When an old enemy resurfaces as an existential threat to the Federation, Nahla must outwit a vengeful foe with a personal vendetta against her — as our cadets and instructors undertake a dangerous, seemingly impossible, mission to save everyone and everything they hold dear.
Teleplay by: Alex Kurtzman & Kirsten Beyer
Story by: Noga Landau & Gaia Violo
Directed by: Olatunde Osunsanmi
There is no spoiler protection in the episode discussion threads, and spoiler tags are not necessary!
I’m feeling the same way.
This is the most coherently plotted live action Trek of the current era. The showrunners and writers room knew what they wanted and laid down all the pieces to get there.
I’m going to say that while Anisha’s punch of Brakka’s (as they say in comics) most punchable face seemed logical and a necessary catharsis, I don’t like that Ake stooped to that herself, however understandable the motivation.
I still feel, based on how much difference an extra two episodes per season makes to a low budget show like The Ark, that SFA would be stronger and better able to serve its large cast with 12 episode seasons.
I hope we get more on SAM’s development and integration of her two memories in season two.
Likewise, there definitely feels that there’s unfinished business between Anisha and Ake. I am going with Anisha being resigned to accept who her son has become but unsure of her own future.
My 1st thought when Ake punched him was - that’s illegal, he’s in Starfleet custody.
_I still feel, based on how much difference an extra two episodes per season makes to a low budget show like The Ark, that SFA would be stronger and better able to serve its large cast with 12 episode seasons.
I hope we get more on SAM’s development and integration of her two memories in season two._
I’ve always been against the modern short season system. SFA is a classic example in my mind. SFA really needed another couple of episodes to breathe. I’d have been quite happy to have a few less SFX heavy episodes to have just more episodes.
I always thought that the insistence on every Paramount+ show having 10 episode seasons — which was mandated by the executives in charge of streaming when the ViacomCBS merger happened — was weird.
Other streamers are not that rigid and vary season structures depending on what the show is. While 12 episode seasons are rare, I can’t see the streamer that merges HBO Max and Paramount+ being quite so rigid.
The newly merged conglomerate has a myriad of practical decisions to make in merging Paramount and WBDiscovery. It will take time for all of the parameters of their streaming model to be fully established and implemented but we can expect some significant rethinking.
I didn’t know that the 10 episodes limit was a Paramount rule, really I miss the 22 episodes season. That length forces the showrunners to work harder. Some the best TNG episodes are bottle episodes or limited cast episodes. Lock everyone in a room and you might get another ‘Measure of a Man’ or if whole cast is run down and shooting catch up scenes focus on the bit players and you can get another ‘Lower Decks’ (the episode not the series). If there were only 13 episodes a season on TNG there wouldn’t have been time enough to grow Gordie as a character or create O’Brian or … the list is too long.
We will never see 26 episode seasons again.
It currently takes more than one week to shoot a 42 minute episode.
Also, actors are not willing to lock into shows that leave them unavailable for movies or other television shows.
Star Trek and other streaming series are able to cast A-listers not just because they are willing to pay high pay rates and list them as executive producers but also because the A-listers are able to lock in multi season contracts with Star Trek while still being available to do other things.
But 10 episodes is not the maximum possible. Large ensembles like Starfleet Academy have enough main cast members that not everyone has to be on set every day.
As well, it’s possible that 4 or 6 episode limited series might be the perfect vehicle to bring back a Legacy character or explore something like the Department of Temporal Investigations. Under the old management those weren’t negotiable.
Why Paramount had such a bizarrely rigid policy after the ViacomCBS merger has never been adequately explained.
Eh 13 seems to be the standard. But then if the show’s a hit then a back 9 raising it up to 22 or at least second season of 22 does seem to still be a thing for broadcast TV at least. But STA really would have been helped by another 3 episodes.
No one in any Star Trek series is what I would consider A-list so I’m pretty sure all of them would be happy to do a 22 episode season.
This era of Star Trek has quite a few A-listers actually.
Starfleet Academy is helmed by Oscar winner for best actress Holly Hunter (in The Piano), has two time nominee Paul Giamatti (one each nominations for best and best supporting actor) as well as Tig Notaro who is nominated this year for her documentary and has also been nominated twice for Emmys.
Akiva Goldsman, co-showrunner of Strange New Worlds has an Oscar for best screenwriter for an adaptation from another medium (for A Beautiful Mind).
You know you’re right about Holly Hunter, she’s so good as Ake I flat out forgot she’s Holly Fuckin Hunter my bad there. But as much as I love Tig, and do love Tig Notaro, (Jet Reno is my favourite engineer since O’Brian) she’s B or C level celebrity and she’s a supporting character., she’d have time to do Zootopia 3 even if they had 22.
But you’re right very few shows do longer seasons for a lot of reasons. I just think that it’s trade off I’m not in favour of. I miss how longer seasons made shows try more interesting things, and gave the Arcs time to breathe. The Dominion arc in DS9 felt epic in part because it was so long.
Anisha won’t be in season 2 so maybe in season 3.