After a game-changing episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy last week that left one character dead, and several more grievously injured, y’all know what time it is: Spring Breeeeeeak. But since Starfleet Academy Episode 7, titled “Ko’Zeine,” is Spring Break Star Trek style, it’s less about doing shots and wearing bikinis than questions of morality and fortitude, aka (mostly) zero amounts of fun.
Spoilers for the episode past this point, but in a groundbreaking move for a series three episodes before ending its Freshman season, the show seems to have finally figured out how to do A-Plot and B-Plot. Specifically, while Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) plans on spending a quiet week at the Academy alone, he ends up getting interrupted with some shenanigans from Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard). And though things are heating up with Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané) and War College student Kyle Djokovic (Dale Whibley), when Darem Reymi (George Hawkins) seemingly gets kidnapped they head to Khionia where it turns out Darem is engaged to be married.
Spring breeeeak!
Basically, we’ve got two plotlines that play with the theme of “honesty” while also seeing if there are any sparks between two romantic pairings simmering on the back-burner. Jay-Den and Darem had an almost literal heart-to-heart a few episodes back that went nowhere, while Caleb and Genesis seemed to be flirting hard when they first met, though he’s now fallen hard for Tarima Sadal (Zoë Steiner). And therefore it’s curious that other than some furtive looks throughout the episode, there’s no more on that front. One of the joys of teen shows (even though these teens are more in their twenties) is making radically wrong decisions romantically, screwing up and dealing with the consequences. Here, everyone is so tentative and careful, we don’t get any of that.
Perhaps it’s a function of the 10 episode season, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for the sorts of digressions that help actually flesh out characters. Maybe it’s because it’s Star Trek and everyone is extremely respectful. But it’s more fun to see screw-ups rather than earnest understanding.
That particularly comes through with the Jay-Den and Darem storyline, which taking a digression for a Spring Break — sorry, “All World’s Day” — teen marriage is weird, to say the least. It doesn’t help that Khionia seems to be one or two rooms on a soundstage rather than a whole planet (though that’s par for the course for Star Trek), and the arc boils down to Jay-Den being pissed Darem has been lying to him before coming back and giving a great Best Man speech at his wedding. That speech doesn’t quite land because A) we had a whole plotline about Jay-Den being uncomfortable speaking in public a few episodes back, and B) for all the talk about Darem being an a-hole, he’s really not at all… He’s barely mean, even though the show keeps telling us he is in dialogue. This wraps up with Darem getting out of the marriage, and Jay-Den staying with his sunburnt boyfriend, and that’s pretty much it.
Far more successful is the Caleb and Genesis storyline which starts with shenanigans and then allows the students to actually screw up in a way that has to do with — checks notes to find out what this show is about — school. While Caleb takes the roll of dude who just wants to have fun, sunbathing in the atrium, Genesis has some other pranks in mind including a dangerous game to stick your hand into tubes to see what’s toxic. They end up releasing a warp slug, which they need to chase down with a freeze ray so that Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) doesn’t catch on that they’re in the school, and messing around.
See, this is what I mean! Shenanigans! Fun! Spring breeeeak!
And even when they sneak onto the bridge and it becomes clear Genesis has something else in mind — she has been recommended for the command track, but falsified her recommendations to get into Starfleet Academy — it doesn’t become maudlin… It’s kids making classic dumb mistakes, and figuring out how to be a little better. Same with Caleb, who is scared to email (or whatever they’re doing in the future) Tarima but by episode’s end does it on Genesis’s urging. It’s a tiny little plotline that actually rings true for the age group they’re going for on the show, and exactly the sort of thing that would happen on a stuck-in-school episode on any other show, with added sci-fi twists. Basically, what Starfleet Academy should be doing all the time.
Not to be a broken record, but this is the sort of thing they could figure out works if they had more episodes and time. Shenanigans are fun. Letting the characters figure out their relationship to each other is fun. Having one of the characters get married not in an “oops we’re on Spring Break” kind of way but instead a “this was a child marriage” kind of way is not as much fun.
The good news here is it’s starting to feel like Starfleet Academy was holding its breath for last week’s episode, and now that we’re past that they can actually get to what the show is about. Here’s hoping the final three episodes of the season are more in line with that Caleb/Genesis plot, and less about adults being responsible. We’ve got umpteen other hours of Star Trek for that sort of thing.
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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