Have you been trapped inside? I have, and I’ve been catching up on television, among other things. One of the shows that I’ve been watching is Starfleet Academy, the newest iteration of the Star Trek franchise. Yes, I’ve heard the ragging. People have compared it to Friends, which is ridiculous. People have compared it to Harry Potter, which is somewhat more accurate because it’s actually about a school teaching people to be heroes in a speculative universe. Nobody has compared it to X-Men, which is weird because that’s probably the best comparison, particularly given that both X-Men and Star Trek have Patrick Stewart prominently involved in them.

What these criticisms miss is that to keep things interesting, franchises have to do new things. When Deep Space Nine first came out, fans wondered how a franchise about space exploration would work being stuck on an immobile space station. Not only did it work, DS9 is arguably the best series of the franchise. Voyager kept things fresh by transporting the crew to the Delta Quadrant and giving them the mission of getting back. Lower Decks has turned Star Trek into a cartoon show that aims for comedy. That doesn’t make it bad, just different. Yes, Starfleet Academy represents a departure from what Star Trek normally does. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

What’s good about the show? We get to see Robert Picardo on television again. There are characters I can actually identify and remember after just a few episodes, which was a real problem with Discovery for me. Also, remember DS9, which I brought up above? Some of the best episodes had very little to do with the crew or the war going on and actually had more to do with Jake Sisko and his Ferengi friend, Nog, screwing around behind the scenes. The franchise learned its lesson on how to portray teenage characters from the Wesley Crusher debacle and gave us some great moments. They’ve picked up where they left off, as these young cadets seem like…young cadets. There’s been some complaints about the Klingon character not being some brave warrior. Once again, DS9 broke that ground 30 years ago with Alexander, Worf’s son, who wasn’t a great warrior either.

It’s not perfect. The last episode was a disappointment. They had two promising ideas, namely one episode about the holographic cadet and one episode about finding out what happened to Benjamin Sisko, and mushed them together with no real effect and little connection other than the word “Emmissary.” Also, I think I spotted a canon break where the Beta Zed character is said to be empathic, but if she’s full Beta Zed as opposed to half-Beta Zed, she should be completely telepathic, i.e., she should be able to read thoughts, not just emotions. The thing is, they are obviously trying to make her like Deanna Troi, but they’re forgetting Troi was half-human and that’s why she could only sense emotions. Her mother, Roxanna Troi, was full Beta Zed, and she could read thoughts.

Once again, this could be said of any Star Trek series. The original series had episodes with space hippies and the Greek gods. TNG had any number of problems, starting with men in skirts. It infamously had an episode filled to the brim with African stereotypes. Marina Sirtis originally had to wear a mini-skirt so revealing that she had to cross her legs to protect her dignity on screen. Brent Spiner didn’t nail Data’s emotionless tenor until a few episodes in. Half the Star Trek movies are mediocre. The less said about Nemesis, the better. People say Voyager was too reliant on time travel, but what does that say about Enterprise? And in the original series, the Enterprise just shows up at Earth in the year 1968, with only a sentence in exposition to explain how they got there! I could go on, and on, and on. So, if you’re turned off by the negative backlash, I would invite you to watch it yourself with an open mind.

Other than that, enjoy the Super Bowl.