Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is attempting lots of new issues in its first season. From trying to reclaim the franchise’s thirty second century setting to introducing a bevy of younger cadets able to be formed into the starship captains and Federation leaders of tomorrow, the collection is, of necessity, going to really feel like one thing solely new within the franchise. (And that’s not a nasty factor, for the report!) However considered one of its most fascinating parts is probably going not going to be one of many collection’ college students, however the lady in command of them: Chancellor Nahla Ake.
Whereas Starfleet Academy is ostensibly going to have a younger vibe than its predecessors, full with lower-stakes tales about private relationships and a wholesome dose of romance. However let’s be actual, there’s no method this lady goes to be relegated to supporting character standing. In spite of everything, that is Star Trek, a franchise that’s basically incapable of obsessing over the oldsters that sit in a captain’s chair, and Ake is a very fascinating addition to the ranks of legends like Pike, Kirk, and Picard. Honestly, the truth that Oscar-winning actress Holly Hunter performs the character is sufficient by itself to make Ake a memorable determine. (Holly! Hunter!!) However she’s additionally filling a brand new and distinctive function throughout the franchise—a starship captain who can be an educational bureaucrat.
The collection will likely be set on the USS Athena, a ship that doubles because the Starfleet Academy campus when it’s docked on Earth. Described by showrunner Alex Kurtzman as an “intergalactic instructing hospital”, the Athena’s distinctive twin operate permits college students to realize hands-on expertise as a part of actual missions whilst they attend class. This, in fact, implies that Ake is the primary determine within the franchise to serve in such a novel place, a frontrunner who should be someway nurturing sufficient to function a mentor for her college students, decisive sufficient to command her crew, and able to navigating the uncomfortable tensions that can inevitably come up when these two roles conflict.
However, no less than Ake has the benefit of getting had literal centuries of expertise to determine discover a skilled stability. In one other distinctive twist, she’s additionally the franchise’s first major captain who isn’t utterly human. Ake is half-Lanthanite, and apparently, even the marginally diluted reward of that exact species’ lengthy lifespan implies that the Athena’s captain is over 400 years previous. Whether or not this implies we’re in for some kind of tie-in with or connection to Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds’ Commander Pelia, or just a extra in-depth exploration of the specifics of Lanthanites as a species, remains to be up within the air. (Right here’s hoping for a visitor look, is what I’m saying.)
