The doors of the new Starfleet Academy have been closed. After recently concluding its first season, Paramount has announced the second season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will be its last.
Starfleet Academy is a spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery as the first new group of Starfleet cadets began their education at Starfleet headquarters on Earth. The series was created by Alex Kurtzman, who has shepherded this new era of Star Trek for over a decade, and Noga Landau with Holly Hunter starring as Academy chancellor Nahla Ake. It also featured Discovery‘s Tig Notoro as Jett Reno in a regular role with Mary Wiseman reprising Sylvia Tilly as well as Robert Picardo’s holographic Doctor from Voyager.
“We’re incredibly proud of the ambition, passion, and creativity that went into bringing ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ to life,” said CBS Studios and Paramount+. “The series introduced audiences to a bold new group of characters, welcomed familiar faces, and expanded the ‘Star Trek’ universe in exciting new ways. We’re grateful to Alex Kurtzman, Noga Landau, Gaia Violo, and the entire cast and crew who pushed storytelling boundaries in the spirit of Gene Roddenberry’s vision. We look forward to sharing the upcoming second and final season with everyone, and continuing to celebrate the cast, crew, and all that was accomplished with this series.”
Kurtzman also released a lengthy letter to the fans on behalf of himself and Landau, saying:
It’s been my and Noga’s joy and privilege to help carry Gene Roddenberry’s extraordinary vision forward with Starfleet Academy, thanks to the hundreds of hardworking humans who pour every ounce of their talents into the work daily with imagination and reverence. We are in post-production now on what will be the second and final season. We’re so proud of what we’ve accomplished together on this show, and the world will get to see the work of these extraordinary artists when season two airs. We will finish strong.
Whether you’re working on Star Trek or part of the marvel that is Star Trek fandom — its very heart, soul, and conscience —the joy comes from adventuring across boundaries of time, space, and the humanly possible in service to Roddenberry’s transformative vision of the future. That incomparable vision was fueled by an inexhaustible optimism. Star Trek places its bet on the best in human nature. It dares to imagine a society of “infinite diversity in infinite combinations,” free of war, hate, poverty, disease, and repression, and dedicated to the spirit of scientific inquiry and respect for all life, whether carbon or silicon-based, green-skinned or blue.
But make no mistake: Gene Roddenberry wasn’t some starry-eyed dreamer. He was a decorated Army bomber pilot in the Pacific Theater. He had seen first-hand the grim consequences of the worst of human nature. And his vision of the future wasn’t just a promise of hope. It was also a warning. In a fraught, frightening time of intolerance and violence, Star Trek said: Look! We made it! But just barely. First, we had to put all those ancient scourges behind us. It said that what makes us glorious as a species, and gives us hope for the future and the galaxy is inextricably linked to what makes us dangerous to each other, to this one world we presently inhabit, and to ourselves. That dual message—of hope and of warning—isn’t just a pretty dream but a call to action, to think about who we are in a different way.
Please don’t take our word for it. Take Gene’s: “Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. […] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.’
With enduring hope that his vision of the future is possible, for our children, their children, and every future cadet in Starfleet Academy: Live Long and Prosper.
With Starfleet Academy‘s cancellation, that ends over a decade of Kurtzman’s tenure of Star Trek where the franchise returned to TV screens more than 10 years after the conclusion of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005. While Starfleet Academy is ending, fans will still have the fourth and fifth seasons of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to look forward to but there are no planned or announced Star Trek series after SNW ends, leaving the franchise in another state of flux.
This thrilling new chapter follows a fresh class of cadets as they train under the watchful, demanding eyes of Starfleet’s finest. Together, they’ll face the highs and lows of academy life: forging unbreakable friendships, clashing in explosive rivalries, experiencing first loves, and stepping into their destiny as the next generation of Starfleet officers. When a mysterious new enemy threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself, these cadets must rise to the challenge or risk losing everything they’ve just begun to fight for.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy stars Holly Hunter, Sandro Rosta, Karim Diané, Kerrice Brooks, George Hawkins, Bella Shepard, Zoë Steiner, Tig Notaro, Robert Picardo, Oded Fehr, Mary Wiseman, Gina Yashere and Paul Giamatti.
