Review: STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY is What Happens When Star Trek Forgets Itself
I just finished watching the first three episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, and honestly, I am still sitting here trying to process how something with this legacy turned out so wildly off-base.
I went in excited. Star Trek has actually been on a solid run for me lately, and the idea of a series set at Starfleet Academy felt like a slam dunk. Training. Ideals. Discipline. The future of the Federation. Instead, what I got felt like a sci-fi teen soap awkwardly cosplaying as Star Trek.
From the jump, this show does not feel like Star Trek. The tone is wrong. The energy is wrong. The writing is shockingly weak. It plays less like thoughtful science fiction and more like a leftover CW drama from the late 90s, complete with shallow conflicts and characters who feel like sketches instead of people.
There is no sense of prestige here, and Star Trek has always carried a certain weight. Even when it got silly, there was still a foundation of intelligence and intention underneath it. That foundation is completely missing.
The biggest problem is the cadets themselves. I don’t like them. I don’t believe them. Worse, I don’t care about them. The acting across the younger cast is rough, and the lack of chemistry makes nearly every interaction feel unatural and forced.
Moments that are clearly meant to be emotional or funny land with a thud, and more than a few scenes veer into unintentional comedy. Watching future Starfleet officers behave like emotionally unregulated teenagers with zero sense of responsibility is beyond frustrating.
Classic Star Trek was aspirational. It imagined a future where humanity had grown up, not just technologically, but emotionally and ethically. Officers were disciplined, thoughtful, and capable.
Diversity existed naturally without speeches pointing at it. This show throws all of that out the airlock. Instead of imagining what humanity could become, it mirrors exactly what we are now, complete with modern slang, shallow angst, and constant insecurity treated as the norm.
It’s especially baffling because the core concept is actually great. A reopened Starfleet Academy in the far future should be fertile ground for exploring duty, leadership, and the rebuilding of hope after catastrophe.
Instead, we get whiny kids, cartoonish characters, baffling lore decisions, and writing that feels completely uninterested in Starfleet as an institution. Physical standards are treated like a joke. Authority figures behave like children. Discipline is practically nonexistent. The future apparently runs on vibes and bad decisions.
And then there is the cast you would think could save this thing. Holly Hunter should bring gravitas, but her character never feels like a respected captain. She lounges, reacts, and delivers dialogue in ways that completely undermine the rank she is supposed to embody.
Paul Giamatti at least seems to understand the assignment. He’s over the top, theatrical, and easily the most entertaining presence in the show. Unfortunately, one fun performance cannot prop up a series that is fundamentally broken.
What really urks me is knowing what Star Trek used to stand for. This franchise once believed in a brighter future, one guided by reason, competence, and moral clarity, shaped by the vision of Gene Roddenberry.
That vision is nowhere to be found here. Instead of thoughtful ideas and earned character growth, we get shallow drama, lore-breaking nonsense, and a show that feels embarrassed by the very ideals that made Star Trek matter in the first place.
By the end of the third episode, I wasn’t angry so much as genuinely bummed out and frustrated. I wanted this to be great. I wanted to love it. The Starfleet Academy I imagined in my head was smart, challenging, and inspiring. What we got instead feels like a generic teen sci-fi series wearing Star Trek insignias and name-dropping lore without understanding any of it.
This is not just bad Star Trek. It is bad television. And that’s a shame.