Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Is The Greatest Argument For The Return Of Long TV Seasons
by Witney Seibold · /FilmThe first season of "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" (read our review here) just concluded with the episode "Rubincon," ending the first round of episodes with a violent climactic confrontation between the school's director, Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter), and the Klingon/Tellarite terrorist Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti). It also wrapped up a subplot involving Caleb (Sandro Rosta), a cadet who was taken by Captain Ake from his Federation-hating mother (Tatiana Maslany) when he was still very young. Caleb, his mother, and Captain Ake had to contend with the fact that the Federation may not be as bad as it once was and that Captain Ake has been attempting contrition ever since separating mother and son. That subplot was introduced in the show's pilot.
Audiences, however, didn't have to wait very long for that conclusion. Although the first season of "Starfleet Academy" takes place over the course of an entire school year, it was still only 10 episodes long, and took less than three months to air. Indeed, most modern "Star Trek" shows have had much shorter seasons than back in the glory days of "Star Trek" in the 1990s. These days, a season is 10 episodes. In 1991, a season was a whopping 26 episodes, and would air weekly from late September through mid-June, the length of a school year.
Some "Star Trek" shows have been able to get away with briefer seasons. "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is an episodic program, so its brief seasons can still feature a lot of genre variety. It also helps that it's a pointedly whimsical show, practically a comedy. "Starfleet Academy," though, is more about the year-long college experience, and would benefit, more than any of the modern "Star Trek" shows, from a school-year-length season.
Starfleet Academy really, really needs 26-episode seasons
The timing of a 26-episode season of "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy," especially if it aired in the traditional 1990s months of September through June, would have only aided the series. We Trekkies would have been able to trace a year at the Academy in real time, watching the cadets go to classes, find their way around campus, sleep in their dorms, and really explore themselves. The central characters on "Academy" are teenagers, and they are attending a school that has just reopened for the first time in over a century. Many of them come from isolationist worlds, and haven't interacted with any other species in their whole lives. These characters should be allowed the time they need to overcome cultural differences, learn to communicate better, and slowly become friends (or not) over the course of an entire school year.
With only 10 episodes, everything is rushed. All of the friendships seem to develop off-screen. It's like we're seeing every third episode of a much longer series, or a highlight reel of a more in-depth season. The showrunners of "Starfleet Academy" have been careful to include large, dramatic climaxes wherein cadets are put in peril, or the school is under attack from terrorists. In such climaxes, characters are harmed, students die, and everyone mourns. The next few episodes will deal with the fallout from such an event.
But when we have those climaxes in the middle of such short seasons, we're losing the vital connection those characters had to one another. When the characters die, we kind of have to take the show's word for it that they were friends. We're also not getting to know them very well ourselves. The emotions feel rushed.
Longer seasons would better map onto the natural development of a college student
While "Starfleet Academy" has earned its emotional payoffs better than some recent "Star Trek" shows (I'm looking at you, "Star Trek: Discovery"), it still feels like we're watching a truncated season, as if a lot of the character development happened off-screen. It was a little jarring to flip on episode 9 of the series, called "300th Night," and realize that we've spent 300 days at the school in only nine weeks. The other 237 days have passed by us unseen.
This is frustrating storytelling in most circumstances, but it's especially tough with "Starfleet Academy" because we're missing the vital moments of growth of an average college student. How is Genesis (Bella Shepard) contending with her command skills? Will Jay-Den (Karim Diané) switch majors? What does an average day look like to these students? A schedule of classes is a vital backbone of the college experience, but on "Starfleet Academy," everything is freewheeling.
The short season was especially cruel to my favorite character on the series, Sam (Kerrice Brooks). She's a hologram who was only activated a few weeks before she arrived at the Academy. She looks 17, but has a little kid's attitude. In only 10 episodes, she went from an enthused naif, to a resolute emissary, to a trauma sufferer, to being reprogrammed with a whole new angsty personality and new memories. Sam should have had more time in each one of these character stops, perhaps taking several years to complete. Sam had a very, very significant year, and we only spent 10 hours with her.
Let us live on campus a little more, please. Then we can appreciate the big moments when they come, and more naturally see these teen cadets grow up.