The actor shed some light on “the 800-pound gorilla” in the room.
Whether Star Trek fans enjoyed Starfleet Academy or not, the fact of the matter is that creator Gaia Violo’s wonderful series will come to an end after season 2 eventually drops on Paramount+. Further, the fantastic cast and crew must now face the reality that the show has been canceled, and The Doctor himself, Robert Picardo, shed some light on how he and his colleagues received the heartbreaking news.
Picardo said while appearing on The D-Con Chamber podcast that he and the rest of the Starfleet Academy ensemble first received an email that “sounded a little ominous, a little sad,” before officially receiving confirmation of the show’s cancellation over Zoom.
“It turned out to be the moment we saw everyone’s face on the Zoom,” Picardo explained. “With all of the cadets, by the way. With one exception, the cadets were all together in one of their apartments in Los Angeles, all sitting together. Which just shows their tremendous solidarity and affection they developed over the course of shooting the two seasons.”
The Zoom call took place on the Sunday before the news of Starfleet Academy’s cancellation was officially announced on Monday, March 23.
“It was sad. Alex [Kurtzman] made it very clear that he was delighted with the show,” Picardo continued.” He felt so strongly about the work we had done, how beautiful the show was, how everyone was doing their best work, and it had nothing to do with the quality of the show. Not enough people had found us. He said, ‘The reason you’ll hear is that we never cracked the top 10 shows in streaming.’”
It’s true Starfleet Academy never cracked the Nielsen rankings, but the show always ended up in the Top 10 on Paramount+ following the release of a new episode, although it performed higher in the United States than globally. And the show consistently ranked No. 1 and No. 2 through Amazon channels which is arguably where most viewers discovered the streaming series.
I’m truly sad to see Starfleet Academy go, but this is hardly the end for Star Trek — as some publications would have you believe. On the television/streaming front, fans still have season 2 of SFA plus seasons 4 and 5 of Strange New Worlds to look forward to. And during that time frame, Paramount Skydance (Warner Bros.) has plenty of time to greenlight and send new Treks into production.
And don’t forget about all the new Star Trek films being developed. Share your thoughts and comments with us about the state of the beloved science fiction franchise, and the direction you’d like to see it take, on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!