Review: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1 Episode 1 “Kids These Days”
A confident, emotionally grounded premiere introduces a new generation of cadets while honoring Star Trek’s legacy of hope, responsibility, and coming-of-age discovery in a post-Burn galaxy.
With the galaxy still recovering from the Burn—the catastrophic event that crippled warp travel for decades around the year 3000—the Federation is finally prepared to re-establish Starfleet Academy. Once responsible for training generations of Starfleet officers, the legendary institution now serves as the foundation for the new Star Trek series that bears its name. The premiere episode, “Kids These Days,” directed by franchise showrunner Alex Kurtzman, largely delivers on its promise, launching a fresh adventure centered on self-discovery and a diverse new class of cadets.
Torn Apart
The series opens on Federation Outpost Pikaru with a bleak turning point in the life of young Caleb Mir (Solen Morales). He is forcibly separated from his mother, Anisha (Tatiana Maslany), after she aligns herself—out of desperation—with the pirate Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti). Their situation unravels when Braka attacks a Federation supply vessel, resulting in the death of a Starfleet officer.
Anisha is sentenced by Pikaru’s commanding officer, Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter), to a rehabilitation facility, while Caleb is designated a ward of the Federation. That arrangement lasts only moments: Caleb quickly escapes Pikaru and spends the next 15 years drifting from place to place, developing a troubled reputation. His journey eventually leads him to the planet Toroth, where a failed attempt to rescue his mother ends with his capture and imprisonment.
“You hold on to how much you hate me now, kid. It’ll keep you warm at night.”
– Braka to Caleb when Caleb’s mom is sentenced.
For her part, Ake feels devastatingly guilty by her role in the separation of Caleb and his mom, and resigns from Starfleet to run the “Little Blooms” child education center on Bajor. After 15 years of this peaceful life, she is recruited by Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr, reprising his role from Discovery) to head up the recommissioned Starfleet Academy as its chancellor; the time has come for the Academy to once again play a prominent role in shaping young Starfleeters. Ake’s decision to rejoin Starfleet is driven by the reappearance of Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta); she can now potentially atone for her part in the traumatic event he experienced 15 years prior.
It’s worth noting that we learn in this scene on Bajor that Ake is part Lanthanite, a race of beings who are almost immortal. Ake is more than 400 years old by the time Starfleet Academy takes place, and it’s clear she has become wise in the art of diplomacy, leadership, and conflict resolution. This vast experience will surely align nicely with her role as Starfleet Academy’s chancellor, and we can’t help but wonder if her super-long lifespan might play a more important role as we get deeper into the series. Surely there’s a good reason why she’s that old?
Back Into Service
Seeing an opportunity to get Caleb on the right track following 15 years of… well… being on the wrong track, Ake enlists the young man to serve a cause greater than himself. Mir, for his part, is encouraged to go to Starfleet Academy not only to avoid the slammer, but to find his mother, who he learns escaped from prison a year ago.
Ake and Mir find themselves in short order arriving at the U.S.S. Athena, the glamorous starship that houses Starfleet Academy. The Athena, a ship whose design evokes the phoenix and thus a fitting symbol for Starfleet Academy, makes a strong first impression. The brief arrival sequence highlights the vessel’s striking features, including its wing-like warp nacelles, a circular saucer reminiscent of the Discovery, and the Starfleet emblem prominently displayed on the hull.
“That thing is taking us to the school?”
“That thing is the school.”
– Mir and Ake upon seeing Athena.
Once on the ship, we are introduced to a variety of characters, all of whom are adequately interesting. Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diane) is a Klingon cadet and would-be medical officer who forms a fast friendship with Mir. Series Acclimation Mill (Kerrice Brooks), or Sam for short, is a Kasqian, a race of holograms; she is only a few weeks old, but appears to be a teenager. Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard), daughter of a Starfleet admiral and a member of the Dar-Sha, a race new to the Star Trek universe, makes a compelling first impression thanks to her dry sense of humor and an intelligence that seems to betray her young years.
Some stewards of Starfleet Academy include The Doctor (Robert Picardo, reprising his live-action role from Star Trek: Voyager), marking the much-advertised return of the emergency medical hologram to the Star Trek universe. The Doctor explains to a cadet that he instituted some aging algorithms into his program, which explains why he appears older than when he was on Voyager. Otherwise, Picardo seems to slip back into the role without any problem — although we must say his introduction scene is pretty unceremonial. Finally, Gina Yashere plays Lura Thok, Athena’s Klingon-Jem’Hadar first officer and hilariously hardline disciplinarian.
Second Star to the Right
With the crew and its cadets accounted for, Athena sets off on her voyage to Earth to rejoin its San Francisco-based sister site. On the way, we are introduced to Darem Reymi (George Hawkins), an egotist who proves to be the resident bully when he picks on Jay-Den Kraag, of all people; George’s antics are stopped by the convenient intervention of Mir and The Doctor.
Later, when he thinks he’s alone, Mir clandestinely takes a stab at contacting his long-lost mother by sending out a subspace message using an encryption key Anisha taught her son — but also one Nus Braka can detect, unbeknownst to Caleb. The Athena soon detects strange readings near the Badlands, and upon investigation, she is ambushed by Braka. Really, what are the chances Braka is hanging around Athena’s path to Earth at the same time Mir accidentally clues the pirate onto his location?
Braka ensnares Athena with a hitherto unknown type of programmable matter, effectively crippling the vessel. As his hologram struts around the bridge of the Athena — one of the most memorable scenes of this episode — Braka explains he wants the ship’s warp drive, and that Mir’s subspace message alerted him to Athena’s location. Playing smart, Chancellor Ake seemingly hands over the tech to Braka, but she, her bridge crew, and the cadets have another plan in mind.
“Time, with its infinite sense of humor, will always fold upon itself like an origami chicken. And this moment is that chicken. In other words, payback’s a bitch.”
– Braka to Ake.
During the siege of Athena, the cadets are the ones who prove their worth and save the ship. Mir, what with his expert knowledge of programmable matter, devises a plan to rid the ship of the shield Braka used to trap them; Mir is aided by Darem, who, despite his antagonistic introduction, proves to be altruistic by nearly sacrificing himself to help Mir’s plan succeed (along with an assist from Genesis). Jay-Den Kraag and Sam, meanwhile, save Thok’s life, as she was critically injured during the attack.
How does Darem help Mir’s plan? Caleb needs a piece of programmable matter from the hull so he can break the matter’s encryption, thus freeing the ship from Braka’s entrapment. Normally, one could just walk on the hull with an EV suit and gather samples of the programmable matter, but on this ship, cadets aren’t allowed to don EV suits themselves for spacewalks without an instructor with them.
This limitation is frustrating and arbitrary. Wouldn’t it present more of a safety hazard if cadets can’t activate EV suits themselves? As it is, this restriction offers a pretty flimsy excuse for Darem to risk his life to remove the programmable matter from Athena, but it does provide a chance for the young man to shine and show his initiative. Moreover, his spacewalk is one of the most striking visuals from this episode, what with all the neat particle effects floating around the young man as he almost freezes to death.
Ake fools Braka and his men into fleeing Athena to avoid a warp core breach, but Braka sees through Ake’s deception and beams back to Athena in time for a brief melee with Mir as the young man tries to save the ship. This confrontation between Braka and Mir raised our eyebrows; we would love to know how Braka knew where Mir was going to be in the seconds after Braka left engineering, and why, after seeing through Ake’s deception, Braka didn’t beam back to the Athena with more crew. In any case, once Mir’s plan succeeds, Braka is devastated as the Athena destroys his ship, leaving him to flee in a convenient escape pod. (Why didn’t Athena snag the fleeing Braka?) We’ll surely see the pirate again, now with a renewed vengeance.
Coming Home
With their adventure over, the Athena arrives at Earth and takes its place in San Francisco, a sequence that only deepened our fondness for this new hero ship. In a tender moment between Chancellor Ake and Caleb, the latter of whom is facing consequences for using an unauthorized communication frequency and thus allowing Braka to attack Athena, Ake allows Mir to stay at Starfleet Academy as long as he sticks to campus and completes some menial labor.
You see, Ake sees much potential in Mir as a future leader — and more than that, she sees in Mir her lost son, who perished during the Burn. Mir, for his part, is seemingly starting to see Ake as a guide through his academic career, if not totally a motherly figure, as evidenced by the young man picturing his mom in the window reflection in San Francisco, only to turn around and see Ake instead.
Analysis
Taken together, Starfleet Academy isn’t flawless, but “Kids These Days” undeniably represents a compelling direction for Star Trek by introducing both a fresh adventure and a dynamic new, younger cast — one that’s complimented by equally compelling adults. The show’s focus on formative years, including the intense trials, personal tribulations, academic pressures, and complex social dynamics that inherently come along with adolescence, is already the show’s greatest strength.
This new generation of cadets offers a compelling range of personalities designed undoubtedly to resonate deeply with younger viewers. From Caleb Mir, the troubled but resourceful outcast, to Jay-Den Kraag, the earnest and compassionate aspirant, and Genesis Lythe, the sharp-witted, sarcastic skeptic, “Kids These Days” successfully incorporates a variety of teenage archetypes. Notably, the series also introduces Sam, the awkward, rapidly-learning hologram whose journey of discovery among flesh-and-blood people will likely mirror the profound growth experienced during adolescence. By presenting these diverse perspectives, the show ensures younger audiences will find a relatable reflection of their own struggles with identity, friendship, authority, and finding their place in a complex universe.
We found a lot to like about the performances from the seasoned actors here, too. Holly Hunter certainly strikes a style of her own, illustrated best by her unorthodox manner of sitting in her luxurious captain’s chair. Behind her eyes hides a deep pain brought by the loss of her son and then later the separation of Mir and his mother, but her optimism about rebuilding the Academy is infectious. Paul Giamatti, meanwhile, is already offering a fantastic performance as the unhinged Nus Braka; he absolutely steals every scene he’s in. Gina Yashere as Lura Thok, for her part, offers key bits of comic relief with her tough-as-nails, take-no-prisoners attitude; if Thok can successfully intimidate the towering Caleb Mir, we think she can do anything.
The visual aesthetic of Starfleet Academy is clearly a continuation of the modern design philosophy established by its predecessors, Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The production design is marked by a deliberate focus on sleekness, high polish, and a bright, hyper-detailed approach. Each set is crafted to appear meticulously futuristic and functional. This sense of realism and scale is achieved through a sophisticated combination of practical, physical props and set pieces that offer tangible detail, integrated seamlessly with expansive digital extensions. The result is a vibrant, technologically advanced future that maintains a recognizable connection to the broader, updated look of 21st-century Star Trek.
Our greatest takeaway from this episode of Starfleet Academy, like Discovery before it, is that it seems like this series is going to be a product of its time. Case in point: Vance asserts to Ake that “these kids are inheriting a broken world that they did not create, but have to clean up,” and later in the episode Ake asserts to the students and a couple younger bridge officers that their generation “knows better than others” about the struggle that has led them to the stars. These messages could totally be interpreted as an allegory to all to the trials and tribulations our world is facing today, and how the younger generations will be the ones who have to deal with long-term consequences.
Yes, we’ve enrolled in Starfleet Academy, and we’re looking forward to what comes of this new adventure.
Stray Thoughts:
- What about reaching down to pick up Caleb’s bear made Ake realize he stole her communicator?
- Just how did Caleb survive Pikaru in the middle of a sandstorm?
- For those who were disappointed about the lack of intro credits sequence, don’t worry, they start with episode two.
- When confronting Caleb in prison, Ake asserts he must have used programmable matter to hack a security system. Why does she assume that? As it is, this line only seems to set up Caleb’s expert understanding of programmable matter when Braka attacks Athena.
- Considering Caleb’s criminal record, some of which we see during his shuttle ride down to Toroth, it’s surprising Ake was never able to find him even though she was supposedly searching for him every day for 15 years.
- We would love to know how the appearance generator works on the Athena. Caleb’s hair got cut to regulation, but Kraag’s didn’t?
- We’re all for a good easter egg, but the wall of recognition that features dozens of distinguished officers from Starfleet’s history is pretty indulgent, even for our tastes; it’s like only names we would recognize are remembered in the annals of Starfleet history, even hundreds of years after many of these characters lived. There are some real-life people on this list, too, like Tawny Newsome, who voiced Beckett Mariner on Lower Decks, and Kristen Beyer, a writer and producer on numerous Star Trek productions.
- During the electives selection event, we see a sign up table for Parrises Squares, the classic Star Trek game seen in TNG, Voyager, and Prodigy.
- Speaking of Prodigy, Sam is in awe of The Doctor, who she remembers was a guiding figure for the crew of the Protostar – which is seemingly a sensitive topic for The Doctor. What’s the story there?
- Why was Genesis near the communication station being used by Caleb when he was sending a message to his mom?
- The U.S.S. Discovery gets a passing mention, as she’s undergoing a retrofit during the events of this episode but is unable to spore-jump to help Athena to fight Braka.
- Doug Drexler is probably cringing at Athena‘s ability to land on a planet.
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