‘Starfleet Academy’ Continues Star Trek Future’s Past
The next Star Trek series comes courtesy of a very old idea: Starfleet Academy. Here’s how this fits in the ongoing Trek strategy.
It’s official – Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is happening. First announced back in 2022, the upcoming series focuses on a group of fresh-faced cadets and is set to begin production in 2024 with former Nancy Drew showrunner Noga Landau at the helm.
This announcement comes at a crucial time in the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek: Picard ends this month and Star Trek: Discovery bows its final season in 2024. In other words, only one of the live-action series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, remains ongoing. And while both Lower Decks and Prodigy remain in the mix as well, a new live-action series is the best way to signal that the Trek franchise is still alive and well.
Some people undoubtedly are wondering if Michelle Yeoh will still take part in a Section 31 series. But the more interesting question is this: how do both Section 31 and Starfleet Academy fit with the current landscape of Star Trek? Because there is a theme here – old ideas finally getting new life.
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The Plan is Already Underway
With Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard both about to wrap, the flagship show for the franchise is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. And SNW is a very old idea. As a matter of fact, executive producer Akiva Goldsman said something very interesting about the show during its first season. Goldsman thinks SNW represents the longest time between the initial pilot and series pick-up.
If you think about it, the original pilot for ‘Star Trek’ never did become a series. The only character from that pilot to make it to series was Spock. And in many ways, Kirk’s captaining the Enterprise meant a totally different, more action-oriented series.
From Goldsman’s perspective, the true Star Trek pilot did not get picked up to series until Strange New Worlds debuted in 2022. I’m not sure that holds up exactly, but it does inform the mindset of the franchise’s current producers.
And you can see how that mindset impacts just SNW alone. The show’s sixth episode “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” is based on an unused story concept by Gene Roddenberry. And the first season finale “A Quality of Mercy” is a reimagining of the TOS classic “Balance of Terror” with Captain Pike in Kirk’s place.
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Enter Starfleet Academy
There’s certainly 21st-century precedent for a Star Trek series set in the hallowed halls of Starfleet Academy. The Star Trek: Discovery season 4 episode “All is Possible” is basically a backdoor pilot for an Academy show. That episode effectively moves DISCO crewmember Tilly towards taking on the role of teacher for potential Starfleet officers. And in fact, it wasn’t long after that episode aired that we first started hearing about a Starfleet Academy series.
But just like with Strange New Worlds the idea for Starfleet Academy is actually a very old one. In the 1980s the TOS cast made this movie called Star Trek V – The Final Frontier – and it was a massive failure. As a result, an idea called “The Early Years” was proposed.
Trek producer Harve Bennett explained “The Early Years” as a dip into the lore of Kirk, Spock, and Bones. It would’ve explained how those characters became who they are – and it all would’ve been set in Starfleet Academy. Obviously, we never got “The Early Years”. Instead, we have Star Trek VI – The Undiscovered Country.
But the seed of Starfleet Academy lingers for a long time. There’s the TNG episode “First Duty” which shows Wesley Crusher as a troubled cadet. A similar idea turns up again on Deep Space Nine in the form of an elite group of cadets known as “Red Squad”.
Long story short: Starfleet Academy much like Strange New Worlds has a very long lead time from proverbial pilot to pick-up.
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Starfleet Academy and Strange New Worlds Are Not Alone
So here’s the thesis: everything old is new again. And while that may seem a little prequel-esque, the streaming era of Star Trek isn’t quite that. It is, however, a franchise intentionally bringing all its old toys with it as it gallops into the future. In fact, that’s kind of Star Trek’s whole deal right now.
Star Trek: Lower Decks is the franchise’s first animated comedy, yes. But the series also borrows its inspiration from the TNG episode Lower Decks. Or put another way, it’s yet another show that represents a very long lead time from “pilot” to series pick-up. And if Section 31 ever happens, it too will make good on an old promise. After all, rumblings of a potential Section 31 series date back to the DS9 era when the black-ops organization first appeared.
And if you want to get VERY technical, there’s one other old idea out there threatening to find its way to series – Assignment: Earth. Back when Star Trek was just a show and not a franchise, Roddenberry came up with Assignment: Earth as the original backdoor pilot. The episode introduces Gary Seven, a “supervisor” who is part of a group of alien watchers that make sure time runs as it should.
We are reintroduced to the watchers during Star Trek: Picard Season 2 in the form of a character named Talinn. And, at the end of that season, we discover that the watchers not only exist but work under none other than Wesley Crusher. In other words, an “Assignment: Earth” series is hardly outside the realm of possibility.
In summation: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is part of a plan to bring Star Trek’s past into the future.
