Season 2 will mark the final frontier for Nahla Ake and her academy of cadets.
Star Trek’s most criticized streaming series to date will end before it has the chance to gain any momentum. It’s now official that Starfleet Academy is being shut down and there will not be a third season of the show. Season 2 recently wrapped filming, but the hopes of more episodes beyond that were dashed by today’s (March 23) announcement.
The official statement issued by CBS Studios and Paramount+ (per Variety) reads as follows: “We’re incredibly proud of the ambition, passion, and creativity that went into bringing Star Trek: Starfleet Academy to life. The series introduced audiences to a bold new group of characters, welcomed familiar faces, and expanded the Star Trek universe in exciting new ways.”
“We’re grateful to Alex Kurtzman, Noga Landau, Gaia Violo, and the entire cast and crew who pushed storytelling boundaries in the spirit of Gene Roddenberry’s vision,” the press release continued. “We look forward to sharing the upcoming second and final season with everyone, and continuing to celebrate the cast, crew, and all that was accomplished with this series.”
From the very beginning, Starfleet Academy was marred by critical and toxic segments of the fandom, which resulted in the short-lived series only managing a Popcornmeter rating (formerly the Rotten Tomatoes audience score) of 51 percent.
However, SFA did impress critics whose reviews resulted in the latest Trek garnering a “Certified Fresh” 87 percent Tomatometer rating.
Unfortunately, Starfleet Academy didn't perform strongly in the ratings. The show never cracked the Nielson Top 10, although it did fare well in the United States through Amazon channels of all things.
With season 2 of SFA already done filming, and featuring a cliffhanger, I hope showrunners Kurtzman and Landau pull a Discovery and tie up all the loose ends with reshoots now that the series is officially canceled.
I hate that season 2 will mark the end of Starfleet Academy’s run, but I enjoyed the daring moves the series made.
Regardless of its cancellation, SFA will go down in history as introducing the first gay Klingon, Karem Diane’s Jay-Den Kraag, and the first female Jem'Hadar, Lura Thok (Gina Yashere), which furthered Gene Roddenberry’s vision of equality and representation as well as Star Trek’s IDIC: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.
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Live long and prosper, Trekkies!