"ST: Starfleet Academy"....

[Johnnie Lyle]

Episode 2 was better, IMVHO. I do like Holly Hunter. Having her be a half-Lanthanite is clever. Gina Yashere is brilliant as Cadet Master Lura Thok. It’s always a pleasure to see Robert Picardo’s Doctor. I thought that Paul Giamatti played a very good villain, who has a genuine and justified beef with the Federation.

A few observations:

The Federation has a War College now. Finally; although that is quite the Americanism for such an institution. The wall with names of distinguished officers of the past is really interesting. They made James T Kirk an Admiral again! I wonder if that was a posthumous promotion, or is his resurrection in the Otoy film now canon? I liked looking out for characters we know on the wall, plus members of the production team. We also know that bringing George and Gracie into the 23rd Century was successful in the long term. In the words of Scotty, “there be whales, Admiral!”

There are some interesting new species to see. Plus, I do find myself wondering how many of the Orions are of the House Tendi.

I suspect it’s highest rank, not final rank. I know a few people on that wall, which is a source of some annoyance and amusement.

[Johnnie Lyle]

I enjoyed it.

Well see how this goes. TNG was borderline unwatchable at first and got better, same with Picard.

Aye, that’s pretty common for Trek. However, we’re not in the same media world where you get time to evolve and improve. We’re in a world of shorter attention spans, nigh infinite choices for our eyeballs, and lots of people who want familiar media as comfort and stability in unsettled times.

New stuff needs to be on point, and doesn’t get 1.5 seasons to find itself.

[Nathan45]

On episode 3. I think the only enjoyable training montage I've ever seen was Full metal jacket, every other one I've seen is tedious and this is no exception. Modern expressions and slang are jarring, hope they dial that back.

Can't work myself up either way on this. Hopefully we can start moving forward with some traditional star trek now that the characters are established.

[Johnnie Lyle]

On episode 3. I think the only enjoyable training montage I've ever seen was Full metal jacket, every other one I've seen is tedious and this is no exception. Modern expressions and slang are jarring, hope they dial that back.

Can't work myself up either way on this. Hopefully we can start moving forward with some traditional star trek now that the characters are established.

That’s fundamentally the problem with school storytelling though. Cadets are precious; they’re the seed corn. You don’t send them out for derring do en masse (as a television show really requires) because that’s destroying your cadre. A lot of the stuff a generic starship is going to do is something a school ship should never do, because the students are too important to risk unnecessarily. So you will have safe experiences predominately. And while a liberty incident on Vulcan or the occasional training accident do happen, and make good stories (especially a Vulcan explaining how it is logical to get smashed and laid after stressful events), it’s a smaller well to mine than after they graduate and become ensigns or ordinary spacers. You can’t pull Wrath of Khan every episode. So if they’re going to go down that route (and from clips it looks like they are), it’s going to be a time-limited schtick.

So the only real way you have cadets do traditional Trek stuff long term is how they handled Uhuru in Strange New Worlds, or Johnnie Rico in Starship Troopers - a cadet doing their summer tour with the fleet/MI. That’s absolutely great storytelling potential, but is a very different setup than what Starfleet Academy has gone with.

So

[Belushi TD]

I'd have thought the proper way to look at it was in relationship to the Age of Sail from the 7 years war to the Napoleanic Wars, where Midshipmen were effectively thrown to the wolves with little to no training, except what they learned while doing. It also fits in with the no FTL communications, where the captain of a ship is effectively the lord and master of all he surveys and there is extensive reliance on the judgement of said captains to deal with interstellar political issues without communicating with higher.

Sure, cadets are your seed corn. But it does you little to no good to protect your seed corn only to find out that they can't hack it in the real world.

Belushi TD

[kdahm]

I'd have thought the proper way to look at it was in relationship to the Age of Sail from the 7 years war to the Napoleanic Wars, where Midshipmen were effectively thrown to the wolves with little to no training, except what they learned while doing. It also fits in with the no FTL communications, where the captain of a ship is effectively the lord and master of all he surveys and there is extensive reliance on the judgement of said captains to deal with interstellar political issues without communicating with higher.

Sure, cadets are your seed corn. But it does you little to no good to protect your seed corn only to find out that they can't hack it in the real world.

Belushi TD

It's a balancing act. In the age of sail, particularly the British, the middies were cruising instead of being at an Academy, and were spread out four to six to a ship. There wasn't a problem with the seed corn, because the middies were spread out over the fleet and one or five ships lost wasn't big in percentage terms. The Royal Navy Academy was established in 1733, taking two years off the six years needed to become lieutenant, and graduates thereof were discriminated against. It was renamed in 1806, and closed in 1837, only to be replaced with a cadet training ship in 1857. Generally service academies worldwide look they get established between 1705 and 1830.

This is more like the midshipmen cruises, where there is a big concentration of middies on one ship. If half or more of your two senior classes are on one ship, that's a lot of seed corn in one place. It is quite important to protect them. Think about what would happen if the USS Eagle or the Gorch Fock were to be lost on a middie cruise.

[Bernard Woolley]

I see people are trying to apply logic to a TV (well streaming) show. I find that sometimes it's best to switch off that part of your brain and just enjoy it.

I did get Police Academy 3 vibes from Episode 3 - two rival academies in a prank war. Though in ST:A's case, it's not because one may be shut down. I did like the way the Academy cadets did win. They used origonality and their brains. We did also get a bit of a heist movie in there too. I did smile at the fact that Lura Thok is still following the Gunny Hartman School of Training. AFAIK, that methodology is currently out of fashion.
It was, IMVHO, weaker than the previous episode, but I did enjoy most of it. There was also a new look at 'The Wall' and I spotted a few more well known names and some members of the production team.
Just as an aside, Holly Hunter really likes to show off her feet!

*

Now, to re-engage the more logical part of my brain. If I were heading SFC, or at least advising Admiral Vance, I would give this advice: Having both the Academy and War College carrying out the basic training of cadets who will become ensigns is wasteful of resources. It also creates a two-tier fleet with the very real possibility of friction between officers. Training needs to be standardised. Moreover, the era when Starfleet needs all its officers to be trained by the War College is ending. I would suggest the following:

- All cadet basic training to be carried out by the Academy. Including training cruises. Initial combat training to be carried out by Academy instructors (including some seconded from the War College). In short, the Academy should be like the BRNC, or Annapolis.

The Adademy should also function as an umbrella organisation, like the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom.

- The War College should become a staff college, like the Joint Services Command and Staff College. For example, it should run Intermediate (some Lieutenants, Lieutenant Commanders), Advanced (Commanders) and Higher Command and Staff Courses (Commodores). Promotion beyond Lt. Commander should require passing the Intermedate course, all Commanders should need to pass the Advanced course to become Captains and it should be required that passing the Advanced course is needed to be promoted beyond Commodore rank. The Advanced course really needs to concentrate on preventing the officers becoming 'badmirals'. So, will need a strong emphasis on morals!

- The Academy could also parents things like an Engineering College, maybe call it The Scott-La Forge College of Starfleet Engineering.

- Establish something like the Royal College of Defence Studies for the most promising senior officers and civillian administrators of Starfleet. Of course, it would focus on more than defence, since it's for Starfleet.

My last bit of advice would be to try and change some of the culture of the Academy. It's an institution for training personnel who will eventually crew starships. It's not an American High School, or college from the late 20th and early 21st Century.

[Johnnie Lyle]

The clip with Lura Thok shooting a cadet with a phaser set on “transport” (useful feature that is) is hilarious but also questionable teaching. But she absolutely has the Klingon cadence down.

Concur on the questionable logic of two separate academies training future officers in entirely different contexts and then theoretically plugging them into the same pipeline as interchangeable. A successful Starfleet officer needs both halves of the equation to effectively command, diplome, explore, etc. Unless a major part of the lore is the messiness of the return of Starfleet Academy to Earth and the reintegration of Earth into the Federation, and trying to harmonize things.

But honestly, it also looks like we have a return of writers who are using terminology from a world that they don’t actually understand (sadly common in a lot of writing period, but also almost a Trek tradition at this point), so it’s not logical or correct to people who do understand that world.

[Nathan45]

Episode 4.

OK this was somewhat better. At least it was more serious and was trying to develop the klingon character. I dont like the character much, but this at least felt a bit like Star Trek.

[Craiglxviii]

And no second season…

[Bernard Woolley]

I’ve not heard any news about cancellation. I think Trek Culture would have posted about it.

[JBG]

I’ve not heard any news about cancellation. I think Trek Culture would have posted about it.

Re the first sentence in your previous post, I do recall using some incendiary language watching the final battle scene on GoT ….

Jonathan

[Bernard Woolley]

The logic bit?

The Klingon character’s backstory in Ep.4 is an interesting allegory. I did like the relationship between Ake and the Klingon leader. The space ‘battle’ was also nice.