Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Introduces Terrifying Furies Villain

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Published Feb 18, 2026, 7:00 AM EST

John Orquiola is a New & Classic TV Editor, Senior Writer, and Interviewer with a special focus on Star Trek. John has over 5,000 published articles at SR, and he has interviewed the biggest names in Star Trek on the red carpet and VIP events, among other beloved shows, movies, and franchises.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 6 - "Come, Let's Away"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy introduced villains even more terrifying than the Scavengers in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and both show the dark side of humanity in space. Written by Kenneth Lin & Kiley Rossetter, and directed by Larry Teng, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6 brings back Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti), who deals Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) a tragic and devastating defeat.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 6, "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail" pits the USS Enterprise and the USS Farragut led by acting Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) against the Scavengers. An interstellar boogeyman feared by many worlds, the Scavengers prowled the outskirts of United Federation of Planets' space, killing at will and harvesting technology.

The twist of the Scavengers in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is that they are humans, the descendants of an optimistic group of scientists who left Earth in the 21st century and were never heard from again. Somehow, the Scavengers became twisted by the final frontier and became a scourge of the galaxy in their massive exo-suits and terrifying starship.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's Furies Are Even Scarier Than Strange New Worlds' Scavengers

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6's routine training exercise aboard the derelict USS Miyazaki quickly turned into a hostage crisis when the Furies stormed the ship. The Furies were revealed to be horrifying, cannibalistic human/alien hybrids who moved with a creepy blurring effect. However, Nus Braka revealed that the Furies were perpetually in agony and were vulnerable to sonic attacks.

The Furies wasted no time killing their prey. By the end of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6, Lt. Commander Tomov (Jeff Teravainen) was hurled out of the airlock, and the War College's Vulcan cadet, B'Avi (Alexander Eling), was murdered by the Furies. It took Tarima Sadal risking her life and overloading her Betazoid psychic powers to wipe out the Furies.

Series Acclimation Mil aka SAM (Kerrice Brooks) was also left damaged and glitching from the Furies' phaser fire.

The Furies are a memorable nightmarish creation by Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Even more so than Nus Braka and the Venari Ral, or the Emerald Chain introduced by Star Trek: Discovery, the Furies are a twisted and grotesque adversary who could return to seek revenge on Starfleet Academy in future episodes.

Star Trek Has Always Shown The Dark Side Of Humans Going To Space

Star Trek's thousand-year saga has been about humans taking their place as leaders of the Federation's galactic alliance, but Star Trek has also shown the darker side of living in the final frontier. From Star Trek: The Original Series onwards, some humans became broken by what they encountered in the galaxy.

Star Trek: The Original Series' Commodore Matt Dekker (William Windom) is one example of a courageous Starfleet Officer who was psychologically broken by his confrontation with the planet-killer weapon. Other humans became twisted into aliens throughout Star Trek's TV series and movies, like Star Trek Beyond's Krall (Idris Elba), who was mutated from the human Captain Balthazar Edison.

The Furies may become a recurring threat in the late 32nd century.

It's fascinating that both remaining Star Trek on Paramount+ series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, introduced terrifying human villains who were turned into horrors by life in outer space. In the 23rd century, Captain Kirk and the USS Farragut apparently wiped out the Scavengers, but the Furies may become a recurring threat in the late 32nd century.