Paramount+ Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (1 Viewer)

[Alex...]

Paramount+ Orders Diverse, Teen-Focused ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Series

Drama to follow the "blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves" of a new class of Starfleet cadets who are as young as 16.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

 

[joshEH]

Big clue in the official description as to when the series is specifically going to take place -- this campus is going to be open "for the first time in over a century." The Academy re-opened in 3190, after The Burn, so presumably we're in the Discovery-timeframe. The press release says nothing about the cast, so it's not entirely clear whether Ensign Tilly (Mary Wiseman), who left the crew of U.S.S. Discovery to go teach at the Academy, features in the show.

Shooting begins in 2024.

 

[Nelson Au]

I don’t see this reported anywhere else yet. I can’t say I’m excited about it.

However, from another point of view, looking at the dark times in the past when there were no Star Trek shows on after TOS and TAS, it was a dark time when it seemed nothing would happen. So it is great new Star Trek is continuing to be made. No doubt Paramount wants a Marvel and Star Wars franchise to compete with. It’s 1976 all over!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Not the show I would have asked for, but I’ll certainly give it a try when it comes out.

 

[Jason_V]

Alright, new live action Trek. At least, I assume it'll be live action....

 

[Sam Favate]

Harve Bennett wanted to make a SA film 30+ years ago. Goes to show that ideas never die.

I can’t get that excited about this, especially given it will be during the Discovery time frame.

Now, let’s hope Paramount is saving their big announcement of a Star Trek Legacy show by Terry Matalas for next week.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Can’t imagine any potential Matalas spin-off show being announced until after the conclusion of Season 3 of Picard. The last Trek spin-off, Strange New Worlds, wasn’t announced until more than a year after the conclusion of the Discovery season it spun-off from.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Big clue in the official description as to when the series is specifically going to take place -- this campus is going to be open "for the first time in over a century." The Academy re-opened in 3190, after The Burn, so presumably we're in the Discovery-timeframe.

Yeah, that's the biggest bummer about this announcement for me. I was hoping we'd leave the 32nd century behind once "Discovery" ends.

Given that "Discovery" is ending earlier than originally planned due to lack of audience engagement, I'm not sure who the expected audience for this show is. I think a Starfleet Academy show set in the SNW era or the "Picard" era would have had a tough enough time. I don't know anybody (other than Kurtzman) who wants this.

 

[DaveF]

I wonder if Tilly will have a supporting role?

 

[Jason_V]

Given that "Discovery" is ending earlier than originally planned due to lack of audience engagement, I'm not sure who the expected audience for this show is.

Not to start anything, but do we know that for sure? I mean, good guess that they had the entire fifth season filmed and then made the decision to end it at the expense of brining everyone back to film more…but do we know the reason?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I wonder if Tilly will have a supporting role?

I would imagine so. I don't see any reason to set it in the 32nd century, otherwise. It seems pretty clear that her arc that took her off of Discovery during the back half of season 4 was designed to set up this spinoff.

Not to start anything, but do we know that for sure? I mean, good guess that they had the entire fifth season filmed and then made the decision to end it at the expense of brining everyone back to film more…but do we know the reason?

I don't know that anything has been officially announced, but they shot a season finale and then came back to shoot a series finale, so it's pretty clear that there wasn't a five-season plan and that ending the series wasn't the producers' choice.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I respectfully disagree that it’s clear - there’s been a wishy-washy element to how the producers would describe each renewal and I never got the sense that they wanted it to run indefinitely. Seasons 3 and 4 were both labor intensive to produce and covered nearly identical territory conceptually and thematically; perhaps they just realized they were out of gas. Paramount+ has claimed it was their top rated show but without releasing numbers who knows.

 

[Jason_V]

I don't know that anything has been officially announced, but they shot a season finale and then came back to shoot a series finale, so it's pretty clear that there wasn't a five-season plan and that ending the series wasn't the producers' choice.

We agree that the series finale seems to be a late decision. But in the current streaming climate, I think it’s also a fair theory that the budget wasn’t in the cards anymore. Nothing to do with audience engagement.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Paramount+ has claimed it was their top rated show but without releasing numbers who knows.

If that's the case, then it makes more sense why "Starfleet Academy" would be designed as an offshoot of "Discovery" instead of any of the other shows.

But if it's really their top-rated show, why cancel it? If the decision came from the writers, why not make that decision at the beginning of the season, rather than midway through filming the finale?

But in the current streaming climate, I think it’s also a fair theory that the budget wasn’t in the cards anymore. Nothing to do with audience engagement.

Was "Discovery" really that much more expensive than the other shows? Will "Starfleet Academy" be that much cheaper?

 

[Jason_V]

Was "Discovery" really that much more expensive than the other shows? Will "Starfleet Academy" be that much cheaper?

Yes. The longer a show goes on, the more the actors get paid.

And yea. If they cast the new show with lesser known actors or one big name and then support players, it would be cheaper.

At least, this is how I understand TV economics to work.

 

[Museum Pieces]

Somewhere Harve Bennett is smiling...he pitched this concept after The Voyage Home.

Beverly Hills 90210 at Starfleet Academy is what this sounds like, so I'm guessing it's targeted to get a younger audience into Trek...

 

[Nelson Au]

If the Starfleet Academy series would take place during the Pike years, it might be more interesting as it’s a period of discovery of new life and the Federation is younger. So more cowboy diplomacy perhaps. But I guess the same can be said about the post Burn era. I’m still not excited by this premise. But we’ll see.

As far as Discovery, Tilly was being groomed to move to Starfleet and she did make the move, I’ll have to open the 4th season blu ray and re-watch the season. So it would seem the new show would take place in that era.

Was there ever any notion that Discovery was planned to have a longer run then 5 seasons? I never got the idea it was meant to run 7 seasons or more. I imagine if there is a Starfleet Academy series, there is possibilities for Discovery crew members to make appearances or have some roles in it.

 

[Sam Favate]

I recall a recent interview with Jonathan Frakes in which he said he wouldn’t count on future series set in the Discovery timeline. This announcement would seem to contradict that.

 

[Chris Will]

They lost me at "teen-focused".

Ugh..."navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves". Last thing I want to watch is CW Trek.

I'll give it a chance but the announcement doesn't peak my interest at all. I'd love 1 or both of the following, a Titan series with Shaw and Seven or something else that involves Voyager/DS9 cast members. Teen drama is not the way I would have gone.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

Big clue in the official description as to when the series is specifically going to take place -- this campus is going to be open "for the first time in over a century." The Academy re-opened in 3190, after The Burn, so presumably we're in the Discovery-timeframe. The press release says nothing about the cast, so it's not entirely clear whether Ensign Tilly (Mary Wiseman), who left the crew of U.S.S. Discovery to go teach at the Academy, features in the show.

Shooting begins in 2024.

People have speculated that but ... Supposedly Kurtzman said there would not be another 32nd Century Trek.

The best other comment I saw was their ship would be NCC-90210.