Summary
The upcomingStar Trek: Starfleet Academywelcomes four legacy characters from pastStar Trekseries to its cast. Set in the 32nd century,Star Trek: Starfleet Academyis a spinoff ofStar Trek: Discoverythat includesStar Trek: Lower Decks' Tawny Newsome as a writer. ThenewStar Trekserieswill follow new cadets and instructors as they rebuild Starfleet Academy after the Burn decimated the United Federation of Planets in the 31st century.Naturally,Star Trek: Discoverycharacters were expected to be part ofStar Trek: Starfleet Academy, but none were named inStarfleet Academy’s first casting announcements.
Instead,Star Trek: Starfleet Academybuilt hype for new fans by announcing award-winning actors Holly Hunter as the Academy’s Chancellor and Captain, and Paul Giamatti asStarfleet Academy’s villain. More recent announcements namedKerrice Brooks, Bella Shepard, George Hawkins, Karim Diané and Zoë Steiner as the Academy cadetsthatStar Trek’s first YA series focuses on. San Diego Comic-Con’sStar Trekpanel finally confirmed that there will becharacters fromStar Trek: DiscoveryinStarfleet Academyafter all, as well as one unexpectedStar Trek: Voyageralumnus.
Where You’ve Seen Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Cast Before
Star Trek’s next series, Starfleet Academy, counts Academy Award-caliber actors and a crew of new faces in its growing cast.
4Mary Wiseman as Lt. Sylvia Tilly
Star Trek: Discovery’s Cadet Turned Academy Instructor
It’s no surprise that Mary Wiseman will return asStar Trek: Discovery’sLieutenant Sylvia Tilly inStar Trek: Starfleet Academy.Tilly left the USS Discovery to pursue a career as a Starfleet Academy instructorinStar Trek: Discoveryseason 4, which naturally set Tilly up to join theStarfleet Academyseries. No doubt Tilly will be our introduction toStar Trek: Starfleet Academy, as a character that we’re already familiar with, and as someone whose own journey from Cadet to instructor can be a blueprint for the potential character arcs ofStarfleet Academy’s young students.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academyis going to be a great fit for Sylvia Tilly, who is at her best when allowed to guide others. Tilly’s aptitude for bringing disparate people together is first demonstrated inStar Trek: Discoveryseason 4, episode 4, “All is Possible”, when Academy cadets who neither knew nor liked each other much have to survive a crash landing on a hostile moon by cooperating. After continuing to mentor Ensign Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio),Tilly endsDiscoveryspearheading a mentorship program at the Academy,inspired by Adira as well as Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie).
Star Trek: Discoveryseason 5, episode 1, “Red Directive”, included a few humorous scenes with Tilly and her new love interest, Lt. Jax (Gregory Caldone), setting the stage for the lighter tone and character-forward drama that we can probably expect forStar Trek: Starfleet Academy.
3Oded Fehr as Admiral Charles Vance
Starfleet’s Commander-in-Chief Is A 32nd-Century “True Believer”
Oded Fehr as Admiral Charles Vance is a welcome addition to the cast ofStar Trek: Starfleet Academy. Fehr’s Admiral Vance gained popularity inStar Trek: Discoveryas a Starfleet flag officer who defies the unfortunate trope ofStar TrekAdmirals being"badmirals".Instead of being antagonistic simply because the plot needs a force for Starfleet captains to push against,Vance is driven by his protective nature and desire to hold Starfleet together.As the commander in chief of Starfleet, Admiral Vance is likely to have a strong influence on Starfleet Academy’s policies, which could provide some healthy friction withHolly Hunter’s Chancelloror other Academy higher-ups.
Admiral Vance is also likely to be Lieutenant Tilly’s ally at Federation HQ, should the need for one ever arise. InStar Trek: Discoveryseason 4,Vance and Tilly became friends while working together to fend off the pending threat of the Dark Matter Anomaly, and nearly faced their deaths together. That bond meant Vance was willing to trust Tilly with sensitive information inStar Trek: Discoveryseason 5, and is likely to do so again inStar Trek: Starfleet Academy.
5 Ways Star Trek: Discovery’s Ending Set Up Starfleet Academy
Star Trek: Discovery’s final season laid the groundwork for several elements of its upcoming spin-off, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
2Tig Notaro as Commander Jett Reno
Star Trek: Discovery’s Underutilized Engineer Gets Another Chance
It’s great that Tig Notaro’s Commander Jett Reno is coming back toStar Trek.Star Trek: Starfleet Academywill offer more opportunities for thefan-favorite Commander Jett Renoto turn up, especially sinceStar Trek: Discoveryoften underutilized Reno. After the USS Discovery rescued Commander Reno from the wreckage of the USS Hiawatha inStar Trek: Discoveryseason 2, Reno became one of Discovery’s engineers and occasionally popped up to lighten the mood or provide an out-of-the box solution. Like Lieutenant Tilly, Commander Reno is originally from the 23rd century and stayed with the USS Discovery crew when Commander Michael Burnham orchestrated Discovery’s jump to the future.
What Commander Reno will be doing onStar Trek: Starfleet Academyhasn’t yet been confirmed, but it almost doesn’t matter. More of Tig Notaro inStar Trekis never a bad thing, andReno will almost certainly integrate really easily with the lighter atmosphere thatStar Trek: Starfleet Academypromises.After the USS Discovery kept coming up against life-and-death situations of galactic proportions, Commander Reno could decide she’s done with all of that, and start working at the Academy instead.
Commander Reno could easily be an engineering instructor, but Reno’s wealth of obscure knowledge and"padded resume",as described inStar Trek: Discoveryseason 5, episode 7, “Erigah”, could point to a funnier running gag inStar Trek: Starfleet Academy, where Reno casually takes on a different gig every week.
1Robert Picardo as The Doctor
Starfleet Academy’s Wild Card Pick From Star Trek: Voyager
The most surprising choice ofStar Treklegacy characters inStar Trek: Starfleet Academyis Robert Picardo asStar Trek: Voyager’s Doctor. It’s possible this version of the Doctor will be related to the backup version of the Doctor’s program fromStar Trek: Voyagerseason 4, episode 23, “Living Witness”, which sees the Doctor reactivated 700 years in the future to give a firsthand account of the USS Voyager’s involvement in a conflict between two neighboring species, the Kyrians and Vaskans.This places the Doctor in the 31st century, very close to the time of the Burn,and about 100 years beforeStar Trek: Starfleet Academy.
The capability of the USS Voyager’s EMH to go beyond his initial programming meansthe Doctor could be teaching any number of subjects at Starfleet Academy.History, command training, holographic ethics, and even music appreciation are all possible areas of expertise for the multifaceted Doctor. Medicine is, of course, the obvious choice, because the Doctor continued to practice medicine for the Kyrians and Vaskans before charting a path back to the Alpha Quadrant in “Living Witness”. It’ll be interesting to see if the Burn affected the Doctor’s journey to Federation Headquarters, ifStar Trek: Starfleet Academyis, in fact, picking up this loose end fromStar Trek: Voyager.
Picardo recently reprised hisStar Trek: Voyagerrole inStar Trek: Prodigy, where the Doctor took on the duties of mentoringProdigy’s young cast, in addition to being the USS Voyager-A’s Chief Medical Officer.
With these legacyStar Trekcharacters, thecast ofStar Trek: Starfleet Academyhas characters from each ofStar Trek’s main storytelling eras,effectively tying the whole franchise together in a single show. Perhaps the inclusion of these four legacyStar Trekcharacters will even inspire new fans who are introduced toStar TrekthroughStarfleet Academyto check outStar Trek: DiscoveryandStar Trek: Voyager. Either way, the knowledge and experience from such a breadth of characters can really only benefit the next generation of cadets inStar Trek: Starfleet Academy, who will go on to shape the future ofStar Trek’s 32nd and 33rd centuries.
