Even though production on the first season wrapped a month ago, we still know very little about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Now one of the high-profile actors is talking a little bit about her time on the set of the upcoming series.
Academy’s heart
At NYCC last fall, about halfway through production, Paramount revealed Emmy-winner Tatiana Maslany (best known for Orphan Black and She-Hulk) had a “recurring special guest star role” in season 1. Unlike the other actors, they didn’t offer any details regarding her role. Now Maslany is opening up a little bit about her time in the final frontier in an interview with Collider while she promotes the movie The Monkey. She didn’t offer any character or plot details but she did talk in general about the show, the characters and working with some of the actors, including lead cadet actress Kerrice Brooks:
“Oh my god, I love Kerrice! Kerrice is unbelievable. The whole cast, the whole set is people not like Kerrice—Kerrice is obviously very unique; no one’s like her—but everyone is such a great character. There’s so much heart in the show. I had such a blast working on it. Holly Hunter is my hero. I couldn’t believe I got to work with her. Broadcast News is, again, one of those performances that is just beyond. Paul Giamatti is a total delight.”
Maslany also told Collider that she had seem some Star Trek before but being on the show has “opened up to me the Star Trek Universe,” and to the delight of her “big Trekkie” husband she has been binging Trek, saying “I’m going back, and I’m watching Deep Space Nine. My husband refers to it as my stories because I’ll be, like, sitting in the tub with my laptop, just like, ‘Oh! Oh no!’ And laughing. He’s like, it’s like my soaps. I love it so much.”
Return to the 32nd century
Maslany joined previously announced high-profile cast members, including Oscar winner Holly Hunter and Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti. The new series also features Trek vets reprising their roles including Voyager’s Robert Picardo as the The Doctor. The series is set in the 32nd century established by Star Trek: Discovery with Tig Notaro reprising her role as Jett Reno as a series regular with Oded Fehr (Admiral Vance) and Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly) in recurring roles. Late last year Picardo talked a bit about how the setting and timeframe work together:
If you follow Discovery, this terrible thing called “The Burn” basically destroyed Starfleet Academy, everything was destroyed in the future. So now it’s come back. So it’s really about, rebirth, redemption, all of the great themes of after a tragedy, of rebuilding.
Paramount+ has provided this official synopsis for the series:
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy introduces viewers to a young group of cadets who come together to pursue a common dream of hope and optimism. Under the watchful and demanding eyes of their instructors, they discover what it takes to become Starfleet officers as they navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves and a new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself.
The 10-episode first season wrapped production in Toronto in early February and is expected to debut sometime in 2026. Writing for the second season has been underway for a couple of months and it is expected to go into production around mid year, likely after filming on season 4 of Strange New Worlds (which began this week) concludes.
