'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy' Review: A Bold New Era for the Star Trek Franchise Is Here

After the highs of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 and the lows of Star Trek: Section 31, I wasn't quite sure what to expect with Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. With a cast led by Academy Award winner Holly Hunter and a slate of bright up-and-coming stars, Starfleet Academy is the first of its kind in the Star Trek universe, telling a story that follows a slightly younger demographic than the standard space crew. The series has been in development nearly as long as Star Trek has been back on the air following the release of Star Trek: Discovery in 2017, and it came as a surprise to many when it was announced as a quasi-Discovery spin-off in 2023. Now, having seen the first six episodes of the show's first season, I can confidently say that Starfleet Academy is the best Star Trek series of the modern era.

Starfleet Academy is both a breath of fresh air and a love letter to everything that came before. The series features a handful of deeply interesting, engaging, and relatable characters with dynamic and evolving relationships that drive the story forward. With a perfect blend of episodic and narrative storytelling, the series bridges the past and the future in a way that should fill viewers with hope.

What Is 'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy' About?

Set after the fourth season of Discovery, Starfleet Academy takes place in the 32nd century and follows the first class of cadets to attend the newly reopened titular school after "The Burn" devastated much of the galaxy. Though this series features a handful of characters that appeared in other Star Trek shows, much like most shows within the franchise, it requires little to no prior knowledge of the universe and serves as an excellent entry point for new viewers. Leading the series is a Lanthanite, like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' own quirky engineer, Pelia (Carol Kane); Hunter's Chancellor Nahla Ake has been around for more than four centuries, and marches to the beat of her own drum because of it. Paralleling her journey at the head of a young roster of cadets is Sandro Rosta's Caleb Mir, who's only using his current position as a means to find his mother and stay out of jail.

Nahla has a soft spot for Caleb due to the part she played in separating him from his mother over a decade before the events of the series, and doing right by him is a significant motivator in getting her back in the captain's chair as Chancellor of the academy following her previous resignation. Weaving their fates together is Paul Giamatti's Nus Braka, a dastardly space pirate who's half-Klingon, half-Tellurite, and entirely conniving. Like all the best villains, Braka is over the top, outlandish, and unapologetically wicked, and while, yes, he's always looking out for himself first and foremost, he also believes he's doing a service to the galaxy that Starfleet abandoned in the wake of The Burn. Robert Picardo and Tig Notaro reprise their roles from previous Star Treks, with both getting to put a new spin on their work as instructors at the academy alongside Gina Yashere's Lura Thok, the academy's Klingon-Jem'Hadar cadet master who is as nurturing as she is intimidating.

While the rich conflict between that trio serves as a running thread throughout the season, the rest of the ensemble is filled with equally engaging characters that all have their own reasons for coming to Starfleet Academy. Bella Shepard's Genesis Lythe is what amounts to a Starfleet army brat with a heavily decorated father she's seeking to impress. Kerrice Brooks plays holographic cadet SAM (Series Acclimation Mil), an emissary for the photonic people of Kasq, whom we learn more about in one of the best episodes of the entire franchise. George Hawkins plays heartthrob Darem Reymi, a Khionian with a competitive streak a mile wide, covering his surprisingly soft side and a heart of gold. Karim Diane is the pacifist Klingon Jay-Den Kraag, who blends Klingon honor with the heart of a healer. Finally, Zoë Steiner plays a Betazoid student who catches Caleb's eye early on and carries the weight of her planet's future along with a heavy emotional burden.

Holly Hunter Earns Her Place Among Star Trek's All-Time Greatest Captains

While the entire ensemble is brimming with talent, it's impossible not to be completely captivated by Holly Hunter's Nahla Ake, and it's equally impossible to imagine anyone else in this role. Hunter's performance makes Nahla completely unique from every other captain in Star Trek's 60-year tenure. She is approachable and warm, but doesn't suffer fools or foes, making her the right person to oversee the minds that will make up the future of Starfleet. It'll also come as no surprise to anyone familiar with her work, but Hunter has magnetic and endlessly watchable chemistry with every single person she interacts with in Starfleet Academy, turning even operational conversations into can't-miss moments.

Despite her unconventional nature and her liberty with rules, Nahla knows when to build bridges and when to burn them, and underestimating her would be a grave mistake. Her willingness to listen to the young voices around her often leads to innovative solutions, and her centuries of experience make her the perfect guide to a new generation of Starfleet officers meant to uphold diversity, hope, and exploration throughout the galaxy. If you're looking to compare her to past captains, you won't have much luck — and that's a good thing. While she may upset purists and rule-followers, Nahla makes it obvious that there's no one way to be a Starfleet captain, bringing both whimsy and wisdom to the role.

'Starfleet Academy' Is the Future of Star Trek

Beyond the wide range of incredible performances, Starfleet Academy is also remarkably well-written. The show blends sci-fi action, diplomacy, and high stakes with the humor, romance, and growing pains of a coming-of-age story. Easter eggs to the original series, the '90s era, and underrated shows like Lower Decks and Prodigy are abundant for the avid Trekkie, serving as delightful references for those in the know without weighing the series down with nostalgia. That being said, the show's fifth episode deftly brings the past together with the future with an exploration of one of the franchise's most underrated heroes, proving that Star Trek's core value of striving for better through love is as timeless as ever.

Speaking of love, there's also plenty of romance to go around, both for cadets and professors. With hormones rampant and polycule potential aplenty, Starfleet Academy is unafraid to let Star Trek be horny again. "Are they going to kiss?" is a question I found myself asking more than once, and often the answer was yes — and even when it wasn't, the tension and palpable chemistry between any given combination of these characters adds to the dynamics in a way that's been sorely lacking from many of Star Trek's recent offerings.

On top of the character dynamics, Starfleet Academy is also deeply funny, with jokes woven throughout the episodes that never detract from the franchise's standard high-stakes action and adventure. Each hour hails from people who obviously love Star Trek and what it stands for, who also bring their own unique voices to the franchise. Series creator Gaia Violo writes the opening episode and effortlessly introduces us to this world under the bright and hopeful direction of co-showrunner Alex Kurtzman. Co-showrunner Noga Landau and writer Jane Maggs pen the second episode, which delivers Starfleet Academy's first taste of diplomacy and a hopeful look at the future.

Alex Taub and Kiley Rossetter's third episode delivers one of the more lighthearted episodes that tests the burgeoning bonds of our young cadets. Violo and Eric Anthony Glover write a poignant examination of Black masculinity through the lens of Klingon culture, and Star Trek veterans Kirsten Beyer and Tawny Newsome's SAM-centric episode runs the full spectrum of human emotion in an hour. Kenneth Lin and Kiley Rossetter also raise the stakes as a routine training mission puts what our young cadets have learned so far to the test.

Starfleet Academy is the best example of what Star Trek can and should be doing in this modern era — effortlessly inclusive, compelling, and innovative. While the core tenets of the franchise are ever-present, the series breaks the mold in all the best ways. For fans who loved Star Trek's recent animated offerings for their bold willingness to do something different, Starfleet Academy is once again pushing the boundaries of this universe for the better and building a world worth returning to.

The first two episodes of Starfleet Academy premiere on Paramount+ on Thursday, January 15, with weekly episodes to follow.