Star Trek: Starfleet Academy should be set closer to the events of Picard, not Discovery

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is getting ready to start production sometime in 2024. The show will reportedly feature Star Trek: Discovery's Tilly as she attempts to rebuild the Academy, having left the Discovery after season four's conclusion. This means the show would be set in the 32nd century and would only be able to really rely on characters from Discovery for crossover and callback purposes.

And honestly, it's not too late to fix that aspect. The Discovery era of Star Trek has not been well received and building a spinoff like Starfleet Academy around Tilly and the stories built in Discovery really is setting the show up for failure. The fandom didn't embrace that side of the franchise and trying to spin out more shows surrounding that cast and that time period is doomed to fail.

Now, if you want to set it back to the time of Strange New Worlds with Tilly, that may make more sense and give more fans what they want; more classic Star Trek experiences with classic characters. But what they should do is take notes on why Enterprise failed; no one wanted a show set in a different time period.

Enterprise failed because it was a prequel, and fans like linear storytelling. They like following the events forward in time, and finding out what happens next. So it only makes sense that the Academy series should be set during or after the events of Picard's third season. Keep that lineal Star Trek storyline going and advance the plot while also creating new characters.

Especially if those characters are going to be the foundation of the future of the franchise. Creating a new show, with new characters, that fans can attach to and follow forward in the timeline of Star Trek is key to reviving the mainstream appeal of Star Trek and maybe creating a new film franchise in the process. After all, it's the lack of extremely popular characters that has hindered the film side of the franchise. With no new, super-popular shows to farm from, the film side of the series has fallen into disarray.

Continue the stories after Picard with Starfleet Academy and you may just find your next film franchise in the process.