Is Alex Kurtzman Staying - Star Trek Starfleet Academy Could Be More Than 2 And Done

Hello, hello, hello my friends! How are you? And I hope that you are very, very well

We are here today to bring you a little bit of a news summary, sort of everything we know right now

before the premiere of Star Trek Starfleet Academy airs next week on January the 15th

We're having two episodes. Just before we were going to put all of this together

well, our colleague Mick Jost over on CinemaBlend got quite the scoop

During the press junket for Starfleet Academy, he asked Alex Kurtzman straight out

So Alex, what's happening? Are you staying or are you going? I am paraphrasing slightly, but Mr. Kurtzman responded with

I can't go into specifics, but the future is looking bright. Basically, what that means to us is that, right, all this uncertainty about the end of the current contract with Secret Hideout and Paramount

would you know suggest that perhaps we were going to see a changing of the guard. We have spoken

about it before on this channel. It now looks as though perhaps that won't be the case. That secret

hideout and Alex Kurtzman will be staying on. So if that is the case what does that mean for Star

Trek as a whole? Specifically for Starfleet Academy I actually think that that would be a

positive development. And let me explain. We had an awful lot of uncertainty over what would happen

if Starfleet Academy, which is currently filming its second season, suddenly finds itself the

I suppose, recipient of new orders in charge. Would that mean a nail in the coffin for potentially a

third season of Starfleet Academy? We have theorized at length about it. If there is now

not going to be a change of the guard. Well, by no means does that mean, whoa, we're guaranteed

for 17 more seasons. But it does mean that the reasons that we felt would contribute to a to

and done run for Academy now seem not to be in place. Based on Academy, this is positive news

It also helps to allay some of the uncertainty about what's happening with Star Trek going

forward we I suppose I should avoid saying we now know but it is heavily implied that Kurtzman will

be staying on in charge of Star Trek we know that there's a movie on the way that is not connected

to the television side of Star Trek but is still on route and we also know thanks to actually shout

out to our colleagues over at SFX and editor Darren Scott who I will go into a bit more detail but

as part of their big celebratory issue about Starfleet Academy, Alex Kurtzman teased that there

are many things that he can't talk about that are in the plan. So it does seem that we're looking at

a period of more Star Trek. Whatever it looks like, we don't yet know. So that's kind of the

one of the big news is that, again, it's not set in stone, but it looks like Alex Kurtzman is

staying for the foreseeable future. I know, by the way, and I'm not going to pretend that this isn't

the case, I know that that will cause concern to a lot of people in the audience, people who have

perhaps not connected to Star Trek since it returned in 2017. And I'm not here to say

you're wrong. I'm not here to do that. I'm saying I get that. I do. Star Trek is quite different

these days from what it was back in, you know, from starting 1966 up into the 80s, the 90s and

the early 2000s. So I'm not here to brush aside your concerns. I personally, I'm a bit, I feel

optimistic about this because, you know, I quite like what I've seen of Academy so far. And I

specifically, I don't want that show to be the victim of, you know, corporate nonsense in the

way that you know kind of star trek prodigy was so but as i say i'm i i do hear the concerns

and i'm not here to be like you're totally wrong um i don't know perhaps this will go away to you

know helping people think i'm not actually a shill but sure listen that's going to happen regardless

going into a lot of the things that have been released about oh actually do you know what no

before I do that one more thing there's two other questions really one is the ongoing question of

will there be a Star Trek legacy I would take this as a sign that legacy just became less likely I I will be honest with you at least in the form that people have been calling for hoping for which is the adventures of the enterprise g with jerry ryan returning with

michelle hurd returning with ed spallier's returning um i think this might be indicative

that perhaps we're not going to get that obviously never say never never say never and several times

on this channel we've been proved wrong so that's all good Star Trek year one this purported perhaps

continuation of the Strange New Worlds era once Strange New Worlds comes to an end at season five

I don't know this might make it more likely that something like that might happen as of recording

there is no confirmation of it we do know that they have cast Sulu and McCoy obviously for the

final episode of strange new worlds be that you know as this is a backdoor pilot for year one

i don't know but that perhaps i i would i would keep that candle lit i think there is a chance

for that to happen um and who knows we could yet see a star trek united as well there has been a

lot of fan clamor for this idea that we spoke to michael sussman about during the year too so

it is as much as this has given a tiny bit of clarity there's also complete lack of clarity

as well right i'm gonna get into what we've seen about starfleet academy so far over on social

media over the last month or so star trek has been teasing clips giving us little backstories

and little snippets about the characters that we're about to see in star trek starfleet academy

you know paul giamatti who is of course oscar nominated will be playing noose bracha who we

know is a mix of a Tellarite and a Klingon. In interviews he says that this guy is an absolute

psychopath. He's got ritual scarring on his skin. What I thought was very important for me as a

Trekkie is that in an interview with Collider when he was asked to rank Deep Space Nine, The Next

Generation and the original series, he put Deep Space Nine in the top spot. Do you know what Paul

You get a pass from me. I will give you any amount of bad acting, which I'm not saying that you do

have bad acting, I'm going to move on. Kareem Dena, who has been sort of, I guess, the social face

for the last while. He's done a lot of collaborative posts with Star Trek on his socials

We've probably seen the clip at this point where he talks about the process of becoming Jaden Krag. He spoke about how he had contacted Michael Dorn and Doug Jones, both of whom wore

prosthetics for almost their entire runs on their various shows. And he spoke about how, yeah, it can

be a lot wearing prosthetics. And even though he is by no means an unfit individual, there is a

little bit of additional padding put in the uniform as well for Jaden. So there is a process of

becoming a Klingon. But in the clips that have been released, you can see that Jaden is slightly

more of, I won't say a pacifist, but you know, his focus is on medicine. He is not your typical

Klingon as we have come to know Klingons in the last 60 years, which I think is good. You know

give us a wider breadth of this, you know, is it still an empire? Is it now an even bigger empire

You know, who knows? But give us something more than just the warrior class, because we've seen

so much of the warrior class. And I love the warrior class, but we've seen so much of it

And it looks like with Jayden, we're going to get a different side of the Klingons. And of course

I will, of course, say as well, I love the look of the Klingons as presented through Jayden. I am

I likes me some head ridges. Sandro Rosta, who will be playing Caleb Mir, he's described as sort

of this fearless leader with a rebellious streak. And I think this is kind of, it feeds in a little

bit to the concern, if you will, that people might have about, you know, how many times have

seen the comment Star Trek 90210, look, we've used it here as well, and I get it, you can see I'm

smiling, I get it, I do, but this is your elevator pitch for a character, I feel like we're going to

see more than just, oh, I'm a rebel, that's my audition, so I'm looking forward to seeing what

we get, now it's funny, because in, you know, press interviews, I was lucky enough to speak to some of

the cast of Starfleet Academy this week. Sandro Ross is a big guy. He is a big guy. He is roughly

11 foot 6 and he has enough strength. He could play Superman in the first issue of action comics

He could do that He could lift a car over his head So George Hawkins for example who plays Darram talked about how yeah this is intimidating trying to intimidate someone and I quote the size of a fridge So I am looking

forward to seeing how that relationship translates onto the screen. Carice Brooks, who by the way

I owe a big massive apology to, because in our interview, I called her Caris. Carice, I am so

sorry, I am a fool and I will own that, is this beacon of joy, Ceres Acclamation Mill, or SAM for

short. She is a hologram, a photonic, who is, although she's programmed to look 17, is actually

only four months old. You know, she is very much the baby of the group. And as such, there seems to

be this positivity, this optimism, and yes, this naivety in how she views the universe. But also

what do we know about photonics? Robert Picardo's EMH is back as well and we see him interacting

with Sam, with the other characters, in interviews with Robert Picardo for example. We interviewed

Robert on the channel a couple of months ago. He talks about the excitement and the weight

as well of being a 900 year old or 800 year old holographic character who has crystal clear

memories of all of the people he's ever known and loved. I'm looking forward to seeing how that

translates as well. You have two photonics on complete extreme opposite ends of the scale

George Hawkins, who plays the first Theonian character to ever attend Starfleet Academy

playing Darum, I like him a lot because when I started speaking he went, hey an Irishman

George you're a legend I appreciate it um and he talks about this pressure that this character has

last to bed first to rise and there is some scenes in the trailers where I'm just like

how are you getting your body to do that that is that is impressive um but there is this energy

as well there uh just to reiterate I'm specifically referencing all these social clips these are like

little a few seconds long focuses on each of these characters and actors and I really really

dig it for example Bella Shepard who plays Genesis Llythe who is a Darsha attending the academy is

also the daughter of a Starfleet admiral you can see that she is laser focused on what she's doing

but also we see clips of her straight away befriending Sam the description of her as well

is that while Bella Shepard is the youngest member of the class, she's also one of the most experienced

that she's been acting for years and years. So I want to see what that brings to the dynamic of the

group as well. And you've got Zoe Steiner then, who is playing Tarima. We see that she seems to be

part of this Betazoid delegation that we've seen in things like Entertainment Weekly and in some of

eclipse online so it's certainly suggested that she's not a cadet in the same way that the others

are so interesting to see how that will play out you know if the USS Athena which we know is both

the actual Starfleet Academy campus but also parks in San Francisco from time to time if that's out

exploring the universe how are we going to spend time together we see as well in Nala Aki's

introduction to Starfleet Academy, that clip went out, we can see as well behind the scenes clips

Oded Fair is returning. There was a quick cameo for a certain Jonathan Frakes there as well

who we know will be directing an episode of Starfleet Academy. And also, so a lot of people

online have commented on the fact that Starfleet Academy definitely seems to have carried over a

little bit of a strange new world's aesthetic. And yeah, I see it. I do. Yeah, I think that is

a fair comparison to make. So some people have said, well, you know, these are a thousand years

apart. Why would they look so similar? Especially when you have something like Next Generation and

Voyager in the middle. You know, why did the designer go, actually, no, we're going to go like

that. So yeah, I will say, yeah, we've seen that too. And I guess it is worth pointing that out

There was a great clip where Star Trek alumni were asked for their, you know, advice that they would

give to cadets. And I mean, we have such a roster. We have Sonequa Martin-Green. We have Robert

Picardo. We have David Ajala. We have Anthony Rapp. We have Kate Mulgrew, who was joined by

Brett Gray as well. Roxanne Dawson. We had Gates McFadden, Patrick Stewart, Jerry Ryan, Todd Stashwick

John Billingsley, and Linda Park. Of course, all of whom have appeared in all of these wonderful

wonderful Star Trek and it great just to see as well this connection to Legacy yep I going to talk about that legacy trailer that was released as well now there was no new footage per se for Academy but what it did do

was connect to some of the greats of Star Trek past we get quotes from Archer, Sisko, Spock, Kirk

Worf, Burnham, Janeway, Pike and Picard and there was a specific quote picked by Picard which I

really thought suited it. The past is written, the future is left for us to write. Now this comes

from a conversation he was having with Rios in Star Trek Picard. But I think in the context of

these new cadets going forward to create their careers, to create this new version of Starfleet

and also at a time when we're trying to figure out what's happening with Star Trek going forward

I think that is a crucial inclusion for that kind of a line

There was a game as well on socials of Red Flag, Green Flag, one of which showed a Mugatu mascot costume, which will be the Halloween costume of 2026

I'm saying it right now. There was the blue carpet premiere there during the week where we had the cast and crew turn up for interviews with Celia Rose Gooding, who was emceeing on the carpet

uh Becky Lynch turning up with her title belt how much more of a flex do you need I mean everyone

was looking pretty fantastic on that blue carpet but I mean yeah like hi how's it going yeah title

belt all right do you know what you earned that that is cool just a couple of last bits but one

is an interview with Holly Hunter in uh as I said this issue of SFX where she speaks about how

Starfleet Academy is a place where failure is not necessarily discouraged. And I thought that was

a crucial thing to remember because I think it's sometimes we as reviewers and as fans

it's probably something we should remember as well. I often use the example of Encounter at

Farpoint, which certainly has aged well and I enjoy it for what it is, but I did not love that

pilot episode. And if I was to judge the next generation based on that pilot episode, I'm not

sure how the next gen would have would have done you know what i mean so you know then i i apply

that to starfleet academy you know you know it's season one the first few episodes like you know

if something you feel maybe is not great do we write the show off immediately that's it kill it

that's the end of it and it sounds like i'm joking but unfortunately a lot of networks tend to take

that approach so it's something that i hope we will all take on board as we go into this show

that sometimes something that we don't enjoy or we maybe think is oh that's the wrong decision

maybe don't write a show off based on one thing you know what i'm saying again encounter at fire

point as as much as the next generation is one of the greatest type sci-fi shows ever made

it wasn't a great pilot you know what i mean i want to close on just another wee interview with

Alex Kurtzman there, where, first of all, he took responsibility for Nala Aki running around

barefoot a lot of the time, which is definitely, I think, quirky would be a fair word to put on this

show. But also, he specifically speaks to the optimism that is key and central to Star Trek

that you cannot remove optimism from Star Trek and still call something Star Trek

And I think that is something that a lot of us have been very aware of over the last few years

Again, something we've spoken of here and something that I agree with completely

You need to have that optimism for the future for it to be Star Trek

It's not to say you can't go dark. Look at things like the Dominion War. Look at Star Trek VI, the Undiscovered Country

But even in those, there was an optimism that things would turn out OK in the end

And if that is part of the central ethos of Starfleet Academy

I think we're looking at something that could be a bloody good entry to the series

And as I previously said as well, Kurtzman has teased that there are more things on the horizon

It is the 60th year of Star Trek. It is an exciting time

And I'm really happy to be here with you going through it. So folks, thank you so much everyone for watching along. You're awesome. You are wonderful

Please make sure that you're subscribed to the channel. please make sure that you are subscribed to us on the social media bits and bobs as well

you are awesome you're wonderful how cool is this i just wanted to show you that as well look it's a

dog and it's spock look after yourselves folks live long and prosper and i'll chat to you soon