of Star Trek shows out there, so for a new series to stand out, it has to immediately hit with something different. If I want to see a spaceship under siege or Captain negotiate under pressure, I could put on an episode of any series and randomly get that. Making the climax a standard “the ship is under attack” plot doesn’t do enough to set the show apart out the gate.

I’ve always liked the idea of Star Trek branching into other genres. Episodes like “Measure Of A Man” and “Rules of Engagement” make a pretty good case for how the series could take on the Perry Mason formula and do a fun twist with it. Plus, with all the various insane criminal punishments Miles O’Brien, specifically, has been subjected to, there’s room for a lot of commentary about what justice means and the role of a court.

My hope for Starfleet Academy was that we’d see a teen drama set in the Star Trek universe, and we’d get an idea of what it takes to grow into a Janeway or Sisko or Harry Kim. But this first episode feels more like standard Star Trek that happens to star teenagers. They could have all been Ensigns, and nothing substantial would have changed. It didn’t need to be at a school.

Another issue with this opener is that it wastes too much time. I already didn’t enjoy watching the Federation separate a mother from her child and engage in police brutality, but Starfleet Academy has to make use of the world Discovery left them, so I won’t be too harsh. But this episode was an hour and fifteen minutes, and it easily could have been forty-five. Keeping Caleb’s backstory somewhat of a mystery could have actually helped build some intrigue. Make the viewers interested in who he is instead of just what comes next.

It also might have left more time to flesh out the others and give them more solid dynamics with one another. They fill their standard teen drama archetypes well enough, the loveable slacker, the pretentious asshole, the quirky one, the awkward nerd, and the girl (snarky), but not a lot of time is spent with them outside of setting up those archetypes.

Darem and Genesis have a kind of flirty banter that seems out of nowhere with someone you just met today in a life-or-death situation (and I’m dreading this developing into a full-blown love triangle), and Sam is an absolute delgiht who I can already tell is going to be my favorite along with Jay-Den, but they don’t get that much set up before everything goes to hell. This intro makes the show feel less like an ensemble piece and more like “The Caleb Show (ft. Starfleet Cadets).”

There’s enough here that I’m interested (although I do consider the second episode to be the stronger of the two), and I want to keep going, which is good, and it’s not uncommon for Trek shows to take a while to find their footing. But other Trek shows have 20+ episodes a season. They can take their time fleshing out these characters, while Starfleet Academy doesn’t have that luxury. It really should be spending its time more wisely in its introduction.

The next recap will be over at Sirens, Singers, and Mirages, so be sure to check out Anaum’s work!