Commander Jett Reno's Quirky Warp Command Steals The Show In Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy introduced the latest and one of the best warp commands, but it wasn't said by Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter). Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1's finale premiered in March, but the young adult-themed series wasn't renewed by Paramount+. The recently wrapped Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 2 will also be its final season.

Captains' warp commands have become a staple of Star Trek since Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) popularized "Engage!" on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Star Trek on Paramount+'s series placed a new emphasis on how a captain orders their starship to jump to warp, from Captain Michael Burnham's (Sonequa Martin-Green) "Let's fly!" on Star Trek: Discovery, to Captain Christopher Pike's "Hit it!" on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Star Trek: Picard season 3's finale even left Captain Seven of Nine's (Jeri Ryan) warp command as an open question when she took command of the USS Enterprise-G. Since Star Trek: Legacy, Picard's proposed spinoff, likely won't happen, fans may never know what Captain Seven says to send the Starship Enterprise to warp.

Commander Jett Reno Got Star Trek’s Best New Captain Command

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1's finale gave Star Trek's coolest new warp command to Commander Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) instead of Captain Ake. Reno stepped up to take command of the USS Athena and Starfleet Academy's cadets, leading the mission to rescue Captain Ake and bring down Nus Braka's (Paul Giamatti) Omega-47 mines.

Commander Reno's quippy warp command is, "Now show me pretty streaks of light." It perfectly suits Jett's wry and direct sense of humor and her background as a Starfleet engineer. "Now show me pretty streaks of light" perfectly conveys the sense of wonder of a starship jumping to warp speed, and what being at warp looks like through a viewscreen.

Before Commander Jett Reno joined Starfleet Academy to teach temporal mechanics, she was Chief Engineer of the USS Discovery. Between Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Reno served with Captain Michael Burnham and Captain Nahla Ake, two of the most prominent female starship captains of the 32nd century.

Even though Reno was quick to remind the cadets that she is not a captain, Jett still came equipped with her own warp command perfectly suited to her. Jett may not have the official rank, or want it, but she conducted herself like a great starship captain in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1's finale.

Holly Hunter’s Nahla Ake Was A Very Different Star Trek Captain By Design

Curiously, Captain Ake didn't utter a specific warp command in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1. The closest she came was when Nahla said, "Let's go to San Francisco," when the USS Athena jumped to warp for the first time in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's series premiere.

According to her co-stars, like Robert Picardo, Holly Hunter approached her role as Captain Ake to be different from previous Star Trek captains. This is evident from the controversial way Ake sits in her Captain's chair, to Nahla's penchant for going barefoot, to the Chancellor's overall eccentric demeanor that comes from being a 422-year-old half-Lanthanite.

Perhaps eschewing the traditional captain's warp command was a choice by Holly Hunter to further differentiate Captain Ake. It can also be argued that Star Trek Captains don't need a specific warp command. After all, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) didn't have a set warp order, and he liked clever quips like, "Thataway!" and "Second star to the right, and straight on til morning."

Then again, Captain Ake could surprise everyone by settling on a specific warp command in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 2. If she does, whether it would be as evocative as "Now show me pretty streaks of light" remains to be seen.