This week we beam up into a brand new Star Trek show in the form of the long-in-the-works Starfleet Academy. But although that hallowed institute has been a Star Trek staple for generations, the show it’s named for is pushing boundaries as it takes us to one of the furthest points of Star Trek‘s timeline the franchise has yet to explore in the 32nd century. Didn’t catch up with Discovery after its big time leap, or just need a refresher before the semester starts? Here’s what you should know, cadets.
When Is Starfleet Academy Set?
Although the show is somewhat vague about it, Starfleet Academy is set in the late 32nd century—approximately around the year 3190, a similar timeframe to when Star Trek: Discovery‘s fourth season takes place, which had previously mentioned the reopening of the institute to a new class of cadets in its premiere. The show is, at the very least, set some time after the events of Discovery‘s third season, which saw United Earth rejoin the Federation after a century of independence, as Starfleet Academy itself—based out of the starship USS Athena—spends much of its time docked at the Academy’s ancestral home near the Presidio in San Francisco.
Its backstory is largely driven by an event that took place 120 years prior called “The Burn.” A galaxy-wide disaster, the Burn saw all active dilithium—a key mineral in fueling warp drive technology—in the known universe suddenly destabilize, rendering every primed warp core at the moment of destabilization inert. In moments, breached warp cores in ships across the galaxy violently exploded, killing billions and destabilizing faster-than-light travel as spacefaring civilization had known it for the best part of a thousand years. Dilithium, already growing in short supply in the decades prior to the Burn, became an incredibly rare commodity, and connections between worlds across the galaxy deteriorated rapidly as the time to travel in space beyond a local system increased dramatically.
And that, of course, had terrible ramifications for an entity like the United Federation of Planets.
© ParamountWhat Is the State of the Federation in Starfleet Academy?
The third season of Discovery saw the titular ship uncover the secret origins of the Burn—and discover an untapped Dilithium nursery world in the Verubin Nebula that was at the heart of the Burn’s outbreak—kickstarting the path to the Federation’s recovery as a galactic power, which had been severely diminished in the 120 years since the Burn.
By the 3180s, the Federation had gone from a membership of 350 worlds (although the ongoing IDW comic Star Trek: The Last Starship, whose writers previously teased to io9 that it had connections to the events of Starfleet Academy, suggested that the Federation was on the verge of incorporating every known galactic civilization into the Federation at the time of the Burn, with the Gorn being the last intergalactic outliers) to less than 40.
Several key member worlds seceded in the wake of the destabilization of the Federation’s ability to connect and protect its space across the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma Quadrants, including the aforementioned Earth—necessitating the relocation of Federation headquarters from the planet to a mobile space station, the USS Federation—as well as Betazed, Trill, Andoria, and Ni’var, the renamed homeworld of the reunified Vulcan and Romulan peoples (interestingly, Tellar Prime was the only founding member to not secede). Without Starfleet able to act as a stabilizing power across Federation space, trade and diplomacy across the galaxy broke down, leading to the rise of mercantile syndicates like the Emerald Chain, an Orion-Andorian criminal conglomerate, or pirate factions like the Venari Ral, led by Paul Giamatti’s Nus Braka.
By the climax of Discovery‘s third season and the resolution of the mystery of the burn, the Federation began the process of rebuilding, opening diplomatic talks with many former member worlds to rejoin. Part of that diplomatic effort included the reopening of Starfleet Academy, which had been shuttered after the Burn and United Earth’s secession, to a new class of cadets drawn from across the known galaxy.
What Is Star Trek Technology Like in the 32nd Century?
Taking place almost a thousand years after what we would typically consider “contemporary” Star Trek in the late 23rd century period occupied by the likes of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, Starfleet Academy features a swath of technological advancements that radically overhaul what were previously the standards known to Star Trek.
Perhaps one of the most obvious and immediate technological evolutions is the refinement of transporter technology. Portable transporters are ubiquitous by the 32nd century; the technology is condensed to handheld size and is also capable of almost instantaneous transferral and recall, allowing for extremely precise jumps. The ubiquity of refined site-to-site transporting also influenced a radical overhaul of starship design—although traditional forms of transportation such as turbolifts still persist, transporters have become the de facto method of transport for many.
That design overhaul was also pioneered by another discovery, programmable matter. Made up of reactive nanomolecules, programmable matter could be redistributed and reshaped at a moment’s notice, keyed either to the reaction of the user or to reformat into pre-programmed states. Much material construction was made up of programmable matter by the 32nd century, especially in starship design—which saw the use of programmable matter move to a style of separated nacelle design, allowing them to “float” around a ship’s primary hull rather than be physically attached for enhanced performance and maneuverability (although nacelles could use programmable matter to physically reattach when necessary).
Beyond that, most typical Starfleet-issue technology that we know of has been condensed down to a singular Swiss Army device: the tricom. Replacing a Starfleet officer’s commbadge, as well as a personal transporter and communicator, the tricom could also pull up holographic PADDs or an in-built holographic tricorder through various hand gestures and could operate independently from a starship’s computer systems when connection was disrupted. We do know that physical versions of both standard and medical tricorders still existed alongside the tricom—Voyager‘s EMH, also known as the Doctor, who is still active in the 32nd century and teaching at the academy, is seen being handed the former and requesting the latter in a clip from Starfleet Academy‘s premiere released this week.
© ParamountWhat Star Trek Species Are in Starfleet Academy?
Inducting a new class of cadets from across the galaxy means that a plethora of students from various species are present in Starfleet Academy, rather than just humans. Across the background army of extras that make up much of the student body, eagle-eyed viewers will be able to spot Orions, Ferengi, Kelpiens, Vulcans, Romulans, Betazoids, and more throughout the show.
Among the primary cast there are several alien species. Although the series has two human-presenting main cadets, Sandro Rosta’s Caleb Mir and George Hawkin’s Darem Raymi, only Caleb is human, and the latter is actually from a species called the Khionians. They’re joined in the main cast of students by Bella Shepard’s Genesis Lythe, a humanoid alien from a planet called Dar-Sha, and Series Acclimation Mil, or Sam, played by Kerrice Brooks, a sentient holographic life form from a society of photonic beings called the Kasq. There is one more familiar race represented, though: Karim Diané’s Jay-Den Kraag is a Klingon and seemingly the only one of his kind at the academy. Although Klingons had been mentioned multiple times across Discovery‘s later seasons, the show never explored much of what happened to the Klingons by the 32nd century.
It’s also interesting to note, and perhaps befitting of a show set as far in the future as the 32nd century, Starfleet Academy also features several main characters who hail from hybridized backgrounds among various Star Trek species. Holly Hunter’s Nahla Ake, the chancellor of Starfleet Academy as well as the captain of the USS Athena when it leaves its earthly moorings, is half-Lanthanite, a race of extremely long-lived humanoids first introduced in Strange New Worlds, while her Cadet Master and first officer, Lura Thok (played by Gina Yashere), is half-Klingon and half-Jem’Hadar, the genetically engineered warrior race introduced as the infantry caste of the Dominion in Deep Space Nine, a fascinating history given the two species’ history in the Dominion War.
Rounding out the Starfleet Academy hybrid beings is Giamatti’s aforementioned Nus Braka, who is another half-Klingon—this time also a half-Tellarite. The presence of multiple half-Klingons compared to a singular Klingon makes it seem like, at this point in time, the latter are very much in the minority, potentially suggesting that the Klingon Empire, like the Federation, fell on hard times with the outbreak of the Burn.
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