starfleet academy cancellation – Trekking with Dennis

Pondering Star Trek’s Future

Spoiler Warning: Beware spoilers for the following Star Trek productions: Discovery, Picard, Prodigy, Strange New Worlds, and Starfleet Academy.

Although it was predictable, unfortunately, that a third season renewal would be a bridge too far for Starfleet Academy, the timing of that announcement still felt pretty brutal. It came just days after the Season 1 finale, perhaps a year or eighteen months away from Season 2’s arrival, and in the middle of a fairly muted 60th anniversary year to boot. But the news did get me thinking about what Star Trek might look like in the future, now that all of the CBS All Access/Paramount+ shows are being wound down. And also… it got me thinking about what I’d like Star Trek to look like, too.

I said a couple of weeks ago that Starfleet Academy was the “final pillar of streaming Trek;” i.e. the last surviving show of the franchise’s modern incarnation. That pillar is now set to fall, so it means we have to look to the future.

Still frame from Rubincon showing the Athena saucer in a gas cloud — The USS Athena in *Starfleet Academy*.

As an aside, a fan petition or campaign, however creditable its numbers may be, will undoubtedly not save Starfleet Academy. Star Trek has a long, well-established history of fan campaigns, with the most famous still being the one that got The Original Series renewed for its third season. But the new Skydance-Paramount corporate entity is a completely different beast, and I’m increasingly of the opinion that Starfleet Academy had been “de facto cancelled” before it had even premiered. The new leadership team came in, intent on taking Star Trek in a different direction, but still committed to the shows currently in production. Starfleet Academy was too far along to officially cancel – and announcing a cancellation before the show’s premiere would’ve been idiotic, even by the standards of the old Paramount corporation. So Season 1 went ahead as planned.

I also feel ever more sure that Alex Kurtzman – who’s been in charge of the franchise for eight years – is on the way out. Whatever other ideas he and his team may have had – like Tawny Newsome’s “workplace comedy” show, for instance – seem unlikely to see the light of day.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Star Trek Starfleet Academy S1 of Alex Kurtzman and Bella Shepard — Alex Kurtzman (right) with Bella Shepard during production on *Starfleet Academy*.

So that leaves us with two questions: what does this new Skydance-Paramount intend to do with Star Trek? And in an ideal world, what would I like to see happen to this storied franchise?

The first question’s the easy one, at least right now: they’re going to make at least one feature film. That’s, uh, it. At least as far as we know right now, when Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy wrap up, there’ll be at least one new film hitting the big screen. And if it makes waves and picks up a lot of traction, maybe there’ll be a sequel or a spin-off. But it certainly seems, as of mid-2026 anyway, that Skydance plans to make Star Trek a cinematic franchise – and an occasional one at that.

Stock photo of cinema seats — Star Trek is headed back to the cinema.

There is an additional complication, though – one which could, perhaps, see Star Trek on the small screen granted a reprieve sooner than we might expect. After buying out Paramount just last year (and incurring a ton of debt in the process), Skydance is now set on doing the same thing again. This time, their target is Warner Bros./Discovery, which owns the likes of CNN, HBO, Cartoon Network, and more. Brands and franchises like Game of Thrones, DC Comics, and the cinematic adaptation of The Lord of The Rings all come under that corporate umbrella.

This new buyout – assuming it will be completed (which is a big assumption at this stage!) – will leave the new Skydance-Paramount-Warner Bros. corporation in a mountain of debt. And yes, films at the cinema will be part of the new entity’s strategy to pay back its investors. But so will streaming and TV. And if there’s any hope for Star Trek coming back to the small screen in the years ahead, I think it’s gotta be there. At least, that’s how it feels right now.

Skydance-Paramount is making a bid to buy Warner Bros.-Discovery.

Star Trek has told some fun stories at the cinema. I enjoy basically all of the Star Trek films on some level – even so-called “lesser” offerings like The Final Frontier or Insurrection. But, for me, Star Trek has always been more at home on the small screen, which is why Discovery’s premiere nine years ago felt like a true homecoming.

One of the lessons that I *hope* the new Skydance-Paramount team has learned is that Star Trek can’t just be blended up and poured into a typical streaming TV mould. This franchise – arguably more than any other, at least in the sci-fi space – *needs* the freedom that episodic storytelling brings, and trying to chop and change Star Trek to fit in with other modern streaming shows simply hasn’t allowed it to shine. That isn’t to say there haven’t been some wonderful stories over the past nine years, because there absolutely have been. But at its core, Star Trek is about exploring, right? It’s about seeking out new life and new civilisations… and that means that the crews of your starships have to be free to warp away to a new planet, a new star system, and a new adventure pretty much every week.

Still frame from Vox in Excelso showing the cadets — The *Starfleet Academy* cadets.

That, for me, is what modern Star Trek has been missing more often than not. Discovery, Picard, and, to an extent, Prodigy and Starfleet Academy, too, went for season-long serialised arcs, with big villains, unfolding mysteries, and characters who grow and evolve over the course of a single story. But that isn’t really what Star Trek ever was, if you look back. There were serialised seasons, especially in DS9 and Enterprise, sure. But even those seasons still had those episodic elements, or else took diversions along the way to visit different places and keep Star Trek’s core theme of exploration in the picture.

I’ve said multiple times here on the website that Star Trek, like any long-running project, has to be adaptable and must be able to change with the times. Doubling-down on what used to work thirty or sixty years ago is not necessarily going to cut it in a transformed media landscape. And I stand by that; as much as some of us fans might want to see it, a return to the exact style of The Next Generation era is off the table.

Still frame from The Enterprise Incident showing Spock and the scanner — Star Trek can’t just fall back on repeating what it’s already done.

But I find myself also being of the opinion that there can be too much change, too much attempted modernisation, and too much of an emphasis on copying what’s working for someone else. That’s led to multiple seasons of live-action Star Trek over the past few years that not only feel samey and repetitive when compared to each other, but which have also failed to establish a firm identity for the franchise. What *is* Star Trek to a new viewer? What does Star Trek look like to someone who’s tuning in for the first time? If all you’ve seen of Star Trek is Discovery or Starfleet Academy, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this franchise is just… more of the same. It’s no different from the Star Wars shows on Disney+, or countless other modern sci-fi and fantasy offerings from other networks. There’s nothing unique about Star Trek any more… nothing to make it stand out in a crowded marketplace.

And that’s what Star Trek will need to do in the future: stand out. If the streaming landscape continues to be dominated by short, six- or eight-episode fully-serialised seasons, let’s make Star Trek shows longer and more episodic. If big, over-the-top baddies are still the name of the game, step away from those kinds of characters. In fact, use violence sparingly, and focus on stories with scientific and engineering puzzles rather than mindless action and phaser fights. That kind of thing, I believe, is what could give a future Star Trek show enough of a unique hook to appeal to viewers. As audiences begin to tire of some of these streaming programmes, things will undoubtedly change – and Star Trek could, with the right timing, be on the crest of the wave, or even *lead* a trend away from TV shows that are akin to “ten-hour movies.”

Sir Patrick Stewart at 2018 Star Trek Las Vegas — Sir Patrick Stewart (pictured) famously described *Star Trek: Picard* as a “ten-hour movie.”

That doesn’t mean a new Star Trek show can’t have *any* modern features. I think retaining character growth or even giving characters season-long arcs which play out across multiple stories can work exceptionally well. And I’m also not advocating for a return to low-budget “bottle shows” every other episode. Quite a bit of so-called “classic Star Trek” is filler, if you think about it; unremarkable episodes which exist solely to pad out a season and make the mandatory twenty-two or twenty-six episode limit. We don’t need more Shades of Gray, thank you very much!

If you’re already thinking of three words, then you and I are on the same page, because the kind of show I’m describing is… Strange New Worlds. That show, for me, is the model that any and all future Star Trek pitches should be based around. You’ve got an episodic adventure set on a moving starship. You warp away to a new planet and a new story every week. But within that framework, you have characters who develop, grow, and change, and who retain things that happened to them last week in this week’s adventure.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW S3 showing Batel and Pike — Sitting on the sofa to watch *Strange New Worlds*…

For me, Strange New Worlds has been the absolute highlight of modern Star Trek for this exact reason. By reverting to an older, more episodic style, the show has been able to explore more aliens, more planets, and more of the Star Trek galaxy as a whole than any of its contemporaries. And it’s also been a beautifully diverse series, with episodes in a variety of genres: the horror and war tones of the Gorn conflict, comedy and drama with Spock and Chapel, a zombie episode… and even a musical. Strange New Worlds really has tried to do it all! Not every story worked or was to my taste, sure… but I appreciate the commitment to trying new things and keeping that episodic style throughout.

That doesn’t mean, by the way, that I’m asking for “more Strange New Worlds,” or the “Year One” idea that’s been floated around. Strange New Worlds has been cancelled, and for my money, Year One isn’t the direction I’d go. But what I *am* saying is that the show’s core model – episodic storytelling with character growth – is what any future Star Trek show should look to adopt.

Concept Art for Star Trek TMP showing the USS Enterprise — Concept art for *The Motion Picture* showing the USS Enterprise in drydock.

Whether it will happen, though… who’s to say? Star Trek has been cancelled before and found a way back, so I don’t think Starfleet Academy’s finale will be the last we’ll ever see of it. And with corporate shenanigans afoot, it may not be long before Sky-Mount-Bros.-Max decides it *needs* a new Star Trek show to win subscribers or viewers and pay down its debt. But whether Star Trek will take the kind of form I’m advocating for here… I’m not so sure, unfortunately. I’d love to see it happen; I’d love nothing more than to get the kind of exploration-focused, episodic adventure that used to be the franchise’s bread and butter. But in 2026, the entertainment landscape has definitely moved away from TV shows like that. And I have to accept that there may not be a way back.

If you made it to the end, thanks for reading. I hope this has been interesting. As I said, Starfleet Academy’s cancellation prompted this conversation and got me thinking about what Star Trek could or should look like in the future.

All I can really say is this: I hope we aren’t coming to the end of the line, and that Skydance’s warm words about Star Trek over the past months and years are genuine. We are heading into uncharted waters, in a way, with takeovers, mergers, and the streaming wars. Star Trek’s future is unclear right now… but it’s my sincere hope that there will be a future beyond the announced feature film and the end of the 2020s.

Most Star Trek films and TV shows discussed above can be streamed now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the service is available. The Star Trek franchise – including all films, TV programmes, and other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Skydance/Paramount. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Starfleet Academy Has Been Cancelled!

Tue 24.03.26Dennis

Spoiler Warning: Beware of minor spoilers for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1.

Mere days after the finale of Season 1, and with Season 2 still in post-production, news has leaked that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has been cancelled. I won’t lie: this was something I expected we’d hear either this year or next year at the very latest, but there’s something about the timing that feels… well, pretty brutal.

The newly-formed Skydance/Paramount corporation seems to be making it clear that a line is being drawn under Star Trek’s current streaming era. That was pretty obvious, I argued, when Discovery and Strange New Worlds were cancelled – the latter coming before the show had even aired a single episode of its *third* season, with two more still to come after that. Star Trek’s new corporate overlords clearly intend to take the franchise in a very different direction, and Starfleet Academy was the last vestige of the old regime. That final pillar of “streaming Trek” has now fallen.

Screenshot of Variety showing Starfleet Academy's cancellation — *Variety* broke the news.
*Image: Variety.com*

I’m still assuming, at this stage, that Season 2 will actually be completed and broadcast. Filming wrapped last month, and while there’s still a lot of work to do in the editing suite, it would be foolish to scrap the entire project. So Starfleet Academy fans can, at least, take solace in the fact that we’re only halfway through the show; ten more episodes should air sometime next year or in 2028.

I don’t really wanna keep repeating the phrase “end of an era;” it was something I said last year when Strange New Worlds got the axe, and when Discovery and Lower Decks wrapped up, too. But with Starfleet Academy being treated so brutally by Paramount, it’s hard to know what else to say. This is definitely calling to mind Enterprise’s 2005 cancellation – with the only difference, really, being that a new feature film is allegedly in the works, a consolation prize we didn’t have back then.

Still frame from Star Trek Enterprise S4 showing Riker — Does anyone else feel echoes of 2005?

If you’re a regular reader, you may recall that Starfleet Academy’s cancellation was something I predicted for 2026 back in January. I’m not taking a victory lap – the show may not have been “my thing,” but I went into it with an open mind, and I truly hoped it would find a way to connect with its intended target audience. Low streaming numbers throughout Season 1, however, seem to confirm that that simply didn’t happen. I said back in January that it would take a real miracle to convince this new incarnation of Paramount to stick with the show beyond Season 2 – going viral and becoming a must-watch sensation, like Stranger Things or Wednesday, perhaps, might’ve been enough to guarantee a renewal. But even doing reasonably well probably wouldn’t have been enough. I just got that impression from Paramount’s new ownership.

But, regrettably, Starfleet Academy didn’t even manage “good but not great” streaming numbers. It never cracked the top ten in the United States or here in the UK, even in a relatively easy TV window where there wasn’t a ton of big-budget competition. Shows like Fallout, The Pitt, and even preschool cartoon Bluey were performing well ahead of Starfleet Academy during its first season. Cancellation seemed inevitable, I’m sorry to say.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Starfleet Academy S1 showing two extras in alien makeup — A pair of cadets in happier times.

But the timing… it feels brutal, as I said, but also a little insulting to the cast and crew. Paramount will still expect Holly Hunter and her co-stars to go out on the interview circuit, promoting Season 2 next year or the year after. And we’re barely ten days out from the end of Season 1. I get why the decision was made – if a show isn’t performing very well, and a new corporate team wants to reorganise the studio’s big brands and franchises, it makes sense. But even so, you’d think a bit of a grace period could’ve been given, timing-wise. There’s now practically no chance of the show picking up any extra attention from fans who missed it over the past couple of months. What would be the point, after all, in getting invested in a series which has already been cancelled?

With Starfleet Academy’s cancellation, there’s now officially no new Star Trek in production on the small screen. Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy’s second season remain in post-production, so there’ll be new Star Trek on our screens later in 2026 and into 2027. But then, after that? All we have to focus on, barring any shocking announcements, is Skydance’s new feature film. Although this was expected, and despite Starfleet Academy not really being “my thing,” I gotta be honest: this news still stings.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Star Trek SFA S1 showing Kurtzman directing — Showrunner and director Alex Kurtzman on set.

However, as I said a couple of weeks ago, there are some potential benefits for a long-running franchise like Star Trek taking a break or going on hiatus for a while. The previous incarnation of ViacomCBS and Paramount threw *a lot* of Star Trek at us over the past few years… in a pretty incoherent and poorly-managed way a lot of the time. There’s something to be said for a new team coming in, wiping the slate clean, and taking a moment so we can all catch our breath. And if the current creative/production team has taken Star Trek as far as it reasonably could, there’s also a lot to be said for new folks taking the reins. Most of the Star Trek shows since Discovery have shared writers, directors, producers, and more behind-the-scenes folks, so giving new people an opportunity to work on the franchise should – in my opinion, naturally – be a positive thing.

No serious Trekkie sat down to watch Starfleet Academy hoping they’d hate it or wanting it to fail. But I think a lot of us recognised that the show was probably coming along a little too late, after the previous Paramount corporation hadn’t handled Star Trek especially well. It would’ve taken something exceptionally special for Starfleet Academy to rise above all of that, and to do something that no project in the franchise’s streaming era *truly* managed to do to any great extent: connect with a new audience. It was a tall order, for sure, but making a show intentionally aimed at teens and young adults was far from the worst idea in the world. It’s just a shame, really, that Starfleet Academy launched when it did, and didn’t really get a chance to connect with potential new viewers.

(Cropped) still frame from Come Lets Away showing the USS Miyazaki — Surely it’s not some kind of visual metaphor…

Many folks argue that Star Trek shows don’t really “get good” until their second seasons or beyond, so cancelling Starfleet Academy after just one season might seem like a poor decision in that sense. And I kind of see that point, at least to an extent. But if Season 1 just wasn’t finding much of an audience in the first place, not with older Star Trek fans nor with its intended new audience of younger folks, would sticking with it for a third or fourth season have really changed that? I guess we’ll never know, eh?

It’s a shame, and despite the fact that Starfleet Academy wasn’t really for me, I don’t celebrate its cancellation by any stretch. In fact, I lament it. I think it’s a real shame, barely nine years on from Star Trek’s triumphal return to the small screen, to be back here all over again. And despite the way things look right now, it’s my hope that, behind the scenes, there are folks at the new Skydance/Paramount corporation who are seriously considering where to take the franchise in the future. Films are great, and some of Star Trek’s most highly-regarded stories came at the cinema. But for this old Trekkie, Star Trek has always been a television show; a franchise best-suited for the small screen, where crews of explorers can warp away to a new planet, a new alien race, and a new adventure every week. Maybe one day… that kind of Star Trek will be back.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Starfleet Academy S1 showing four main cast members — Four main cast members in a behind-the-scenes snap.

If you’re a huge Starfleet Academy fan, you have my sympathies today. This news may have seemed inevitable for a while, but it’s not something any of us wanted to see. And as for what it means for the future? I really don’t know, to be honest. I want to say I feel optimistic that, one day soon, Star Trek will be back! But today… doesn’t really feel like that kind of day, to tell the truth.

I’m not sure how you’ll feel reading a mixed-to-negative review, today of all days, but if you want to check out my thoughts on Starfleet Academy’s first season, you can find my review by clicking or tapping here. I also have reviews of the two-part premiere, and episodes three through ten. Click or tap those links to check those out. And finally, I have two more pieces: one covers a storyline involving Deep Space Nine, which you can find by clicking or tapping here, and finally, my thoughts on the Doctor’s major storyline, which you can find by clicking or tapping here.

Thanks for reading. And, as always: Live Long and Prosper, friends.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the service is available. The Star Trek franchise – including Starfleet Academy and everything else discussed above – remains the copyright of Paramount/Skydance. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.