Anika and Liz step through the 32nd century arches that give them new outfits and sprawl in their chairs to discuss the first two episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. And we like it a whoooooole lot.
- “I think I just quoted Joe Biden. I did not mean to.”
- Character beats:
- Caleb can handle himself, but in a crisis, he’s an engineer;
- Jay-Den and Sam are simply too pure and we love them;
- Darem and Genesis are mirror images: privileged high achievers, but one is a natural leader and the other is a bully;
- Tarima is a character specifically for Anika;
- We are here to wax rhapsodic over Captain Ake;
- Nus Braka is giving Harry Mudd.
- Starfleet Academy is unusually interested in depicting disability, assistive devices and accommodations
- We have one problem with the premiere — breaking down boot camp tropes, Black hair politics, what does “regulation” even mean in this context and when Caleb’s peers are wearing piercings and jewellery?
Transcript
(Please note this transcript was generated automatically by Apple Podcasts, and though it was edited by a human, some errors may remain.)
Liz: Welcome to Antimatter Pod, a Star Trek podcast where we discuss fashion, feminism, subtext and subspace, hosted by Anika and Liz.Today, we’re discussing the two-episode series premiere of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, “Kids These Days” and “Beta Test”.
And I’ve got to say, I watched these episodes last week and kind of accidentally then watched all of our screeners, even though I’m really good at holding off until we’re ready to record, so it’s fresh in my mind. So, yeah, I think I like this show, you know, a bit.
Anika: So I watched the premiere last week, and then I watched it again last night as part of the New York City premiere with everybody, which was amazing. It was at the Natural History Museum in New York City, which is such a great venue for this kind of thing, because we walked through an exhibit hall to get to the screening space. And I guess they worked with Dolby to make a special version, to make it extra great for the premiere.
They are clearly very excited for this series. They had a whole blue carpet with everybody walking down, and we got to watch that, and it was all very fancy and pretty. They had the 30-minute-long thank you at the beginning. I just have to say that I think that, if not Paramount, at least the Star Trek people at Paramount are really proud of this show. And I think that that’s good.
Liz: I think they deserve to be proud. I think overall this is a very solid premiere. And I’ve liked every single episode that I’ve seen. And I think it’s a real shame that fandom, or at least a very noisy section of fandom, has written it off before it even launches.
Anika: I was at a friend’s house for New Year’s Eve. I said, I have to watch this before we record the podcast at your house. And she was like, oh, I don’t think that we would be opposed to watching it with you. And I was like, oh, I wish we could. But I can’t — we would have to crowd around my laptop, which seems, you know, for adults crowding around my MacBook, a little ridiculous.
And she has been disinterested in any other modern Star Trek. These are people who I watched Deep Space Nine with in college. And they haven’t watched Discovery, Picard, Prodigy, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, none of it, but are excited for Starfleet Academy. So I feel like, yeah, sure, there’s those fans that didn’t like anything I just mentioned and just hate-watched them. But also, there’s the potential for new fans. And I think that that’s exciting.
Liz: That’s true. And my flatmate who really liked Discovery and loves Deep Space Nine, but thought Picard and Strange New Worlds were both pretty bad. And she simply doesn’t do animation — it’s her only personality flaw. But she’s really excited to watch this. And she too was like, can I watch the screeners? Do I have to crowd around your laptop? So yeah, she hasn’t seen it yet. So we’ll wait till the premiere.
For starters, I really like the 60th anniversary branding. I generally don’t like the pre-episode Star Trek universe branding — I think it’s trying to be the MCU. But every time we see Voyager and the NX Enterprise and Discovery, I get a little bit of suck-it-haters, which is a bad motivation, but there you go.
Anika: I just like that it’s a rainbow. That makes me happy.
Liz: One thing that modern Trek has not lacked at any point, except for the third season of Picard, is color and bright colors. In an era where everything on streaming seems to be color-graded into mush, it’s just nice to have these crisp bright colors.
Anika: The lights are on for all of these two episodes. There are certain scenes that are dark on purpose because the lights are off, but when it’s not dark on purpose, they’re very wide, bright, and open. And, you know, because it’s a school — it’s a college campus.
Liz: I noticed there were really warm colors, very late-season Discovery in that sense. But you have the warm colors, you have the sets with plants, there’s a sense of growth and nurture on every level. I really enjoy that.
So this is a pilot. It’s mostly about introducing our characters and our status quo. And we begin with Caleb Mir, our hero, and his doomed mother, Tatiana Maslany, whose character’s name I can’t remember. But you don’t cast Tatiana Maslany for one scene. I assume that the arc this season is about finding her and reuniting mother and son.
Anika: Yes. Her name is Anisha, because it’s not Anishani — that’s the moon — and her letters are mixed up. So Anisha, maybe? Anisha Mir? I think that’s it.
Liz: Yeah. Our son, Caleb Mir, who is separated from his mother by unfeeling Starfleet bureaucracy and the Federation’s penal system, which remains terrible.
Anika: The worst. Come on.
Liz: Captain Ake was like, oh, we’re going to take your son now. And I’m like, maybe you’re not my favorite character — but that’s okay, because she was not her own favorite character either.
Anika: It was, it was, it was…
Liz: This is the Star Trek that comes in, in the very first scenes and goes, hey guys, maybe the Federation is not always good. And after this last season of Strange New Worlds, I really appreciate that it respects the audience enough to begin with the hard questions.
Anika: Yes, and it trusts us to understand that that’s the purpose of the show — at least these two episodes are certainly setting it up for that. Because we know that they’re rebuilding and that’s a huge process already, but whenever you rebuild, there’s the opportunity to rebuild it better.
And I think I just quoted Joe Biden — I did not mean to, but let’s quote K-Pop Demon Hunters instead and say the scene at the end makes you cry every time when she sings what it sounds like. And right before she starts singing, Rumi says the Hanmoon is destroyed. And she says it is, so we can build a new one. And that’s what this is about. It’s like, yeah, the Federation is broken and fractured and shattered and a mess. And we could put it back into place to retain the status quo of, you know, the before-Burn times, or we could take this as an opportunity to fix the cracks that were already showing.
Liz: Right, because one of the things that I really like about the Burn and the reveal about Su’Kal at the end of Season 3 is that this child was abandoned by the Federation. He didn’t just throw a tantrum. They sent a mission out to find dilithium and they never followed up. They never answered the distress call.
And one of the signs of imperial decline is when you, as a subject of that empire, get in trouble and they don’t come for you — there’s no rescue. So the Federation was already in decline, and now it can rebuild itself stronger, and without, I’m going to say, the Jonathan Archer problems.
Anika: Make better choices.
Liz: Yeah, yeah. Understanding their history, but being willing to change. And there’s a line that Admiral Vance has in episode two, something along the lines of, people say they want progress but they don’t want to change — which feels so true, and particularly for Trekkies, that felt like a real indictment of Star Trek fandom, shall we say.
And this is such a thoughtful and positive series, but it really does have some bits that I think of as rebukes to Strange New Worlds and Picard. Stuff like when Nahle says, separating children from their parents isn’t exceptional, it’s reprehensible — it feels like a dig at Strange New Worlds, specifically.
Anika: I mean, I sort of take it as anti-ICE, but.
Liz: Oh, yeah, yeah, look.
Anika: But yes.
Liz: Yeah. In the real world, humanity has a long and problematic history of separating families, and it’s bad.
Anika: And it’s bad.
Liz: But I was just so excited to have a Star Trek where I’m not three steps ahead of the script at all times.
Anika: Okay. So we’re going through the characters. Caleb.
Liz: Yes. My son.
Anika: Is our son. He’s human, he grew up in the streets — or the space lanes — and has been in and out of prison or the judicial system one way or another for 15 years. Has learned many, many different things. Was already a genius when he was six. And I love him. I love all of him. He’s also so tall and buff.
Liz: Oh my God.
Anika: He is built. And the scene at the prison with tiny Holly Hunter — Nahle — all in black so she even blends in with the walls. And Caleb, who was at first in shackles, you know, it was horrible. And the way that they sort of come to an understanding in that scene when he goes to attack her and she stands up and says, no, you’re correct. I was wrong. And I know that.
Liz: Yeah.
Anika: And this is — I just think that that’s where their connection started and it was really promising.
Liz: And it’s interesting on a directing level because there are lots and lots of scenes where Holly Hunter’s small size is apparent. They’re not trying to make her appear taller than she is. And in fact, quite often the angles emphasize her shortness. But Caleb is never a threatening and scary Black man. Even when he’s disheveled and aggressive, he never comes across as a threat to her personally.
Anika: Not at all.
Liz: And I think that’s a really neat bit of directing on Alex Kurtzman’s part, because this is a very racialized character. This is a Black boy who has been separated from his parents and thrown into the judicial system. And then he’s basically scooped up and told to join the military, which is, you know, its own different type of problematic story. And yet he’s never the threat.
Anika: Yeah, and I would say that that scene was intimate, not aggressive. There was aggression, but he was just trying to — he was still the scared little kid, you know? As much as Braka is the guy who, you know, hating him kept him warm, it’s not like he had warm feelings about Nahle for all that time either, or Starfleet, the Federation, all of that.
Liz: No, no.
Anika: So seeing — he was still the six-year-old in that scene, even though he was a giant.
Liz: Yeah. And even though he’s about 20, he has the sort of dramatic emotions of a teenager. He’s like, then take me. I’m not your prisoner. He’s very melodramatic, but in a way that I completely understand, because how can you not be under those circumstances? Regular suburban teens have these feelings, and that’s normal, and he has so much more reason for it.
But also, we see, in the crisis when Braka attacks, he turns to hacking. He’s not out there fighting and punching, even though he’s competent at that. But his skills lie in breaking into systems and making changes on that level.
Anika: Right. He’s basically an engineer.
Liz: Yeah.
Anika: And he’s buffed because he had to be on the streets. Not because it’s a part of his personality.
Liz: Yeah.
Anika: Even at the very final scene of episode two, the other two are pumping iron, and he’s just like, I’m going to go make my bed. I’m going to learn how to make my bed.
Liz: Oh, my gosh. We’ll talk about that. My poor son. And so then, you know, he comes aboard the Athena, which is glorious. I think I might have a new favorite starship — this glorious ship that’s both the campus on planet and a starship in its own right, which is so smart. And something that technologically we couldn’t do in the 23rd or 24th centuries. So it really feels like this is future, future Star Trek.
Anika: Yes.
Liz: We encounter the other cadets. My other son, Jay-Den Kraag — a small Klingon bean with anxiety.
Anika: He’s the Klingon that we’ve wanted all along. I have been saying there have to be Klingons who don’t want to be warriors. They have to exist.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: The closest we ever get to see one is Alexander, who throws himself into being a warrior, and B’Elanna, who’s not into the Klingon stuff, but it’s not like she’s not aggressive.
Liz: No. Whereas Jay-Den is very into the Klingon stuff, he just perceives it differently and has different priorities to what we know of mainstream Klingon society, and I love that.
I actually think that at least one person in the writer’s room is on Tumblr, because you get a lot of posts going around with lists of things that Tumblr users want from a Star Trek, and this series just checks them off one by one. One thing that they always come back to is, where are the Klingons who are nurturers, who are healers?
Anika: I love him. He’s so precious. I want to yearn for life. I love him. I told my son about him — I think he’s willing to watch it with me, which would be great. But I told him about Jay-Den, and he wants to see Jay-Den. He’s super excited for the soft Klingon. Cass was a huge fan of L’Rell.
Liz: Yes, I remember.
Anika: So he likes Klingons, but he’s like, a neurodivergent Klingon? And I was like, he kind of is… He definitely has some anxiety issues, and he’s shy. I can’t wait for my son to meet this Klingon.
Liz: Same. I can’t wait for the Black women of fandom to meet Sam.
Anika: I know.
Liz: We’ve got these three characters who are simply too pure, but I think it means so much to have a curvy Black girl who is a little bit autistic-coded and who is super smart and super eager to be part of a community, but doesn’t quite have the skills to do it smoothly. This means so much to me as a white lady — but I already have Tilly, and just having someone in the Data role of learning about humanity and being enthusiastic about life.
Anika: Studying how to do it.
Liz: Yes, yes.
Anika: Which is also very relatable, I feel. And she’s so cute. She’s just so sweet.
Liz: Oh my gosh. She’s so precious. I love this actress. Most of these kids have almost no credits. I think the main exception is Bella Shepard, who plays Genesis — she’s done a lot of child acting and teen acting and stuff. But most of these kids are very, very new to their careers. And I’m really looking forward to seeing them evolve.
Anika: Yes.
Liz: So that’s the first half of our young cast. And then we get to the three that I call the nepo babies. We have Genesis Lythe, who is an Admiral’s daughter. And she’s kind of styled like a mean girl, but she also adopts Sam right away. So she’s secretly a girl’s girl.
Anika: She kind of adopts all of them. It’s like, yeah, she’s an Admiral’s daughter. She’s been around this type of thing for a long time. She’s learned diplomacy from a young age, and she understands emotional maturity. She adopts Sam. She adopts Caleb. She adopts Darem Reymi.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: She’s like a little Janeway over there. And Janeway, too, was an Admiral’s daughter, so it all makes sense to me.
Liz: And isn’t this the best way to use your nepo baby powers — to help other people feel as comfortable in a situation as you already do?
I was literally about to say that I feel like Genesis is the character who is least explored and the one that the story is the least interested in at this point, and I would still like to know more about her, but I think that you’ve looked at what she does, not just what she says, and she’s a natural leader.
Anika: Yes. So in the poster, she’s ahead of everybody, and I was like, this poster makes it look like she’s the main character, and I don’t think that’s true — but it is interesting, because she’s the leader.
And also, she’s the only one who has other credits, so it could just be marketing. But I really do think that she’s the Janeway slash Enterprise crew of this crew. You know what I mean?
Liz: The high achiever, yes, yes. Whereas Darem Reymi wants to be a high achiever, he comes from a wealthy background, he’s very privileged, but he’s also an asshole. And so part of his arc is obviously stopping him from being an asshole, because honestly, the thing where he’s introduced bullying Jay-Den is like, why are you doing this? You’re an adult, or on the verge of adulthood — you’re 17. Why are you acting like a 10-year-old?
Anika: He literally has followers already. It’s like, did you pay them? What is happening? It was the most teen-school-story part of the entire thing — that’s not a dig, it’s just very… if he’s the first Khionian here, who are these other guys hanging out? Why does he have randos he’s collected into his gang? I don’t understand.
Liz: Maybe they think he’s hot.
Anika: Caleb and Jay-Den are the last to arrive, so he could have been there a few weeks and built up his reputation. But that takes a lot of confidence, or as you say, some connections, some money, some ways of getting in — especially in this version of the Federation where people were literally hungry.
Liz: I think this series uses a lot of teen drama shorthand to set these things up quickly, and Darem’s character suffers from that more than most. But he’s also kind of the dark mirror of Genesis, in that he has this magnetism and these leadership skills, but he’s not using them for good.
Anika: That’s right.
Liz: And also he’s a fish. He’s a sexy, arrogant fish with a London accent.
Anika: Which is wild.
Liz: I know. I love him.
Anika: And it’s interesting because there are many aliens out and about — it’s not like he would be the only alien if he wanted to look like an alien instead of like a human. So he wants to look like a human. That’s an interesting choice.
Liz: I think that’s part of the impulse that leads him to be the playground bully — he wants to blend in and stand out on his own terms, which are bad. But he’s a regular, so we’re going to reluctantly learn to love him.
And then episode two introduces Tarima Sadal, who is played by the Australian actress Zoë Steiner, who also only has one credit and I haven’t watched it yet. But I was very interested that she has a pronounced lisp, particularly in her first episode, because Holly Hunter is deaf in one ear and also speaks with a lisp. And so people are going to be assholes about this, and I’m going to have to fight them.
Anika: Well, at least you’re prepared. I feel like we have a list of things we’re ready to counteract.
Liz: Oh, my gosh. Yeah, someone is going to call Captain Ake a manic pixie dream girl, and then I’m going to have to fight them.
Anika: I’m going to say, sure, I will claim her as one. That’s okay with me.
Liz: Yep.
Anika: And Tarima is — legitimately, if you took a bunch of tropes Anika loves and put them into a character generator or something, you would get her. It’s amazing to me. She’s a princess.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: I loved that she had the little braids like Deanna. It made me very happy. She has a big brother.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: And I’m going to lose my mind. I was so excited that I get siblings. And I was worried that he was going to go back home with his dad and just not appear often. But no, he’s their third roommate, which means not a regular, but definitely a recurring semi-regular.
Liz: And in fact, she doesn’t join Starfleet — she joins the War College.
Anika: Yeah. More later. She’s a little baby diplomat, youth activist. They’re the ones pushing for this whole thing. They’re so cute about it too. I just love them. She wants to watch whales.
Liz: I literally wrote in my notebook, I can’t wait for Anika to find out that Tarima is Padmé Amidala.
Anika: I don’t understand — legitimately, the young political activist who’s representing her entire planet while also trying to go to school and have a boyfriend and have a life is fully Padmé Amidala. And then also she has this whole, I feel things more than other Betazoids, and if I lose control, I could hurt people, so they put an actual blocker on me.
Liz: Oh my god.
Anika: That’s very Anika-coded as well, but it’s very much like the Phoenix in X-Men or Wanda Maximoff — these women who have to be saved from themselves. But it’s also very Anakin.
Liz: But it also just feels like an allegory for how teenage girls are discouraged from having and showing strong emotions, particularly anger. Like you can be afraid, you can be selfish, but you can’t be angry.
Anika: Oh my gosh.
Liz: And this girl is an activist.
Anika: When she said, I want to scream.
Liz: Yes, yes.
Anika: I was like, I mean — when I say the most Anika-coded character ever, it’s just incredible to me. I love her. She is so precious and wonderful.
And the fact that she joined the War College — I’m supposed to be sitting over here going, what, she joined the War College? But I’m like, yes, she joined the War College. Part of it, I’m sure, is that the point is to get a view of all of them, and so if her brother chooses Starfleet, then she should choose the other one.
Liz: Right.
Anika: That’s a very diplomatic thing to do. But also she wants to have a place to put all those emotions. She feels things — and that doesn’t just mean sadness and empathy. That also means anger. Those darker emotions that women aren’t supposed to have, that Federation/Starfleet people aren’t supposed to have. So I was like, yes, go join the War College. It’s going to be great.
Liz: It’s also like La’an talks about how she joined Starfleet because she wanted to learn discipline. And I think that’s why Tarima chooses the War College, which is obviously stricter and purely military in outlook, because she wants to learn discipline. So maybe she can lose her implant.
But also it contrasts her with Deanna, who is also a Betazoid princess and a nepo baby and feels very deeply — but she’s a healer. She’s a therapist. She’s a counselor. And that’s not where Tarima’s priorities lie, even though she is a diplomat.
Anika: Even though she’s a diplomat — I loved the line. What was it? I escaped into therapy.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: “I escaped into therapy” as a meet-cute is delightful. That’s perfect. And she was being a little counselor because she is a Betazoid and she is a diplomat. She was like, you’re literally on the fence. It was all very clever.
t’s the same with Jay-Den — Jay-Den can do all the Klingon things, but he wants to do other things.
Liz: They’re both approaching their culture through a side door. And that’s interesting. And it kind of makes me think that Jay-Den and Tarima should hang out.
Anika: Yeah.
Liz: Which I’m sure will happen. We’ve got six regular kids — they’re going to interact, even if she is on the quote-unquote other side with the War College.
Anika: She’s on the poster and in the preview images. And she’s clearly Caleb’s love interest.
Liz: Oh, yeah, no, absolutely. They basically had big hearts manifesting on the screen when they made eye contact.
It’s interesting that none of the Betazoids seem to have the black contact lenses. This is another thing that I think people will whinge about and it bugs me a little, but I’m also like, it’s been a thousand years, there’s been a lot of interbreeding — some biological species markers are maybe not as prominent as they were in the past.
Anika: Hey, so I’m pretty sure I didn’t know Betazoids had black contact lenses. See? I pay attention to clothing and hair. I clearly do not pay attention to eyes. I’m lucky I know Data’s eyes are yellow.
Liz: Let’s talk about the grownups. Nahle. My favorite character in many years — possibly since Katrina Cornwell walked onto my screen — all she really needs is a morally ambiguous love interest who is not Paul Giamatti, and I will be there. She’s 422 years old. She is not out of fucks to give, but she’s hoarding them for important stuff.
Anika: That’s a really good way of putting it.
Liz: On ice cream day, she takes two cones. But also she has this self-imposed redemption arc. She failed Caleb, and so she became a teacher — and not just a teacher, but an early childhood educator. I love her.
Anika: Holly Hunter is just amazing — it’s amazing that they got Holly Hunter. Alex Kurtzman said that he couldn’t imagine anyone else in the part, that they actively, aggressively wanted Holly Hunter to do this. And she’s just so good. It’s just breathtaking the way that she embodies the character. And you don’t even see any other role she’s ever played.
Liz: No, no. And I feel like you need a Holly Hunter-caliber name to play this part, because she is so heedless of — she doesn’t worry about dignity, she doesn’t worry about seeming commanding, she curls up in her chair on the bridge with a book.
She’s a little bit zany, but in a way that feels sincere. Outside of a crisis, when she is all business, she is very much doing her own thing. And I think fandom would not react well to that if it was a lesser performer. And I don’t mean in terms of talent — I mean a less big name.
Anika: Yeah, that they know who she is. I agree.
So at the very end of the first episode, they have a scene between Caleb and Nahle that ends with them crossing their arms and looking out the window together. And they are mirror images — other than the way that their arms are crossed, they’re identical. And yet she’s tiny and he’s huge. And then this was driven home in the second episode, when they both speak to the Betazoids and just throw the Federation under the bus.
And they’re like, you know, I don’t care about this whole — yes, we are trying to achieve something, but my personal dignity and my values are more important than that, so I’m not going to bend to you. They’re the same person. And it’s the best, because everything — the non-regulation, the I’m not going to clap when everyone else is clapping, I’m not going to do what you want me to do just because you want me to do it — they both have it.
She’s captain and she’s 422 years old and she has a certain amount of cachet, so she can do it without her future being in jeopardy the way that Caleb’s is. But she threw away the get-Betazed-back-into-the-Federation plan to protect him.
Liz: Yes, yes.
Anika: I noticed the final image where they are standing together. It was when it was on the giant screen last night. I was like, oh, this is it — this is the thesis. Because it’s right after they have the scene where she tells him about her son, and he’s like, I’m not your son. They’re a motherless son and a sonless mother. But that’s not why they get along. They get along because they understand each other and are the same person and have the same drive.
Liz: And I feel like if we ever get flashbacks to Nahle’s son, we will find out that he, like Caleb, is mixed race, but also that he is nothing like Caleb at all. Like we expect Caleb to be like her son, but we’re going to be surprised.
Anika: Right, because that’s not what it’s about. And so my notes for “Beta Test” are, the third one is: Nahle and Caleb are the same. And then further down — no, but really, Nahle and Caleb are the same. At the very end, it’s just in caps: ARE THE SAME.
Liz: I also think the other genius thing with casting Holly Hunter — and I don’t think this is just something Holly Hunter could have done — but we have a story about a white woman who sees herself in a criminalized young Black man, and that feels important.
Anika: Right. This could very easily be a White Savior thing, but it doesn’t come across that way to me because of this inner connection that they have.
Liz: Yeah, they get each other.
Anika: Kindred spirits.
Liz: Yeah, and part of the challenge for Nahle is that she totally gets him, but she can’t always be on his side, because Caleb is a young man with a young man’s tendency to self-sabotage.
Anika: Right. He needs direction.
Liz: Yeah, he needs to be guided through that period without blowing up his life one more time. And then he can enter adulthood. And I think this is a good show for the streaming era because we have a built-in four-season limit.
Anika: Because that’s how long it takes. Yeah, you’re right.
Liz: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then we have cadet master and first officer, Lura Thok, played by lesbian British comedian Gina Yashere. And I really hope it’s not a coincidence that this show has more than one lesbian comedian in acting roles. Because obviously…
Anika: Well, let’s just go there, everybody. Let’s just make it happen. Yeah.
Liz: I don’t know if I want Lura and Jett to kiss, but I do want them to hang out being mean about everyone around them. They’re the Data and Tasha having drinks and watching from the sidelines.
Anika: 100%.
Liz: And it’s interesting that we have two half-Klingons in this series — What’s His Face, the bad guy, and Lura.
Anika: You really don’t care about him at all, I can tell. I didn’t even put him down here, did I? I don’t care about him.
Liz: I just think that in this first appearance…
Anika: No shade on Paul Giamatti.
Liz: I have some shade on Paul Giamatti, but I don’t think it’s his fault. I just think his dialogue is so over the top and slangy compared with all of the other characters, and his performance is so broad that it’s really difficult to assess him at this point, because he’s not a character, he’s a force of nature.
Anika: I’m going to say something that I don’t know if it’ll sound like a compliment or a complaint. He reminds me of Harry Mudd in…
Liz: No, no, that’s exactly it. Yeah, yeah.
Anika: “Mudd’s Women”. Yeah, and I hate that episode, so that might be why I didn’t write down his name.
Liz: I also got Harry Mudd vibes, and I actually really like that our recurring villain is not a superpower or incredibly politically connected. He’s not even the Emerald Chain. He’s just a douchebag — but there’s not much to say about him yet. This is another one where if it wasn’t Paul Giamatti, he would be nothing of a character.
Anika: Right, yes. Absolutely.
Liz: And that may change. But I kind of wonder if the real big bad is going to be Tatiana Maslany.
Anika: I mean, there’s definitely something there.
Liz: I just keep coming back to the fact that you don’t cast her for one scene.
Anika: Right, exactly. You definitely don’t cast her for one scene. And being the sad mom — you don’t cast her for that either.
Liz: And the detail that she studied physics in prison and then escaped just feels like setting up something else.
Anika: And I am here for prison turned her into the ultimate bad guy. That’s a story I want to be told. That sounds great.
Liz: Absolutely. Caleb Mir has two mothers and they don’t get along. B
ack to Lura Thok. I feel like it’s interesting that Starfleet still has the drill sergeant figure. Because, you know, in the army, in the military, the role of the drill sergeant is to basically break down new recruits until their sense of identity is totally malleable and then they can be reformed as a unit capable of killing without falling apart — because, in general, humans are bad at that.
And I understand that it’s still necessary to have someone in that role, but it just feels really like, again, is Starfleet actually good? Is it possible to be a pseudo-military, or a military, and have ethics?
Anika: I’m going to say that it definitely does come across as a military school.
Liz: No, no. And because we have the War College to contrast it with, I feel like Starfleet Academy is the liberal arts military school. But still.
Anika: I love the idea of a liberal arts military school. That’s hilarious. But it’s better — I was like, it’s kind of like the Air Force versus the Marines.
Liz: I mean, I feel like that’s the difference between the War College and Starfleet. The War College are the ground forces. Because it’s always been weird that the Federation — it’s only an Air Force, it’s only a Navy.
Anika: Right. The Navy and Air Force are Starfleet, and the Marines are the War College.
Liz: And there’s no infantry.
Anika: Yeah. But anyway, I didn’t really need a drill sergeant character to be in Starfleet Academy. But since we have her, I really like this one. I love the Klingon drill sergeant. That’s delightful. And she’s very funny — very over the top in a different way, but I enjoy it. And very dry. I’m looking forward to learning more about her.
Liz: Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I’ve drawn a question mark over the words “drill sergeant,” but otherwise she’s just surrounded by little hearts.
Anika: Right?
Liz: And then the Doctor — it feels like he’s been through a lot since Voyager and Prodigy. He’s still bad at his job and he’s still a terrible mentor, but it also feels like he doesn’t want to be a mentor anymore. Whereas from the second Seven of Nine walked onto the ship, he was like, I am going to mentor that woman so hard. And the same with the Prodigy kids.
Anika: Right. I want to know what happened. Something happened.
Liz: Yeah. And was it a specific event or simply the experience of losing everyone he knows over and over again?
Anika: Yeah. He’s long-lived at this point. And there is something that happens. It’s different when you teach people and then they grow up and they’re supposed to outlive you.
When you mentor someone, they’re supposed to go on and be your legacy. But if you mentor someone and then they become adults and then seniors and then pass on and you’re still there — that’s hard to live with. He literally ran away from Sam.
Liz: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I also think that he just doesn’t really like other holograms and never has. He’s always like, oh, other photonic beings, that’s so nice — and then they turn out to be serial killers, or they conscript him into their revolution, and all of that. He’s like, I want to be the special boy. I want to be the only hologram.
Anika: Yeah. He’s created in the style of his creator, who was the worst. He has the ego of Zimmerman.
Liz: Yeah. But he’s not annoying me yet. And that’s impressive because most of his job in episode two is opera. And the Doctor singing opera is my least favorite version of the Doctor. So I do think they’re using him well.
Anika: He’s background opera-ing. So it’s okay.
Liz: Yeah. Jett is barely in it, but she’s hanging out with Lura at the reception and they’re hanging something on each other. I really hope that means they’re friends, or dating, or something.
Anika: She does have the one scene where she’s teaching the class and she singles out Caleb. As someone who works in education, I was looking forward to your perspective as a college person who deals with freshmen.
I want to have a little chime here — it’s like Anika’s Academia sideshow or something. Thoughts on Academia with Anika. Because, first of all, in that scene, when the technology goes down, that was the most real thing. I was like, oh, they’ve been to university. That fully happens every day in at least one classroom. There are fleets of people whose job it is to just run to a classroom and try to get the technology working again.
Liz: By the end of the semester, Jett will just be wheeling in the holographic projector, making them watch a movie.
Anika: It was so funny. My faculty laugh about it. They build it into their plan for the day — this is where something goes wrong with the technology, so I’ll add an extra five minutes.
And then I just have to mention when Caleb is out walking and he asks the hologram to go get him a coffee, and then he confuses the hologram into glitching out of control. That was not my favorite scene in the entire thing, but definitely my favorite scene related to the Academy, because there’s a huge push for AI in universities. And I like that in the deep future, they’re still showing that AI is not what you need. You can screw up AI very easily. I was just like, oh, this is great — this is for me. Down with AI, Caleb, my hero.
But back to Jett and her class — that was an interesting scene for me, because on one hand, she was retaining control of the lesson and the situation, and that’s an important skill for a teacher to have. And in this particular environment where a drill sergeant exists and makes you do push-ups in the middle of the atrium, being called out in class is on par with everything else. So I can’t really be angry with her for that.
But she not only singles out Caleb, who doesn’t want to be singled out — she also singles out the young woman whose only name I’ve been able to find is “girl who’s afraid.”
Liz: Oh, yes. I think she’s the one who starts crying in the drill sergeant scene as well. She’s having a rough day.
Anika: She’s in the first episode where she’s wandering around saying, red alert, red alert, red alert. And Caleb’s like, you don’t have to say that, it’s okay — calm down, we’re going to help. Caleb does really well with her, by the way, I have to say.
And she looked uncomfortable with that. I didn’t like that part of it. She wasn’t making fun of Caleb in that moment — if she had picked Jay-Den, he would have known his name, you know? So she was saying, you don’t know this cadet because she hasn’t made an impression on you, or maybe she’s literally never been introduced to you. Just an idea.
I’m interested in this scene because it gives you some insight into how Jett — who wasn’t a teacher; she certainly did teach Adira, but it wasn’t her job, and now it is.
Liz: And that’s a one-on-one environment. This is a classroom.
Anika: That scene really made me think. And I’m not even sure what conclusions I came to. I just think that I like that they gave us Jett for that role — someone we know and is recognizable to us. So I’m not learning who she is as a character through that scene; I’m more learning what her role in this series is.
Liz: Yeah. And it feels very realistic, because university professors are put into teaching roles, but they don’t necessarily have any teaching skills. They don’t necessarily have training. They’re just like, hey, you’re a subject matter expert — that means you can teach undergraduates, right?
Anika: Exactly.
Liz: This is a huge problem with all universities all around the world.
Anika: It’s the stereotype that they’re professors, so someone’s paying to do their research, and their penance for that is that they teach.
Liz: Yes. Yes. My dad had a lot to say about that before he retired.
Anika: And again, she’s an engineer, and I think she’s a good mentor, but that doesn’t automatically translate to good professor. So it’s interesting.
Liz: Yeah. Yeah. And engineers — I recall because I shared a house with an engineering student once — engineering professors are notably bad for their interpersonal skills. So actually Jett is way ahead of the curve here.
It’s also interesting because these characters, the kids, they’re aged between 17 and 20. So in some ways they’re treated as adults, in some ways they’re infantilized and under tight control — they have to wear uniforms and all of that.
This whole Academy system is about turning them into independent adults. But at which point do you go, you’re an adult now, deal with it — and at which point are you giving them a safety net? The answer tends to vary depending on the individual.
Anika: Right, and should, because there is no one-size-fits-all for that.
Liz: But also it’s stuff like people keep telling Caleb to make his bed, but no one has actually shown him how to make his bed, which feels like a metaphor for how society treats young people.
Anika: Yes. Not to be me, but I’d seen your note that Tarima is Padmé, and then I was thinking about it and I was like, Caleb actually is very Anakin. And the bed part is the most — because Anakin came into the Jedi quote-unquote too old. He was nine, because they’re used to getting them when they are about three. He already knew who he was as an individual, so he didn’t know how to give up his identity to the whole.
But there are these whole arcs in some of the Extended Universe stuff where he’s picked on by his peers, partly because they’re annoyed that he skipped over the early years and is treated more specially, but partly because he doesn’t know how to, for example, make his bed. That’s probably not the right example because he had a mother, so he probably did know how to make his bed. But in that same way, he hangs on to things that he’s not supposed to.
And in Caleb’s case, it’s literal life skills. Because — and the saddest part about that is, he had a mother. A six-year-old is old enough to understand how to make a bed. That means they didn’t have beds. Like, they never had beds.
Liz: He straight-up says he’s never had a bed.
Anika: That is horrifying. Again, when you think about what happens to his mother, the levels of poverty, and then he was on the run for his entire life.
Liz: Yeah, yeah, it’s really rough.
Anika: Here’s another college story. Computer science — you go to school, you want to be a computer scientist. And intro level, it’s 101. You think that you’re going to learn everything you need to know in intro. You don’t have to come in with any prior knowledge, right?
But this kid didn’t have a laptop or a desktop computer during high school. They just had an iPad. They did all of their homework, all of their work, everything on an iPad. And so they get into their Computer Science 101, and it starts with copy and paste using shortcuts.
Liz: Oh, and those are skills you don’t use on an iPad.
Anika: They’re like, what are you talking about? They didn’t know what Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-C… they didn’t know what that meant because they didn’t have a keyboard. And it’s that kind of thing. How do you even ask if you don’t even know the things that you’re supposed to know? And of course, you’re not going to feel like you can go on to be a computer science major if on your first day in class, you already feel lost. But that’s an access issue.
So we are just saying — instead of assuming that everyone knows how to Control-C to copy, just do it once. You know, 99% of them will be rolling their eyes, but 1% will have no idea. And now they do. And it took nothing away from the class to do that.
So when you are thinking about these things and the different backgrounds that people come from — in this particular show, there’s a whole class of kids who were okay during the Burn years, who are able to go to Starfleet Academy because they went to school and were wealthy enough to survive without it being an impediment.
And then there’s going to be kids like Caleb who are the scrappy, this-is-my-ticket-out-of-poverty type kids. So they’re coming in at a different experience level simply because of their background. That doesn’t mean Caleb doesn’t know how to do plenty of things that everybody else doesn’t. It’s just different. It’s not one better or the other.
Liz: Well, I think kids not growing up in poverty is better — that’s the ultimate idea.
Anika: Obviously. What I mean is Caleb’s smarts aren’t necessarily better than Genesis’ smarts, and Genesis’ knowledge is not better than Caleb’s.
Liz: No.
Anika: Or knowledge, I should say.
Liz: It actually means a lot to me to see the depiction of poverty and effectively first-generation college students in Star Trek, because that has not really been a factor before. And we know that there are characters like Tasha who grew up in unsafe environments, but they’re always treated as the exception, and fandom frankly doesn’t want to hear about it. But I think it’s good to have characters from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds effectively.
And it feels like a metaphor for the 2020s — this whole thing. We have a generation who have grown up suffering from imperial decay and failures of the justice system and all of that. This feels like Star Trek as allegory, but the whole allegory is for the 2020s. Unfortunately.
Anika: But that’s why we need these kids. Yeah. I wrote it down — what did she say? I swear I wrote it down. Oh — children are ambassadors to now.
Liz: That whole scene with Admiral Vance, where he’s justifying the presence of the youth activists and all of that, it felt like he was explaining to the audience why Star Trek: Starfleet Academy exists.
And that was another bit that felt like a rebuke to Strange New Worlds and Picard — that a culture that doesn’t value its young people and the activism of young people is sterile and can’t thrive.
Anika: It was Nahle who was making most of the speech, but yes. To Kelrec, the War College guy who just doesn’t get it.
Liz: No, no.
Anika: He doesn’t want to put children in harm’s way. I’m not quite sure how meeting the president is harm, but okay.
Liz: I don’t know how he can justify that with his position running a War College.
Anika: Of the same age, quote-unquote children. But having said that, I find him interesting, because it’s always interesting to have a character whose values are completely different from the mainstream of the show. I want to learn more about this asshole.
Liz: He was fun. Nahle was clearly going out of her way to alienate him, and that’s fun.
Anika: Yeah.
Liz: The other adult characters I don’t have very much to say about. Admiral Vance is mostly here to deliver exposition and explain subtext, and I’m okay with that.
Oh my gosh — the writing is very 2020s in that it’s going to be explaining the subtext at all times. But it’s doing so with a bit more flair most of the time than Strange New Worlds, so I’m allowing it, mostly because I find these characters charming.
I find it really interesting that the president of Betazed, who I assume we’re not going to see much of, is Deaf and communicates with sign language. I thought that was a nice touch, and I feel like this is a show that’s unusually engaged with disability representation.
Anika: Yes.
Liz: I’m happy about that. Holly Hunter is deaf in one ear, so she’s hard of hearing, and I think having a character who uses sign — which I assume is ASL — is great.
And it made me think of the Season 2 episode of TNG with the telepathic ambassador who is Deaf, and he communicates with his telepathic crew who communicates his feelings. His chorus. And then they’re killed, and Deanna’s like, have you thought about learning sign language? And he’s like, this has never crossed my mind before.
Anika: He literally had a chorus of people following him around. I really liked that he signed and had the vocal — I guess it was a universal translator that spoke for him. And he was reading lips, but they also showed a guy who was doing the signs when everyone else spoke. They only showed him once, but they did establish that there was somebody who was the sign language interpreter in addition to his ability to read lips.
Liz: As I understand it, lip-reading is way more hit-and-miss than is often portrayed. So you need an interpreter as well.
Anika: Exactly. And both of the things — the electronic translator and the in-person translator — are both accommodations of a disability. So it’s not just disability representation, but a representation of disability accommodations.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: Which are linked, obviously, but I think are also separate. And I like that there’s a wheelchair user in the background of a few scenes.
Liz: And in the opening credits.
Anika: Yeah. And even Nahle’s glasses — her use of glasses as opposed to fixing her eyes or getting contacts or whatever. She has a phonograph, so it’s not just that she likes old things; it’s also the representation of different types of accommodations that exist and could exist.
It’s all of that together, I think, that is really important, because it’s saying, our future utopia doesn’t have to be without disability. It just means there are ways to make it so that disability is not a problem. You’re not disadvantaged because of it.
Liz: Yeah. And we actually see other characters in crowd scenes wearing glasses, so it’s not just Nahle. And it makes me wonder — did the Burn affect people’s access to medical technology, or is this a fashion choice? Are people being weird about Nahle and imitating her? Are these Meta Ray-Bans that have an AI feature — are they translators?
If a character has dyslexia, do their glasses translate text into something they can read? It’s a whole lot of different flavors of accommodation, and I really like it. We don’t think of glasses as assistive technology.
Anika: No, but they are — it’s just that everybody is eventually affected, and about half the population is affected from puberty. So it’s been normalized, but it’s absolutely an accommodation. It should be a part of regular health care.
Liz: Also, just back to the ASL interpreter — the Trump regime has been cutting back on the use of interpreters. They’re like, that’s too woke, we don’t need that. So to have that in Star Trek, I think, is important. This feels like it’s really engaged with the present moment.
Anika: There’s also a bridge crew.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: I just want to mention that there is a bridge crew. I only know one of their names, and it’s Ya — Lieutenant Ya, who has a streak of purple hair, and is played by a wrestler. The bridge crew are incredibly attractive, and I love them, but the scene where we go through their names really did feel like a — we’ve done our part, leave us alone.
Liz: It was very much a scene of, okay everybody, now do whatever you want with these people, but we’ve done our part — leave us alone.
Anika: And it’s also like, there is a bridge crew, but they are not the main characters. Can we please let it go? I really hope we can.
Liz: We can try.
So I feel like we’ve covered off our list of characters, but let’s talk about the beats. And I kind of started making a list of things fandom will complain about.
Anika: Yeah.
Liz: I feel like everyone who hated Dal and Michael and Raffi and Beckett Mariner and even Benjamin Sisko are going to hate Caleb. You know, he’s not really Starfleet material, for reasons that are completely unrelated to all the other Black characters being not-Starfleet material.
Anika: At this point, the pattern is visible from space.
Liz: It’s embarrassing.
Anika: Those people need to just know.
Liz: Yeah. Yeah.
Anika: Know.
Anika: The smart thing that this show did is give Nahle a speech about why we should all accept Caleb as part of Starfleet Academy in the second episode.
Liz: It felt like a contrast to the thing where people kept telling Uhura that she didn’t belong in Starfleet in Strange New Worlds.
Anika: Yes.
Liz: Nahle is not here for that.
Then people are already whinging about it being based in Discovery and the Burn, and I assume that they’re going to complain about the pro-food-theft agenda, because stealing food is fine — it’s killing people for it that’s bad — and blah, blah, blah.
There’s fan service for modern Star Trek as much as the Golden Age. I have been screaming for a full week about seeing Admiral Cornwell’s name on the Wall of Heroes. I’m not going to be okay about that. That was the moment I knew that this Star Trek was made specifically for me.
Anika: In the Wall of Heroes, which accommodates everybody — the little guys from Lower Decks, the little robot guys, one of whom went crazy with evil — are on there. And there is one of Rok-Tahk’s people.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: I feel like structurally, this series owes so much to Prodigy. This is such a post-Prodigy series in a way that I love.
Liz: Yes. They’re saying, that’s all Star Trek, so this is Star Trek because that’s all Star Trek. So yeah, we have the James T. Kirk Pavilion, but there’s plenty of fan service to everything else. The Wall of Heroes in the first episode — they go out of their way to make sure we see Admiral Kim.
Anika: Just so that everyone shuts up about it, I’m sure. And they have a few different people, but it ends with Giant Pike and Spock. And I was like, I didn’t need that. I could have used not ending on Giant Pike and Spock. But everybody’s on there. And we do get so many nods — Prodigy especially, because the Doctor’s there. And Sam name-checking Captain Gwyndala was amazing.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: Yeah, that was very, again, it’s all beautiful and wonderful.
Liz: It feels like a love letter to Star Trek without being uncritical of Star Trek or the Federation or Starfleet. And I appreciate that.
Anika: That’s a good way, which is yeah, so.
Liz: “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” — I hate that song. I think it’s garbage. But I really like that they used it, because it is so sincere and it’s an iconic boomer song. It’s one of those Summer of 1967, this-defined-an-era songs. And so using it proves that they’re not just going for the Gen Z audience, which I never actually believed. This is a show that takes its adult audience as seriously as the youth.
Anika: Right. And the song is available for digital purchase. It’s a cover by Rufus Wainwright.
Liz: Oh, I didn’t know that. That’s really cool.
Anika: Rufus Wainwright, he’s a big name, a big name. But I instantly thought of Shrek because he does the “Hallelujah” cover for Shrek. So when you wrote that it’s a boomer song and so they’re going after boomers — I was like, but they’re also going after millennials because it’s Rufus Wainwright doing the cover.
Liz: This is amazing.
Anika: And I could be wrong — maybe people won’t freak out about the song. But I feel like people are going to freak out about the song because, you know, that’s something that happens in Grey’s Anatomy. It’s not supposed to happen in Star Trek.
But I love pop songs. And again, for the 50th time, I love getting out of the 1920s. Now that we’re in 2026, I’m really happy that Star Trek has moved on from the 1920s in terms of getting quote-unquote popular things into their future-verse.
Liz: Yes. Yes.
Anika: And as much as you may hate this song, I do not hate this song.
Liz: It’s because my dad — when I was a little kid, my dad used to sing it, and he would sing it in this faux-serious way. So now I just can’t take it seriously as a piece of music. It’s just a family joke to me.
Anika: I see. Well, I definitely heard it as a kid because my parents were straight-up hippies.
Liz: You came by it honestly.
Anika: But it’s also used in The Rock and Sean Connery sings it.
Liz: Oh yeah.
Anika: Again, when I was reading your note, I was thinking — remember when it was in The Rock? I believe that that song makes it to this future because Starfleet Academy has always been in San Francisco, and that is the San Francisco song.
Liz: My personal rule for pop music in Star Trek is that I will accept anything pre-2008. 2008 is when Spotify launched and it’s basically marked the end of physical media. If you’re in the future and the post-World War III future, I feel like digital music is largely lost, whereas physical music and some MP3s survive.
And also, “San Francisco (Flowers in Your Hair)” harks back to a time when San Francisco was associated with youth culture and creativity and growth, as opposed to now where it’s associated with Silicon Valley and high cost of living and self-driving cars and, you know, the homelessness problem. I think it’s a really good idea to hark back to a previous idea of San Francisco.
Anika: To flower children. And these are the flower children. And they do have the petals and — it’s clearly a theme that these kids are blossoming.
Liz: The botanical imagery is not subtle.
Anika: No. So it’s yeah.
Liz: Honestly, nothing about this show is subtle, but in a way that I respect and enjoy.
I think a lot of people are going to complain about the quote-unquote modern dialogue. I only think it’s an issue for me with Paul Giamatti’s character, but I assume I’m going to be scrolling past a lot of whinging.
TOS never had this quote-unquote heightened dialogue that people talk about with the Berman era — that’s just how television was written then. Then in the 90s, Star Trek failed to evolve with the times. Now you have this prudish, oh no, we can’t use regular words like normal people. Obviously, it was a big deal that Archer was allowed to say “arse” in Enterprise. I just think that it’s hard to engage a new audience when people are talking like wankers. This is a show about attracting a new audience.
Yes, in 20 years some of this dialogue is going to be dated, but it’s always a product of its time regardless of what style they’re going for.
Anika: My take is if they were going to be quote-unquote realistic, they would have to write a new version of English. And none of us would understand it — so it would need subtitles. Since we’re not doing that, we can just say that the universal translator is translating it into our modern times and we use idioms. We use sayings. It’s dating something, but it would sound fake without it.
Liz: The best science fiction is always really about the era in which it’s written and made. And people treat Star Trek like it’s a documentary about the future — oh, we’re about to have World War III. Well, maybe we are, but not because of Star Trek. This feels like a show about the 2020s. And that’s what it should be.
Anika: Right.
Liz: But also, this is a Star Trek where in live action, we have a woman wearing a hijab, and that makes me really happy.
Anika: The evidence of multiculturalism and vast identities — that’s the way it would be. There are so many aliens, which is nice.
Liz: And there should be diversity among humans as well.
Anika: Yes, exactly.
Liz: I was just thinking about Bajor and how there are a lot of non-Bajorans when we see the school on Bajor, but I’m actually glad that Star Trek is out of its sticking-things-on-kids era. None of the kids are wearing prosthetics, and I’m happy about that.
Anika: Yeah, for a scene where they’re just getting ice cream, it’s not necessary. It’s not a Bajoran school, it’s a school on Bajor.
Liz: And I love the idea that Bajor, with its terrible history, has made itself a refuge for child refugees of the Burn.
Anika: Right, it’s actually beautiful for it to be on Bajor and to be a refugee spot. That’s great storytelling.
Liz: Yes, and this feels like a very post-Deep Space Nine series in a lot of ways as well.
Anika: Yeah.
Liz: People are going to be mad about the War College. Mostly I just have world-building questions that I want them to answer — like, when did this come about, and what role does it play, and is the idea that Starfleet is going to take over from the War College again?
And like Nahle says the Federation put all its eggs in the War College basket — but is the War College where General Ndoye of the Earth military came from? Do they have jaunty hats? I just want to know more. I’m not mad about its existence.
Anika: I’m just interested in seeing how it relates to Starfleet Academy. And making Betazed the new home of the capital of the Federation, or whatever — so they were talking about where is it going to be. It could be in Singapore or Paris. I like that Singapore was in the mix. There was a shout-out to Singapore.
Liz: No, same. I’ve long had a theory that Earth in the Star Trek era is basically Singapore in that it’s very, very nice and it’s great food and it’s really kind of sterile and a bit dull. But I like a shout-out to Singapore.
Anika: Shout-out to Singapore. But then the negotiation started and there was this whole thing. And I was like, oh, I see — I know how this ends. I figured out the ending right away, but that’s not a complaint. That means it’s good storytelling, because the story went where it was supposed to go. Just because I guessed the ending doesn’t mean I’m smarter than the story and it doesn’t mean they did something wrong. I was happy for them. I was like, yes, this is —
Liz: You understood the shape of the story they’re telling.
Anika: So when she said, I know what to do, I was like, I do too — I’m glad you finally figured it out on your end. To be fair, it is easier to be on the outside looking in than to be in the middle of it. But I was also excited. I was like, yes, get the UFP off of Earth. Especially since Starfleet Academy is still on Earth, so there’s still going to be plenty of people coming to Earth. And it shouldn’t — not to be a bad American, but we are not the center of the universe.
Liz: It definitely has the feel of we’re building a post-Earth Federation and finding a post-American hegemony world.
Anika: Yes, I know that Paris is not in America, but you know who was our ally during the American Revolution? And it’s just, Star Trek has always treated Earth as one big America.
Liz: Exactly. Going back to my least favorite scene in Deep Space Nine — the root beer scene — a drink which is meant to typify humanity and which basically only exists in America, maybe Canada, probably not Mexico.
Anika: You need a certain kind of tree to make root beer.
Liz: Yeah. We don’t grow that here. Anyway — and I like root beer, but it’s not what I… If I had to pick a beverage to typify the human race, I would say tea, because hot leaves in boiling water is a form of drink that exists everywhere on the planet. You know, it’s incredibly diverse and incredibly varied, but it’s something we all do.
Anyway, I have one big complaint about the premiere. The scene where Caleb has to walk through the arch and has had his hair changed — I understand that this is a trope, that you go to a military school, go to boot camp, your hair is shaved, but I also think that changing a Black person’s hair without their explicit consent is a microaggression and a pretty avoidable rake that they chose to step on, and they could have done it a different way.
Anika: Yeah. So I want one of those doors. I know that everybody’s working on the replicators and the transporters, and I know that’s important, but I want one of those doors.
Liz: I mean, you combine the replicators and the transporters, and this is what you get.
Anika: Exactly. And the holodeck, really. But yeah, I think you’re right.
And I also just don’t understand what was wrong with his hair. Caleb’s new hair is… the longer hair was better. And I understand the meta reasons behind it all, but if you look at other examples — Jay-Den’s hair got cut too, but only a little. And also that wasn’t necessary, because I’ve seen Worf and there are plenty of girls with long hair going down to their mid-back or longer. And Caleb’s hair was shorter than Jay-Den’s new hair. It could have been pulled back, you know, the way that Sam’s is. I don’t understand why this haircut is necessary at all, based on what the other characters have.
Liz: Yes. And Jay-Den still has his piercings. Genesis has her piercings and wears a ton of rings. Same with Tarima. So it’s like, what’s regulation in this situation?
Anika: A random girl has a nose ring.
Liz: Yeah, I would have assumed that the rules at the Academy for cadets are stricter than the rules for officers, because that’s kind of how it goes. You’re on a tight leash and then you demonstrate your maturity and you get to have your piercings and your hair colors and whatever. But it doesn’t seem consistent, and it feels like Caleb is being singled out. And it was the only part of the premiere that didn’t feel great to me.
Anika: I just don’t understand. This scene doesn’t make sense, is where I’m at with it — other than to give him something to be annoyed with, and to use the actor’s actual hair.
Liz: Yes, they want to use the military tropes, but they haven’t necessarily engaged with them fully.
And then you contrast that with Nahle, who has earned the right to be messy and barefoot and out of uniform. I wrote, I cannot be normal about Captain Ake’s posture. And I stand by that.
Anika: I love everything about her. That scene where she’s barefoot and out of uniform and flaunting it is so great. It’s so good.
And yes, the way she curls up on the chair — it’s so cute. It’s so anti-authoritarian. She shows so much personality and she’s still completely in command the whole time, regardless of what she’s wearing or what her hair looks like. She’s earned her place.
And I love that she and Caleb are just exactly the same in that. And I always feel like it is this — he is going to learn that if he plays along well enough, eventually he gets to write his own story.
Liz: Yeah.
Anika: Right now it’s like, stay within the lines.
Liz: Which is not something he’s good at, and not something that he is totally being supported in. I feel like Nahle is doing a better job than Janeway with Dal — who is just like, off you go, kid.
But I think the difference between Nahle and Janeway is that Nahle actively embraces being a teacher and a mentor. And Janeway is like, call me when you’re old enough to drink.
Anika: Yes. Yes. Janeway cares deeply about Starfleet’s regulations. It makes sense on Voyager for there to be a greater sense of discipline than perhaps on other Federation ships, because they’re so alone — they have to create the Federation themselves. But also, again, Janeway is an Admiral’s daughter, and she was the little wild child of the Admiralty. She’s not a Nahle.
Liz: And that’s the thing. Nahle tried following the rules, and she tried colouring within the lines, and the result was that a child was separated from his mother and lost. She seems to believe very deeply in the Federation and in the spirit of the rules, but not the letter of the law. And I think that’s really smart.
Anika: Great.
Liz: And I also think you need someone with that level of flexibility to be running a school. If you want someone who’s just going to follow the rules, you have War College Guy.
Anika: Right. And when Sam is talking about, I have been programmed to be a 17-year-old, so I’m going to have time with friends and reasonable hijinks — you have to assume that kids are going to get up to a certain level of shenanigans.
Liz: There’s going to be mischief.
Anika: Because of the age group. And you want them to. You don’t want them to be little robots.
Liz: No, otherwise they’ll burn out before graduation. They need to act out and make mistakes and be silly and ridiculous.
Anika: That’s how you learn and grow. Yeah.
Liz: And it’s not really a problem until a cadet dies in a flying mishap that turns out to be an unauthorized maneuver and then you lie about it, Wesley.
Anika: But yeah, let’s not go there.
Liz: So, shipping news. We have a lot to get through here.
Anika: It’s a long one, it’s a long one. We ship everybody.
Liz: Nahle is 422 years old, so I ship her with basically everyone, except for the current generation kids — and also Nus Braka. I thought I would ship it, but I actually don’t. I think he ships it.
Anika: He ships it, but he was also flirting with the bridge officer, so he’s just gross.
Liz: Yeah, yeah. He actually gives me Gul Dukat vibes.
Anika: I don’t like him. I know he’s the villain. I was not supposed to like him, but I don’t like him.
Liz: I don’t yearn for a redemption arc.
Anika: No, no. Yeah, he can be a bad guy, and then go out in style or whatever.
Liz: But I think your Harry Mudd comparison is really apt, because his relationship with Nahle reminded me of the relationship between Mudd and Lorca, and I actually do ship that. So this is a very rare instance where I ship the male-male version but not the male-female version. Never happened before.
Anika: It came across as him playing with her, and he just thinks he’s a superior person who should get what he wants.
Liz: Yeah.
Anika: And is gross. I don’t like him.
Liz: Male entitlement as the villain is very fitting, but I’m just not going to ship it and that’s okay. I don’t have to ship everything. It’s fine. I thought I would and I was wrong.
Nahle and Vance, on the other hand, absolutely exes. Before he got married and settled down, and probably even before he was with Rayner, because Rayner is also absolutely his ex. But I don’t think Nahle and Rayner would have a thing, because I don’t think they’d get along. Rayner was a War College person for sure.
Anika: Rayner was such a War College person. I was like, okay, this is where he came from. Got it. It all makes sense now.
So Nahle and Vance — I really want them to have met when he was in his late 20s, maybe mid-20s. Not a cadet, not Caleb-aged, but a young officer who had a crush on her, and then he got older and older and it became more appropriate. The weirdness of their ages is interesting to me.
Liz: No, I’m really into it.
Anika: I’m really into the idea that he met her when he was fresh-faced.
Liz: Yes. And have you seen young Oded Fehr? Oh my God.
Anika: Oh my God. And now they’re peers.
Liz: Yeah. In fact, now he’s her boss.
Anika: Now he’s her boss, but she knows him — she knew him when. And he has a lot of affection for her.
Liz: Oh, their hug is so great. Again, with the not pretending Holly Hunter is tall.
Anika: I just love it. I love the way that he smiles at her when she’s giving Caleb a hard time. He’s enjoying it — he’s like, I’m not supposed to be happy about this, but I’m totally happy about this. And even when she’s doing poorly during the negotiations, he’s just sort of like, I can’t be mad at her for being who she is.
Liz: The vibe I get is that he likes her, and that’s just very attractive.
Anika: Yes. Yes.
Liz: Yeah. And I think there’s a lot of room for shipping with the kids. Basically, I am willing to ship Caleb with basically everyone. I feel like Caleb and Genesis is too on the nose. And I feel like we’re meant to think that Genesis and Darem are the thing because they’re so alike.
Anika: Yes. Based on my experience with teen shows, I think there should be a lot of bed-hopping. Everybody should be with everybody at some point over the next four years. Because Genesis does have some interest in Caleb. There’s already a love triangle, slash quadrangle — I guess that’s a square. Caleb and Genesis, Darem and Genesis, Caleb and Darem, Caleb and Tarima — there are a lot of different things happening there. I do feel like Genesis had a look of being sad that he was interested in Tarima.
Liz: Yeah. She seems to be keeping her options open.
Anika: Yeah. She’s also the one who said, don’t hook up with anyone in the first six months.
Liz: Because that’s just messy. And I think that’s another sign of how she’s familiar with this sort of environment. And also she’s attracted to people, but she’s not necessarily going to act on that attraction.
Anika: Right. Darem is totally into Genesis, but — Darem and Caleb, they’re obviously roommates.
Liz: Obviously.
Anika: That’s going to happen because they hate each other begrudgingly. They do actually respect each other, but they don’t want to, and they’re mad about it.
Liz: Yeah. I think this could be the first Star Trek in a while with a big slash pairing, because I feel like they have a vibe and they have a spark, and that’s going to be fun.
Anika: There has to be some slash pairing here. Look at them all. It has to happen.
Liz: This is a stupidly attractive cast. Bella Shepard has the fillers-and-skincare-regime look that makes her look slightly artificial, which makes her really good for Genesis, who is an alien from the far future. But I look at her face and I’m like, you are so beautiful, you don’t look real.
Anika: Yes. And I love the design of her facial markings — whatever they are.
Liz: Oh, yeah. It’s so good.
Anika: It’s got a little angelic thing going on and I really like it. Then Tarima’s brother — I really tried to find out what his name is.
Liz: I keep forgetting. I wrote it down, but I don’t know where and I can’t find it. But yeah, I love him. I love that he’s part of the group. I kind of hope that he is a chaos bisexual because he has that vibe, and he’s Betazoid.
Anika: He definitely has that vibe. I was like, okay, if anyone’s queer, it’s this guy.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: But I love him. I’m so excited to have siblings. You have no idea.
Liz: My favorite thing about Fallout — the TV series Fallout with Ella Purnell, Gwyndala — is following her and her brother on their separate adventures and knowing that they will come together by the end, probably. I didn’t realize I was hungry for siblings in Star Trek until Tarima’s brother joined the Academy.
Anika: So when he leaves to go talk to her when she’s running off to see Caleb, I was so scared. I was like, don’t be an obnoxious, overprotective older brother. Then he was like, go get her, girl.
Liz: I think it’s a great idea.
Anika: I was like, I can’t believe I’m not only getting siblings, but I’m getting siblings who are each other’s, you know, that type of siblings. Not the obnoxious patriarchal brother — he’s a chaos bisexual.
Liz: They’re not necessarily best friends, but they’re also not antagonistic.
Anika: No, they’re just there. I mean, if they’d said they were twins, I would totally believe it. I don’t think there’s more than a year between them.
Liz: I actually thought that Tarima was the older one and he was a younger brother. But yeah, I think they’re absolutely very close in age. I actually think that Tarima might be the older one, because we want her to be over 18 so she can date Caleb, who is 20 or 21. That’s my guess.
Anika: She called him older brother.
Liz: Oh, okay.
Anika: Yeah. He does not act like it. He definitely does not act like it. But she’s very sheltered, so who knows how old she is. I think the only ones whose ages we fully have are Sam, who’s 17, slash seven months, and Caleb, who’s 21. I don’t think anyone else’s age is confirmed.
Liz: No. I assume they’re all 17 or 18-ish, because that’s a standard age.
Anika: I think Sam being the youngest makes sense. That’s fine.
Liz: And Darem looks older, but he behaves in a very young way. So I think he might be at the younger end — more of a Sam than a Caleb.
My only other ship to discuss — I’m not really committed to any of the young people ships, because like you said, I think they’re going to move around, and I don’t know where I want to commit. Whereas Jett and Lura — I do. I think I actually need them to kiss. I said maybe I don’t, but I was wrong. I really hope that they have a thing.
Anika: It would be a cute little background romance.
Liz: Yeah. Or they’re exes and they both want to get back together, but they don’t want to admit it. So they have this antagonistic push-pull, flirt-fight thing. That would be fun. I just think that watching them interact is going to be super enjoyable.
Anika: Yes. And we need some adult ships. Come on.
Liz: Oh, my gosh. Yes. I love the kids. I’m very much pro-YA Star Trek, but I do need adults that I can care about as well.
Anika: There has been a lot of romance in Strange New Worlds. So Star Trek has turned a corner, I guess. And even if Strange New Worlds didn’t exist, I feel like you can’t have a team-based series without bed-hopping, or relationship-shopping. That’s just, you know — every Starfleet Academy AU I’ve ever written is just a friend group where they’re all kind of sleeping with each other at some point. And that’s just how it is.
Liz: It’s time for Star Trek to give us a queer polycule drama.
Anika: Yes. But I would also like to have some adult romance. Just to have it — it’s a different flavor of romance. And it isn’t represented, because Strange New Worlds — all those romances are obnoxiously young adults.
Liz: That’s the thing. I think I’m much more open to the YA romances in Starfleet Academy because these people are not meant to be adults in their 20s and 30s.
Anika: Right.
Liz: Whereas with Strange New Worlds, I’m kind of like, why did you not get this out of your system 10 years ago? Did you not go to the Academy?
Anika: Yeah, no. It actually kind of makes sense that La’an, who has been hyper-focused on other things, would have a bit of an immature approach to relationships. But that doesn’t excuse Spock and Christine. Christine is fine — she’s the only adult in the room.
Liz: It’s just the way they’re portrayed. And I know that it’s a younger Spock and so they’re playing into that, but it’s annoying. But let’s not complain about Strange New Worlds in our Starfleet Academy episode.
Anika: No, no, no. I’m just going to say I look forward to all of the shipping, and I look forward to all of the fan fiction.
Liz: Yes, yes, and the fan art.
Anika: Do me proud, fandom.
Liz: I am actually going to finish up here and have my breakfast and have my shower, and then I’m going to pull out my sketchbook and draw Nahle with her two ice cream cones.
Anika: Adorable.
Liz: And then I have to sit on it for another week because we’ve got eight days before it premieres.
Anika: It’s coming. Yeah, yeah.
Liz: I really love this show and I’m really excited to talk about it.
Anika: I’m so happy. I love this show. I think the second episode was superior to the first. It was a lot more of the show that I want, which is about world-building through relationship-building rather than action and quips — and there was a lot of action and quips in the first episode.
Liz: And it’s interesting how much of the second episode is just the main characters as the audience watching people talk. You go to Starfleet Academy to watch Star Trek happen in front of you, basically.
Anika: I like it.
Liz: Live nude Star Trek.
Anika: But you haven’t liked Star Trek in a while, so I’m actually super excited for how much you like this. It’s really heartwarming.
Liz: I really did feel like if I didn’t care for Starfleet Academy, I was going to say, that’s it, the problem is me — I need to move on and find a new fandom and put this podcast on ice for a while. And I don’t feel that way. And I’m really happy.
Anika: Yay.
Liz: We can keep going with the podcast. You’re stuck with me.
Anika: Good to know.
Thank you for listening to Antimatter Pod. You can find our show notes at antimatterpod.com, including links to our social media, credits for our theme music, and transcripts of our episodes. You can follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and Bluesky, all at antimatterpod, and on Mastodon at antimatterpod @tenforward.social.
If you like us, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you consume your podcasts — the more reviews, the easier it is for new listeners to find us, and tell your friends. And join us in a week when we will be discussing the next episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, “Vitus Reflex”.
Liz: Hooray!