Office Hours: "They Will Shenan Again" (Starfleet Academy 1.03 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 Starfleet Academy! If you want to see the recap for last week’s episode, head here!

Lecture Notes

Episode 3 opens with Darem writing a letter to his parents about how he’s the most dedicated student at the Academy, being the “last to bed, first to rise,” only to discover Genesis is up earlier than him. She’s an admiral’s daughter after all.

We then cut to the cadets in gym class, which they share with the War College students, and Caleb makes heart eyes at Tarima while sign-ups for Calica open.

Caleb doesn’t want to try out for the team on account of his continuing lone wolf schtick, but a bigger problem gets him on the same side as the others: The War College kids are assholes.

They trade barbs, and then everyone goes to hit the showers, where we learn Darem’s bisexual and polyamorous, and apparently talks about his past relationships a lot. The look into Khionian relationship structures is unfortunately cut short by the cadets suddenly being transported one by one. A War College prank.

That’s right, cadets, we have a school rivalry episode.

Throk immediately goes to Ake to tell her about the ensuing war, but Ake dismisses it as kids being kids, something most of them sorely need after growing up post-Burn. While the cadets also want to get back at the War College, she decides to give them a botany class on the “highly protected” Vitus Reflux, also known as the “empathy plant.”

Genesis takes this opportunity to talk Caleb into joining the Calica team, and the next scene sees them at tryouts with Throk and Discovery transplant Jett Reno. We get a brief run down about what Calica is (think: laser tag but with more explosions), and everyone in the main cast — aside from Jay-Den who didn’t try out — makes the team.

There’s a cute scene where Caleb talks to Tarima to learn why she joined the War College, when they clearly suck. Caleb assumes it’s because she’s upset with him while she insists she’s not.

Since Darem and Genesis tied during tryouts, they need to do one last competition to determine the team captain, Darem only winning when he distracts Genesis with her daddy issues.

Darem’s excitement at being Captain is cut short, however, when the War College students broadcast video of the cadets slipping up during tryouts, complete with mocking narration. A pissed off Darem challenges the War College kids to a game of Calica after curfew to settle their beef once and for all.

Meanwhile, Ake goes to confront Commander Kelrec, the chancellor of the War College, since the only way his students could have gotten that footage is with his help. There’s a barbed exchange that essentially boils down to Ake asking him to be an adult about this, and Kelrec saying he thinks she and her students are a bunch of pansies.

That night, the cadets have their illicit duel but the Starfleet Academy cadets get smoked. It isn’t until Darem is taken out of play and Genesis is left in charge that they actually manage to score a point by being clever, giving them a chance at a comeback… right until they’re caught.

Ake gives them all detention and unsubtly tells them to use the Vitus Reflux to prank the War College kids back. Darem asks Reno for help with his PADD, and she realizes he’s been waiting for his parents to message him back and tells him they’re not worth it. Darem apologizes to Genesis for being an asshole, and the cadets start to work on their revenge prank.

It almost goes off without a hitch, Tarima confronts Caleb, since she can sense him, and I still cannot tell if she can read minds, because she’s still being written like she’s purely an empath. Anyway, she tells Caleb she joined the War College because she wants to learn discipline since she’s never had to keep her powers under control like she does here. She triggers the alarm, kisses him, Caleb gets away with Darem, and the next day the War College students are chased out of their dorms by giant Vitus Reflex.

While they’re pissed, they can’t do anything about the plants since they’re a protected species, and Kelrec admits defeat. We wrap up with another letter from Darem to his parents where he talks about being around people who give him affection for once in his life, while Caleb asks Ake for help with Tarima.

Discussion

So far, episode three is the best one by a mile, but let me get some critiques out of the way first.

One, the looming threat of a ten-episode run remains. The Genesis/Darem and Caleb/Tarima subplots could have been their own episodes in a longer season. It also means the characters aren’t showing their issues so much as explaining them. Reno outright says what Darem needs to learn about his parents, while Tarima explains her whole character dilemma.

It’s not therapyspeak, but it is the characters understanding themselves a bit too well, especially for teenagers.

At the same time, Jay-Den and Sam got more to do this ep but they’re still pretty underutilized. They have about as much screentime as Ocam, and they’re the ones on the poster.

Again, this is the show working within its limits, but it’s really holding the show back.

Speaking of Tarima, I’m not sure I love the way her and Caleb’s relationship is being handled, because it seems to involve a lot of him telling her how she feels and why she’s doing it. It’s not a great look, especially because Caleb’s tied for the most emotionally constipated character in the show, and she is literally an empath. I don’t buy that he can tell she’s motivated purely by fear, instead of believing her or respecting her choice in how to deal with an issue she’s had for her entire life.

Now on to the gushing. First of all, this is the exact kind of dumb plot you couldn’t see on any other Trek show, because any other Trek show would have a prank war ending with everyone coming together to save the ship, because these are adults who are relying on each other in life-or-death situations. Here, it can just be stupid kids being kids.

Second, I love dropping that Darem is polyamorous because the first two episodes felt like they were ship teasing Genesis with both Darem and Caleb, and then adding Tarima to the mix made me worry the story would get bogged down in a love rhombus. Darem being poly does open the door to this resolving into being a polycule, which would be so fun to see in something mainstream.

They probably won’t go that route, but a girl can dream.

Third, this episode continues the thematic work the first one set up, which makes it almost feel like a response to Section 31, both the movie and what it represents for Trek. When DS9 introduced Section 31, a black ops organization that handled the Federation’s dirty work, it felt a little like a slap in the face.

Here was Star Trek, which was supposed to be a utopia where mankind had evolved past its prejudices, where everyone’s needs were taken care of after a period of war and poverty to come to a new future, and then the introduction of Section 31 essentially said “you’re naïve if you think that future can exist without a dark side.” Someone had to have done the dirty work, because that world can’t actually exist, you’re just blissfully ignorant of the real costs.

There’s enough debate of where DS9 lands on whether that’s a true assessment that I won’t dwell on it too much, but the idea that, literally, “we can’t have nice things” has been growing more and more present. All it takes is one disaster for the Federation to fall apart and become authoritarian! We have a whole Section 31 movie!

That’s really depressing, and that’s a really depressing message right now, in particular.

Now, Starfleet Academy comes in to say, “No, that’s wrong.” Throughout the episode, the War College’s superiority complex is based on the idea that they think strength and discipline are the only ways to survive, and mock the idea of having ethical considerations of their actions. Even their Chancellor thinks that, and dismisses the idea of practicing patience and empathy.

But Ake and the cadets prove them wrong. The ending scene with Ake and Caleb reinforces that the War College can win battles, but they’re trying to end wars. Patience and empathy are not ideals because they’re nice; they’re useful. They allow you to understand and disarm your opponent in a way that is beneficial to you.

Of course, we’ll have to see how this theme develops throughout the rest of the show, but I really hope it stays the course, because frankly, we need it. We live in a world where people will be gleefully cruel and not simply say that makes them stronger than you, but it makes them smarter than you, it allows them to understand the world better than you, that they are the adult in the room and you are the petulant, whining child for asking for something, anything better.

And it’s time we push back at that.

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