Star Trek: Starfleet Academy‘s sophomore year will be its last. The newest installment of the long-running science fiction franchise will conclude at the end of its upcoming second season. The news comes amid upheaval at Paramount, the show’s home base, which is preparing to absorb Warner Bros. in the near future. While it was successful with critics, earning an 87% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (and a rave review from Collider‘s Samantha Coley), the series did not achieve the ratings that Paramount desired.
According to reports, the series has been cancelled at Paramount+ following its second season, which has already been filmed. This means that for the first time since Star Trek returned to TV in 2017 with Star Trek: Discovery, there are no new Star Trek series in the pipeline at Paramount+, which has been the franchise’s streaming home. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds which aired its third season last year, has a fourth season and a fifth, truncated final season in the can. Meanwhile, other proposed series, including a comedy created by Star Trek: Lower Decks veteran Tawny Newsome, and a Strange New Worlds follow-up centering around Paul Wesley‘s Captain James Kirk, have yet to be greenlit.
What Is ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ About?
Taking place centuries after Star Trek: The Original Series and The Next Generation, Starfleet Academy is set in a galaxy where the Federation is gradually rebuilding decades after The Burn, a space-spanning disaster that shattered Starfleet. As the series opens, Earth has rejoined the Federation, and class is in session once more at the fabled Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, under the watchful eye of Chancellor Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter). As she attempts to control a faculty that includes combative Klingon-Jem’Hadar hybrid Lura Thok (Gina Yashere), cantankerous centuries-old hologram the Doctor (Robert Picardo), and eccentric engineer Jett Reno (Tig Notaro), she also has to deal with her students — especially the rebellious Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta), who she shares a dark past with. Meanwhile, the rebuilding Federation has to deal with an existential threat from resentful pirate Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti), who is far more dangerous than he seems.
Series producers Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau shared a letter with the show’s fans, thanking their cast and crew for their dedication to the series.
It’s been my and Noga’s joy and privilege to help carry Gene Roddenberry’s extraordinary vision forward with Starfleet Academy, thanks to the hundreds of hardworking humans who pour every ounce of their talents into the work daily with imagination and reverence. We are in post-production now on what will be the second and final season. We’re so proud of what we’ve accomplished together on this show, and the world will get to see the work of these extraordinary artists when season two airs. We will finish strong.
Whether you’re working on Star Trek or part of the marvel that is Star Trek fandom — its very heart, soul, and conscience —the joy comes from adventuring across boundaries of time, space, and the humanly possible in service to Roddenberry’s transformative vision of the future. That incomparable vision was fueled by an inexhaustible optimism. Star Trek places its bet on the best in human nature. It dares to imagine a society of “infinite diversity in infinite combinations,” free of war, hate, poverty, disease, and repression, and dedicated to the spirit of scientific inquiry and respect for all life, whether carbon or silicon-based, green-skinned or blue.
But make no mistake: Gene Roddenberry wasn’t some starry-eyed dreamer. He was a decorated Army bomber pilot in the Pacific Theater. He had seen first-hand the grim consequences of the worst of human nature. And his vision of the future wasn’t just a promise of hope. It was also a warning. In a fraught, frightening time of intolerance and violence, Star Trek said: Look! We made it! But just barely. First, we had to put all those ancient scourges behind us. It said that what makes us glorious as a species, and gives us hope for the future and the galaxy is inextricably linked to what makes us dangerous to each other, to this one world we presently inhabit, and to ourselves. That dual message—of hope and of warning—isn’t just a pretty dream but a call to action, to think about who we are in a different way.
Please don’t take our word for it. Take Gene’s:
“Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. […] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.”
With enduring hope that his vision of the future is possible, for our children, their children, and every future cadet in Starfleet Academy:
Live Long and Prosper.
Season 1 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is now streaming on Paramount+.
via Collider