Spoilers Star Trek Academy [spoiler thread]

I was ready for the mom to die, so we could move on from the tedium of that plot. I realize most won't agree.... But how many times are we going to watch his same inner conflict over and over? Watch him break all the rules with no real consequences, over and over?

Echohawk said:

Don't forget that the burn reduced the Federation from more than 350 worlds down to just 38. By the time of Starfleet Academy it is back up to 60+, but that's still a much smaller volume of space to enclose than it would have been in previous eras.

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That's fair, but tbh, that makes the map feel weirder to me, like Federation space should look more fragmented. Like, Bajor used to be on the periphery of the Federation, so I'd almost expect it to be a bit of an island away from the rest.

Zaukrie said:

I was ready for the mom to die, so we could move on from the tedium of that plot. I realize most won't agree.... But how many times are we going to watch his same inner conflict over and over? Watch him break all the rules with no real consequences, over and over?

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Like most of Star Trek over the years, if you peer too closely . . . plot holes, inconsistencies, and utter nonsense will jump out at you.

You're not wrong . . . Caleb gets away with a lot, is told "this is the last time" and then gets away with it again.

But if you sit back, don't worry about the details too closely . . . Star Trek is wonderful!

I find Caleb's character swings between irritating and moving . . . but I'm loving Tatiana Maslany as Caleb's mom, Anisha, a very interesting character and I'm excited to see where she goes this coming week. But then again, I love Maslany as an actress and would watch her do just about anything, it's a bonus this time it's Star Trek!

I’m curious what people think of the various characters. I think for me I’m sort of struggling to make out notable personality traits in some. It’s Star Trek, I’m not expecting deep character work, just a “Spock is the logical one, McCoy is the cynical one” level of character.

Sam — clear personality, ultra cheerful and naive
Caleb — blandly mcblanderson (does he have a personality other than sulk?)
Genesis — again, struggling to work out what they’re doing with her. Is she uptight rules person? Overachiever?
Jaden — his personality is “speaks in a slow deep voice and is very boring”. They early on dropped references to him being a pacifist but that hasn’t really manifested much in any way.
Glitter-puke-boy — was a jerk, but now he isn’t. Not sure what he is now.
Betazoid girl — no character traits I can discern.

I get that this is just s1. And at least I know all their names, unlike Discovery. So it’s way ahead on that front. No wait, I don’t know what glitter-puke-boy’s name is. Or the Betazoid girl.

Despite this I’m still liking this. It’s better than Discovery. It’s not as good as Strange New Worlds.

Morrus said:

I’m curious what people think of the various characters. I think for me I’m sort of struggling to make out notable personality traits in some. It’s Star Trek, I’m not expecting deep character work, just a “Spock is the logical one, McCoy is the cynical one” level of character.

Sam — clear personality, ultra cheerful and naive
Caleb — blandly mcblanderson (does he have a personality other than sulk?)
Genesis — again, struggling to work out what they’re doing with her. Is she uptight rules person? Overachiever?
Jaden — his personality is “speaks in a slow deep voice and is very boring”. They early on dropped references to him being a pacifist but that hasn’t really manifested much in any way.
Glitter-puke-boy — was a jerk, but now he isn’t. Not sure what he is now.
Betazoid girl — no character traits I can discern.

I get that this is just s1. And at least I know all their names, unlike Discovery. So it’s way ahead on that front. No wait, I don’t know what glitter-puke-boy’s name is. Or the Betazoid girl.

Despite this I’m still liking this. It’s better than Discovery. It’s not as good as Strange New Worlds.

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I agree with all that I too was never able to remember all the character names in Discovery.

It does seem like "hot and sad" is a go-to for a least a few characters

Morrus said:

Despite this I’m still liking this. It’s better than Discovery. It’s not as good as Strange New Worlds.

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Yep this is where I'm at as well. And of course most first seasons of star trek haven't been the hottest, always takes time to find their footing (I think SNW is actually the best "season 1" of ST, it knocked it out of the park from day one imo).

I actually hope Caleb's mom sticks around, both because the actress is amazing (I hated She Hulk so I'm happy to have my classic TM back), and perhaps it will give more to do with Caleb.

Jaden feels very wasted at the moment. They are almost bouncing around looking for what to do with him. At first he's a pacifist that is trying to be a doctor, ok cool. I haven't seen a bit of doctoring since then. Then we went this super bashful guy that has trouble in a crowd. Ok....but they went toooo bashful there, and I'm glad that turned that down after the debate episode. Then we get into his gay relationship, but unlike Mir's Jaden's relationship is just "there", its not actually driving the plot or his character forward in anyway. I would say Jaden is the worse of the lot, I have no idea what they are going for.

Glitter Boy, so we have this guy that has served his people since he was born, and when he finally gets some freedom he becomes a bit of a dick. Then he is given an actual release from his obligations and decides to embrace himself...which is more of a dick? There was one episode of interesting tension as he and Gensis both seemed like A-types that were going to be butting heads....but that just seemed to resolve itself in the episode and we moved on.

Genesis is decent. A strong mother hen personality that is always keeping others in line, but deep down has big cracks in the foundation They've built the love triangle angle option in there with Mir but it hasnt dominanted her storyline which I appreciate. She's probably my favorite on the show.

Sam....honestly was starting to get annoying to me but I am a big fan of this "soft reset" of her character. We still get moments of the ultra chipper Sam....but now its got some depth, some layers, even some pain underneath. She has an entire new life we know nothing about which can be explored, lots of potential there.

Tarema (betazoid girl) is....the princess. Her entire character is currently defined by her relationship with Mir. She doesn't stand out on her own, we saw a little hint with her and Gensis when she was drunk but I'm not seeing any backbone. Its just whoa is me and whine whine whine.

Tarema's Brother: Literally the wallpaper of the team, I wouldn't be surprised if there are scenes he is in that I just plain forgot about, he's practically invisible.

We only watched the first two seasons of Discovery, and are lukewarm on this series, and I'm trying to put my finger why this new version of Star Trek doesn't feel much like Star Trek to me. I'm thinking it's that Star Trek was always science fiction with some action elements, whereas this new version of the franchise feels like action with some science fiction elements. It's not driven by ideas, but by more conventional action plot hooks.

It feels a lot smaller.

Clint_L said:

We only watched the first two seasons of Discovery, and are lukewarm on this series, and I'm trying to put my finger why this new version of Star Trek doesn't feel much like Star Trek to me. I'm thinking it's that Star Trek was always science fiction with some action elements, whereas this new version of the franchise feels like action with some science fiction elements. It's not driven by ideas, but by more conventional action plot hooks.

It feels a lot smaller.

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I think that's a fair criticism of Discovery.

Have you watched Strange New Worlds? It definitely puts the science fiction aspect in front and has MANY ideas vs. just standard action plots.

Clint_L said:

We only watched the first two seasons of Discovery, and are lukewarm on this series, and I'm trying to put my finger why this new version of Star Trek doesn't feel much like Star Trek to me. I'm thinking it's that Star Trek was always science fiction with some action elements, whereas this new version of the franchise feels like action with some science fiction elements. It's not driven by ideas, but by more conventional action plot hooks.

It feels a lot smaller.

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I would have to agree and I think it's because they're trying to shore-up an aging fan base, by appealing to a new audience. There's also the element that when you only have 10-ish episodes to get the story out, you don't get the sort of depth and character development that you do with 20+ episodes. You just don't have the time for "filler" episodes that really let you get to know the characters. "Strange New Worlds" felt the most like older Trek to me, out of the new stuff. "Discovery", nothing at all like it. "Academy" is somewhere in between.

Mir's character is a softened version of Burnham's character; the 'rebel outsider' in Star Fleet. He was introduced as a criminal, survivor, and wunderkind. The first has been toned down and the second pretty much dropped, in favour of the third.