“Kids These Days”
Written by: Gaia Violo
Directed by: Alex Kurtzman
“Beta Test”
Written by: Noga Landau & Jane Maggs
Directed by: Alex Kurtzman
We’re back! Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience!!
Just watched Ep 1. Spoilering everything.
spoiler
Star Trek (and science fiction) exists as a mirror of it’s time, different enough so that we can look at ourselves from a distance, with a required added component of playing with the ideas about what the future might be like. TOS and TNG were both mirrors of their time, with a Klingon on the bridge predicting the end of the cold war.
I definitely feel the “ok, the present generation of kids is inheriting a shitshow” vibes to this show. If you understand that there were a bunch of past efforts to do the Burn in Star Trek, it seemed like something that floated around for a long time now to break the universe (the abortive Star Trek: Final Frontier animated series being one) and … I dono, I’m more OK with it now than I would have been in 2009 because, as I said, Trek is a mirror of it’s time.
Comparing things to Star Wars, the sequel trilogy started out with the idea of “Guess what, fighting nazis again!” and it was prescient and it’s altogether too bad that they hadn’t actually thought things through well enough to bring it to a really smashing conclusion. There are a lot of threads (Caleb’s mom being a big one) where they could totally bungle things.
So, we start with family separation. Wonder where that came from! And then we kinda bounce around the subject, too. Nahla having done a thing, regretted it, leaving Starfleet, trying to make it better while also showing that whatever they do end up doing, it’s not “solving” what they did in the first place.
Nus Braka chews up the scenery. This is important, in a Trek series. Yes, it can be quiet and thoughtful and serious but we always come back to the spectacularly overplayed antagonist.
I’m fairly OK with NuTrek trusting the audience less and driving a point home harder. A lot of people ascribe old Trek with values that it never had and part of that’s because the writers trusted the audience to see the point, but folks just don’t have the same attention span to do that anymore.
Very very nerdy side note: on Outpost Pikaru there’s a whole set of grating panels that I assume are a deliberate callback to the freezer spacing grates that were all over the TNG-era Trek serieses as well as a bunch of other science fiction properties. They look very very similar but they aren’t.
On the reddit side of the fence, someone suggested you look up Gina Yashere’s standup to realize just how Lura Thok is basically Gina playing herself but in the 31st century. She reminds me of one of the assistant principals at my high school, actually, except she’s got more drill sergeant edge to her.
Jay-Den Kraag… when I was but a wee little trekkie, I knew a trans person who was deep into hardcore Klingon fandom and I think part of why it made sense for him was that Klingons was part of how he settled into his new gender? So the idea of Klingon males as a mirror to masculinity … toxic and otherwise … has been a thing, at least for me, for a while. I feel like Jay-Den Kraag was someone looking at the Klingon Therapist meme and making an actual character out of it. The entire scene where the Klingon is de-escalating things between two cocky assholes is something at least I needed.
SAM’s first few scenes I skipped past the first watching and then when her character made sense, I had to go back and actually watch them because they were a lot less cringe.
Genesis is an interesting version of charming because at first glance she starts out as a “mean girl” but then you realize that she’s parodying it hard.
Okay, and the Doctor back as the anchor to the very past. Robert Picardo is keeping the Picard name alive in that he kinda aged to a certain age and he hasn’t really aged much since, much in the same way as Patrick Stewart does.
There’s lots of fanservice, but in a good way. The half-white/half-black species from TOS, a green Orion, the Doctor, etc.
One thing that’s interesting with the characters who don’t stay locked up in the dorms when the big action is happening is that they all have plausible reasons to be there. Caleb has been living a life on the run for a long time now. Jay-Dem is a Klingon and shows some moments of self-doubt. Genesis has been living on starbases her whole life, shades of Beckett Mariner actually. Darem is cocky and it gets him in trouble. And then SAM, doesn’t know better, but also doesn’t know fear in the way a biological would. Meanwhile, one of the other cadets is screaming senselessly.
And I guess back to Nahla … she goes from “just following orders” to “Bajor schoolteacher on ice cream day” to supportive nurturing captain to playing high stakes poker with a space pirate and back. And she’s small, except for the part where she’s able to exude authority when being towered over. They were asking her to sell a lot and I think she did it. I looked through her IMDB and my past experience of her was the mom from Thirteen and Elastigirl.
One thing I hope, as a long standing Ex Astris Scientia reader, is that there’s … some sort of sense to the programmable matter, the wild 31st century designs, et al. TNG had a lot of particle-of-the-week stuff but Voyager was a crazy-quilt of nonsense particles. It’s important for the viewer to, albeit not from the first episode or two, gain some vibes for where the boundaries are, otherwise there’s no stakes. A transporter ruins basically any “locked room” detective novel puzzle.
Likewise, how they wrap up Caleb and his mom is going to either make or break the emotional arc of the series?
So, overall … it landed with me, based on where I am in my life. I empathized with Nahla in a bunch of ways that make me angry about the world I empathized with Jay-Den in a bunch of ways that made me content about the world. I’m not sure how the younger generation or casual Trek fans are going to react to it.
I’m fairly OK with NuTrek trusting the audience less and driving a point home harder
I’m generally against this, but it’s also not like Star Trek ever gave us a reasonable expectation of subtlety…
Re: limits of programmable matter:
On Discovery away teams wore programmable matter flashlight bracelets that could turn into a phaser, and I think even a phase rifle, but from these last couple of episodes it seems they can’t make a tricorder that turn into a medical tricorder.
I really hope they get into this at some point, but my assumption is that the main limitation of programmable matter is that you have to, y’know, program it first, which takes time.
Also, I had no idea that programmable matter is an actual theoretical thing that scientist have been trying to crack for a few decades now!
In the case of the tricorder…I wonder if that’s the Doctor being old-fashioned, since we’ve also seen that tricom badges have tricorders built into them.
The away team braclets are programmed for at least a couple of different modes, and switching is pretty quick. I would think if they could use programmable matter to make a multi-mode tricoder, it would be standard.
At any rate, I assume they can’t program matter into dilithium, because that would have made recovering from the Burn a whole lot easier.
Genesis is an interesting version of charming because at first glance she starts out as a “mean girl” but then you realize that she’s parodying it hard.
From the trailers, I had assumed that Genesis would be the stuck-up mean girl, and Darem would be the friendly tryhard. Turns out the reality is the exact opposite.
Edit: Also, there’s no need for spoiler tags in these discussion threads!
Oh, didn’t see that it was a spoilerific thread. Edited for ease of reading.
I went in cold, LOL. I’d not bothered with the trailers or the preview reviews. Yesterday, I saw a post on reddit that said that people were mad because it wasn’t white enough and impulsively decided that I’d watch it before bed … which then caused me to go to bed late because I had to rewatch the fun bits.
So far I’ve just watched episode one, but I think we’re off to a great start. I don’t know Holly Hunter from anything except Batman v Superman, so I didn’t know why everyone seemed so happy to have her on board, but I get it now. Nahla isn’t much on paper, but Hunter really makes me love the character. She sells the comfort and confidence without feeling at all silly or non-genuine.
I thought Caleb would be a harder character to like, but he won me over pretty quickly too. His introduction definitely started on the right foot. His mode of escape reminded me of Jason Todd stealing the tires off the Batmobile. Good stuff.
The other cadets are a mixed bag so far. Jay-Den and Sam seem fun, the others seems like boring cliches, but none of them have been given a lot of time yet so it’s still a wait and see situation.
The episode itself was a little messy, especially the action at the end, but I get that it was the first episode and they felt they had to give everyone something to do. Still one of Trek’s better premiers.
Holly Hunter’s breakout role was in “Broadcast News”. I recommend it if you haven’t watched it before.
On my list now, thanks!
Annotations for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x01 are up at: https://startrek.website/post/34296905
Annotations for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x02 are up at: https://startrek.website/post/34297028
Annotations for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x01 are up at: https://startrek.website/post/34296905
It was alright if you like CW tier shows.
Free Coffee in the lounge!
Great show :-)
I am overall positively surprised. First of all. I like the setting. The Burn was one of the greatest ideas in Star Trek history (at least its implications, not its reason. I hope we’ll forget about that lol), as it shows how fragile the Federation truly was. So raising a new generation, based on values from centuries ago but that has lived a very different life, is a very intriguing setup. There’s still some stuff I don’t like about the era (like instant teleportation and that memory nano stuff), but let’s see how it works out. I like that Starfleet continued with a “War Academy” which was super fitting, and I can already smell all the conflicts between the two institutions.
The first episode was kind of so so. I understand that you need all that setup and background info, but I think flashbacks would have worked better. Don’t start with showing us the injustice, but leave us a bit in the dark. I pretty much like all the characters, but again, the first episode was a bit too much exposition on “everybody gets one small scene to show what they got”, only for most of them to blend in the background in the second episode.
The second episode left me a bit confused, as the Betazoids were a bit different from what I remember, but ah well. I found it weird that these official negotiations were fully made in front of a school class, with only one person of each faction involved? Imagine on earth, two leaders in a conflict met, each gave a short speech in front of a school, declared their demands, and then ends the meeting? Feels a bit weird. Also, while I enjoy the shift away from a Earth-centric Starfleet, are Betazoids really so vain that the shift of Starfleet HQ is enough to mitigate all their concerns?
Overall, I like what I see. I hope not every episode will be about Caleb’s mom, or his search, and I really hope we’ll also get a bit of everyday school fun. Weird comparison, but in Harry Potter, I enjoyed the everyday school stuff always more than the actual plot. And give me more of that Klingon (even though his voice modulation sounds really bad).
are Betazoids really so vain that the shift of Starfleet HQ is enough to mitigate all their concerns?
I think this is actually a really big deal, especially since the Betazoids’ concerns were chiefly about security, and the Federation is hardly going to let their seat of government fall.
But “the Federation is too Earth-centric” is a concept that’s been played with since…at least the PIC era, so I thought this was pretty significant.
I was actually kind of disappointed going into this show that SFA seemed to be going back to an Earth centric model for the Federation, so this development is very positive for me.
True, it shows real commitment. Still, considering that their original demand was “We want to have the right to reject any new federation member”, this seems a bit insignificant. It’s more of a gesture than anything, at least to me.
I think their initial demands were ludicrous because the president had no real intention of rejoining the Federation - it was all theatre.
But then why come in the first place? Only to return to Betazed to say “the Federation is still the same and doesn’t want us!” After failed negotiations?
I guess as a response to the youth movement that was pressuring him to negotiate. This sort of thing is unfortunately common IRL.
Ah right I forgot about that
For now, I’ll just share the thoughts I posted to Mastodon while this instance was still on the Genesis Planet…
Overall, a very strong couple of episodes. The cadets are all interesting enough, though Jay-Den and SAM are outstanding. Caleb is the sort of Rebellious Young Person that can grate on people, but I think the show compensates for that by making him a bit of a punchline. His backstory is also compelling enough (I actually thought his separation from his mother seemed very real), and his motivations are clear.
Nahla Ake is fantastic, and Holly Hunter brings a lot to the role. The character is quirky, but grounded, and you can see that she carries multiple lifetimes of experience.
Paul Giamatti is clearly having the time of his life as Braka. Time will tell whether he remains a cartoonish pirate (which I’d be fine with TBH), or if they’ll give him more to do.
I’ve always loved the post-Burn setting, and I’m looking forward to exploring that status quo. The Betazed stuff is intriguing, and I hope we learn more about this “psionic wall” of theirs.
Also, “Discovery is unavailable because X” is the new “the transporters don’t work because X”.
So far I have only watched episode one. First impression: God, why does everything have to be a dystopian nightmare with these people? Second impression: mediocre plot, mostly uninteresting characters, full of Kurtzman-isms. Gotta give it a chance though.
This show is one part Lower Decks, one part Prodigy, one part Discovery, and a dash of SNW… I dig it. Excited to see where it goes.
Anyone remember the show Breaker High?
Na na, nanana hey hey
I had some concerns going in, but enjoyed them a lot more than I expected. Good to see some familiar faces, especially Vance as he was one of the better Disco s3 additions.
Going into it I wasn’t sure about a school-based Star Trek, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the first two episodes. It helps that the characters are a little older than I thought they were going to be (university instead of high school), but there was also some enjoyable writing in there that kept me interested and made me laugh a few times. Shout out to SAM, I was concerned at first because these fish-out-of-water characters are easy to make annoying but I ended up quite liking her.
I did have a few issues (I still don’t love the burn as a plot device), but overall I’m interested to see what happens in the next episode.
Also, yay Prodigy references!
Episode 1: with expectations at the bottom of the Mariana Trench (because I watched Discovery), I was not too disappointed by this episode. Was it good? Also no. I think the story is fine in principle, it doesn’t unfold in a believable way, but not the worst we’ve seen in Star Trek. Other than that I was irked by what the captain says at 41:55:
make eh(?) your speed maximum impolt
Really, impolt, you couldn’t do a second take on that?
Episode 2: quite a bit worse, the plot progressed for like 3 minutes in total, and there was a lot of that teen drama that wasn’t interesting or amusing.
Overall felt like these were written by people who know a lot about Star Trek at a very surface level, and have a very TV-idea of what college life is like. I’ll keep watching, for now. Out of franchise loyalty more than actual interest.
Welcome back! I enjoyed both these episodes. I don’t like this time period, the post burn Federation. The rebuilding could interesting but it’s not really aspirational and I really could use some aspirational content in my life, vaguely waves at every thing.
I liked it too, but I find rebuilding to be aspirational. Like maybe the most aspirational thing possible.
Rebuilding in the wake of global disaster (and honestly it’s been one after another my whole life) is exactly the kind of inspirational content I think we need right now. 90s Trek was all about “things have been great, it could be better!” and I think our message today really should be “things have sucked for a bit, but how do we recover the greatness we know we’re capable of?”
This, very well put. I’ve been struggling to vocalise why I like this to folks and I think you nailed it.
Its a different message for a different era. And one we need. Too many are looking at the near and potentially bleak future, we need them to realise that hope can still lay beyond that.
Totally! I haven’t loved the post-Burn setting but the way this show is already contextualizing it, and the optimism it’s doing it with is already starting to change my mind.
And it’s even carrying over being the shoes into real life, which is one of the things I love most about Trek and its good to have this out there. There’s some nitpicks, as there always are, but so far I can deal with them, especially if it stays consistent. 🖖
I haven’t loved the post-Burn setting but the way this show is already contextualizing it, and the optimism it’s doing it with is already starting to change my mind.
Same. A lot of that stuff just feels more comfortable with time and I appreciate how Star Trek always pushes it a little bit. People FREAKED OUT with the Klingon changes in TMP/TNG. Then FREAKED OUT that DS9 was on a space station with a “politically correct” captain. Now we think of those things as normal, nostalgic even.
I hadn’t really seen that point of view before but I really like it. Shit has sucked for a while maybe some stories about how cool fixing it would be are what I need.
