Entertainment
New Star Trek Show Will Finally Stop Copying The Worst Thing About Discovery
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Starfleet Academy recently ended its first season with “Rubincon,” an episode (spoilers, space cadets!) which completed Caleb’s long-running story arc. He is finally reunited with his mother, and his mom has even made peace with Chancellor Ake, the one who put her in prison. This makes for a mostly crowdpleasing season capper that might (just might) prove popular enough to win over the show’s biggest haters.
It’s a solid episode, but as the credits rolled, I found myself letting out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. Based on how this first season ended, it looks like Starfleet Academy is going to finally stop copying the worst thing about Discovery, which has been arguably dragging the newest NuTrek show down from the beginning. Now that Caleb is no longer the focus, this new Star Trek show can stop focusing on a main character and focus on the entire ensemble cast.
The Michael Burnham Show
When Star Trek: Discovery first came out, it boldly went where no Star Trek show had gone before by focusing on a singular main character. Michael Burnham was the undisputed main character, and this controversial NuTrek show followed her fall and subsequent rise: she went from a brilliant Starfleet officer to a disgraced traitor to a decorated captain, all in the space of five seasons. While she ultimately proved to be a compelling character (a take admittedly as hot as the warp core), the endless focus on Burnham meant that we didn’t even learn the names of most of the bridge crew until Season 2.
Both Picard and Strange New Worlds proved to be a hard course correction, with these shows’ stories leaning extensively on a smaller ensemble cast. The same was true of Lower Decks, the gone-too-soon cartoon love letter to the Star Trek franchise. However, perhaps because it is a spinoff of Discovery, Starfleet Academy’s first season replicated the older show’s formula, albeit with a slight tweak.
Star Trek’s Latest Main Character
Caleb is, without a doubt, the main character of Starfleet Academy: the whole season revolves around his quest to find his jailbreak mother, and he has a shared history with both Captain Ake and Nus Braka, the show’s conniving supervillain. Caleb’s relationship with the bad guy gives him ongoing relevance to the plot, as does the fact that the ship’s captain acts as his surrogate mother. Fortunately, Starfleet Academy doesn’t focus on Caleb nearly as much as Discovery focused on Burnham, so there’s enough space to give the other cadets their share of the screen time.
Well, almost enough: one of the odder things about Starfleet Academy Season 1 is that Genesis is the only cadet who doesn’t get her own episode focusing primarily on her development. SAM, Darem, Tarima, and Jay-Den all get their own episodes, but the best the show can do for Genesis is to let her hum around an abandoned academy with Caleb. That episode (“Zo’Kheine”) mostly focuses on Darem and his people while Caleb stays home and tries to write a letter to a recovering Tamira.
Here Comes (And Here Goes) Genesis
Genesis gets into a few shenanigans, but for her, this episode mostly sets up an arc that she’s not command material. The Season 1 finale “Rubincon” pays lip service to this arc by having Genesis briefly take command. But considering that all she does in the captain’s chair is say that she has to pee, it’s fair to say that this storyline never really pays off.
Fortunately for Genesis and the other sadets, “Rubincon” also wraps up Caleb’s major storylines by having him reunite with his mother. She even makes her peace with the Federation, which means that Caleb can have his cake and eat it, too. He can stay enrolled at Starfleet Academy with his mother’s blessing and not be forced to choose between his biological family and his found family.
Trauma Boy, No More
It’s my hope that Starfleet Academy is done with focusing on a singular character. Again, Caleb is a very interesting character, and the show’s writers did a decent job of obsessing about him the way the Discovery writers obsessed about Michael. Nonetheless, the show already has more main characters than any show in Star Trek history, so making Caleb the de facto lead character meant even less of a focus on the ensemble cast.
Now, with any luck, Star Trek has evolved beyond the need to have a main character as surely as the Federation has evolved beyond the need for money. Of course, with my luck, the franchise will copy the Bridgerton formula and focus on a new main character each season. If that happens, maybe the writers can scratch the itch of their Caleb fascination by making him the 32nd-century equivalent of Lady Whistledown, who knows the tea (Earl Grey, hot) about everyone.