Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Discussion – 1×05 “Series Acclamation Mil”
Sam sets out to solve an ancient Starfleet mystery and embarks on a journey of self-discovery.
2 replies on “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Discussion – 1×05 “Series Acclamation Mil””
DS9 fans, bring your tissues. (Spoilers from here on out)
OK, I’ll get the bad out of the way: The Academy/War College stuff is getting old. Fast. I get that the show needs conflict, but there are better ways to add drama. I feel like the Doctor’s interactions with SAM were too terse. It feels like he’s repressing something. Either there’s a deleted scene or this pays off later in the show (I hope).
Tawny Newsome is a huge fan of DS9 and it shows (she co-wrote and is a guest star in the episode). This episode gets to one of the biggest loose threads in Trek lore and (after seeing interviews with Brooks) a big misstep. The special cameo was a very nice touch (good to see them again).
Jett Reno, agent of chaos, is always a delight. It would have been nice to include Thok at dinner, but she was missing for the whole episode (I get that the makeup is quite the ordeal, so maybe they give her breaks).
I like how SAM’s growth is both inorganic (reprogramming her) and organic (her learning from experience). I’ve already seen a few complaints about how her POV was handled, but come on, she’s a program. Her POV is going to be different than ours. And they’re clearly trying for a younger audience.
Now, was this an idea intended for Prodigy? Maybe. It could have been mapped to another “Emissary” character like Gwyn. Who knows.
I’m guessing budget constraints kept the show in San Francisco. A trip to New Orleans (or even Bajor) would have been excellent. Maybe having SAM interact with an actual Orb would have been too much to ask for, I’m guessing.
“Thank you, Avery” followed by the theme music was weaponized nostalgia. I approve.
Someone else pointed out that The Doctor’s response to those he’s lost is “Get over it.” After a thousand years, he might be dead inside, and I think you’re right that we we’ll have an inspirational episode about him later.
Did I hear something about how The Doctor was still bitter about Gwyn? Also, Mir is still acting like the part was written for Dal, and SAM’s race could just as easily have been the Medusans, making SAM the Zero character. It does work with Gwyn having decided to go over to a War College, Reymi’s personality conflicts, but still being one-of-the-gang is Jankom, Genesis’s calm personality and quiet superiority is S02’s Maj’el, and Jay-Den’s a pacifism feels at least a bit like Rok. I think that a few of Nahla’s traits could have translated perfectly to a wise, seen-it-all photonic Janeway.
SAM’s Nick Jr. style of narration was weird. I get why, and I am completely on board with the idea that Star Trek has a big tent and is trying to welcome a lot of new people, but that felt like the stodgy old producers trying to draw in children by saying 67 or Skibidi a lot. I like that they faded away from that quickly. That said, I don’t mind it. Seeing it for brief pieces is entertaining, just an hour of it would have gotten painful.
I’ve been enjoying how Star Trek species are not the same a millennium later, and we get a lot more mixed lineage. Tawny Newsome’s Cardassian/Trill is another, like Thok. It took me a bit to realize the dots are part of the Trill species, not the presence symbiont, indicating that Illa wasn’t just a Cardassian that got joined.
DS9 fans, bring your tissues. (Spoilers from here on out)
OK, I’ll get the bad out of the way: The Academy/War College stuff is getting old. Fast. I get that the show needs conflict, but there are better ways to add drama. I feel like the Doctor’s interactions with SAM were too terse. It feels like he’s repressing something. Either there’s a deleted scene or this pays off later in the show (I hope).
Tawny Newsome is a huge fan of DS9 and it shows (she co-wrote and is a guest star in the episode). This episode gets to one of the biggest loose threads in Trek lore and (after seeing interviews with Brooks) a big misstep. The special cameo was a very nice touch (good to see them again).
Jett Reno, agent of chaos, is always a delight. It would have been nice to include Thok at dinner, but she was missing for the whole episode (I get that the makeup is quite the ordeal, so maybe they give her breaks).
I like how SAM’s growth is both inorganic (reprogramming her) and organic (her learning from experience). I’ve already seen a few complaints about how her POV was handled, but come on, she’s a program. Her POV is going to be different than ours. And they’re clearly trying for a younger audience.
Now, was this an idea intended for Prodigy? Maybe. It could have been mapped to another “Emissary” character like Gwyn. Who knows.
I’m guessing budget constraints kept the show in San Francisco. A trip to New Orleans (or even Bajor) would have been excellent. Maybe having SAM interact with an actual Orb would have been too much to ask for, I’m guessing.
“Thank you, Avery” followed by the theme music was weaponized nostalgia. I approve.
Someone else pointed out that The Doctor’s response to those he’s lost is “Get over it.” After a thousand years, he might be dead inside, and I think you’re right that we we’ll have an inspirational episode about him later.
Did I hear something about how The Doctor was still bitter about Gwyn? Also, Mir is still acting like the part was written for Dal, and SAM’s race could just as easily have been the Medusans, making SAM the Zero character. It does work with Gwyn having decided to go over to a War College, Reymi’s personality conflicts, but still being one-of-the-gang is Jankom, Genesis’s calm personality and quiet superiority is S02’s Maj’el, and Jay-Den’s a pacifism feels at least a bit like Rok. I think that a few of Nahla’s traits could have translated perfectly to a wise, seen-it-all photonic Janeway.
SAM’s Nick Jr. style of narration was weird. I get why, and I am completely on board with the idea that Star Trek has a big tent and is trying to welcome a lot of new people, but that felt like the stodgy old producers trying to draw in children by saying 67 or Skibidi a lot. I like that they faded away from that quickly. That said, I don’t mind it. Seeing it for brief pieces is entertaining, just an hour of it would have gotten painful.
I’ve been enjoying how Star Trek species are not the same a millennium later, and we get a lot more mixed lineage. Tawny Newsome’s Cardassian/Trill is another, like Thok. It took me a bit to realize the dots are part of the Trill species, not the presence symbiont, indicating that Illa wasn’t just a Cardassian that got joined.