We Just Got A Huge Update on the Next Star Trek Series
This seems like a classic set-up.
When Star Trek: Starfleet Academy debuts, it will be unlike any previous Trek series ever. Then again, according to a new scoop from Trek legend Jonathan Frakes, there is one formula that the show might be borrowing that will remind fans of another series — Deep Space Nine.
As fans have known for quite sometime, Starfleet Academy will take place in the 32nd century, following the events of Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, and feature characters from that series including Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Jett Reno (Tig Notaro), who both, ironically or not, are actually from the 23rd century originally. A huge portion of the series is set to take place on Earth, at the titular academy, located in San Francisco. But, according to Frakes, there will be a starship taking the cadets away from Earth, boldly going... somewhere.
“There's also a spaceship on the show, which I think, I hope that's not a f*cking secret,” Frakes said at the Indiana Comic Convention. “I have been known—I’ve had a bad experience with oversharing, and I hope that wasn't an overshare, but it's fabulous. The sets are great.”
Frakes’ joke about “oversharing” refers to the fact that in the lead-up to Discovery Season 1, back 2016 and early 2017, he revealed that the Mirror Universe would appear, a fact which ended-up being a major twist midway through the season. This seems smaller. After all, fans probably expected some starships on their new Star Trek series, so the idea that there’s a recurring ship isn’t that surprising.
A group of Runabouts in 'Deep Space Nine.'
However, what is interesting is the way that this set-up seems to echo the basic idea of Deep Space Nine: the notion that the show would have a stationary location, a kind of home base, but will take trips on a specific craft for some of the episodes. In DS9’s early years, trips outside of the space station happened via Runabouts — ships that were essentially souped-up shuttlecraft. But, by DS9 Season 3, the show got the USS Defiant, a lean and mean Starfleet warship that let the crew a way to fly missions away from the space station, allowing for the show to straddle more than one format.
Interestingly, since 2020, Academy’s parent show, Discovery has done something similar. Many aspects of Discovery Seasons 3, 4 and 5 all dealt with machinations happening at Federation HQ, and then spilled over into the various missions of the USS Discovery. Without really meaning to, perhaps, Discovery set-up a format that was the opposite of DS9. Instead of being a space station show that needed a ship, Discovery became a space ship show that gained a space station.
Now it seems that Starfleet Academy will be a blend of various different Trek tendencies, hopefully, making it the best of all possible worlds. There’s yet to be a trailer, photo of official release date for Starfleet Academy. But clearly, on some level, this series will both boldly go where no Trek has gone before — but also, safely go in ways we’re comfortable with.
