‘Kids These Days’ and ‘Beta Test’ reflect the push and pull between ‘Starfleet Academy’ and its twin desires of feeling like ‘Star Trek’ while also trying something new.

Starfleet Academy has launched out of spacedock—well, come to landing in San Francisco, really—with a two-episode premiere that speaks to two very different sensibilities the show has. The first is more classically Star Trek, even as it does a lot of legwork to introduce us to the kids, teachers, and villains we’ll be spending time with this season, and the second leans more into the kind of young adult vibe the show finds freshness in, albeit with some occasionally jarring results. But while there’s stronger to come in Starfleet Academy‘s debut season, these are two episodes that give us a good picture of what the show can play with in the Star Trek universe.