Official Trailer | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Finally, something substantial. I was worried this would be "Star Trek: High School Musical" but this trailer makes it clear this isn't just a Trek show for tweens and teens.

I’m not sure why anyone ever thought it would be?
Other than the naysayers who were looking not to like it and had to be ‘shown otherwise.’
Even Prodigy ended up an ‘all ages’ show.
Not saying you’re one of them, it’s unfortunate that the new shows seem to have to push against negative labels and narratives that are brigaded before the first casting announcements.
In this case, despite the idea of an Academy show kicking around since the 1970s, it was fairly clear that no senior network/streamer executive were ever going greenlight it until someone came up with a concept that was more than a college soap in the Star Trek universe.
What I didn’t expect was for the other perennial ‘failed to make it to pilot’ franchise idea of a hospital show also got rolled into it. That’s one that Roddenberry first tried to spin off with M’Benga in the second season of TOS.
- Well said. Prodigy was not for me. But I'm not making it my personality!

I get it. Younger demographic, new audience. Star Trek is no longer made for me. I understand that, and I get it.

But...

Regardless of who it's made for, regardless of who the target audience is, there came a point in Star Trek history (ahem...2009) when they stopped making somthing designed to be "Star Trek" and starting making "X...with a Star Trek Theme applied on top".

"Star Wars...with a Star Trek Theme applied on top"
"James Bond...with a Star Trek Theme applied on top"
"Futurama...with a Star Trek Theme applied on top"
"Battlestar Galactica...with a Star Trek Theme applied on top".
and now introducting, "My So-Called Life...with a Star Trek Theme applied on top".

That's why SNW was (at least until the latest season), a breath of fresh air; because it dared to be a "Star Trek...with a Star Trek Theme applied on top."

Hell...Discovery tried to be "EVERYTHING ABOVE...with a Star Trek Theme applied on top" depending on the season.

I get it. Chase the audience. But it's maddening.

This comes across as gatekeeping…
— from the perspective of someone who’s been watching Trek since the 1960s and has seen the same old ‘ahem, not Trek, it’s stealing from …’ chestnuts since TAS was announced, I am alway surprised how little older fans recognize that Trek has ALWAYS adapted other media (movies, television, radio plays, Shakespeare!) into its episodes.
Sigh.
- Yeah when someone complains that Discovery redesigned the Klingons but won't complain about TNG redesigning the Klingons then you can know that they don't actually have strong opinions about the concept of a redesign.

Is it gonna be full of people thinking the gender and race issues are the most important topics for the story, to the degree that it becomes the entire story?

Ive lost hope for star trek since discovery.

Oh I hate that about Discovery. All those preachy episodes like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, The Outcast, and Far Beyond The Stars…
Oh wait, was TOS, TNG, and DS9. Can you remind me again when Discovery got anywhere near as focused on race or gender issues as any of those episodes?
- Someone once told me that Discovery had a "storyline" about a character coming out as nonbinary so I asked them if they could tell me what episodes this storyline took place or provide any details from this story because all I could think of was a five second scene with Adira that is never mentioned before or after. Of course they could not provide any evidence but they remained fully convicted that it did happen... somewhere.

This trailer gave me basically no information about what the show will be about. Is it a coming of age school drama? A slice of life about up and coming Starfleet officers? A story about an improbably young group of protagonists situated in the heart of a galactic superpower saving the day?

One of the interesting things Disney Star Wars has tried, to varying levels of success, was trying out new genres within the universe to justify running many different shows simultaneously. Why set this at the Academy unless you're going to do something different?

we don't even know what the existential threat to the galaxy is yet!
The first and third for sure, don't think the second will be a significant factor.
Felt a little like Hogwarts in Space.

I'm just here for Robert Picardo.

The show dies look that great based on the trailer. However of our characters start of terrible and grow, this could work out well. I'm just not sure that's the show we're getting.

Him and Janet Reno, one of the few bright spots of an otherwise disappointing DIS
- True. And Holly Hunter will probably be a great captain. But Picardo is who brings me to the table.

I think this trailer says more about me than it does Star Trek. It seems Paramount is done making Star Trek for my demographic, which is okay I suppose. Just feeling my age. 😅.

I hope it does well for the new generation. I kind of wish Discovery ended with Discovery. I mean I watched it and there are characters that I liked, but didn't really enjoy the story. But! I do love Tig Notaro and I'm glad to see her on Academy. Super stoked about Ricardo.

I doubt they're "done" with any particular demo, but they've been pretty up-front about being concerned about an aging/dying fanbase, and wanting to make some stuff for younger people.
But I do think that they've been pretty good at giving each series its own time and vibe, so hopefully something down the road will appeal to you if this doesn't.
- I mean, on the plus side, Klingons look'ish like Klingons again. 😁 (Which I know isn't exactly true, but Worf said enough on this topic in DS9 (YT clip))
  PS I remember laughing so hard when I first saw this scene. 😂
@GlassHalfHopeful @ValueSubtracted Exactly my view as well. I still like SNW, though, even though the last season was thin gruel in terms of writing.
- It has been hard for me to admit it, but I feel the same way about SNW. For the first time in Trek history, my partner has been watching Star Trek SNW with me and is enjoying it. Which... is kind of the problem. 😬 I been getting... bored. 😞
  Strange New World resonates for my partner in ways that are the very reasons I'm not particularly fond of the series, but this is good for them and good for other people entering the world of Trek and enjoying it.
  I'll continue to enjoy reruns of TNG and DS9 forever. And who knows, maybe I'll get lucky with a series that I can really connect with in the future.

Klingons with hair dye? We don't talk about that with outsiders...

It doesn't seem quite like Disco with an over focus on just one Mary Sue, so I'm hopeful.

Mary Sue
Is this a reference to Saru? Because I would argue strongly that he does not meet the definition of the term "Mary Sue":
"exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. [...] lacks any realistic character flaws"
Saru was gifted and possessed "rare skills" yes, but was not without character flaws. For starters he sided with Burhnam during her mutiny and subsequent imprisonment.
- I thought I was being clear and referring to Micheal, who always somehow seems to know the solution to every problem, outside of her stated specialty of xeno-anthropology.
  I know Disco was trying to be different from the other shows where there was focus on one character and not the main crew ensemble. I think that was a mistake and it looks like SFA is doing better about being an ensemble cast.
  Why were you think I was referring to Saru?

Looks good, but too soon to tell. They threw a lot of good stuff at us quickly, but what holds it all together?

Two questions I have: Is Federation HQ a starship saucer section now? WTF was that? And did they just put River Tam from Firefly in Star Trek? Because it kind of looks like they did. Might not be Summer Glau, but that girl definitely had River Tam energy.

Will definitely give this a chance — I've been saying they should make a Starfleet Academy series for decades. Now we're getting one.

Apparently in later Discovery they actually used a starship, the USS Federation, as the Federation headquarters. It appears the Athena is just for the academy though.
The San Francisco campus - or at least a large portion of it - is actually the USS Athena, a fully-functional starship that can land on Earth, but also go on mission when needed to provide some hands-on training (and, I assume, help a Starfleet that's still spread fairly thin). They talked a little bit more about it here.
As far as I'm aware, Federation HQ remains a giant ship/space station.