Shawn King (@kingshawn.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy)

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy While I’m a low-level fan of the Star Trek genre, I’ve generally not been a regular watcher of many of the past few series. I had high hopes for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds but stopped watching midway through the third season. It just got too stupid for me. I couldn’t get through more than three episodes of Picard or Lower Decks. Frankly, I may have “aged out” of the Star Trek universe. So when I saw the trailers for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, my expectations were *very* low. At my age, watching a Star Trek version of a teenage high school drama is way outside my interest level, but I was willing to give it a try if only out of respect for the franchise. It certainly helped the trailers included shots of Holly Hunter, Paul Giamatti, and Tatiana Maslany, three actors I’ve enjoyed in the past. While Maslany wasn’t featured much in the first episode, Hunter was and I loved her character. I laughed out loud watching her lounge around in the captain’s chair like it was some space-aged La-Z-Boy recliner. And Giamatti, well, he’s always been a favorite of mine and his over-the-top scene-stealing was fantastic. By the nature of the show, it will take time to get used to the other new characters, but the first episode was very good – interesting, compelling, and a good introduction to the overall storyline. But it introduced the young characters in a perfunctory and cliched way – The Jock, the Brainiac, the Cocky Rich Kid, the Overly Excited Girl, the Hottie, The Troubled Young Man with a Past, etc. It felt like “The Breakfast Club in Space”. And not being an aficionado of the universe, I had to look up what “The Burn” was… I can’t say the same for the second episode, though. The premise was good but not only was it poorly executed, it fell into the “Teen Drama” trap that I have *zero* interest in. But it was good enough to keep me interested in seeing more. ### Share this: * Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket * Click to print (Opens in new window) Print * Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email * More * * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp * Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit * Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr * Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram * Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest * Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn * Click to share on Nextdoor (Opens in new window) Nextdoor * ### Like this: Like Loading... ### _Related_ https://doamm.com/2026/01/19/star-trek-starfleet-academy/