I genuinely didn’t think it could get any worse.
After episodes one and two, I figured we’d already hit the floor — awkward teen drama, hollow nostalgia, confused aesthetics, and a complete misunderstanding of what Starfleet represents.
Episode three, released today (22/1/26) on Paramount+, somehow proves that it can get worse.
Episode three doesn’t just double down on the show’s problems; it embraces them with alarming confidence, as if this is exactly what Star Trek was always meant to become.
It wasn’t.
And it shouldn’t be.
The acting problem that isn’t really an acting problem
Let’s get something straight upfront: this is not the cast’s fault.
You can practically feel how excited some of these younger actors must have been landing their first big, career-making role. Being cast in Star Trek should be a dream — and for decades, it was. This franchise launched careers while demanding excellence in return.
The problem is the writing.
The dialogue is borderline laughable — clunky, painfully modern, stuffed with slang and rhythm that feels ripped straight from contemporary teen dramas. None of it sounds like people living a thousand years in Star Trek’s future. None of it feels timeless.
That’s the key difference.
The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise still work today because they weren’t anchored to the slang, humour, or pacing of their production years. They feel eternal. This episode already feels dated — and it’s only just aired.
The writers here seem to have been influenced by everything except Star Trek.
Hogwarts envy and a failure of imagination
One of the most glaring issues in episode three is how desperate it feels to borrow from other franchises.
The classroom scenes — particularly the one involving bizarre mimicking plants — feel like a poor attempt at Harry Potter. And it’s not the good kind of homage, either. It’s Hogwarts-lite, without charm, wonder, or internal logic.
Star Trek classrooms should be places of debate. Duty. Ethical dilemmas. Scientific theory. Moral conflict.
Think of Sisko pushing cadet Nog to be his best.
Where’s the often-discussed psych test, interesting science exams on screens, or the Kobayashi Maru.
In Star Trek: Starfleet Academy we get spectacle without substance.
It’s not clever.
It’s not imaginative.
And it certainly isn’t Trek.
Teen drama replaces exploration
Episode three is utterly stuck in place.
No strange new worlds.
No new life.
No exploration of ideas or cultures.
Instead, we get more lingering glances, more romantic tension, more unresolved parental baggage, and more soap-opera beats that haven’t been earned. This episode goes nowhere — and somehow manages to feel bloated while doing so.
Star Trek was never about stagnation. Even bottle episodes moved characters forward.
This one just spins its wheels… and slides downhill.
The prank problem — and why it matters
One of the episode’s biggest sins is its fixation on pranks and shenanigans between Starfleet cadets and war college students. Not only is it cringe-inducing, but it also fundamentally misunderstands how Star Trek has previously handled this exact idea — and done it right.
There’s a perfect example already in canon.
In The Next Generation, Wesley Crusher once mentioned a prank from his time at Starfleet Academy. It wasn’t an episode-long farce. It wasn’t expensive spectacle. It was a simple anecdote — and that was all it needed to be.
During Wesley’s first week at the Academy, a cadet reprogrammed his sonic shower to cover him in mud. Wesley retaliated by rigging an antimatter regulator to spray chili sauce.
That’s it.
One short scene.
A quick laugh.
Character insight delivered economically.
And then the show moved on — because Star Trek understood restraint.
By contrast, Starfleet Academy devotes huge chunks of an entire episode — undoubtedly at enormous cost to Paramount — to elaborate prank sequences that feel more at home in a Nickelodeon sci-fi special than in the future of Starfleet. It’s indulgent. It’s juvenile. And it completely misses the point.
This is meant to be the training ground for officers who will one day face first contact situations, command starships, and make decisions that affect entire civilizations.
Tron laser tag… seriously
The retaliatory sequence in this episode is essentially laser tag, with a Tron-style look to it.
At this point, my wife walked into the room, watched for about five minutes, and said:
“What is this? It looks like laser tag”. I said “No, it’s Trek cadets fighting it out in an atrium on their ship”, and she replied “Well, where’s the Holodeck gone then?”
She then asked for brownie points for knowing what the Holodeck was — which I happily gave her — because her question was completely valid.
Why are they using the atrium of the Athena for something that could be infinitely more sophisticated, immersive, and meaningful in a Holodeck? Why do these new Trek shows repeatedly forget one of Star Trek’s most fundamental concepts?
These writers don’t just ignore canon — they forget basic ideas that casual fans, or even non-fans like my wife, remember instantly.
Character contradictions piling up
The Klingon cadet continues to be wildly inconsistent.
One moment he’s sensitive, poetic, and into bird watching. The next, he’s suddenly spouting Klingon honour, talking about bloody food, and cracking jokes — while another cadet gazes at him like even more romance is inevitable in this show.
This isn’t layered character development.
It’s narrative indecision.
Meanwhile, the Klingon–Jem’Hadar drill sergeant continues the tired, shouty routine. Push-ups. Screaming. Aggression for aggression’s sake. She even shoots a cadet for being late — played for shock value, not consequence.
It’s not intimidating.
It’s not clever.
It’s been done to death.
There’s also yet another romance seen here, between her and Jett Reno.
Why is this Star Trek show, that should be about trekking through the stars, or training to do so, so focused on who’s shacking up with who.
A captain still without command
Holly Hunter’s captain remains one of the show’s biggest mysteries — and not in a good way.
She wanders about barefoot. She delivers the occasional line. She never feels like the person in charge of Starfleet’s future. There’s no gravitas. No authority. No moment where the room belongs to her.
Starfleet captains don’t need to shout.
They do need presence.
She still doesn’t have it.
Who is Starfleet recruiting now?
There’s a scene where one cadet is licking some sort of crystalline soil. Others are doing equally bizarre, juvenile things.
I genuinely found myself asking: who approved these candidates for Starfleet?
This is meant to be the best of the best. Instead, it feels like a random group selected for vibes rather than capability.
Add in the relentless quips, modern slang, and awkward banter, and the illusion completely collapses.
This doesn’t feel like Starfleet.
It barely feels professional.
Messages without nuance
Yes, Star Trek has always been progressive and has reflected the issues of its time.
But it did so through allegory, metaphor, and intelligent storytelling. With the Ferengi, we explored greed. Entire species were used to reflect humanity’s flaws. Viewers were trusted to think.
This show doesn’t trust its audience.
It blurts messages without subtlety and mistakes confrontation for depth. Even its potentially strong female characters — like Genesis — are written in a way that forces authority by talking down to men, rather than earning it through competence and leadership.
We’ve done this better before.
Janeway.
Crusher commanding the Enterprise-D.
Kira Nerys.
T’Pol.
Strength doesn’t require belittlement.
A franchise at breaking point
For the first time in my life, I’m genuinely questioning whether I want to keep going with new Star Trek unless someone else takes the reins.
Paramount is sitting on a gold mine — and somehow keeps making the same poor choices and going against the fans. From a business perspective alone, this makes no sense. Give fans what they want, and they’ll pay for it. Instead, we get shows nobody asked for.
I recently watched an interview where Alex Kurtzman was asked about Star Trek Legacy during press for Starfleet Academy. His visible annoyance said everything. A head shake. A vague “never say never” style response.
That’s not vision.
That’s deflection.
The quietest verdict of all
Here’s what really sealed it for me.
My son – 18 months old — usually sits with me when I watch an episode of Star Trek (Starting him young). He listens to the older themes and loves them. He’ll happily sit on my lap whilst I rewatch an episode of DS9 for probably the hundredth time.
During Starfleet Academy?
He fell asleep.
I felt like doing the same.
My verdict
I’ll keep watching this Glee in space purely so I can review it properly. That’s it.
I won’t be buying it on Blu-ray — just like Section 31. It doesn’t deserve to sit next to real Star Trek on my shelf.
Reshoots Required Score: Major Reshoots Required.
Again, this show doesn’t need tweaks. It needs a rethink.
And frankly, it probably should never have been made.
Star Trek needs logic.
It needs professionalism.
It needs exploration.
At this point, Paramount could really benefit from a few Vulcan teachings — because this continued lack of logic is becoming embarrassing.
With episode three, Starfleet Academy hasn’t just missed the mark.
It’s boldly gone in entirely the wrong direction.
Final thought
I’ll leave you with this note on the writing of the show.
We have a Holographic cadet. A programmed life-form. She’s training with the rest of them in this old-school gym with climbing ropes.
Again, we’re 1,000 years in Treks future and they’ve forgotten to think about future technologies or a Holodeck. Even the far less advanced NX-01 had that cool looking spinning purple thing in its gym.
Anyway. Why does a programmed entity need to train at all? Just programme her Neo style and load the necessary fitness or expertise.
Why is she even a cadet?
Why does she even need to be fit? She doesn’t have a heart, or lungs, and doesn’t breathe.
It’s like the writers just forget the most basic things in this show, or quite frankly, just don’t care.
Trek needs new blood. Urgently.
It’s currently on life support and it’s not looking good.
Buy some of the best of Star Trek on Blu-ray here:
https://amzn.to/4qPvAAi – Star Trek: Enterprise (Complete Series)
https://amzn.to/3ZcUHRN – Star Trek: The Next Generation (Complete Series)
https://amzn.to/3NnjkJ6 – Star Trek – Ten Movie Collection
https://amzn.to/4jMnwy3 – Star Trek: Picard (Season 3)
These are Amazon affiliate links. If you click and purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you.