“It’s meant a tremendous amount to me that people have been so vocal with loving the show…”
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 came under a serious barrage of undue criticism, particularly from internet trolls, bots, and “so-called” fans of the franchise who don’t have an inkling what IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) means to true Trekkies and Trekkers, let alone the beloved sci-fi universe. However, SFA’s own Holly Hunter opened up about all of the negativity in a brand-new interview, while also revealing how much she loved William Shatner's response to the situation.
Hunter, who portrays the chancellor of Starfleet Academy and the captain of the USS Athena said (per TV Insider): “I think there was a tremendous amount of negativity regarding the show being too ‘woke’ for the taste of so many people, and William Shatner addressed that with such grace and articulateness when he did an interview and said, ‘Hey, the definition of Star Trek is woke.’”
Starfleet Academy was canceled just a week after the final episode of season 1 dropped on Paramount+. However, season 2 has already completed production, and those episodes should begin streaming in early 2027. Hunter, who does reprise her role of Nahla Ake during SFA’s sophomore year, continued by saying:
“He [Shatner] talked about Southern states banning The Original Series when [the show] had a Black woman and a white man kissing, and then the first season [of SFA] got canceled. He said, ‘Have we traveled no distance in our 60 years?’ He expressed real sadness and distress at the cancellation, and I loved that because he’s the man. He’s the maestro."
Despite Starfleet Academy’s premature cancellation, Hunter still teased season 2 of SFA. However, she hardly gave away any juicy Excelsior-sized spoilers, regarding what is yet to come. The actress said during the same sit-down:
“Season 2 asks large questions, which I think Star Trek is particularly good at. Trek is always seeking solutions of peace and solutions of fairness, and I think season 2 really does that incredibly well and deals with the complexity of that. It’s also tremendously fun because we get to do a lot of things that you can only do in science fiction.”
Most of the complaints posted to the Star Trek social media accounts I curate were truly appalling, especially in the face of IDIC. For instance, social media users actually had the audacity to bash Starfleet Academy for featuring a gay Klingon, who was portrayed brilliantly by Karim Diane. Meanwhile, others came down hard on SFA introducing a female Jem’Hadar, citing that these aliens were only engineered as males.
Yes, Deep Space Nine did set that standard. However, it never seemed to cross any of the critics' minds that evolution could have been brought about the change by which Starfleet Academy’s female Jem’Hadar, Lura Thok (Gina Yashere), was born. After all, over 800 years passed between the 24th and 32nd centuries.
I for one hate that Starfleet Academy won’t return with new episodes after its second and final season, but I feel strongly that many of the show’s characters will return in future Star Trek series and/or films.
I’m particularly interested to see more of Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta), who is essentially a hybrid of Captain James T. Kirk and Wesley Crusher, who possesses the former’s strength and the latter’s intelligence.
Now, share your own thoughts and comments with us on the criticism still swirling about Starfleet Academy on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!
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