Review: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1 Episode 3 “Vitus Reflux”
Starfleet Academy teaches its students many things, and the virtues of proper leadership is on the lesson plan for this week as the cadets face off against the War College in a series of pranks that lead to poignant lessons along the way.
The War Ignites
Three weeks into the semester, a rivalry is breaking out among those at the Academy and those at the War College, the latter of which is led by the uptight Kelrec (Raoul Bhaneja). The aggression starts in the gym as little more than playground taunts, but graduates into something more when the War College cadets beam some Academy cadets — some with little to no clothing on — around campus as the first in a series of pranks.
The Academy cadets want payback, naturally. Chancellor Ake (Holly Hunter) dismisses the advice of Commander Lura Thok (Gina Yashere), who advocates for a more martial approach to crack down on the prank war, to the surprise of no one. Instead, Ake hatches a plan, the details of which are hidden from the students until the end of the episode.
Ake introduces the students to the plant Vitus Reflux, a rare fungus that can mimic speech, as a way to cool their hot-headedness to get back at the War College. During this scene in the botany lab, we also learn the War College’s transporter prank wasn’t original, as an Academy student back in the 28th century did a similar, more elaborate transporter-based prank. Ake urges the students to follow advice from The Art of War and learn patience and respect for the opponent before committing to a plan.
“They grew up in the Burn. I’m not going to crush the life out of them anymore than the universe already has.”
– Ake as she turns down Thok’s advice to crack down on the budding prank war.
In addition to this rivalry, Starfleet Academy cadets are competing amongst themselves, as they need to form a team to play in the popular campus sport, calica. This sport involves one team trying to pick off the opposing team with transporter phasers and successfully shoot a target hovering above a mascot. Try-outs for this game are intense, mimicking an actual warzone, much to the surprise and chagrin of a few cadets. Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta), the lone wolf who initially turned down joining the team until Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard) signed him up, turns out to be a great player, and Sam (Kerrice Brooks), the hologram, has an advantage, in that transporter shots go straight through her.
Growing Pains
Naturally, there can only be one captain of the calica team, and Genesis and Darem Reymi (George Hawkins), who have adopted a bit of competitiveness with each other since arriving at the Academy, compete for the top slot during try-outs. Knowing about Genesis’ sensitive history with her dad, a Starfleet admiral, Darem plays dirty and distracts Genesis enough with unkind words to secure his place as team captain.
Did anyone else think Genesis’ reaction to Darem’s taunts was a bit too dramatic, considering what we know about her personality and competitive focus? Surely she has faced bullying about her admiral dad before. Would she have been so completely distracted by Darem’s comment as to take her attention wholly away from the shootout and thus lose the competition?
Darem isn’t one to make fun of family troubles, though, as we learn in this episode he has a dysfunctional relationship with both his mother and father; he is trying, perhaps too hard, to earn their approval by excelling at Starfleet Academy, even if it’s to his own personal detriment. To his credit, Darem does ultimately recognize later in the episode the error of his ways thanks to sage advice given by Jett Reno (Tig Notaro). He apologizes to Genesis for being so rude, and asserts she is a better leader. We didn’t expect such a display of humility from someone who so clearly thinks highly of himself, but what is school for if not to teach valuable life lessons?
After the sequence involving calica try-outs, the War College pranks our protagonists again — this time by creating an ad for Starfleet Academy that makes the cadets look like fools. Ake meets with Kelrec in a scene that illustrates just how different the two characters are — he is enormously uptight, even about things he enjoys, like tea, and she is casual, and, most importantly, empathic to the needs of the students. Ake, for her part, isn’t happy that Kelrec helped his cadets access the footage they used to make the Academy cadets look like fools — not that he suffers any consequences for doing so. No, Kelrec never receives any backlash (except from Ake) about his role in the prank war between the War College and Starfleet Academy. How is that okay?
In return for the ad, the Starfleet Academy cadets challenge the War College to a calica match after hours, which leads to Genesis blossoming as the clear leader for her team, while Darem proves himself too self-focused, obnoxious, and lacking faith in his fellow cadets. When Darem is sidelined with a penalty, Genesis picks up the slack by creating a winning strategy for her team — although the match is halted when the clandestine game is discovered by Thok and Reno.
The Academy team is sent to Chancellor Ake to get chewed out, and she, let’s say, creatively emphasizes how growth is achieved through patience and smarts, not just brute force. Her delivery and choice of words during this scene is, on the surface, confusing; you might even think she was intoxicated. But what she really is doing is planting the seeds of a plan for the cadets to follow. So, if you think there’s a double meaning to Ake’s words of wisdom here, you’re correct, but the cadets don’t realize that until later.
The haymaker the Starfleeters want to deliver to their rivals involves planting plenty of Vitus Reflux in War College dorms. Accomplishing this legendary prank requires Caleb, in a mugato costume, to break into Kelrec’s office with a bio-programmable matter version of the chancellor’s eye and disable the dorm’s security system. Sam can then spray Vitus Reflux into the dorms; the following morning, the plants spread quickly and destructively around the War College. The cadets’ success in this endeavor impresses even Kelrec, who concedes to Chancellor Ake that her approach to teaching these kids how to deal with adversity was wise.
“The War College teaches its cadets to fight battles. I’m teaching you to end wars.”
– Ake to Caleb.
In a conversation with Caleb at the end of the episode, Ake confirms that she had been dropping hints about how to get back at the War College the entire time, but that she didn’t want to come right out and advise the kids what they should do, lest she be like Kelrec; she wanted them to figure it out for themselves. She also confirms she was the one who, all those years ago, played a transporter prank during her time at Starfleet Academy, which earns quite a bit of respect from Caleb. Finally, she delivers a brief but inspiring monologue about how Starfleet goes beyond following the martial course of action; instead, the institution and those within it will thrive by showing patience, empathy, and grace.
A Budding Relationship
While he is helping his friends and slowly becoming part of a team — something he isn’t used to — Caleb is dealing with his complicated, nascent relationship with Tarima Sadal (Zoe Steiner), who joined the War College. Still feeling uneasy about how they ended things following her arrival at Starfleet Academy in the previous episode, Tarima is a bit annoyed at Caleb and resistant to beginning a more friendly relationship.
Later in the episode, during an honest conversation with him — the seriousness of which is somewhat amusingly sabotaged by the young man being in the mugato costume — Tarima tells Caleb he makes her feel “out of control,” not a good thing for the Betazoid. She also admits she chose the War College so she could learn the discipline needed to control her empathic abilities, and that she is able to sense how Caleb is growing to like the Academy and the people he is with. A quick kiss between the two young people holds the promise of a normal romantic relationship on the horizon.
A Time to Grow
Taken together, “Vitus Reflux” succeeds most at portraying life at Starfleet Academy, where it’s not just classes and exercise, but also growing bonds with classmates and tackling challenges together. The crew of cadets we’ve been introduced to are growing stronger as a unit, and personalities are becoming more apparent, like Genesis’ leadership potential, Caleb slowly losing his lone wolf status, and Darem’s capacity for humility. Chancellor Ake, meanwhile, certainly gets her moment in the spotlight, as her unorthodox guidance for the cadets, however hidden, is born from hundreds of years of experience and proves to be correct.
Indeed, the ultimate success of the cadets in “Vitus Reflux” is found in Chancellor Ake’s unorthodox, multi-layered guidance, which serves as the core of the episode’s message. Her final monologue — and her earlier decision to prioritize teaching the cadets “how to end wars” over crushing their life force — is a powerful statement on post-Burn Starfleet values. The episode establishes that the aggressive, sometimes reckless behavior of the cadets is a consequence of growing up in an era defined by conflict and scarcity, which is why a martial approach like Commander Thok’s would have failed. The true victory in this episode, therefore, is not the Vitus Reflux prank, but a successful examination of Starfleet’s new vision of leadership.
While “Vitus Reflux” didn’t strike as strong a cord with us as the first two episodes did, it’s still an effective early entry for this show; we feel a deeper connection to these characters now, and they feel a deeper connection with each other.
Stray Thoughts:
- If Sam was able to find disciplinary records related to the transporter incident from the 28th century, why didn’t she also see it was Ake who was responsible?
- The Starfleet Academy mascot for calica is a lapling, a small creature we saw in TNG’s “The Most Toys.”
- There’s a hint of attraction between Kyle (Dale Whibley) of the War College and Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diane). We won’t be surprised if this plays a role in future episodes.
- We learn in this episode that Jett Reno and Lura Thok are an item, and Reno even alludes to Darem that she left the Discovery so she could be with Thok.
- Why would the War College’s dorm’s security system only be down for 60 seconds following Caleb disabling the system? Seems like an arbitrary ticking clock to add tension to the prank plan, and it ultimately doesn’t add much tension anyway, as Sam is perfectly capable of spraying the dorms with plant serum within that time frame.
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