Star Trek has always been about inclusivity, but in the first two episodes of Starfleet Academy, we didn’t get a ton of that ont he LGBTQ+ front — or at least not at the level of the series’ direct progenitor, Star Trek: Discovery. Well, guess what? In this week’s episode, “Vitus Reflux” — and spoilers past this point — the show confirms that Tig Notaro as Jett Reno and Gina Yashere as Lura Thok are dating in the most low-key way possible.
While most of the episode is concerned with exploring the divide between Starfleet Academy and their more aggressive neighbor the War College — and a prank war between them — there’s also an overly complicated game that I think is called calica, but they don’t include closed captions on the screeners, so I don’t really know. Basically it’s like laser tag, and it involves a lot of running and shooting. The sport is coached by the Academy’s most aggressive teacher, Lura Thok. Jett Reno also shows up as co-coach for the sport, because Reno is basically the all-purpose teacher of the academy and a “nerd-jock hybrid.”
But it also sets up that Lura Thok and Jett Reno have a relationship… Though it’s not clear how much of one until later. “We were having Turducken for dinner,” Lura Thok says, interrupting a session of wisdom dispensing to student Darem Reymi (George Hawkins). “But now it can’t exist because you forgot to prep the replicator.”
“I’m sorry kitten,” Reno says. “My bad.”
“Are you not respecting dinner?” Thok asks. “Dinner is important.”
“We’ll go out!” Reno offers. “Chinese? Navaari?”
“French,” says Thok. “I want coq au vin. But with krada leg, and with [redcated because it’s Klingon and again, I don’t have closed captions on the version I was watching].”
“I’ll make a rez at Yvette’s,” says Reno, which is probably a reference to Yvette Picard, the mother of Jean-Luc Picard. Though it could also be a reference to Yvette Nicole Brown, who loves Star Trek. “See? Everything is gonna… brie… all right.”
At this, Jett rubs Lura’s shoulder, while the latter rolls her eyes. “Nope,” she says, and walks away.
“Goodbye my love,” Reno says.
“Even more no,” Lura says.
“French-Klingon fusion,” Reno tells Reymi after Lura Thok leaves. “The cuisine that I never knew that I needed. “I left a starship on the edge of creation to be with her. That’s what you call showin’ up for someone.”
Anyway, the lesson with Reymi continues from there, but the point is we have our first canonical LGBTQ+ couple in Starfleet Academy. And it’s pretty sweet and cute — we’re already shipping #ReThok — but it’s curious that we got there with the adults in the show before any of the “kids.” One would think given school shows are all about people exploring their sexuality, there would be a bit more of that… Instead, this episode hones in on the aggressively straight couple of Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) and Tarima Sadal (Zoë Steiner), ending in a pretty hot almost-kiss — and a sweet quick kiss — between the two by the end of the hour.
Contrast that with Reno and Thok, who get a shoulder pat that would be 100% HR approved, and it’s a curious lack of heat for the non-heterosexual side of things. Not that we need Jett Reno and Lura Thok to start tongue kissing at school or anything. But here’s hoping this is the first of many explorations the show gets into as it continues. And maybe next time they can be a little less low-key.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premiere Thursdays on Paramount+, at 3am ET / Midnight PT. The season will premiere with two episodes on January 15, followed by one new episode weekly until the season finale.
Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy with premiere dates.
- Thursday, January 15, 2026: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Season 1, Episode 1
- Thursday, January 15, 2026: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Season 1, Episode 2
- Thursday, January 22, 2026: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Season 1, Episode 3
- Thursday, January 29, 2026: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Season 1, Episode 4
- Thursday, February 5, 2026: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Season 1, Episode 5
- Thursday, February 12, 2026: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Season 1, Episode 6
- Thursday, February 19, 2026: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Season 1, Episode 7
- Thursday, February 26, 2026: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Season 1, Episode 8
- Thursday, March 5, 2026: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Season 1, Episode 9
- Thursday, March 12, 2026: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Season 1, Episode 10 *Season Finale*
Where To Watch Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
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