Star Trek: Starfleet Academy deftly balances teen drama with intergalactic intrigue
SMRTR summary
Twenty million dollars per episode. That's what some estimate Paramount is spending on Starfleet Academy, the new Star Trek series that could determine the entire franchise's future. Premiering January 15, this academy-set show is now the sole Trek project with a guaranteed future after four other series were recently axed. Set 900 years after Captain Kirk in the 32nd century, the series follows teenage cadets rebuilding a fractured Federation alongside Oscar winners Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti.
Fans have dubbed it "CW Trek" before seeing a single episode, skeptical of its young cast and distant timeline. But the far-future setting allows creative freedom impossible in earlier eras, where a functioning galactic democracy wouldn't logically involve college freshmen in interplanetary diplomacy.
The show features Trek veterans like Tig Notaro and The Doctor from Voyager, plus new alien species and a holographic cadet attending the academy for the first time. With lavish Toronto sets, location shooting in Ontario, and expensive CGI filling hallways with exotic aliens, Starfleet Academy carries motion picture-level production costs without box office returns, explaining Paramount's recent cost-cutting across other Trek properties.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Engadget.
Read the original article