By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 17 seconds ago

Starfleet Academy has proven to be the most controversial new Star Trek show, and the fandom is split over why, exactly, that is. Some think the show has veered too far from the franchise’s original roots, resulting in a series that is borderline unrecognizable to fans of shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation. Others claim those people are out of touch and that the franchise has simply evolved into something better reflecting the modern world.

As someone who generally hated the first half of Season 1 and generally liked the second half, I eventually realized that Starfleet Academy has two very different kinds of episodes. The first kind is aimed at younger fans, and it’s filled to the brim with vulgar slang, broad jokes, and physical comedy just begging to be turned into reaction GIFs. The second kind is aimed at everyone else, and it focuses on high drama, deep characterization, and deep callbacks to old lore. While the latter episodes aren’t perfect, they are much more in line with what fans expect from the franchise.

Fortunately, the Season 1 finale (“Rubincon”) was the latter kind of episode, and it satisfyingly concluded the arcs for several characters while more or less giving the show a clean slate for Season 2. If the rest of the series can deliver this kind of quality, it may win back the fans it drove away. But if a post-merger Paramount decides to finally let showrunner and executive producer Alex Kurtzman go, Starfleet Academy may be belatedly remembered as his ultimate failure. 

One Crazy Premise After Another

Whether or not you enjoy the season finale of Starfleet Academy will hinge largely on how much you are able to buy into two very different, equally outlandish premises. The first is that supervillain Nus Braka has stolen Omega-47, a synthetic version of the Omega particle, and used it to create a giant minefield around the entire Federation. If he hits the button, billions (or maybe trillions; the show can’t make up its mind about this) will die, all while making it impossible to warp through or even communicate through huge swathes of subspace.

Nus Braka is mostly presented as a loner pirate, so you have to take it with a few giant grains of salt (or the synthetic variant, Salt-47) that he was able to create and deploy enough mines to threaten the entire Federation like this. Equally crazy is his big plan: after he successfully captures Chancellor Aka and Caleb Mir’s mother, he brings them back in order to put the Federation on trial through a live broadcast. Ms. Mir is going to be the judge, which means things look bleak. Ake imprisoned her and separated her from her son years ago, and she seems quite eager to make her former captor suffer.

The Giamatti Of It All

Does it make sense that a small-time villain could threaten the entirety of the Federation (one of the oldest organizations in the galaxy) after stealing a superweapon from a starbase guarded by only one starship? Nope. After deploying what must be millions of mines in record time, does it make sense that he would stop for a show trial instead of, say, extorting any of the hundreds of planets he could destroy at any time? Also nope.

If you buy into all this wackiness (which, full confession, I did), it’s because of one thing: Paul Giamatti’s weirdly magnetic performance as Nus Braka, whose effectiveness as a villain does nothing to quell his megalomania. The actor is really giving his all here, and he’s been giving Braka a weirdly theatrical flair all season long.

Because of this, I thought it was strangely plausible that he would waste time idiotically putting the Federation on trial. Earlier episodes made it perfectly plausible that this is a guy who wants attention more than anything else, so broadcasting to an entire quadrant tracks with his outsized personality.

As something of a Giamatti fanboy, I’ve been saying this with his every subsequent appearance, but this is definitely the actor’s finest performance as Nus Braka. He’s chewing the scenery in constantly entertaining ways, dropping one-liners, and even exhibiting some crackling chemistry with Holly Hunter. Even if you hate the character and the performance, one thing’s for sure: you’ll never be bored while watching it.

Surviving Graduation

While the older characters on Starfleet Academy reliably do great work, the show has sometimes struggled with how it portrays its younger characters. Fortunately, the cadets shine in the Season 1 finale. Well, some of them do.

The episode focuses primarily on Caleb, giving us two different emotional payoffs: his reunion with his mother and his reconciliation with Tarima.  To pull this off, though, the show sidelines several other characters, including Darem, who mostly gives supportive glances. As for Genesis, she mostly gives serious glances punctuated by a sudden announcement that she needs to pee (no, really).

Even older characters like Vance and Lura Thok are sidelined, but that just paves the way for some emotional payoffs. For example, the Doctor is glitching out after helping the ship fake its destruction, and SAM helps him get sorted. This leads to our first (and seemingly only) real nod to their newly-minted father/daughter relationship, and it was sweet seeing SAM as a daughter worried about her holo-dad’s health.

Plus, this scene helped Kraag discover that the Doctor was trying to communicate something important, even though it seemed initially indecipherable. Sure, it’s no “Darmok,” but the pivot from emotional characterization to communication breakthrough certainly felt like vintage Star Trek. 

It’s good that the cadet stuff is so effective because the Nus Braka show trial does very little to move the plot along. Again, he’s great in this role, and he makes a mighty feast out of his dialogue. Functionally, though, the trial is performative and stale.

From the moment it starts, we know Braka is going to whine about perceived Federation slights and that Chancellor Ake will be rescued. All their characters can do is continue the same old dance from before, and while their chemistry remains excellent, the only really exciting parts of this trial are the brief interactions between Ake and Ms. Mir, which are absolutely crackling with tension.

Fun Visual Flourishes

Before we finish up, I wanted to commend this Starfleet Academy season finale for embracing some particularly fun visual flourishes. The show hasn’t always succeeded with these. For example,  the episode “Series Acclimation Mil” had the titular character scrawling messages onto freezeframed scenes in a method reminiscent of a Disney Channel show aimed at preteens. To this day, that remains the weirdest part of an otherwise serious episode dedicated to Captain Sisko.

“Rubincon” showed much more restraint, and the primary visual flourish was that we occasionally saw Nus Braka’s trial the way others in the quadrant were seeing it: as a CNN-style broadcast. To me, this helped sell the villain’s self-importance. Instead of making his trial look like a terrorist broadcast, he wanted it to look like a legit news transmission, right down to chyrons about other news (like how much people hate Admiral Vance, which gave me an actual chuckle).

Also, after the episode wraps up, we get Starfleet Academy yearbook entries for various characters featuring images of the actors as children. It’s genuinely fun seeing the young photos, and it was especially fun seeing Vance as a much younger man. Additionally, each entry has some fun jokes: for example, Vance wanted his Nova Squadron nickname to be “Hellraiser,” but he instead got the unfortunate nickname “Vancypants.”

To Boldly Go Or Not To Boldly Go

“Rubincon” was ultimately a success. While it sidelined a few characters and one of its plots treaded water, the show was filled with very satisfying moments, including Caleb and Tarima confessing their love in a moment that (and this genuinely shocked me) actually affected the main plot. Ersatz main character Caleb also got to reunite with his mother, and our other characters got to prove their mettle as Starfleet officers while saving the entire Federation. Plus, the episode channeled some classic Star Trek tropes, including a captain holding her own during a crazy trial.

While I never thought I would say this at the beginning of Season 1, I’m now cautiously excited about where Starfleet Academy will go next; Season 2 promises to sport new villains (no more Nus Braka) and new adventures for characters who are more mature than ever before.

However, it seems likely that the show’s earlier ratings struggle may lead to it getting canceled after Season 2. Should that happen, Paramount may go down as a villain even worse than Nus Braka, killing Starfleet Academy without warning, without trial, and without mercy, right when it was getting good.

For fans, though, there’s no need to worry: eventually, Star Trek will boldly go again, and likely in a new direction. It may just take time, which (or so I’m told) folds in on itself. Like an origami chicken!

Starfleet Academy is streaming on Paramount+