The New ‘Starfleet Academy’ Trailer Has a Lot More Than Lessons to Be Learned

At San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year, our first glimpse of the next Star Trek show, Starfleet Academy, put the emphasis on the latter, reminding us all that this show is about teaching the next generation of Starfleet officers. Our latest look at the series at New York Comic Con today wants to remind you, however, that this will still be a Star Trek show, with all the mystery, drama, and adventure that entails.

Climaxing today’s Star Trek Universe panel at New York Comic Con, Paramount lifted the lid on the second trailer for Starfleet Academy, revealing a lot more teases about the show than just the hopeful college-bound vibes that were on full display in our first look this past summer. There’s still plenty enough of that—we get plenty of classes in session (with new and familiar teachers, like Voyager‘s Robert Picardo as the Emergency Medical Hologram, and Discovery‘s Tig Notaro and Mary Wiseman as Jett Reno and Sylvia Tilly, respectively), and lots of young adult drama for this new class of academy recruits, the first welcomed to the titular Academy (slash Starship, the U.S.S. Athena) in over a century after the events of the Burn from Star Trek: Discovery season 3.

Of all the new students, however, this trailer focuses on one in particular who will drive the broader narrative of the show: Caleb Mir, played by Sandro Rosta. Turns out he’s got a big link to both Starfleet Academy‘s big bad Nus Braka (played by the legendary Paul Giamatti, a half-Klingon, half-Tellarite hybrid), and the Academy’s latest chancellor, Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter), after his mother (Orphan Black and She-Hulk‘s Tatiana Maslany) was kidnapped by Braka when Caleb was a child. Finally finding the young boy again after fifteen years (and some history with Braka herself), Ake personally recruits Caleb to become an unlikely member of the Academy’s new ranks… and maybe go toe-to-toe with Braka again when he resurfaces.

Starfleet Academy also features Gina Yashere as Athena First Officer and Academy Cadet Master Lura Thok (a half-Klingon, half-Jem’Hadar), Karim Diané as Klingon sciences cadet Jay-Den Kraag, Kerrice Brooks as Kasqian operations cadet Sam, George Hawkins as Khionian command-track cadet Darem Reymi, Bella Shepard as Dar-Sha command-track cadet Genesis Lythe, Zoë Steiner as Tarima Sadal, the daughter of the President of Betazed, as well as Oded Fehr as Discovery‘s Admiral Vance in a guest capacity. It was also confirmed today that Stephen Colbert will provide the voice of Starfleet Academy’s Digital Dean of Students, providing daily announcements throughout the school.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy‘s 10-episode debut season begins streaming on Paramount+ January 15 with a two-episode premiere.

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