Starfleet Academy to End with Second Season

Critically praised spin-off fails to break into top streaming charts as the Star Trek franchise faces an uncertain future

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, the critically well-received but ratings-challenged spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery, will end with season two. 

The first season aired from January to March of this year; production on the second season began immediately after the first season wrapped. 

“It’s been my and Noga’s joy and privilege to help carry Gene Roddenberry’s extraordinary vision forward with Starfleet Academy, thanks to the hundreds of hardworking humans who pour every ounce of their talents into the work daily with imagination and reverence,” said co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau in a letter, originally published on Variety.

Starfleet Academy’s first season holds an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it never entered the Nielsen Top 10 streaming viewership charts. In our reviews for the season, we appreciated the show’s production design, charming characters, diabolical villain, and honor for various parts of legacy Trek, while noting some narrative faults in some of the episodes.

You can read the full letter below.

Letter from Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau

It’s been my and Noga’s joy and privilege to help carry Gene Roddenberry’s extraordinary vision forward with Starfleet Academy, thanks to the hundreds of hardworking humans who pour every ounce of their talents into the work daily with imagination and reverence. We are in post-production now on what will be the second and final season. We’re so proud of what we’ve accomplished together on this show, and the world will get to see the work of these extraordinary artists when season two airs. We will finish strong.

Whether you’re working on Star Trek or part of the marvel that is Star Trek fandom — its very heart, soul, and conscience —the joy comes from adventuring across boundaries of time, space, and the humanly possible in service to Roddenberry’s transformative vision of the future. That incomparable vision was fueled by an inexhaustible optimism. Star Trek places its bet on the best in human nature. It dares to imagine a society of “infinite diversity in infinite combinations,” free of war, hate, poverty, disease, and repression, and dedicated to the spirit of scientific inquiry and respect for all life, whether carbon or silicon-based, green-skinned or blue.

But make no mistake: Gene Roddenberry wasn’t some starry-eyed dreamer. He was a decorated Army bomber pilot in the Pacific Theater. He had seen first-hand the grim consequences of the worst of human nature. And his vision of the future wasn’t just a promise of hope. It was also a warning. In a fraught, frightening time of intolerance and violence, Star Trek said: Look! We made it! But just barely. First, we had to put all those ancient scourges behind us. It said that what makes us glorious as a species, and gives us hope for the future and the galaxy is inextricably linked to what makes us dangerous to each other, to this one world we presently inhabit, and to ourselves. That dual message—of hope and of warning—isn’t just a pretty dream but a call to action, to think about who we are in a different way.

Please don’t take our word for it. Take Gene’s:

“Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. […] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.”

With enduring hope that his vision of the future is possible, for our children, their children, and every future cadet in Starfleet Academy:

Live Long and Prosper.

Besides the upcoming second season of Starfleet Academy, Strange New Worlds will air its fourth season this year before ending with a shortened fifth season. No other Star Trek shows have been announced.

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest news on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Star Trek: Section 31, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Prodigy, and more.

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