Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is dividing the critics and fans.
Any new Star Trek series faces the pressure of living up not just to regular TV critics but also to the passionate fandom. Often, shows that get mixed or even negative reviews from critics can still land great audience scores.
As of its premiere date, Starfleet Academy is in a unique place on Rotten Tomatoes. Critically, it is "Certified Fresh" at 88 percent. However, ff you narrow it down to the top critics, it becomes 93 percent.
However, the Popcornmeter, formerly the RT audience score, is far different, with a shockingly low 43 percent off over 500 reviews. This is surprising as often audience scores for sci-fi shows can be much larger than the critics' score.
Most critics' reviews praise the series for its acting (particularly Holly Hunter) and for taking Trek forward with a new story in the 32nd century. While there are some poor reviews slamming the scripts and dialogue, overall, the feeling is positive.
The fan reviews are…well, to put it mildly, often hostile. They include everything from the acting to plot holes, characters that make no sense, the YA soap opera elements, and not being like classic Trek.
This wide gap between the audience and critics is jarring, and one has to wonder if maybe the show is being subjected to review bombing by a segment of fandom ready to hate it no matter what. Perhaps, as the show continues, the audience score will improve. As it stands now, though, Starfleet Academy is more of a critical darling than one that pleases Trek fans.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is now streaming on Paramount+. And for more Star Trek content, visit the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.