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Starfleet Academy’s Dilemma: Is It Star Trek or Saved by the Bell Set in Space?

Starfleet Academy wants to be a fresh doorway into Star Trek’s far future, but it can’t resist the gravitational pull of school-drama archetypes. The debut episodes hint at big franchise shifts after The Burn, then pile on teen dynamics, shaky lore checks, and a few welcome returns.

Broadcasting Thurs on Paramount+
Spoiler Alert

These days, the handlers of Gene Roddenberry’s creation, Star Trek, are no longer bound to his original vision. With Starfleet Academy, the franchise leans into new themes and familiar narrative shapes, recycling tropes that are usually left unspoken. After all, humanity has always been about boldly going somewhere new. This time, though, it might just be back to school. Whether the writers should lean into that idea is debatable. There are elements here that work, and others that stumble. Everything hinges on where the focus ultimately lands.

After finding Star Trek: Discovery very much not my cup of tea, I missed one important detail. The Federation is rebuilding. Following The Burn, when most of the galaxy’s dilithium was rendered inert, interstellar travel collapsed. Worlds became isolated. New wars erupted over developing new alternative power sources, or the promise of something better from individuals who try to deliver hope.

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What Went Horribly Wrong With Star Trek Section 31? And Ideas In How To Fix It!

When the showrunners of Nu-Trek want to be just that, Star Trek Section 31 is going to suffer.

When producer Alex Kurtzman and writers Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt decide to not acknowledge why The Federation’s most covert operation exists, trying to present a different version Star Trek Section 31 a bad idea. An old Hollywood Reporter interview acknowledged this fact, and I’m surprised more fans didn’t voice their opinions then.

This group turned from being a mysterious Men in Black type of organization to an order whose operatives are agents from Mission Impossible. The story that’s presented missed a tremendous opportunity to bring back certain characters from the past. Although early reports revealed Michelle Yeoh is the focus, I was hoping for a cameo or two, or some time travel romp where she’s the mysterious leader who went back and forth in time to recruit!

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The Last Movie Ever Made Honours Something Else Few Would Expect During the Apocalypse

Is it possible to not quote a certain song from REM in another end of the world movie? In this case, the answer in The Last Movie Ever Made is yes, but I still have to refere to it anyways.

Available to view on Amazon Prime and Apple TV

The Last Movie Ever Made is a humorous film that’s more about the joy of making a fan film than anything else. And here, I suspect the story takes inspiration from various sources, including Star Trek. And when considering writer/director Nathan Blackwell created the web series Voyage Trekkers, the carryover is very evident.

In this film, everyone has heard the telepathic message that the world will end and there’s nothing they can do about it other than prepare for the end of days. While some will panic and others will stand in the middle of the street holding a sign, “The Apocalypse is here,” what’s presented is a slice of Americana taking it in stride, and just think about what do they want to do in the thirty days remaining.

The threat feels very much like a riff on how Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy started. While nobody is even going to have a chance to leave the planet, I did have to wonder how the rest of the world was reacting. As for what Marshall (Adam Rini) believes is best is to do something meaningful with his life–to finish making that movie that he thought of back when he was a teen. The people whom he gets to join in this endeavour includes his old chums, Lance (Ryan Gaumont) and Arthur (Craig Curtis) along with his ex-wife Audrey (Megan Hughes Rini).

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Star Trek Lower Decks is Beaming to Home Video For Those Slow To Catch Up

After everything that’s been done during Star Trek Lower Decks previous season, the arcs are getting bigger, nastier and who doesn’t love that Wrath of Kahn moment?

Star Trek Lower Decks Season 4 DVD Cover — Available to preoder on Amazon USA

Streaming on Paramount Plus and Coming to Home Video on April 16, 2024

Although I wasn’t fully hooked on Star Trek Lower Decks right away, it’s found a place in my viewing schedule after seeing the Strange New Worlds episode, “Those Old Scientists.” To see the Jack Quaid reprise the role in live action was enough to earn my respect for the sci-fi comedy.

And because of that, I’ll have plenty ot catch-up viewing to do. Fans who have been picking up each season as they are released will be happy season four is coming to home video this week! While some folks will be sad that the upcoming season five will be the last of the series, I’m secretly glad because that means a complete set will most likely be offered next year, to which I can obtain the entire run in one go.

From the Press Release:

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When Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season Two is on Steelbook to Watch At Home, It’s Time for an Analysis!

Although Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season Two ventures into familiar sci-fi trope territory, fans can get to learn in the featurettes why it must be so. Picard would be proud.

As with the previous series, I waited for the home video release of Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season Two to binge-watch all of last year’s broadcast all in one go. That review can be read here. The Steelbook Blu-ray or 4K (which comes with magnets) for this next release is worth getting, and to find it at a reasonable price really means hitting checking various online retail shops rather than visiting Amazon. The design of the packaging is beautiful, and I love the fact the colours are consistent with the first volume so that they can be displayed. The poster (available in both releases) is a nice touch, and I think I’ll invest into getting it block mounted to get rid of the fold lines.

Ultimately, I wanted to look at the behind the scenes before diving in. The best bonus features concern updating how “The Gorn,” looks like, and explaining why “Singing in Space” is important to further develop the characters that we love. The episode, “Subspace Rhapsody,” was not cringe worthy because the explanation that accompanied this happenstance is plausible. While it’s easy to give praise to an episode prior to its airing, is it worth rewatching? I would say this episode has its place in the world of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer inspired television musicals.

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Unboxing the Huge Star Trek: Picard Legacy Collection, The Video and Expanded Review

We expand on what’s said in our unboxing video on YouTube and offer some more thoughts after giving Star Trek: The Picard Legacy Collection a proper view.

Available to purchase on Amazon USA

The Star Trek: Picard Legacy Collection is huge, and for anyone new to Star Trek: The Next Generation, and wants to follow everything this captain (wonderfully played by Sir Patrick Stewart) has done, it’s the perfect jumping in point! Not everyone will have grown up watching this franchise’s best comeback. Without it, the subsequent series would not have been created. We have Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy and so on. Although not every series was made avaiilable on Blu-ray, that’s the hope most long time fans crave.

In this release, all the episodes are identified on the sleeve that makes up each case. Each plastic enclosure is sturdy, and although I’d be tempted to put the series into a binder, I don’t need to rush to do that. The discs aren’t that hard to remove, and instead of forcing, I gently tugged.

And as my unboxing video shows (featured below), there’s lots of design and packaging aesthetics to like. After sitting down to view the remasters, the details are far better than what I recall from my television viewing days. Although Blu-ray isn’t as forgiving with the bits of blue screening used, some suspension of belief is required.