Production
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy unquestionably features one of the best production teams in today's streaming game. However, knowing when I went into episode 5 that it was going to be a love letter to Deep Space Nine, I was disappointed not to see the DS9 set recreated.
It is the 32nd century after all, so I question if it ever occurred to writers Tawny Newsome or Kirsten Beyer to use some form of futuristic holodeck technology to recreate the space station’s famed Promenade.
Wouldn’t it have been more satisfying to see SAM’s final conversation with Jake Sisko take place in a holodeck version of DS9 complete with Quark’s Bar? Or is that too much fan service?
Since we didn’t actually get to see Benjamin Sisko, I think physical representations of DS9 — recreated for Starfleet Academy — might have helped compensate for the absence of Avery Brooks actually appearing as Benjamin Sisko: the Emissary of the Prophets.
With such a wonderful array of team members working on the show’s set design, this was a Bajoran wormhole-sized opportunity, which was sadly missed.