Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers from the Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series premiere, “Kids These Days.”
“Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” comes with a blast of phasers right out of the gate, with a premiere episode that ranks among the best not only in the latest “Trek” series, but in the entire series.
It opens with a voiceover from half-Lanthanite Captain Nara Eyke (Holly Hunter), who explains the effects of the Burn, a deadly cosmic event in the 32nd century that took place during the events of Star Trek: Discovery. In the aftermath of The Burn, the Federation of Planets nearly collapsed, and some of Starfleet’s loftiest ideals were derailed.
Move to a remote Federation outpost. Anisha Mir (Tatiana Maslany) is accused of aiding a half-Klingon, half-Tellerite space pirate named Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti) to hijack a Federation food supply shuttle, resulting in the death of the shuttle’s pilot. Ake oversaw the trial and sentenced Braca to life in prison.
There was a distinctly over-the-top, theatrical quality to the braca, which Giamatti played with great pleasure. “He’s a bit of a hambone,” Giamatti says with a laugh. “So it was really fun to do. He was supposed to come across as more of a clown than he really is.”
Ake wants to show mercy, but Anisha aided and abetted a crime that led to the death of a federal officer. With that in mind, Ake sends her to a rehabilitation camp and separates her from her young son, Caleb. Anisha yells at Caleb, “Don’t trust[the Federation]!” before being dragged away by guards.
Ake tries to comfort Caleb, but he soon escapes federal custody and goes on his own.
Fast forward 15 years. Adult Caleb (Sandro Rosta) is a wanted fugitive and is still desperately searching for his mother. An epic battle on an alien prison transport ship isn’t enough to free Caleb, and he ends up imprisoned.
Rosta, who had just graduated from drama school and had never done any stunt work before, credits the show’s stunt team for getting him through this fight. “They helped me through the whole process, and they knew I was passionate about this job,” Rosta says. “They knew I was a fighter, so they let me do everything they could, like slam me into the wall.”
Meanwhile, Ake has quit his mission and is living a peaceful life. But when Starfleet Academy reopens and they ask her to make her the new headmaster, she can’t refuse.
She is finally able to track down Caleb and offers him a choice: join the academy or stay in prison. She accepted the offer, promising to help find her mother, who had escaped from prison a year earlier.
Caleb, an eternal loner, is not too happy about being at the academy. In addition to the San Francisco campus, students spend much of their time aboard the USS Athena, a fully functional spaceship that serves as a kind of mobile classroom. We also get a better sense of Ake’s leadership style, which includes a much more laid-back approach than a traditional Starfleet captain: lying in the captain’s chair and not wearing shoes.
“My character’s name, Nala, means ‘desert water’ in some translations,” Hunter says. “I thought this was really great for a lot of reasons. I thought water is not just for drinking, it’s for feeling. I wanted it to be fluid. I also thought about it being almost a cat, cat-like energy, but a fun energy. When you’re 423 years old, you lose so many things and you differentiate what’s most important.”
Once there, Caleb meets his classmates, including the pacifist Klingon Jae Den Krag (Karim Dian), the holographic (or photonic) Kaskai student Sam (Kerais Brooks), the driving enthusiast Dasha Cadet Genesis Reese (Bella Shepard), and the brash Kionian Dalem Reimi (George Hawkins). Caleb also soon comes into conflict with Master Cadet Lula Tok (Gina Yashear), who is half Klingon and half Jem’Hadar, and the Doctor (Robert Picard).
Athena begins her journey to Earth. Caleb sends a message using an old subspace frequency taught to him by his mother, but receives no reply. However, when Athena attempts to investigate the anomaly in the universe, she is ambushed by Nus Braka and his gang. They use a programmable substance to disable the ship, and Braka tells Ake that they used Caleb’s message to track Athena. Nous demands that Ake hand over Athena’s warp core or risk the destruction of the entire ship and crew.
In keeping with Braka’s theatrical nature, his appearance includes funky clothing, unique finger armor, and ceremonial tattoos and scars. “Eighteenth-century Earth Pirates were like anywhere on Earth,” Giamatti says. “I thought, ‘Wow, this guy has been everywhere in the galaxy.'” And I thought it would be interesting to have a kind of map of the places he’s been. ”
Caleb is shocked that he has put others in danger and tells Eike that he can extract the programmable substance from the ship. He and his classmates get to work and Ake lets Buraka buy some time. Genesis and Dalem set out to collect programmable matter from the ship’s hull, and Dalem was able to survive for a short time in the vacuum of space thanks to his Kionian nature.
At the same time, Jay Den is forced to perform emergency surgery on Toku, who was injured in Braka’s first attack. Although nervous at first, Jaden manages to save her life. Dalem was able to reach the programmable problem, but on the way he was on the verge of death. Genesis uses the ship’s tractor beam at the last minute to pull him back to safety.
Ake feigns core damage and forces Braka off the ship, but Clingalite reluctantly leaves the ship. This gives Caleb time to rush to the engineering department and execute his plan. He gets caught up in a raid by Braca, who provokes Caleb by saying he broke Caleb’s mother out of prison. The two engage in a knock-down drag-out battle, with Caleb eventually coming out on top and disabling the programmable problem. Braka escapes by jumping into a nearby escape pod.
Rosta praised Giamatti’s willingness to create space for him despite the vast difference in their experience levels as actors.
“The part in the scene where he hits me over the head with the console came from a suggestion I had in that moment,” Rosta says. “I thought, ‘Hey, I think it would be kind of cool if I banged your head on it and you banged your head on it.'” And Paul was like, ‘We’re doing it.’ We’re doing a hell of a lot of that! — and we did it. And it shows how willing he is to give me, a young, inexperienced actor, the space to have a moment of expression. ”
Athena safely arrives at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. There’s a good chance that Caleb will be kicked out because of what happened on the trip, but Ake is able to convince the higher-ups to discipline him and let him stay. She and Caleb have a heart-to-heart, during which she reveals that her son was killed at the Barn.
