Say what you want about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, but it’s a series that’s absolutely determined to strike out on its own path. With its decidedly younger cast, school-based setting, and, if the trailer is anything to go by, fairly frequent relationship drama, it’s definitely not like any other Star Trek series we’ve seen recently. (And that’s before you get to the pair of Hollywood heavy hitters chewing up the scenery at its center.) But while its central premise — detailing how unseasoned cadets are forged into the Starfleet captains and leaders of tomorrow — is certainly compelling, the specifics of its setting are… questionable at best and an outright red flag at worst. cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});The series takes place in the 32nd century, after the events of Star Trek: Discovery’s final season. This is a controversial decision in and of itself, as Discovery isn’t exactly beloved among a fairly wide swath of the Trek fandom, and the story of the event known as The Burn, which decimated warp travel, fractured the Federation, and essentially ended Starfleet Academy as we know it wasn’t as compelling as the show wanted it to be. (Or nearly as well explained.) Starfleet Academy will follow the first class of cadets to come through the institution in over a century, a concept that may sound interesting on paper but that also somehow feels almost completely disconnected from nearly every Trek story that has come before.Don’t get me wrong, one of the best things about the rebirth of Trek on streaming is that it’s encouraged the franchise to tell very different sorts of stories. And there’s certainly something to be said for the idea of a series that’s focused on younger characters and lower-stakes stories about personal relationships that don’t necessarily involve a potential galaxy-ending threat. Even the promise of more romance is an exciting one. However, it’s difficult to focus on those stakes when the show must also flesh out a revamped world that still feels largely unfamiliar. Out of necessity, this Starfleet Academy is going to largely be about creating something new: A fresh future, a reconstituted Federation, and a reimagined Academy that apparently sends its students on real-time ship-based missions even as it’s attempting to teach them theory and ethics. It’s unlikely to connect to many (most?) of the experiences that previous cadets shared, and outside of a few ancillary figures (Tig Notaro’s Jett Reno, Oded Fehr’s Admiral Vance), it’s about an entirely new crop of characters, several of whom hail from species we haven’t met before. There’s not a whole lot for viewers to really hang their excitement on, which is likely why it can feel as though there’s relatively little of it within the larger fandom. The 32nd-century setting is doubly disappointing when you consider that Star Trek managed to accidentally already set up a perfect Starfleet Academy spinoff a couple of years ago. Yes, the final season of Star Trek: Picard was essentially fan service in televisual form, reuniting many of our Star Trek: The Next Generation faves to explore how they’d all changed in the years since we last saw them. But it also introduced us to The Next Generation’s literal next generation — the children of characters like Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher, Deanna Troi and William Riker, and Geordi La Forge. It was even a plot point that Kestra Troi-Riker was headed off to start classes at Starfleet Academy! How is she not the character we’re hanging this series on? She comes complete with a familiar era of the show, the opportunity for cameos by her famous parents, and appearances by assorted friends who are all technically new characters but who wear familiar names. It’s not the Star Trek: Legacy sequel series that so many folks are still clamoring for, but it could have been kind of a backdoor to much the same idea. To be fair, there’s every chance that Starfleet Academy will turn out to be just fine, thanks to its charming assortment of fresh faces, new alien species, and what already looks to be a towering performance from Holly Hunter as their chancellor/captain. (Heck, Hunter’s involvement is pretty much enough to give this show a chance in and of itself.) But, still, it’s difficult not to wonder what might have been. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will premiere on January 15, 2026.The post Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Is Set in Precisely the Wrong Time Period appeared first on Den of Geek.