Proving yourself at Starfleet Academy always seemed to come down to competitive rivalry. Whether it was Sisko failing to win over Solok, Finnegan’s constant pranks on Kirk, or Georgiou drinking everyone under the table, even the most professional stand up Captains have spent their youth in a knife fight with a Nausican. Vitrus Reflux get it all out the way as cadets Lythe and Raymi get locked into a battle of the ego’s while the War College next door pops up to assert their dominance!
Writers: Alex Taub & Kiley Rossetter
Director: Doug Aarniokoski
As the more militaristic war college use their current standing as the primary source of Starfleet for the past hundred-plys years to prove the revival of the Academy is a failed experiment, tensions begin to bubble over through mixed physical training leading to conflicts, a war of words and an eventual prank war. But while the Academy is determined to prove their worth and outshine the war college, they struggle to put their own differences aside to become a team…
One of the downsides of Academy is that, while there’s a lot on offer, the genre stereotypes are in full force which is a bit of a hump to get over and makes things a little too predictable in places. In a sense it was a good thing that they got this cliché, the rival school prank war, out the way and use it to give some more insight to the characters while laying the ground work for their eventual cohesion as a team to be reckoned with.
Pulling some focus away from Caleb for the third instalment, the episode revolves around Raymi’s selfish need to be the best. Again, a lot of cliché as it all comes down to overbearing parents who only give him attention when he’s the super-genius, making him automatically try to beat Genesis at everything. It’s not an original plot, and it was all cliché filled, but it was nice to get some insight to the character aside from being stock antagonist while at the same time having him learn his first ‘lesson’ by stepping aside and accepting that Genesis was the better choice for team captain.
Of course it was all wrapped up with him snapping and biting off more than he could chew with the War College, challenging them to what amounts to tactical laser tag. Which wasn’t the brightest idea going up against soldiers, and of course all goes wrong until Genesis takes over and out-smarts them, rather than try to win a fight. Though the trainers for the game, Reno and Thok, kind of stole the scenes with their deadpan comedy working oddly well together, and Reno getting to be the one to delivery clever advice while Ake just gets bored and annoyed with everything and everyone – or so it seemed until Caleb clicked on that she was secretly dropping hints on how to win the war…
While it was mainly focused on Genesis becoming the team captain, and Raymi learning to eat humble pie and become part of the group, there was some follow up with Caleb and Tamira’s young romance. Which was fairly straight forward; she’s a bit of an overactive Betazoid and feelings are bad. Very bad. It was nice to get the clarity of why she chose the war college over the academy, but I’m more curious on where they’re taking her through the season.
Overall the episode felt a little disjointed as there was too much thrown in to make it all click nicely. The Calica training, then the impromptu game, and finally the final prank was all presented in a way that might have cut down the episode time, but didn’t really let anything flow very well. And that last prank – while very fitting to use science and regulation to outplay the War College – felt a bit underwhelming.
That said, the theme of the episode worked fairly well, despite the cliche’s, with Raymi taking a big character step, while the others took their own small steps of becoming a team. Especially Caleb who was rightfully called out by Tamira’s intrusively Betazoid bluntness. The stars of the show though were the faculty who just get to have fun in the background. Mainly by showing off Ake’s playful boredom, showing that her own on site nemesis Kelrec is also a bit weird and seeing Reno and Thok not really enjoy life as sports coaches.
It wasn’t as good as it could be, and the dialogue still feels a little off in general, but for a show thats all about discovering the values of Starfleet, thematically it worked and was nice to see them showcase the openness and honesty that will help to build their team over the season.
EPISODE DISCUSSION & SPOILERS
Highlights
- Kragg trying to be the peaceful healer is a nice contrast to Worf and his panic at being called to fight is oddly endearing considering he's likely strong enough to murder everyone.
- It was nice to see Reno's casual words of wisdom at work in an academic setting and show why she was brought over from Discovery
- Having worked briefly with tactical laser tag, I laughed a little at the memory of similar attempts not to say 'laser tag'
All Connected...
Giving a touch more information on Tamira’s condition this week leaned in to the already established Betazoid spectrum. While Lwaxanna Troi had refined telepathic skill, TNG’s Tin Man introduced Tam Elbrun, a Betazoid who’s abilities were active since birth instead of maturing through puberty. Voyager also introduced the other end of the spectrum, Lon Suder, a man who couldn’t even read his own emotion let alone others. Though thankfully it looks like Tamira’s closer to Elbrun’s oversensitive abilities rather than Suders’ more murdery lifestyle…
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