Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Recreates Spock's Tragic Death

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 6 - "Come, Let's Away"

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6 did its own version of Spock's (Leonard Nimoy) in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and it's also effectively tragic. Written by Kenneth Lin & Kiley Rossetter, and directed by Larry Teng, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6 raises the stakes and violence, as Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti) enacts a nefarious plot that ends with the death of a War College cadet.

Captain Spock sacrificing his life at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan will always be the seminal death in Star Trek. It's also the death that's been the most shamelessly replicated by Star Trek trying to recreate the emotional impact of Spock's demise with the death of Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) in Star Trek: Nemesis and the all-too-brief death of Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) in Star Trek Into Darkness.

Every major Star Trek character death is inevitably compared to Spock's in some way, as are character resurrections. Killing off a young cadet in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6 was an unexpectedly harrowing shocker by the freshman series. Because the dead cadet is also a Vulcan, the comparison to Spock feels not only correct, but favorable because of its impact in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

B'Avi's Death Evokes Spock 44 Years After Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

B'Avi's (Alexander Eling) death in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6 is the closest Star Trek has come to matching the tragedy of Spock's death. B'Avi was the War College's Vulcan cadet, and he was one of the main rivals of Starfleet Academy's alpha males, Darem Reymi (George Hawkins) and Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta).

B'Avi is murdered by the Furies; the Vulcan cadet was shot point-blank in the chest by a phaser while trying to protect his friends. Like Spock in Star Trek II, B'Avi selflessly put his life on the line to protect his friends. Unlike Spock's gradual succumbing to radiation poisoning, however, B'Avi's death was instantaneous, which is a mercy and offers his surviving friends a small amount of solace.

Earlier in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6, B'Avi quoted Spock, telling Caleb that "a famous officer once said that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." Not only was B'Avi referencing Spock's most famous adage from Star Trek II, but, in hindsight, it was also a clue that B'Avi was meant to follow Spock into the ultimate final frontier.

Of course, when Spock died in 1982, he was beloved by Star Trek fans for 16 years. Audiences don't have the same connection to B'Avi, who was introduced in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 3 as an antagonist to the show's lead heroes. Yet B'Avi's death is tragic because of his youth and untapped potential. Now, hopes are squashed that B'Avi and his Starfleet Academy counterparts could have grown to be friends.

What B'Avi's Death Means For Starfleet Academy & The War College

B'Avi may have been an ancillary Star Trek: Starfleet Academy character, but the Vulcan cadet's death is meaningful and will reverberate throughout the rest of season 1 and beyond. The loss of B'Avi robs Chancellor Kelrec's War College of one of its brightest students.

Meanwhile, Tarima Sadal (Zoë Steiner) is comatose after she overloaded her Betazoid powers to save her friends from the Furies. B'Avi's death and the potential loss of Tarima are tragedies that could force a reassessment of the War College. Starfleet Academy and the War College's cadets will also mourn their fallen classmates and could question their own futures in Starfleet.

Unlike Spock, Data, and Chris Pine's Captain Kirk, it's unlikely Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will resurrect B'Avi. The Vulcan cadet is now a symbol of the rosy, halcyon tone of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's initial episodes giving way to the darkness and danger waiting for the cadets in the galaxy.