They escaped!!
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ALTThe Mashu can’t eat this piece of popcorn, it’s friend-shaped!
#Popcorn #SketchADay #TheMashu #Illustration #Art #Sketch
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Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (series 1)
Let’s be honest, the course of any new Trek has never really been smooth. Other than Lower Decks, the first seasons have almost always, well, generally struggled while they found their footing. Even Strange New Worlds had a very uneven premier, though it found its footing faster than others.
But Academy had some additional hurdles to leap. This is the first Trek series to focus on younger characters (Prodigy aside even if this series brought them into canon). It is also the first series to totally depend on another series to make sense. It isn’t because of callbacks or other references which all of the shows have now, but because with season three of Discovery, the base nature of Star Trek and more specifically Starfleet changed. It was reset to chaos after The Burn and we are now in a completely different world and we don’t know the ultimate outcome. They are trying to get back to the ideal of Starfleet, but that is a long way off and by no means assured.
Interestingly, despite the 90210-ishness of the series with all the young cadets at the center, it really is still the adults that really steal the show. From Holly Hunter (A Life Less Ordinary) to Robert Picardo (Hail, Caesar!), Tig Notaro (Am I OK?,Come See Me in the Good Light) to Gina Yashere. And, of course the two main recurring characters of Tatiana Maslany (The Monkey) and Paul Giamatti (Black Mirror). Even the two, pervasive computer voices of Stephen Colbert and Brit Marling (A Murder at the End of the World) overshadow the young players. The only cadet that really holds any interest for me is, much like Data in previous series, Kerrice Brooks’ SAM. Why is it always the artificial beings that are so interesting? Probably because the have the best excuses for their actions and ask the best questions.
The show gets better as the season goes along, pulling together for a pretty clever and spectacular finale (if a little rushed). Creator Gaia Violo took a huge leap in their career from writer to show runner and they clearly learned a lot on the job. And they did it while reinventing a beloved franchise. I have to give them props for that. And for the risks they were willing to champion and take.
Starfleet Academy is by no means unwatchable. It takes some time to adjust to the flavor of it, but it has honest promise. With this first foray now behind them, I’m hoping season 2 will be more focused and more interesting even as it also manages to gather in a new generation of viewers. We could use the optimism of the Trek universe in times like ours; seeing them get there while beating back the darkness only makes the potential more poignant.
Where to watch
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Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (series 1)
[3 stars]
Let’s be honest, the course of any new Trek has never really been smooth. Other than Lower Decks, the first seasons have almost always, well, generally struggled while they found their footing. Even Strange New Worlds had a very uneven premier, though it found its footing faster than others.
But Academy had some additional hurdles to leap. This is the first Trek series to focus on…
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Bro my mom says ‘finish up this cinnamon sugar popcorn’ like it’s the easiest thing ever but I’m still trying to recover from how much I ate yesterday…
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Happy Popcorn Lover’s Day to the fans in the crowd and on FreezeCrowd.com today! Join us to freeze with your favorite snack on your college campus. What is a cool fact about popcorn? ❤️🍿❄️
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January 5, 2026 - tumblr is being banned in my country because of gambling? Lol Can’t access it now with my service provider
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War Machine
[3 stars]
Underneath the well-worn plot is a surprisingly well-crafted script by director Patrick Hughes (Man From Toronto) and his co-writer James Beaufort. The result is an adrenaline fueled chase with some solid story to keep it together.
While the cast is strong, this is definitely used as a star-vehicle for Alan Ritchson (Reacher). Ritchson gets to drive a great personal arc while still…
