Star Trek fans are dreading Alex Kurtzman’s return with another show to Starfleet Academy. While little has been said about the show despite the trailer, the absurd half-Jem’Hadar that was shown, Kurtzman and some of the cast did an interview showing that they are sticking with the modern audience vision and not bringing back Star Trek in any sense the fans recognize.
The interview opened awkwardly as Holly Hunter was asked how she compared to other captains in the show. It was clear she didn’t know much about Trek at all as she gave a non-answer, which was interrupted by the cast.
“Holly’s not a regular mom, she’s a cool mom. That’s the vibe,” Karim Diane said, an answer that very much is not something long-time Trek fans would garner hope from that the show is going to feel like anything Star Trek from before.
Later in the interview, Diane says, “I’m so excited to play, like, a Klingon, it’s iconic,” again giving warning signs that this would not be akin to a Star Trek that fans might recognize. We have to hope that Diane is capable of playing an honorable warrior type and not giving off Gen Z homosexual “vibes” like he is in his interview.
He elaborates on the non-Klingonness of his character, saying, “Klingons are interested in battle and war; my character is interested in none of that. He has dreams of becoming a doctor. He wants to save lives instead of taking them away, which is very different from what Klingons are.”
Discovery already came under massive fire for changing “what Klingons are” and making them nearly unrecognizable as aggressive monsters. Starfleet Academy apparently is taking the race to the opposite extreme.
Kurtzman talked about the credit sequence, saying it would not harken back to past Treks, which had beautiful opening songs from TOS to Voyager, with Enterprise breaking the mold. For all of its faults, Discovery actually returned to a nice-sounding credit sequence that felt like Star Trek. This is likely not going to be the case with Academy.
He said, “What I will tell you is that it’s super cool. I’m really excited. I look at credit sequences now – on Severance, for example – amazing, amazing credit sequence. There’s such an art to the process of building a credit sequence. And what you want to do is find what is that visual metaphor that then becomes the show in an interesting way. So I’m really excited. It’s very unlike other Star Trek credit sequences, but there’s something very familiar about it too, which just kind of speaks to the idea of the whole show.”
He also defended the choice to set this in the 32nd century Discovery continuity, something fans have been grumbling about, saying, “It was always after Discovery. It was always the 32nd century… Whatever Trek show you’re making has to individuate. It has to be its own show. It has to have a reason for being other than the other Star Trek shows. And in the 32nd century, you’re dealing with a post-Burn world where trust in government has broken down. Where the Federation is rebuilding. Where people are divided. Where there’s all these major issues. And in Discovery, the ship came and started bringing the Federation back together again. And now our kids are the first class back in over 120 years. And so you have a generation of kids who are facing the mistakes of their elders or the issues that have been handed down to them by their elders, and are now having to deal with it. And it felt like a very relevant topic. As a father, I see what my son is going through as he’s about to go off into the world, and it felt very much like what our cadets are going through.”
It’s telling he said that it has to have a reason for being other than the other Star Trek shows, which much of the criticism of his era is his lack of attention to detail in continuity and changing Star Trek so it doesn’t feel like Star Trek anymore. Kurtzman notoriously has an obsession with making Trek not-Trek, a problem fans have seen with Strange New Worlds in the third season, as it’s felt like a parody of Trek rather than standing on its own.
Kurtzman also talks about how the show will not be an Academy proper, “The school is a ship, and the ship docks on campus in San Francisco and stays there as part of the campus. What that does, one of the questions everyone faced when thinking about Starfleet Academy in prior iterations… was how to sustain a show when kids are in a classroom all the time? Also, when you think about Star Trek, its adventures in space and exploration, and all the things that Star Trek is. So we thought, what if you make the ship essentially a teaching hospital?”
Gene Roddenberry had an idea for Star Trek as a spinoff with a hospital ship in the 1960s, which was ultimately rejected by the network, so it appears as if they are trying to recycle at least some of the ideas, even if the modern setting isn’t something that’s likely to work very well.
What do you think of Alex Kurtzman and company’s interviews about Starfleet Academy? Are you excited?
For a great alternative to mainstream science fiction with spy thriller action, read The Stars Entwined on Amazon and support Fandom Pulse!
NEXT: South Park Forgets To Be Funny Again In "Trump Is F***ing Satan" Episode
What do I think? “Boring disaster” comes to mind.
Weird how they struggle with the idea of a school. Like no interesting shows have ever involved a school…
blah, blah, blah, more of the same, blah, blah, blah. They haven't watched Star Trek, read Star Trek, or paid attention to Star Trek. This is just Star Trek 90210, with alien races that in no way resemble Star Trek Races.
Now if you don't mind, I need to go throw up. Kurtzman makes me sick.