If Hollywood still wants to “boldly go where no one has gone before,” Star Trek: Starfleet Academy ain’t it. The new Paramount+ series once again tries to revive the franchise with a classroom of diverse cadets, moral lectures, and a tone that feels more like a parody sketch than science fiction. If you thought Star Trek: Section 31 was the worst Star Trek show ever, this show will disabuse you of that assessment.
Set 150 years after “The Burn,” the Federation’s great collapse, Starfleet Academy was supposed to be about rebuilding civilization. Instead, critics and fans say it feels like Hollywood rebuilding its favorite ideology, one more lesson in forced virtue rather than earned heroism. In the world of Star Trek, technology can rebuild planets. But apparently, it can’t fix lazy writing or ideological obsession. The entire show feels like it’s been written by people who think Gene Roddenberry got it all wrong.
Critics are calling the show “worse than we thought,” describing a story where a guilt-ridden chancellor named Aki played by Holly Hunter, once a Federation judge, is asked to reopen the Academy. Her first condition? Enrolling a boy she once tore away from his mother. Sound touching? Maybe. But it’s also an example of what happens when Hollywood writes morality like a therapy session instead of a story.
Aki sits in the captain’s chair “curled up like a cat” and refuses to wear shoes. One character is a newly created hologram “programmed to be a 17-year-old” and built for “body positivity.” Another is a deaf Betazoid who uses sign language, centuries after Star Trek already showed doctors curing blindness. If the future has transporters that turn walls into doors, why can’t it fix its own inconsistencies? Don’t get me started on the Klingon with mommy issues.
In classic Star Trek, each alien race represented pieces of the human condition, Vulcan logic, Klingon honor, Ferengi greed. Now? This show seems far more about fixing humanity itself. They’ve taken all the races and decided to make them more human. Worse, the series swaps discipline for self-indulgence. Instead of merit and excellence, Chancellor Aki recruits a random street kid out of guilt. More Hollywood nepotism in space, from a cast that seems chosen for ideological points, not skill or story purpose.
Classic Star Trek celebrated human progress, working to be better, not perfect. Its stories pushed viewers to think, to debate, to seek excellence. Starfleet Academy does the opposite. It says you’re fine the way you are and anyone who disagrees is the villain. I don’t remember any moments from the classic original series or The Next Generation where someone in leadership said “we’re done improving, just accept yourself.” That’s not Captain Kirk or Captain Picard’s Federation, that’s today’s soy-infused Hollywood, projecting its insecurities into the cosmos. and audiences will respond by grabbing for the remote.
Apparently, Ozempic has been discontinued in the future.
— 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐠 (@GregoryEck) January 10, 2026
Star Trek’s beating heart was a professional 19th century naval crew in space. It was basically a love letter to Rightwing aristocracy and professionalism with a Leftwing coat of paint, and you can literally pinpoint the exact second it died by the BMI of the cast. https://t.co/wSsFHTDu19 pic.twitter.com/z6VuodF7w7
— Isaac Young (@HariSel57511397) January 12, 2026
This new show is obviously aimed at teens, but it comes off more like another “Star Trek: Comedy,” where the original concepts are now just a joke. The real punchline is how a once-great franchise has now become a lecture dressed up as sci-fi adventure. As one commentor said “Star Trek: Enterprise had its problems, but it’s Citizen Kane compared to this.” Perhaps the real “Burn” isn’t the explosion that shattered the Federation. but the result of what happens when storytelling itself collapses under the weight of ideology.
Please put an end the “Discovery” timeline.
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English (US) · 