Starfleet Academy may take place at the furthest point we’ve seen thus far in the Star Trek franchise, but the first clip of the new series points firmly to the past. Set in the 32nd century, after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, the footage finds the show’s hero ship the USS Athena entering a dangerous bit of space called the Badlands. Although we first saw the Badlands in Deep Space Nine, the area is most associated with Voyager, as a skirmish in the region led the ship to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.
Such franchise nods are nothing new to the current era of Trek, nor to Starfleet Academy in particular. In addition to bringing back Robert Picardo as the Emergency Medical Hologram from Voyager, better known as the Doctor, the series features several characters who belong to classic Trek races. But the most exciting part of the Badlands reference in the clip isn’t that the Athena is going to a place we know from before, but rather that it’s going to someplace that the characters don’t know. It’s exciting because the Athena is exploring and gaining information, and the bridge crew is using its expertese to deal with the problem that arises, all qualities in short supply in nü-Trek.
The clip’s emphasis on exploration and expertise goes against much of what we’ve seen so far for Starfleet Academy. As a spinoff of Discovery, Starfleet Academy seemed likely to repeat that series’ emphasis on universe-ending stakes and big emotional moments. Furthermore, setting the story at a school seems to invite wild emotions, lots of romance, and interpersonal drama, qualities emphasized by the newly-released poster for Starfleet Academy.
Don’t get us wrong, there’s certainly room for Star Trek to explore emotions. The primary tension in the Original Series put Kirk between McCoy’s irascible feelings and Spock’s cold logic, requiring the Captain to chart a path that values both instinct and reason. But, over time, logic became the de facto good in Star Trek stories, and emotion was something to be mistrusted.
