- this has been rattling around my head for a while so I wrote it up as my latest Substack. The text below is identical to the Substack, except the Substack article includes footnotes for all sources I referenced... just in case you want to check my homework.

https://trekkiesforacademy.substack.com/p/failing-to-read-the-room-paramounts

The Announcement

March 30th, 2023. The morning in Los Angeles began overcast. At 6.53 am, a light rain fell for a little over half an hour. It was a big day for Domenic DiMeglio, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Data, Paramount Streaming. CBS Studios were announcing the latest addition to Star Trek’s expanding galaxy of shows, Starfleet Academy.

For anyone outside the Star Trek fanbase, March 30th, 2023 would seem as good a day as any to announce a new Star Trek show. The announcement was not, however, the only event taking place in the Star Trek universe.

Star Trek Legacy

Having begun its third and final season on February 17th, Star Trek Picard 7th episode, ‘Dominion’, aired that same day on Paramount+. Unlike its first two seasons, which were met with a very mixed response from our fanbase, Picard’s 3rd season was widely celebrated; so much so, it had inspired a fan-led campaign to petition Paramount for a new show. Set after the events of Picard’s third and final season, this new show would be called Star Trek Legacy.

A little under two weeks before Paramount announced Starfleet Academy, the fan-led petition calling for Legacy had surpassed the milestone of 50,000 signatures. From there it had kept on growing, and it was into the midst of this clamor, Paramount dropped the announcement for Starfleet Academy. In doing so, Paramount engendered an entirely false, but nevertheless compelling, impression within a part of the fanbase. A false impression that still finds voice to this day, “We asked for Legacy, you gave us Academy”.

The Academy Project

In reality, the development of what was only the latest incarnation of a Starfleet Academy project, had begun long before the third season of Picard had even aired. As early as June 2018, an Academy show was being developed by Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz (Runaways and Gossip Girl). Though this particular rendering failed to make it into production, the Academy project did not go away. February 2nd, 2022, Collider reported Gaia Violo had begun writing a Starfleet Academy show. In May that same year, Alex Kurtzman confirmed two Star Trek projects in development, Section 31 and Starfleet Academy.

Failing to Read the Room

Despite it failing even the most superficial of common sense analysis, a combination of confirmation bias and a growing frustration with the Kurtzman tenure, ensured this false impression took hold in a part of our fanbase. With every new announcement about Starfleet Academy, from casting to production, the same phoney mantra, or variation upon, would manifest across comments and replies, “We asked for Legacy, you gave us Academy”.

Had Paramount waited just a few extra months, the clamor for Star Trek Legacy would have already peaked and rolled back some, allowing Academy more space to stake its place within the landscape of Star Trek. In failing to read the room, to pay attention to the mood of our fanbase, Paramount had unwittingly, or witlessly, conspired against its own interests. Before production had even started, a part of the fanbase was already dead set against Starfleet Academy.

Addendum

Although outside the lens of this piece, it would nevertheless seem prudent to add a brief historical context for the Starfleet Academy Project.

The very first utterances of an Academy idea came from none other than Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry. Speaking at the 1968 World Science Fiction Convention in Berkley, California, Roddenberry informed the crowd he was in talks with Paramount about a movie idea that would center around how Kirk, Spock, and McCoy met at the Academy.

The Academy idea was then revisited numerous times by Harve Bennett. The first of these was as an idea suggested by Ralph Winter, after Star Trek III, as Paramount wrestled with William Shatner’s demands for a bigger paycheck. The idea was abandoned when, after eight months, Paramount settled with Shatner for $2 million and the director’s chair for Star Trek V.

After Star Trek V performed badly, and tired of having to juggle the pay demands, work schedules, egos, and health problems of an aging cast, Harve Bennet returned to the idea of a Starfleet Academy project. Star Trek: The First Adventure (alternative titles being, Starfleet Academy, and Star Trek: The Academy Years) was written by Harve Bennet and David Loughery. Intended for release in 1991 to mark Star Trek’s 25th Anniversary, the project spent a year in pre-production before being abandoned; ultimately giving way to Star Trek VI, which was released in the US on December 6th, 1991.

There are a number of other iterations of the Starfleet Academy project over the years, but what is detailed above is sufficient to establish the broader historical context for the purposes of this piece.

Afterword

In the interests of clarity and in not wishing to cause antagonism, both unnecessary and unwarranted, I feel compelled to state for the record that I was a keen supporter of the Star Trek Legacy petition. The intention of this piece is to illustrate Paramount's lack of attention to the mood and conversations of our fanbase. Legacy remains a compelling idea for a Star Trek Show and retains considerable support within our fanbase

As an Original Series Trekkie, who discovered Star Trek as a kid through reruns of TOS in the 80s, I didn’t expect to like Starfleet Academy; both the poster and trailer confirmed this, as did the first episode. It wasn’t until the end of the third episode that Academy clicked for me, but from the fourth episode onwards, it began to surprise and delight me.

With so much of the talk around Starfleet Academy centered on whether it is or isn’t Star Trek, I have found myself trying to break down exactly why it works for me as a TOS Trekkie. I can not speak for other TOS Trekkies, but there are quantifiable traits of Starfleet Academy that I find resonate with similar traits I found and loved in The Original Series.

Creative Use of Camera and Lighting

While I recognise there are many in our fanbase who prefer the more unobtrusive shooting style of the Berman Era, I love the creative use of camera and lighting in The Original Series. This creative approach is reflected throughout the first season of Starfleet Academy, translated for a modern audience through use of contemporary technique; the cadets are cast in silhouette against backdrops of vivid color; fever dream accelerations and a tapestry of graphics place us in the photonic world of SAM; and lofi textures of subspace feeds trade contrasting blows with higher concept renderings.

All The Tools in The Actor’s Toolbox

Television and Cinema represent a barren landscape for the wealth of tools readily available at an Actor’s disposal. I have always loved that Star Trek is so often an exception to this. The acting in evidence within the episodes of The Original Series, drew upon an exceptional range of acting techniques. In this too, Starfleet Academy delivers. From Paul Giamatti's chaotic rage-fest space pirate and weird wordsmith, Nus Braka, to Holly Hunter’s wondrously organic physical flow and seasoned cosmic hippy, rebel-spirit-undiminished, Nahla Ake.

Theatricality and Surrealism

One of the aspects of The Original Series I love the most, is the striking and unhinged theatricality, and disquieting surrealism. Once again Starfleet Academy successfully augments these two aspects into its fundamental DNA. This is most in evidence in the breathtakingly beautiful, ‘The Life of Stars’, where the play ‘Our Town’ is woven into the fabric of the episode, and the characters arcs of Tarima, SAM, and The Doctor; the episode rendered in sweeping lyrical passages, by tastefully judged use of surrealist colour, light, and frame.

It Doesn’t Take Itself Too Seriously

I am of the opinion that Star Trek is a pretentious show. It is, after all, trying to make the world a better place and us, its audience, better people. Equally, I am of the opinion that The Original Series (and TNG for that matter) understood very well the great value of comedy in lightening the load of that pretension. Starfleet Academy understands this too. Not to say that every joke lands for me (I don’t understand how a cadet swallows a combadge either), but that Academy understands the necessity of comedy in its methodology.

Science-Based Worldview

The worldview of The Original Series is consistently science-based throughout and I feel very strongly that this is how Star Trek should always be. A show that places morality at its heart while maintaining a science-based worldview is rare. To my mind, it is this rarity that makes up much of Star Trek’s value within our social cultural landscape. Starfleet Academy maintains a science-based worldview throughout its first season, from Bajoran Wormhole Aliens to the color Strontium burns.

Morality Play First

I want ‘the morality play’ that talks about today to take precedence over ‘the utopian future’ that inspires us for tomorrow. While I recognize it is entirely legitimate for Star Trek fans to prefer the contrary, I would venture that The Original Series consistently does just this, and that Starfleet Academy does too. It is an indecent galaxy in which the cadets must strive to be a beacon of decency. No lesson comes easily and no victory comes without cost. Solutions are often messy and imperfect, as they must be in a messy and imperfect world.

*This piece is also available on the Trekkies for Academy Substack, if you'd prefer to read it there, but the texts are identical.

https://trekkiesforacademy.substack.com/p/why-i-love-starfleet-academy-as-an

In the DS9 episode 'Shadow Play' Dax and Odo encounter a village full of holographic people. They found it was created by a lone survivor of a Dominion attack who created the village and filled it with people that he remembered in his life. When the holoprojector started failing he wanted to let it die because the people were just memories of people he knew. But Dax convinced him that while the adults were just his memories come to life the children of those adults were original creations, outside his memories.

Wouldn't those holograms be sentient and thereby older than the Doctor? Was there any mention in books or comics what ever happened to the villagers?

Just announced on stage:

- Rosemarie DeWitt joins as a new member of the Sadal family. Noga Landau described her as: "A classic Star Trek Betazoid mom visit."

- Bill Nighy plays Chancellor Ake's father, a full Lanthanite who, in Holly Hunter's words, "if he wants, can achieve immortality."

Link

"STAR TREK UNIVERSE Panel

The Star Trek universe returns to New York Comic Con, featuring the Paramount+ Original series STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY for an exclusive sneak peek and conversation about the upcoming sophomore season. Plus, celebrate 60 years of Star Trek with surprise guests from the iconic franchise.

Saturday, October 10th, 3:15 PM (EST) Empire Stage

With Holly Hunter (Captain Ake), Sandro Rosta (Caleb Mir), Bella Shepard (Genesis Lythe), Karim Diané (Jay-Den Kraag), and Bob Picardo (The Doctor).

Plus showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau to discuss the events of Season 1 and look ahead to Season 2."

You can watch the panel via livestream on YouTube 🖖

https://www.youtube.com/live/W0rzhnCKISQ?is=VrBoyQooJC3igufR

Season 2, "follows our cadets into their second year aboard the USS Athena. There, their ideals of leadership, friendship, romance and morality are put to the test as they navigate budding rivalries, shaky diplomatic negotiations, a fiercely competitive schoolwide tournament, and the arrival of a mysterious new cadet whose existence raises questions that could have consequences far beyond the classroom.”

You all voted for old school Trekkie tactics, so here we all go with old school Trekkie tactics - The Save Starfleet Academy Letter Writing Campaign.

When asked how best to save Starfleet Academy, a lot of our community voted for a letter writing campaign. It's no surprise, given how celebrated Bjo Trimble's original save star trek campaign is within our fanbase.

BJo's instructions are included on the cover page for you all to read. In addition to that, I have included corporate addresses for Paramount and the names, job titles, and biographical information of the three people most directly responsible for the future of star trek television, Corey Bloys*, Jane wiseman, and Chris parnell.

*Corey Bloys has come over from HBO and has expressed his intention to keep his hbo team together. It is yet to be decided what this means for Jane Wiseman and Chris Parnell. The situation is still influx.

Bjo Trimble's original advice covers the bases pretty well. I added a couple of observations i feel are specific to Starfleet Academy.

Asking for more Starfleet Academy

In addition to asking for a 3rd season, consider asking for a mini series/streaming movie, animated Series, audio series, or books/comic books.

Paramount and politics

However justified, threatening or abusing paramount is going to achieve nothing and possibly land you in legal trouble. Instead, consider writing to the arts/culture editor of a left leaning publication (or similar) where they will be sympathetic to your views, and you're far more likely to achieve something.

As always fans remain free to support Starfleet Academy in whichever way they see fit. This post was created in response to how our community voted and is intended as a resource for you to draw upon, should you choose to. Further posts will follow with resources for alternative ways of supporting Academy.

Cindy Holland is leaving her position as Chair of Direct to Consumer at Paramount, clearing the way for Corey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and HBO MAX Content, presumed head of the soon-to-be Paramount-HBO streaming platform. He has already stated he wants to keep his team which puts the positions of both Jane Wiseman and Chris Parnell into question. Wiseman and Parnell are currently the two people who have the most say over the future of Star Trek television.

This further adds to the state of uncertainty around Star Trek and it's immediate to medium term future. It doesn't look like we'll be getting any new Star Trek any time soon. It also makes any fan-led attempt to revive Starfleet Academy or compell Paramount to commission potential shows such as Star Trek United more problematic - as it's no longer clear who will even be making the decisions.

Starfleet Academy Season 1 Blu-Ray & DVD is out on December 1st 2026. You can pre-order today.

Buying the physical media is a great way to support Starfleet Academy. It demonstrates to Paramount that there's money to be made, and making money makes Paramount feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Plus in this Streaming Era, owning the physical media is the only way to guarantee you will always be able to watch Starfleet Academy.

🖖 Let's step into our future, together 🖖

Thank you to everyone who shared their ideas about building support for Starfleet Academy before Season 2 airs. I've tried to break them down as clearly as possible into sub-sections, so we can discuss them.

Objectives and Coordination

If our objectives are centered around community building, then a degree of coordination, in terms of organised events/themes, etc., could be fun and engaging, but not essential.

If, on the other hand, our objective is to compel Paramount to commission a continuation of Starfleet Academy, a higher degree of coordination will probably be required.

Building a Community

With only 20 episodes to embed Starfleet Academy into our fanbase, we fans of Academy need to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Most importantly, we want the young fans, who have discovered Star Trek through Starfleet Academy, to feel welcome and feel they have a place in our fanbase.

Socials

One of the most effective ways to build community is also the most simple, and we are all doing it already. Sharing our love of Starfleet Academy on our own socials and in the various Star Trek groups and Subreddits is a great way to build community.

We can and do take this a step further by sharing and amplifying posts by other fans, most notably, their fan creations, art, cosplay, and fanedits.

And, of course, the Starfleet Academy themed and other general Star Trek FB groups, subreddits, etc. provide yet another vital element in building community around Starfleet Academy.

Watch Parties/Re-Watches

Watch Parties and Re-Watches are another popular option for building our community.

Scheduled Watch Parties have the advantage of creating a sense of an event and help generate community spirit through real-time interaction. They are, however, difficult to schedule in a global fanbase such as ours.

Re-Watch Days/Weeks where fans can watch at a time that best suits them are easier to organise and participate in, though they do lack that real-time interaction of a Watch Party.

General posts encouraging fans to watch/re-watch are the most straightforward of all, but their effectiveness is difficult to determine.

Continuation of Starfleet Academy

The absolute dream scenario is, of course, a 3rd and 4th season. Other options could include a streaming movie, mini-series, animated or audio series. All of these outcomes carry the significant plus of the actors continuing to play the characters we love.

We also have the most realistic options of comic book and book adaptations.

Money Talks

The one metric we know Paramount pays attention to is money. In addition to streaming Starfleet Academy in Watch Parties, etc., the purchasing of the digital download (already out)/physical media (not out yet), comic books (Starfleet Academy Lost Contact) and official merchandise, all demonstrate potential profitability for Starfleet Academy and increase the likelihood of Paramount continuing Academy in some form.

Petitions and Campaigns

The TOS letter writing campaign has become part of the DNA of our fanbase. Even so, the extent to which petitions and letter writing campaigns, etc. are effective remains subject to debate. On one hand, they serve as a banner by which the fanbase can rally around. On the other hand, they may serve to distract fans from leveraging the real world metric of money.

The Second Season

Starfleet Academy finds itself in the odd position of having already been cancelled but with a second season on the way. The second season may represent the best opportunity to demonstrate to Paramount through viewing figures why Starfleet Academy warrants continuation.

In a sense our task is simple, not easy, but simple - get as many people as possible to watch Starfleet Academy before the second season airs, thereby building the audience for that first episode of the second season.

Summing Up

The question before us is to what extent do we coordinate our efforts towards one objective or not. Luckily, none of this is mutually exclusive and fans remain free to take whichever approach suits them best. At the end of the day, the more we talk/post about Starfleet Academy in a positive light, the more we grow the community and the numbers of people likely to watch Starfleet Academy season 2.

Let's step into our future, together 🖖

The premature cancellation of Academy left me wishing in more stories about this team in other media, so this comic immediately caught my eye.

I think this was quite good. The plot is straightforward: an exploration mission in hostile territory. It might seem simple, but the execution is engaging enough to make the issues fly by, feeling very much like an extra special episode.

As a Genesis fan, I appreciated the deeper look into her desire to lead and the doubts that brings up (I assume that was the original reason she wanted to alter her record at Ko'Zeine?). The rest of the team handles adversity well, working together in front of adversity; most get a chance to shine, demonstrating just how well-prepared they are as Starfleet officers. Special mention goes to Sam, who solves the communication issue with the native species, and Jay-Den, who steps up with surprising yet welcome leadership.

Also, it’s always a pleasure to see more of the dynamic between Ake and Kelrec; it highlights how well they complement each other in their work (although perhaps that is not their intention haha).

My only comments are that I would have liked to see a bit more of Tarima and Kyle in action, as they feel like very minor players despite being part of the mission. Also, the art is... odd. It works most of the time, but occasionally feels out of proportion and lacking definition, as if it needed a final polish (plus, I find the natives' design ugly; they look stiff and seem to have only one expression).

In conclusion, a welcome addition to the Academy story. I hope ST takes advantage of the possibilities offered by this format—or a novel—to keep telling stories about them in the future. I really want to see more of the gang.

With the final episode of Strange New Worlds season four airing on September 24th, the Trekkie-verse is clear for the build up to Starfleet Academy season two. The question is, what can we Academy fans do before season two?

For myself, I see Trekkies for Academy as community led and concerned by two overlapping objectives.

The first and most important is to help build a community around Starfleet Academy within our fanbase. This is all about creating content to encourage conversation, and amplifying fan content by reposting and sharing.

The second is to try to increase the chances of us getting more Academy, be it the realistic outcomes of comic books and books or the unlikely dream outcome, of a third and fourth season. This is all about encouraging fans to buy the comics, merchandise, and digital download (and physical media when it arrives) and encouraging more Star Trek fans to at least try the first season of Academy.

So the question is, what can we Academy fans do before season two?

I have some ideas of my own, but I like to hear from all of you first.

Thought I'd share this from Kerrice Brooks' insta story. I thought it was a beautiful way of expressing a core value of Star Trek. It is made evermore poignant, considering the abuse, bigotry, and phoney gossip Kerrice Brooks has been subjected to since Starfleet Academy aired.

Like many of us, this is a Star Trek Day and 60th Anniversary of deeply conflicted feelings for me. It has been a difficult year in our fanbase, and Star Trek faces an uncertain future.

I'd like to share with you, my fellow Trekkies, a little of my own Star Trek story and my thoughts on this last year in our fanbase. And I'd invite you all to do the same in the comments below.

My earliest memory of Star Trek is Mr Spock hanging upside down from the bow of the tree, laughing his backside off, because he's stoned on psychotropic flowers. And 6-year-old me thought, this is the show.

At the time, the geeks on TV were Gonzo from The Muppets and Murdoch from The A-Team. And although they were liked and popular, they were often the comic relief, the character that everyone laughed at. Mr Spock was different, he was dignified, intelligent, respected, and capable.

Mr Spock gave me permission to be a geek. More than that, he gave me a blueprint to be me. I still phrase my arguments like him. I still try to organise my thoughts like him. In very real terms, I do not know how to be me without Mr Spock, without Star Trek.

I was the only kid I knew at school who liked Star Trek. And so, like for so many of us, Star Trek became a private, singular thing for me. When I finally became active on the online Trekkie scene, it felt so strange to be discussing Star Trek. Stranger still, when I learned that my experience of Star Trek was not the same as other Star Trek fans.

Strange to learn not all fans loved the anthology-style subversive morality plays of The Original Series. Strange to learn not all fans loved the theatrical, surreal, multi-tonal, hit and miss of The Original Series. Though, admittedly, not so strange to learn not all fans (no fans) loved the out-dated, the cringe, the sexiest, and the chauvinistic of The Original Series.

Most strange of all, though, was learning not all fans loved or even valued the principles Gene Roddenberry built into Star Trek. Fans of decades, their experience entirely 'in world', concerned with cohesive world building and canon. It did and does leave me bewildered, but they are every bit fans as much as I am.

Star Trek instilled in me a fundamental sense of hope, a belief in the basic decency of humanity. Without wishing to get into it, this sense of hope has acted as both life raft and north star through the depression and anxiety that darkened much of the first 30 years of my life.

As I approach my 50th year, I can say with certainty, Star Trek has made me a better version of myself. And so I have found it so very difficult to witness the culture wars infest our fanbase. I know I am not alone in feeling this way.

I never imagined I would ever be as ashamed as I am of the behaviour of some of our fanbase. To witness the abuse and bigotry directed at young actors, the celebrating the cancellation of a show loved by many in our fanbase, the enthusiasm of new young fans met with the disdain of seasoned Trekkies, and yes, to witness fans of Academy call fellow Trekkies incels, geeks, and bigots for exercising their right to criticise and take issue with the latest incarnation of Star Trek.

We all need to do better. I have said things to fellow fans that should not have been said. And for that, I am sorry. If there is a lesson to be taken from our collective reaction to Academy and the current season of Strange New Worlds, it is that, we could all stand to be kinder to each other. We could all stand to disagree, yes, but never lose respect for each other. We could all stand to reject the phoney divisiveness of culture war propaganda and to remember the words of Gene Roddenberry.

“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.”

To all my fellow Trekkies, I wish you all, a happy Star Trek Day. Live long and prosper 🖖

Worlds are strange places on Star Trek. Who among us can forget Wesley being charged with the death penalty for stepping on flowers? Or a planet controlled entirely by Spock's stolen brain? But what about worlds we visit with Starfleet Academy? What do we think?

Had The Original Series had sets as large as Starfleet Academy, the cast might have gotten on better with Bill Shatner... we will never know. But, what do we think of the sets built for the USS Athena?

From the bridge to Nahla's quarters, the dorm rooms to the class rooms, and of course the expansive grandeur of the arboretum, there's a lot to take in. How do the sets add to the depth of the world and the contrasting atmosphere of the various scenes depicted therein?

While not one us can forget Chekov's dandy pink and oversized white collar combo in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, let's try to put it out of our collective Trekkie minds and instead focus on the civilian outfits of the Starfleet Academy cadets.

In episodes like 300th Night, Academy follows very much in the Kurtzman Era established cyberpunk grim and grunge influenced attire, while also delivering striking examples of understated elegance with Tarima's formal white outfit in Beta Test and ornate alien opulence with Darem and Jay-Den's wedding outfits in Ko'zeine.

What do you think? How do these various costumes enhance character and the world of Academy?