Star Trek - Starfleet Academy: 90210 With Phasers and Emotional Baggage
- Dan Brooks
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Young cadets train to become Starfleet officers as they deal with friendships, rivalries, and romance, all while facing a mysterious threat to both the Academy and the Federation.
Let me say this upfront so nobody writes an angry email in all caps: I love Star Trek. I love the ships. I love the uniforms. I love the speeches that sound like they were written by philosophers who own lava lamps. I even love the episodes where someone gives a ten-minute monologue about ethics while a space anomaly politely waits its turn.
Which is why Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is… interesting. In the same way it’s “interesting” when your teenage kid suddenly starts asking very pointed questions about your life choices.
This show is 90210… in space, except instead of Malibu tans and convertibles, you get trauma, legacy pressure, and a galaxy still limping along after The Burn. It’s set post-Discovery’s future jump, which means the Federation isn’t the polished moral Ferrari we remember. It’s more like a classic car found in a barn: beautiful, historic, but missing parts and possibly haunted.
And honestly? That’s kind of the point.
Things I Liked (A Lot, Actually)
First and foremost: Holly Hunter. That voice. That cadence. That gentle, quirky authority that makes every line sound like wisdom wrapped in a warm blanket. She could read a replicator manual and I’d nod thoughtfully like, “Yes, yes… tea, Earl Grey, existential.”
Second: I’m a sci-fi junkie. Always have been. And Star Trek has a long, respectable history of visual ambition. This show continues that tradition. The Academy itself feels alive - sleek but worn, futuristic but bruised. It looks like a place that survived something, which fits the tone perfectly.
And here’s the sneaky good part: the setting. The 32nd century isn’t just window dressing. The Burn changed everything. Warp travel collapsed. The Federation fractured. So every lesson these cadets learn comes with an asterisk and a mild existential crisis. “Here’s how things should work… assuming the galaxy cooperates this time.”
That’s fresh. And a little uncomfortable. In a good way.
Things I Didn’t Love (Brace Yourselves)
Yes, it can get preachy. Sometimes the show leans so hard into moral instruction that you half-expect a pop quiz afterward. There are moments where the dialogue stops being a conversation and starts sounding like a TED Talk with uniforms.
And yes - let’s just say it - all the diversity boxes are checked. Every single one. Like a Bingo card that’s already yelling “B-12!” before the opening credits finish. I’m not mad about representation. I’m just bracing myself for the inevitable press releases explaining what I was supposed to learn this week.
Subtlety occasionally takes a sick day.
Interesting Nerd Facts (For the File)
The show is firmly set in the 32nd century, the furthest future Star Trek has ever lived in for an ongoing series, first introduced in Star Trek: Discovery.
Early uniform designs intentionally deviate from classic Starfleet color logic. This isn’t fashion drift - it signals that Starfleet is no longer training rigid specialists. These cadets are cross-disciplinary by design. Survivors first, philosophers second.
The Academy itself functions less like a shining ivory tower and more like a proving ground for adaptability in a broken system.
Translation: this is not your grandfather’s Starfleet. Unless your grandfather survived a galactic collapse.
Why This Show Is Going to Make Old Trek Fans Furious
(And Why They Won’t Admit It)
Every Trek reboot triggers the same ritual. A veteran fan—let’s call him Dave—leans back, crosses his arms, and says, “I’m fine with change. I just want it to respect canon.”
Dave is lying. To himself.
Because Starfleet Academy doesn’t break canon. It does something worse. It exposes it.
Problem #1: It Doesn’t Worship the Federation
Classic Trek treated the Federation like a moral North Star. Imperfect, yes - but inevitable. This show says, “Yeah… it almost didn’t make it.” The Burn wasn’t a speed bump. It was a reckoning. And asking “What if Starfleet wasn’t inevitable?” is borderline heresy in some living rooms.
Problem #2: The Kids Don’t Care About Your Favorite Captain
To these cadets, Kirk is history. Picard is a case study. Janeway is a footnote. Nostalgia wants reverence. This show offers relevance. That stings.
Problem #3: The Prime Directive Gets Side-Eyed
Non-interference used to be sacred. This show dares to ask whether it was a luxury afforded only to stable civilizations. That reframes moral purity as potential complicity - and that makes people twitchy. Some more of that preachy sermon.
Problem #4: Survivors, Not Idealists
Starfleet isn’t training philosophers with toolkits anymore. It’s training adaptable, emotionally resilient, sometimes morally flexible officers. Old fans say, “That’s not Starfleet.” What they mean is, “That’s not the escape I remember.”
Problem #5: Trek as Religion
This show understands Star Trek has become mythological. And instead of polishing the altar, it examines it. Respectfully. Critically. Loudly. Believers don’t love that.
The Irony
The loudest critics will say this “isn’t real Trek.”Too political. Too introspective. Not optimistic enough. Here’s the punchline:This is exactly what Star Trek looks like when it ages honestly with its audience. Gene Roddenberry didn’t give us a perfect future. He gave us a hopeful argument. Starfleet Academy isn’t rejecting that argument - it’s continuing it without a safety net. And that’s why some old fans won’t rage-quit loudly.They’ll just get quieter.More defensive.And oddly specific about which seasons “still count.”
Which, in Trek terms, is basically a tell.
I have a fondness for each generation's Star Trek shows. The more they try to be different, the more they inevitably come back to the roots of the show. Lets see if this is true for 90210 Starfleet Academy