Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is planting its flag in the 32nd century, well beyond the familiar eras of The Next Generation and Picard, and Alex Kurtzman is very clear about why. For him, the new series must reflect what today’s young viewers are living through, not just revisit a polished version of Starfleet’s past. The co-showrunner of the upcoming streaming series said via TrekMovie.com:
"Star Trek has always been a mirror that reflects the moment in which each series is made. The Federation is actually trying to return to its roots and embrace its core tenets, but the moment we’re meeting right now is a world of kids who are inheriting a lot of damage and a lot of chaos, and it’s up to them to figure out how they’re going to make a brighter future out of it."
Kurtzman continued by saying:
"So it felt to us that if you were to put Starfleet Academy in the halcyon days of the Federation, it would be a lovely fantasy, but it wouldn’t really reflect what kids are going through now. It felt very topical and very relevant to put it in the 32nd century."
Kurtzman’s comments build on what Discovery already established about the post‑Burn Federation: this is a galaxy coming off the back foot, where institutions have been shaken and trust in big structures has to be re‑earned. Starfleet Academy drops its cadets into that moment as the first class back in over a century, tasked with helping rebuild exploration and optimism in a world that is only beginning to recover from catastrophe.
That makes the Academy less of a comfortable backdrop and more of a pressure cooker for characters who are literally inheriting the mess previous generations left behind. From a Trekkie's perspective, this is exactly the kind of swing modern Star Trek should be taking, even if it ruffles fans who miss the “everything’s fine” sheen of the Berman era
The 32nd century gives Starfleet Academy the chance to be genuinely relevant, to talk about climate anxiety, political instability, and generational burnout through the lens of warp drives and starships, without abandoning Trek’s core belief that the future can still be better.
If the show leans into that tension, it could become the series that finally bridges the gap between classic Roddenberry optimism and the harder questions this generation needs Star Trek to ask. Share your thoughts and comments with us on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.