Starfleet Academy's cast did their homework to join Star Trek

Star Trek celebrates its 60th anniversary this year with the launch of Starfleet Academy, a show that feels very different from everything that came before it, because it’s set 900 years after the events of the original Star Trek and focuses on teens learning to be Starfleet officers in San Francisco and the mobile classroom the U.S.S. Athena. The Academy was out of commission for a century while the United Federation of Planets struggled to rebuild following a cataclysmic event called the Burn, but Starfleet has revived it, recruiting time travelers and especially long-lived faculty who can teach the first new class of cadets what the organization was like in its prime. That gave the showrunners an excuse to bring some franchise veterans to the series.

“It's a show about a new generation of cadets who are inheriting a very divided world, and in the grand tradition of Star Trek, I think it's a lovely mirror to the moment,” co-showrunner Alex Kurtzman told Polygon in a video interview. “You have a bunch of cadets who are learning from people who've literally lived through so much more history than a normal lifespan, [and now are helping them] understand how to build a better future.”

Ahead of the Paramount Plus show’s Jan. 15 premiere, Polygon talked to the actors who play the students and faculty about their familiarity with the franchise and how they studied up to join the series. We also talked to Star Trek: Voyager star Robert Picardo about changing with the times.

Paul Giamatti

Role: The flamboyant part-Klingon, part-Tellarite space pirate Nus Braka

I’m a lifelong fan of [Star Trek], definitely the original series and Next Generation, and I’m a particular fan of Deep Space Nine and Voyager. I fell off a bit with the new ones, but I’ve watched them on and off. […] I’m not an encyclopedic, crazy fan, but all my life, I have really loved it.

I suppose unconsciously there was probably preparation [for the role] that went on. I didn’t consciously go “Ohhh, I’m doing Star Trek, so I have to do it this way.” But it’s probably in there, because I watched so much of it.

Holly Hunter

Role: Chancellor Nahla Ake, a centuries-old half-Lanthanite Starfleet captain

I had a little bit of exposure to Star Trek. I watched the first two seasons [of the original series] with [William] Shatner and [Leonard] Nimoy on and off with my dad. The look of the show — how people moved, how they stood and delivered, what the women looked like with their hair and the black eyeliner, and the mid-century furniture — it really is very attractive, very exotic, so different from how I grew up. I never forgot that. It was just an imprint that stayed with me my whole life.

I love that mustard yellow of some of the uniforms. The first time that I had a uniform on, I was almost scared to take a picture of myself in it, because there was some mystical power that it had, like it was going to steal my soul or something. It got deep.

Robert Picardo

Role: The Doctor, Star Trek: Voyager's holographic chief medical officer, now a Starfleet Academy teacher

The future ain't what it used to be. There are lots of things different between the 32nd century and the 24th. The biggest shock for me was seeing zippers on costumes. We had no zippers on Voyager. I had to get used to the sound of zippers again after 800 years of no zippers.

The language is different. It's hipper, which is odd coming out of the Doctor's mouth, but I justified it by saying, "Hey, if you're going to teach these young cadets, you got to speak their language. You’ve got to understand their vernacular." It's a wonderful circle-of-life experience for me to revisit the character.

Gina Yashere

Role: Lura Thok, Starfleet Academy's part-Klingon, part-Jem’Hadar cadet master

I watched the first series as a kid, and I’ve watched it sporadically over the years — cool episodes here and there, and a couple of the movies — but I was not a Trekkie. Getting into the franchise, I was like, "Oh, I've got to go back and do my research on the character and make sure that I'm bringing what I'm supposed to from both the Klingon Empire and the Jem’Hadar." So I did go back and watch DS9, and I watched a lot of previous iterations of Star Trek so I could get a feel for the characters.

Sandro Rosta

Role: Caleb Mir, a human cadet with a criminal past recruited to Starfleet by Nahla Ake

I love the 2009 movie, and I had big respect for the original-series characters and TNG characters because of my uncle. As soon as I got cast in this, I went back and I did my own research and watched a lot of each series. You gain so much appreciation, especially when you’re close to the material, but as an individual as well. You start to realize what this has meant to those who care about it and have cared about it for 60 years.

Kerrice Brooks

Role: Series Acclimation Mil, aka SAM, a hologram sent by a new Star Trek species

I was trying to be a punk kid. Whatever my family liked, I just didn’t want to watch. My dad grew up in a household where he, my aunt, and my uncle would watch [Star Trek] every day after school. It’s always been around me, but I never dived in until I got this opportunity, and then I dove into Discovery. That was my first real connection. Seeing the Klingons, Sonequa [Martin-Green], and Michelle [Yeoh], within the first five minutes I was like, “Yeah, I’m where I’m supposed to be right now.”

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The first two episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premiere on Paramount Plus on Jan. 15. Future episodes will release Thursdays through March 12.