Star Trek: SAM Bonds With 4 Iconic Characters From Deep Space Nine & Voyager

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 8 - "The Life of the Stars"

One of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's most popular new characters is now bonded to four icons from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Written by Gaia Violo & Jane Maggs, and directed by Andi Armaganian, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 8, "The Life of the Stars" is a monumental new beginning for Series Acclimation Mil aka SAM (Kerrice Brooks).

SAM was only 4 months old when she boarded the USS Athena in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's premiere. Built by the Kasqian Makers (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to be their Emissary to organics, Series Acclimation Mil is a hologram programmed as a 17-year-old. However, SAM's Makers denied her the crucial life experience needed to process everyday life among organics, even as her awkwardness was embraced by her friends.

As Star Trek: Starfleet Academy progressed, Series Acclimation Mill embraced her role as Emissary of Kasq, but SAM was seriously damaged by phaser fire in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6. When The Doctor (Robert Picardo) and Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) brought SAM home to Kasq, the holographic cadet gained her fourth and most meaningful bond with a Star Trek icon.

Starfleet Academy's SAM Is Now Bonded With 4 Star Trek Icons

Series Acclimation Mil now has indelible ties to Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton), and Dax (Tawny Newsome) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as well as The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager. None of SAM's fellow Starfleet Academy cadets share her pedigree and connections to so many Star Trek legends.

In Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 5, Series Acclimation Mil investigated the disappearance of Captain Sisko in her quest to understand his role as Emissary of Bajor's Prophets. SAM gained pivotal insight into The Sisko from Professor Illa Dax, the newest host of the Dax symbiont, and from Jake Sisko, Benjamin's son.

Even more profound than SAM's link to the Siskos and Dax, however, is The Doctor becoming Series Acclimation Mil's father. The EMH spent most of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy coldly denying SAM"s hopes that her fellow hologram would become her mentor. The Doctor finally revealed that he kept his distance from SAM because of the EMH's trauma from losing holographic daughter in Star Trek: Voyager.

By the end of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 8, The Doctor truly became SAM's father after Series Acclimation Mil was reborn. The Doctor raised SAM on Kasq for 17 years, becoming the true father and daughter the other lacked and needed. SAM and The Doctor returned to Starfleet Academy as a family, and given their digital existence, they could be an immortal father and daughter.

SAM Could Evolve In Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Although Series Acclimation Mil appeared to be her usual effervescent self when she returned to Starfleet Academy, SAM may not be the same hologram everyone knew and loved. SAM now has two sets of memories; the 209 days she spent as a cadet at Starfleet Academy, and the 17 years on Kasq she lived with her father, The Doctor.

Series Acclimation Mil may remember her past life, but she comes back to Starfleet Academy with an entirely different set of life experiences, knowledge, and maturity. The original SAM was programmed as a 17-year-old, but in a way, she was an infant taking her first steps into a larger world she constantly struggled to understand.

SAM 2.0 could reveal new shades and depth to her personality in the final two episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1, and in season 2. Series Acclimation Mil now has a past to match her age, and a loving father in The Doctor to guide her. SAM embodies the grace of a handful of legends while also embodying Star Trek's hopeful future.