- Directed by Jonathan Frakes
- Teleplay by Kirsten Beyer
- Story by Kirsten Beyer and Kenneth Lin
- March 5, 2026
- Allegedly based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry. The blame for the idea of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy rests upon Gaia Violo as aided by Alex Kurtzman
- Paramount+
Episode Cast
- Chancellor Nahla Ake-Holly Hunter
- Caleb Mir-Sandro Rosta
- Jay-Den Kraag-Karim Diané
- SAM (Series Acclimation Mil)-Kerrice Brooks
- Darem Reymi-George Hawkins
- Genesis Lythe-Bella Shepard
- Digital Dean of Students-Stephen Colbert voice
- Jett Reno-Tig Notaro
- The Doctor-Robert Picardo
- Tarima Sadal-Zoë Steiner
- Ocam Sadal-Romeo Carere
- Chancellor Kelrec-Raoul Bhaneja
- Anisha Mir-Tatiana Maslany
School is out so everybody goes home but there is an old foe threatening the Federation.
Here we are to the next to last episode of the inaugural season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. The previous eight have all led to this. After viewing, I can’t call it the worst of the batch but to be better than the rest is not difficult. For a climactic episode filled with high stakes both-personal and existential-it just doesn’t feel like it. It’s a pretty looking package that doesn’t have much inside.
300th Night begins on the final night of the academic year for Starfleet Academy, and the episode opens with a captain’s log. From what it sounds like the important people of the school are going to Betazed for the opening of the Federation seat of government in the Federation’s most advanced warp capable building using automation to pilot/run the spaceship school.
Caleb (Sandro Rosta) does the right thing and tries to smooth things over/bond with Tarima (Zoë Steiner) but she has to be hostile from the get-go because forced conflict is the only way to go in the show. It certainly would’ve worked better if she was just feeling pain and at least willing to tolerate what he was doing but pointless conflict is what this relationship is all about.
Having finally had a childhood, SAM (Kerrice Brooks) is supposed to be a different character and there are some hints of that. She is supposed to be a different character with the previous iteration of SAM having been more or less a template. She’s at least more noticeably changed than Tarima was in the previous episode.
We also learn what Nus Braka stole in Come, Let’s Away. Considering this episode takes place six to eight weeks it may seem silly just now realizing he stole the only classified weapon in the whole place. What is that weapon? Omega 47 mines which is a direct callback to the Voyager episode The Omega Directive. It appears Starfleet learned this after he set off a test detonation. How incompetent is Starfleet? Nobody checked for this doomsday weapon FIRST?!
They didn’t think to check for the only classified weapon held on the space station? It took them that long to figure it out? They should’ve figured it out within minutes that it was missing. I hate when shows have characters or organizations that are conveniently competent and incompetent just to move the story along.
The assumption is that Braka is going to use these mines to destabilize the Federation. Why? What do they assume his end goal is? To destabilize the Federation. They think no deeper than that until he does something else.
Going off on a tangent, between the final episode of Enterprise and the JJ Abrams reboot there was a proposed animated Star Trek series that never came to be called Star Trek: Final Frontier set after a devastating war with the Romulans where Omega particles were detonated to disrupt warp travel. Look it up. Did they just lift that plot for here?
A bigger question is: why is Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) not only briefing but seeking advice from what amounts to two school principals. He consults with both Chancellor Ake (Holly Hunter) and Chancellor Kelrec (Raoul Bhaneja) rather than a group of dedicated tacticians. This sounds like something that should involve meetings with Starfleet Command. It makes it convenient for Caleb to overhear or learn things but makes no sense logically.
During his pointless drama with Tarima, Caleb with the aid of SAM figures out that his mother has been sending encrypted messages to him over the years whose encryption is built around the name of the moon she pointed to in the pilot episode. So criminal genius Caleb who never missed leg day while on the run couldn’t figure out the moon his mother pointed to was the key to the encryption so he could get over 200 messages from her until SAM pointed it out? He’s selectively stupid as needed for the story.
Back to Caleb conveniently overhearing stuff. He learns that the Venari Ral are about to overrun the planet Ukeck where mommy (Tatiana Maslany) is based on the last message so naturally he steals a shuttle while the the spaceship school Athena is in flight. He is joined in his mission by SAM because he needs somebody that can calculate leaving a warp bubble along with Darem (George Hawkins), and Genesis (Bella Shepard) because they just happen to be in the area. We get another instance of glitter vomit and they could not get more on the nose with the semi closeted homosexual fish alien that never looks like a fish anymore if they tried.
Darem is largely punchline in this rather than a contributing character. When he first gets anything to do, he is drunk because his people lack the enzymes to metabolize alcohol because they “lack so many enzymes.” I am beginning to think the writers are just going to make him comic relief rather than an actual character.
The Venari Ral in the pilot looked like they were a vaguely defined criminal organization. In the space of 300 days they have become some type of vaguely defined empire. No idea how a criminal and minor terrorist like Braka not only created some kind of empire but is running rings around the Federation. He’s only been mentioned here and there but there’s been no indication he’s been steadily building what is revealed in this episode which is a thuggish-yet-sophisticated military that control a few star systems to enough of an extent that the Federation has labeled their systems no go zones and fears their advancements.
If they had stayed as vague marauders, that would be fine but here they are an organized sort of government. They’re whatever the writers want them to be in the needs of the episode. Orion Space Pirates were, well, space pirates. The Orion Syndicate was quickly defined as essentially the mafia/yakuza in space. The Venari Ral? What evs!
Why is Chancellor Ake allowed to take the spaceship college building to the edge of Federation space to rescue those teens with attitude rather than Ake or Vance finding something that would not be missed at an inaugural ceremony. Nothing with a smidge of trained personnel rather than a monstrosity with just some of the supporting adult cast? Oh. I see. Contrivance for the next episode.
We get some antics on the planet because not only are the Venari Ral anti-Federation but so is mommy and by extension everybody else. There is capturing and bluffing and the Athena sweeping in to beam them up with Sam shouting “Now that’s a flex!”
Not once but three times in this show did Caleb decide he wanted to be in Starfleet rather than be on the run. The third comes here when he tries to chase his friends away to run off with mommy before deciding Starfleet is good because they gave him a place to stay and mommy is kind of horrified by it. At least that’s what it looks like.
News of Maslany being involved in something usually gets greeted with buzz from certain people based on her time on Orphan Black. Never seen the show myself but I have seen She-Hulk and now her in this and have no idea where this love comes from. She is not bad but nothing really special. Enough to keep her a working actress though.
The lengths they go through for one another feels totally unearned. Jay-Den (Karim Diané) bringing the main cast into his house with the Klingon ritual of r’uustai first seen in the TNG episode The Bonding. Rather than a moment of character building there, in 300th Night it was a shortcut rather than the series engaging in moments that Trek shows like DS9 or TOS used to explain character loyalty.
The final image is a wide shot of the minefield that has boxed in the entire Federation and it’s stupid looking. We see random planets in the middle of nowhere. A lot of them just outside of this minefield. The image itself feels like something out of space fantasy or just a fantasy film and not something out of Star Trek which at least tried to sound and look plausible.
More ridiculous still is how the Venari Ral in under two months were able to isolate the Federation with space mines completely without the Federation noticing. Two months sounds like too short of a time to do something so massive and quickly without notice. Want to bring the Federation to its knees in a more believable way? Encircle Betazed which will have the bulk of the fleet along with the entire Federation government.
Quippy dialogue is kept to a minimum, though, not nearly enough. SAM is generally annoying and Stephen Colbert’s humor is just out of place for Star Trek. As a joke, there’s an announcement on the intercom by the AI chancellor (Colbert) warning the students against having sex in empty areas of the school. Really? That seems a bit juvenile and low hanging fruit even for the current Star Trek. And the more I listen to him and the further the show goes, I’m thinking they took a page from Bill Murray and his announcements in Meatballs. Stephen Colbert is no Bill Murray.
Lura Thok is completely missing despite her girlfriend being on a ship heading towards an important function. The warrior nature of her heritage would have made her ideal for this plot so..? Tarima is present and adds nothing. She is stress for Caleb rather than an individual in her own right. A shade more than a woman might be in your worst very old Hollywood movie but not much better. She barely influences the man’s story.
This is better than the other eight episodes but as a Star Trek episode 300th Night is still at the bottom. If it were a fun generic space adventure, it might be okay but with the Star Trek name on it, it just doesn’t measure up.
Warren Watched A Movie 