That’s a clickbait title if ever I had one, but please consider it a placeholder for when there are more episodes and I update this post. (It’s also a test of the results I’ll get from Google Search.)
I would have loved for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy to have had a 26-episode season instead of a 10-episode season. Most episodes could have been bottle episodes, just set at the school. But the showrunners didn’t think the premise of the show was enough: the academy doubles as a starship (!).
| Ep. | Episode Title | Rank | IMDB Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kids These Days | #6 | 5.8 |
| 2 | Beta Test | #8 | 5.4 |
| 3 | Vitus Reflux | #9 | 5.0 |
| 4 | Vox in Excelso | #5 | 5.9 |
| 5 | Series Acclimation Mil | #7 | 5.5 |
| 6 | Come, Let’s Away | #3 | 6.7 |
| 7 | Ko’Zeine | #10 | 4.6 |
| 8 | The Life of the Stars | #4 | 6.2 |
| 9 | 300th Night | #2 | 6.9 |
| 10 | Rubincon | #1 | 7.2 |
Note: These IMDB ratings will change over time.
My opinions are definitely out of sync with other IMDB raters: I liked the smaller stakes episodes more than the high stakes episodes. My favorite episode was about a prank war and about making a team (in both senses of that phrase): “Vitus Reflux,” the second lowest ranked episode after “Ko’Zeine.” I liked “Series Acclimation Mil,” about a cadet seeking to understand her place while researching a historical figure. I enjoyed “The Life of the Stars,” about dealing with trauma from a training mission gone awry while rehearsing a play. I wanted a series just about young adults learning how to be Starfleet officers in an era of rebuilding.
Most who watched the show didn’t want that. The highest rated path through the series would be the Nus Braka arc (Paul Giamatti’s villain): “Kids These Days,” “Come, Let’s Away,” “300th Night” and “Rubincon” [sic]. (Personally, if I wanted quadrant-threatening season-long story arcs with plot holes and science fantasy, I’d rewatch Strange New Worlds season 3. If I wanted omega jokes, I’d rewatch Galaxy Quest.)
Review Bombing
While none of the series episodes will make the Top 100 Star Trek Episodes by IMDB rating (needing a rating of at least 8.4 to qualify), there’s definitely review bombing going on. The series has made the right enemies: fascists, racists, misogynists, homophobes, and body-shamers. The series overall has a 4.3 rating, when the average rating of the first episode is 5.8, which is in line with the average episode rating of 5.9. So people who actually watch the show, rather than downvote it due to political attacks, like it more than the series rating indicates, though there is probably review bombing of episode ratings as well. (Presumably old-school fans who don’t like Kurtzman-era Trek have just ignored the series.)
The Worst 10 Episodes of Star Trek All Time
The 4.6 rating for “Ko’Zeine” seems especially exaggerated. Yes, it was a bad, derivative episode (no spoilers). But does it deserve to share this company…?!
| Worst Ranking | Series | Episode Title | IMDB Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | The Next Generation | Shades of Gray | 3.3 |
| #2 | Movies | Section 31 | 4.4 |
| #3 | Starfleet Academy | Kozeine | 4.6 |
| #4 | The Next Generation | Sub Rosa | 4.8 |
| #5 | Voyager | The Fight | 5.0 |
| #6 | The Next Generation | Code of Honor | 5.1 |
| #7 | The Original Series | And the Children Shall Lead | 5.2 |
| #8 | Discovery | All Is Possible | 5.2 |
| #9 | Enterprise | These Are the Voyages… | 5.3 |
| #10 | Voyager | Threshold | 5.3 |
No, it is not the third worst episode of Star Trek ever. Many of the other episodes listed here are notorious.
Conclusion
Yeah, the science in Academy makes even less sense than it did in TOS, thanks in part to being set in the 32nd century and in part to executive producers who value plausibility less than hitting plot points. But bad science is Star Trek for you, going back to the second pilot of TOS (a galactic barrier?! human telepathy?!).
The young performers, especially Sandro Rosta and Kerrice Brooks, are excellent actors. And of course Holly Hunter is amazing, and Paul Giamatti goes right up to the line of being over the top. Raoul Bhaneja, Tig Notaro, Gina Yashere, and Robert Picardo each have a chance to shine as well.
The ensemble of cadets is great and during the series all rise above their types (the street rat, the nepo baby, the Pinocchio, the bully, the nonconformist, the chosen one). Many of the educators are strangely out of time: a nearly 1,200-year old teacher, two time travelers from 900 hundred years ago, the 800-year old doctor, and the 400-year old chancellor. The narrative purpose of this is that they remember how things used to be, before the decline and near fall of the Federation.
And that gets to the themes that are relevant to today: an older generation bequeathing a younger generation broken systems, an assimilatory empire in decline, high standards lost, peoples poisoned to hate and fear “the other.”
I encourage you to watch the whole first season of Starfleet Academy: excellent characters and phenomenal performances, with important messages for our time. I hope it wins the next generation to the fanbase.
Photo Credit: Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
