Star Trek Starfleet Academy First Impressions

Hello, I'm Robert Picardo, and you are watching Trek Culture

How smart you are. Hello, everyone, and welcome. We are so, so, so excited to do this video

First of all, hello, Tom, Ellie. How are you getting on? Happy New Year

Happy New Trek. Woo! Sorry, Editor Tom, for shouting into the microphone

That's OK. He forgives you. Thank you. I'm happy to be back

I'm happy to be talking about Star Trek again. and I'm happy to have Star Trek to talk about

Yes, yes. Strange New Worlds already feels like so long ago. I mean, it was last year

but it does feel like it was so long ago now at this stage. So, right, from the outset

this is going to be spoiler free. We will not be going into any specifics

We will not be giving anything away. However, if you have clicked on

and you are one of those people that you don't watch trailers, anything like that, no problem at all

We could accidentally talk about something you don't want to know so we will not take it personally at all if you watch all of this ramble

and you go not for me and click out of the video that's no problem at all we will be along next

week with our what the hell just happened reaction videos those will contain episode specific

spoilers so be aware of that obviously we'll flag as the episodes start and of course our ups and

downs will be out next week at all at that point it's fairly assumed there's going to be spoilers

yes we will discuss it with spoilers ups and downs what the hell just happened and the podcast

this is a spoiler free because we legally can't talk about it but we can tell you how we felt

exactly so we're not going to keep you too long what we're going to do is

the so as reviewers we were provided with the first six episodes of starfleet academy

So we're going to give our top line thoughts on each of those in this video

We are going to use the episode names. So again, just be aware of that

I don't particularly think there's any spoilers in them. But again, if you don't want to know anything at all

Right. This is this is your warning now. Right. I think let's just jump straight in

Yeah. So Kids These Days is the pilot episode of Star Trek Starfleet Academy

it's it i wouldn't say it's feature length but it is uh 75 minutes long so um for anyone who's

got a train to catch heads up it's a little bit of a longer episode so all right across the board

um i'm gonna go ladies first tom what did you think of this pilot episode of starfleet academy

a classic old school insult i can't i'm glad it's back to be honest

what did I think I thought this was for me a mixed bag

lots of tonal whiplash but I want to say and this is kind of my feeling in general

so far there's things in Star Trek Academy, Starfleet Academy watch me call it Star Trek Academy forever

it helps, there you go, right there there are things i really like there are things i think really works and there are things i think don't work at

all there are tonal mishaps and changes and it almost feels like there's four different writers

writing four different shows and then they put the script together and some of it i think is great

i i personally wanted this show to be a teen show about being at the academy and we get that

in parts we don't get in other parts um so i personally would cut out the first 20 minutes

of this first episode and start it from there that's my opinion um we there's a bunch of stuff

at the beginning that i'm like i get what you're doing we don't need this this is starfleet academy

let's just get to the academy i feel like i can say that without it being spoilers

i i i i i feel that is i feel that is safe yes so in general mixed bag okay all righty ellie what

did you think kids these days i think tom's point's very interesting because i had the opposite

thought um it's not been a secret i've been speaking about in the build-up to starfleet

academy that i've been on the fence about my thoughts about how i'm going to feel about

about this as a show because I'm not really into teen drama even when I was a teen I wasn't really

into teen drama so I was kind of skeptical going in and I did go in with quite low expectations

and came out of episode one pleasantly surprised and happy with what we were given in that first

episode now I personally like that we have some elements that are the teen drama and some elements

that don't focus on that and are what I would say are more kind of the Star Trek elements

So unlike Tom, I really liked those opening 20 minutes because that's the part of the story

that I may be more gripped by than the teen drama side of it

But I do think there is a good balance of both in there. So I don't, especially in episode one, I didn't watch it and go

oh, I'm not interested in this. There were parts where I was like, I'm less interested in this element

but then they would have a scene afterwards that i was much more engaged with so i think it was a

good balance i yeah okay i think that both make that makes a lot of sense from from both sides i

think this pilot episode is it does have it has a lot going on um i will say a lot of the footage

from the trailer uh is taken from the pilot um so we've got action we've got comedy we've definitely

got drama um and we do have and i like how a lot of the characters are introduced um because

um because we have sort of that section at the front it's not like in the first couple of minutes

you go right okay line up this is this character this is this character this is this character

this is this character which i i i do appreciate that some of them are spaced out and not every

main character is introduced in the first episode even that might be something too far but um but we

do get quite a lot of um introductions here uh everyone basically keep your eyes open

incitation observation is going to be working overtime uh for for this show as well uh which

i'm really really happy about i think you can definitely see like hiring Holly Hunter is already a massive tick beside Starfleet Academy she is brilliant

she's brilliant from the jump um she is obviously you know she is such an experienced actor you know

as as I say this the Oscar is gleaming you know in uh it's wherever she keeps her Oscar maybe

Kate Winslet keeps it in the bathroom um but I think she is brilliant as Nala Aki um

we do have this is out there so this is not a spoiler Odette Fair returns as Dad Admiral Vance in this show And already I going to say I think he is one of a few things that has come over from Discovery

And I think they've gone, this, this works. This, this, this is right

Okay, all right. but yeah again I'm trying really trying hard not to go into

too much specifics okay last thoughts about the pilot with all the

love in my body we're as far away from something like Encounter at Farpoint

this show to agree with you Tom I think they threw everything at the wall in episode

one and yet even saying that this show seems to know what

it is it may be a little bit better than some other

pilot episodes but maybe it's better than some other pilot episodes have kind of

got their tone from the jump I was saying to you before recording that

the issues I have of this show are similar to the issues I have of Strange New Worlds

but I think this show is way more enjoyable than Strange New Worlds

I think it still does it better even if there's similar things I have complaints about absolutely

and again I look forward to our weekly discussions where we can go into more detail

Yeah. Kind of. Right. OK, pretty. Episode two, though, this is it now

We've done our pilot. Our pilot is behind us. Ellie, what are your initial thoughts from that episode

I still think it was a solid episode. I think for me, following on from the pilot, this episode contained less of those moments

that I was more gripped by and maybe more of the kind of teen drama elements or the

kind of key things that you'd expect to find in a teen drama um so those parts i was slightly less

gripped by um but by no means did i think oh well this show's over i'm not gonna watch it anymore i

was still interested in it there were still elements of it that i did enjoy but i think

after the first episode yeah this one was slightly more in the direction of what i wasn't looking for

but yeah I didn't hate it I didn't hate it any little child review at all

that makes it seem like it was really awful it wasn't it just was more in the direction of what I'm

not so interested in but there was still good bits in it as well

cool alright Tom I hated this episode and I was very worried

watching it I was like uh oh is this what this show is

I really don't like it I found my problem with this episode, I found it extremely tedious and boring

And I should I should specify that it's not the teen drama that I'm looking for in this show

It's the teen show. I just want a teen age, young, like teenager show about being in classrooms and learning how to be in Starfleet

Like, that's all I'm really looking for. and the drama stuff of it doesn't work too much for me but this episode yeah this I just found it

boring but I will say on the flip side that for me everything gets better from here on out

that is okay I'm glad I'm quite glad you said it because that was something I was going to mention

as we went into the next episode too is that some of the other first impressions I've seen

are aligned with yourself, Tom, that kind of there is the first two

and even a little bit the third where, like any show, finding its feet

finding its tone and kind of finding its balance. I'll talk about that a little bit more now

when we get to episode three. Episode two, unsurprisingly, yes, I did like it

I like it's a little bit slower than episode one, which I think is perfect

you know, perfectly natural after a, you know, kind of a pilot grabbed everyone's attention. now we're going to bring in a little bit we get a little bit more with some of the grown-ups um

but we definitely there is a focus on a couple of characters specifically in this one and we get

introduced we get introduced to a few characters here one who i think people are really really

going to like um and uh no i can't say anything that that's that's spoiler um i have one thing

to add about episode two um there was something right near the beginning of the episode that

really made me very happy um and i'm gonna say nothing more but you guys know what i mean in

fact you guys saw the episode before i'd seen the episode and messaged me to ask me if i'd seen it

yet um so yeah there was one thing just a minor thing at the beginning of the episode that i was

very happy about cool i yep to to to say anything more okay but yes um i there was some very star

trek moments in this episode which i really dug um and they do you know what this might sound like

a weird thing i like how they're using their sets you know we're not confined to the bridge the whole

time we're not confined to let's say the mess hall the whole time there is um this show looks good

but there's enough like i know there's there's ar walls and everything but there's enough hard

sets there that they use and you really start to see that i think here um which i really really

dig um there's comedy there's romance there is certainly the beginnings maybe maybe there's a

bit of the pilot as well beginnings of maybe some frenemy stuff going on and i'm a bit like utah i

love me a teen drama you know i was raised on things like saved by the bell sweet valley high

remember that um and fin bar's class to the two people watching this who might have heard of that

show um so i do like to see i think but we're still episode one episode two although they are

not part one and part two of one episode it does feel like this is a section um a little bit and

then you know episode three then as we'll move into next is sort of it's obviously an extension

off, but we'd start kind of the next section with episode 3

I think so, episode 3 um, I like this one more, this is the one I like the most by that

point, in terms of episode 1, 2 and 3 um it it didn't blow me away, but it felt like

it was focusing more on the stuff I was looking for again, I just want

to watch people doing their classes and learning stuff and seeing them in the academy

and I think this kind of focused a bit more on that and

established some more of the relationships and how the place works and the different type of people there and yeah it was what I was looking for and um it made me a bit more hopeful to to to get what I wanted

And I think that here's my sort of as well, my main takeaway from this show so far is

that I don't think this show is going to like, there'll be people who are just going to not

watch the show. That's fine. There's going to be people who are going to hate watch the show for whatever reason, which is bizarre, but fine

But not fine. Just weird. And then I think most people are going to take away stuff from the show and are going to find elements of it that they really like and still get a lot of enjoyment from them

And I feel like that's what this show is doing well. Probably not what they intended to do

but I think there is so much to take away from it to enjoy

that you're at least going to have a fun time watching it

and that's what I got from this episode. Yeah, that makes perfect sense

I agree. I enjoyed this episode more than I enjoyed episode two

and although it did still kind of follow that more teen style

I enjoyed watching it. It was fun. I feel like maybe it was slightly, you know

you could see that air of it being the mid-episode being maybe more of a filler episode

in terms of the wider storyline. Yeah, lower stakes as well. Yeah, but it was still fun to watch

I like that we got to see kind of a different side or see more sides of Nala Ake

Aki, Ake, I'm not very good at saying the names of the characters. But yeah, we saw kind of different sides of the characters

saw some kind of growth there and yeah, just different sides to them

So yeah, I did enjoy this one more despite it having some of those elements that maybe aren't my favorite elements

but I definitely liked this one more than episode two I think this one leans into the fun

a bit more so the pilot has a good mix of comedy and drama but probably leans heavier on the drama

action side two leans on the drama side but three leans on I think the comedy action side

and I kind of, you see where the episode is going and I thought, oh, okay

And I ended up really enjoying it. We get great stuff from pretty much everyone

in this episode and that's kids and adults included. Someone who is, I am interested to see

what the reactions to Gina Yashere's Laura Thock are going to be. I love her

um and because i've loved genie ashore for a long time i've loved her stand-up and everything and

you can see how much of her i think is in this role um and i'm curious to see people seeing her

now for the very first time ever be like okay all righty um and you know we have we have some

some sight gags in this episode which i was just like are you kidding me i love this

um so and also it's just nice to see there's a lot of teamwork in this episode so you get

you know again a good use of the ensemble here um and uh and also um shout out to

again i mentioned the kind of sets and everything uh i'm digging the uniforms i know people have

seen like the uniforms are kind of out there they've seen and there's there's there is crossover

you see like discovery era uniforms are used as well um there's sort of i think it's like three

or four different uniforms on it which is just standard for star trek at this point uh but yeah

I like it and I like a lot of what the cadets

are given yeah this one for me felt the closest to oh this is

teen high school cool so okay I can't say anything episode 4

yes this episode was again it's the trajectory of like we're doing some real things here

I don't think I love this episode as much as other people I know who have seen

the show so far I didn't get very emotional in aspects I definitely related to some

stuff that happened in this episode and I actually have a lot of questions

about the ending which I would like to talk to you about after we stop recording but

it was a decent episode. It was, I think, a better version of what episode

two was trying to be. Absolutely, yeah, what do you mean by that

Yeah. So yeah, good time. Good acting. Star Trek! I can't say anything

I really liked this episode. I am one of the people that maybe Tom is talking about

because I came out of this episode really enjoying it. It's interesting, though

We do tend to have differing views quite often. We do, yeah. You knew

I really liked this episode. And interestingly, I didn't necessarily, going into it again

think I was going to like it as much as I did based on who it was focusing on and the story

but I can't say anything about that. But I, yeah, I was really engaged in it

I liked where it went. I liked the kind of differences that were put in there. I liked that it was a kind of a thought provoking episode as well

I like the ones that make you think and challenge you and kind of have some depth to them

so yeah I came out of this episode going okay now yeah I'm really enjoying this show

so yay for episode 4 yep episode 4 totally understand what you mean in comparison to episode 2

and it is this is sort of where the season I think it's going to swing for a lot of people

So it's established at this point. We get what they're doing. The class knows each other

The sort of framing setting for this episode is... I really like it

I really like it as well. And also you get good stuff from the supporting cast

I will say that this episode, there is a major focus on one character in this episode

yeah no I won't say anything for spoiler sake but but yeah the supporting cast all is

there's a reason for people to be there also some big questions are answered

in this episode which I really like and and I will say satisfactorily

as well because anything more is a spoiler i feel like we're saying nothing um it's uh

some damn good acting um in some there a lot there a lot going on still at this point i think at this point actually maybe i can say this because this is only episode four of a brand new show i think episodes like this are where it really benefits

from having spawned from another show like you've so much of discovery did so much groundwork for

the 32nd century and you know kind of what's going on in the galaxy that academy is definitely

picking up on and running with that's not to say i remember seeing a thing quite while back

basically you know part of the press was you know this is not a spin-off and i'm like i mean

you know at the time i went well it is you know because it spun off from that in the same way that

strange new world spun off from discovery you know ds9 spun off from next gen like i don't see

anything wrong with the word spin-off but it kind of as we go on i was like oh no it is very much

its own thing like it's not just relying on sharing space with discovery um

and there we go and then that's that's that's that's what I will say about episode four

episode five I'm going first right I love Sam with a passion and she's just

she is marching to the beat of her own drum and I think this is a character who is probably going

to be Marmite um but I think she's so crucially important um because she brings levity um she

brings energy and also a sort of a wide-eyed naivety which is exactly what you would think

from a freshman in school um and yeah there's a couple of stylistic things in this episode I was

I was like okay that's a choice uh but yeah um sorry yeah if it's if it's not clear this has

been my favorite episode of the season um which is why I like I'm going first okay that's me I'm

gonna I'm gonna shut up now but one of you jump in okay I'll jump in because you messaged me after

you'd seen this episode and was singing its praises and so I went in with very high expectations and I

could very clearly see why it was your favorite episode um i don't think it's necessarily my

favorite episode okay um i can't comment much on why but um i can see why this is going to be a lot

of people's favorite episode and it's a very special episode um there are reasons why it maybe

isn't such a drawing point for me, but I can accept and acknowledge

that it is a very, very special episode. They reveal a statue of Seven of Nine

and Chakotay kissing. That's what I was watching. Oh, Ellie won't like this

Yeah, I am... I really like this episode, but some caveats one of them is

like Sean said the style of this episode is very different the sort of formatting of it

I didn't actually enjoy that I think they could have done it differently

again felt a bit too strange in a world for my liking

Sam as a character I'm kind of on the fence I'm on the fence with a lot of the characters because

they're sort of again the sort of teenageness of the show there's a lot of you know this is what we're doing with

this person which is going to work for people work not not work for other people i'm kind of

i flip-flop on the character just because i'm a grumpy old man and sometimes i'm like ah

teenagers with it with energy um but other times i do i do like it and i will say the content of

this episode i did really like and i think a lot of people will get a lot out of this

emotionally and also just, you know, it was an exciting episode at the same time

for the kind of episode it was. Yes. Next! Alright, so the final episode that we've seen so far

episode 6, this is... This is a big one. The end, goodbye

Like, I I don't know how they pick which episodes will we send out to reviewers

but I get why this was, we're going to put a cap

on that and then you may stew now for a while but this is the most first world

complaint you will ever hear us say we are so happy that we get to do

what we do and we have to wait seven weeks for the next one but yeah, first world complaint

we deserve no sympathy in fact we deserve hate put it down in the comments below

um what i mean yep top line thoughts what what did you think i enjoyed this episode this was an

episode that featured a lot more of the scenes that i'm interested in had much more of those

elements to it felt maybe a little bit more high stakes less school um which is maybe the parts

that i'm more interested in i mean there were definitely still those school elements to it

But there was also that wider story, that bigger picture going on as well, which I think for me were the most interesting parts of the episode

I think just, again, Holly Hunter, brilliant. But yeah, overall, I think this is probably up there as one of my favorite episodes of the ones we've seen so far of the season

like I said high stakes bigger picture action, drama good performances yes, liked this episode

yeah I would say I would say we are saying similar to how I thought episode 4

was a better version of episode 2 I would say episode 6 is a better version

of episode 1 it does similar things but in a way that I prefer

and thought were executed better like Ellie, well in a different way than Ellie

where I'm looking for more of the Academy compared to the Starfleet

I actually think it worked well the balance of those things in this episode

yeah, great performances the stakes seem to make sense and yeah, I feel like if by this episode

you're not liking the show it's not for you I think if you get this episode and

you're like hey at least I found things that I've really enjoyed then you're probably

going to get some stuff out of Starfleet Academy yeah I hear what you're saying

across the board there, picking up what you're throwing down yeah I

I'm pretty much just going to parrot what you both said, I think this is a great

episode, a lot of action and yeah Holly Hunter is like she is fantastic throughout

she's really good in this one but they all are you know there is

stakes here um and i want to see episode seven damn it yeah i can i just interject quickly i

want to in terms of the action i think the action is paced well in this episode and is and is a kind

of star trek action that i think we're used to seeing rather than just you know people shooting

each other over and over again it's not that kind of action it's like it's the episode is action

packed but it all kind of works um okay so we're we're coming up on on the the end of this so

six episodes sort of top line what you would like people to take away from this and what you are

hoping to see more of obviously spoiler free no pressure yeah let's go with tom first i hope

people see that um we are three people that will have different opinions right um but we have all

taking something out of this show um and i am you know classed as the grumpy one who complains a lot

and don't get me wrong there are lots of those to come for this show but there are also lots of

hey i think this worked really well and this thing they're doing here i like i wish there

was more of it blah blah blah so and like we've said as the show goes on i think they find their

feet a bit more they kind of definitely have written some more interesting episodes as as the first six happen so i would just say stick with it give it a go if you don like it that fine can say fairer than that yeah i mean i would pretty much say the

same thing i was someone who had spoken about being skeptical skeptical going into it i was

unsure about it um but as i said i came out pleasantly surprised by episode one and likewise

after every episode afterwards so if i could say anything is don't knock it before you've tried it

like don't write it off before you've at least given it a go because i was someone who maybe

would have gone now take it or leave it and actually came out of it going this is some of

the best star trek we've had live action wise for quite some time i would say so just give it a

chance because I was like you and I was sold um I think yeah it's got uh some of the most consistent

tone all the way through even with the the genre switches but it's got some of the most consistent

tone I think all the way through and that's largely thanks to you know I think they they

wrote and cast the characters very well the cast is very very good in this show um and you know

even if sometimes maybe a setting is this or that. I don't like have like

oh, well, you know, that person wasn't great in this or that. It's like, no, cast is great across the board

So I'm looking forward to seeing more ensemble moments, which they've done well so far

And I think they will continue to do. I say the ship looks good I really enjoying the Athena And by the end of episode six i get what they mean by having you know we know that the athena itself is starfleet academy but i get what they

mean by having a ship trekking the stars but also spending time in san francisco and there's a good

balance of that so i'm digging that um i have so much to say for cetacean observations so

yeah uh that's going to be fun and i think people are going to really dig an awful lot of what

they've what they've managed to include in this show as well uh we haven't mentioned him yet

Robert Ricardo is great um and again like you can see there's stuff to explore there

um which is really important and really cool um Tig Notaro is great um at the same time I don't

want to just like oh go all of the cast are all of the cast are really this is this is a good

good show so far I'm really excited I'm excited just to parrot exactly what you both said

I'm excited for people to watch it while giving it a chance

We know there's going to be people that will say it's the worst thing ever. And you know that it's already out there

They're already sharing it today. So if you watch it and you say, didn't do it for me, no problem

Watch it Give it a go Watch it See what you think Go in with open eyes uh like in the same way that i saying ignore the grifters by all means take what we were saying with a pinch of salt as well

you know what you know what we enjoyed maybe you didn't what you enjoyed maybe we didn't

tom didn't enjoy any of it so which is joke this is the joke it's the fun thing is tom did enjoy it

which means you know it's good uh so so yeah so i think yeah that's we're gonna bring it up to

to speed there so we will be doing our weekly what the hell just happened videos uh that will

be for each episode they will be completely full of spoilers so be aware of that as as we watch but

of course we will flag at the beginning of every video as well just in case um we will be keeping

an eye out for our weekly podcast which will be returning next week after we had a nice big long

break over christmas which was lovely and very unusual so that will be back next week i keep an

eye on our socials as well because the queen of socials ellie will be sharing clips every week

anything with a spoiler will be flagged in advance and of course the ups and downs will be back

there will be one for every episode we're getting a double episode premiere next week but we will

have individual ups and downs to be episode one and then there will be episode two as well so

heads up to everyone we are back in the thick of new star trek i'm very very happy happy 2026

everyone happy 60th anniversary of star trek everyone ah new star trek is coming you are all

awesome and of course thank you to my best friends in the whole world tom and ellie i hate you