No matter Roddenberry’s intentions, Star Trek can’t appear to shake its navy trappings, partly as a result of they make for extra participating storytelling. Definitely, Star Trek: The Movement Image has its followers, however not practically as many as Wrath of Khan or Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Nation, with its finish of the Chilly Warfare allegory. The Subsequent Era solely grew to become the traditional it’s immediately when an ailing Roddenberry needed to cede management, permitting for extra battle within the present, together with, sure, navy battle.
Which brings us again to Starfleet Academy. The sequence offers the primary cadets rivals within the type of the Warfare School, an explicitly militaristic faculty subsequent to the Academy. Along with the interpersonal battle arises, the conflict of the 2 colleges additionally permits the sequence to wrestle with the character of Starfleet, a unbroken query in Nü-Trek (see, clearly, the Unusual New Worlds episode, “What’s Starfleet?”).
For Kurtzman, the stress ties into one of many main classes the scholars have to study. “It’s not a recreation, proper?” Kurtzman mentioned of the duty put earlier than Starfleet cadets. “It’s Prime Gun, proper? It’s the very best of the very best. And should you’re the very best of the very best, they’re not essentially going to coddle you thru the whole lot. They’re going to organize you.”
For longtime Trekkies, together with some who haven’t liked Kurtzman’s tenure working the franchise, that truly feels like excellent news. The affirmative, feeling-focused strategy to Starfleet in Nü-Trek has too typically forgotten that the sequence is about extremely educated professionals. Many will probably be happy to listen to that Starfleet Academy places an emphasis on professionalism, perhaps even hurting some emotions within the course of. And if that signifies that Starfleet has to undertake some navy procedures to do it, properly, that’s nothing new for Star Trek, it doesn’t matter what Picard as soon as mentioned.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026.
