“Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” will end with its upcoming second season, Variety has learned exclusively.
…and nothing of value was lost.
I can honestly take this, though I do want more Star Trek content. I will continue to watch the show, but it’s really asking for a lot of suspended belief in each episode. A random sampling of my problems with the show:
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You take fresh, untrained to partially trained students, put them in a mobile school, and then intentionally fly that ship full of children into known dangerous areas of space?
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We’ve had decades of the best in Starfleet fully commissioned officers solving complex problems, and the academy is full of professors and other well educated professionals, yet with every weird anomaly, the approach is, “fuck it let’s let the kids handle this one”
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Terse negotiations with a previous and potential new member of the federation are done as a spectacle at the academy in front of the students and almost no other high level members of Starfleet, instead of literally anywhere else?
There are many more, but at some point I had to just turn my brain off to continue watching. I’m not used to having to do that so much with Star Trek.
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That’s a shame. There were certainly parts about the show I could nitpick, it is far from perfect. But I enjoyed it. Glad to at least get a season 2.
If someone had told teenage me that there would be star trek and star wars that not only would I never see but never care to see. heck sci fi in general. its wild.
I am genuinely happy to hear that Alex Kurtzman is leaving the Star Trek franchise, fuck that guy.
That’s not in the announcements
Variety confirmed that CBS Studios and Kurtzman are continuing to be in negotiations for a renewed partnership.
Quoting the article: “According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, Kurtzman and CBS Studios are currently in talks for a new deal that will keep him in the CBS fold” I personally take that as he is staying at CBS but leaving Star Trek.
It depends on whether the intent is to integrate the movies and television.
No one involved with the new movies has proven their ability to deliver on Star Trek, whatever their other credentials.
It would be a major risk to give any untested production company and EP the kind of multiyear contract needed to run the franchise.
Personally I have a much higher chance of going to see the new movie if it has NO ties to Kurtzman, and I am not alone in my friends-group for that opinion. I only went to see Star Trek Beyond because it was a fresh take mostly written by Simon Pegg (A known ST fan), and I think it’s the best of the three new movies.
Definitely a YMMV situation. I have seen all three Kelvin movies and liked the first best of the lot
Beyond didn’t redeem itself for me. The motorcycle ridiculousness put it in the Nemesis category for me. There’s also the fact that none of the rest of the family would watch with me after the first one.
That said, the movies are being led by completely different people at this point.
Kurtzman is only negotiating television production not movies. My point was that the movie people have yet to prove themselves in even being able to deliver a cinematic feature in the franchise. So, would be an extreme risk to lock a 5-7 year deal that includes television production.
I have watched all of trek except TOS (just a few famous episodes only).
I just couldn’t get into this show and that’s okay, I don’t need to love every show. Sad to see less Trek as there should be Trek for every type of audience but if they are cancelling then I’m guessing the show didn’t find its mark with people.
I don’t know how to appeal to younger audiences, there are people smarter than me to figure that out but I hope to have a trek for me again someday.
”…the show failed to find its significant audience.”
Put a show on a streamer that is targeting a completely different audience, and let the entitled vocal fans run wild with unchecked brigading, and then be surprised by low “crowdsourced” ratings.
Sigh.
This is depressing, if accurate, in that it may also be a signal that the new owner is looking for a new production company to manage the franchise just when things had finally and consistently stabilized with Secret Hideout.
I’m not hopeful for an SNW continuation in a Year One show, or Tawny’s project either.
It does seem like Paramount+ has a problem with drawing younger people - stuff aimed at younger demographics doesn’t seem to last long (with the exception of Spongebob). I always thought SFA’s success was a bit of a long shot for that reason.
And ironically, merging with HBO Max might actually help with that, but it won’t come soon enough.
Prodigy was amazing though.
Did a single person hear about it before the cancellation notice? Well, no. But it’s still somehow our fault that it was cancelled, and not their fault for utterly failing to promote it in any way.Paramount+ is the new ‘Friday night time slot.’ If they actually gave a shit about having the show being successful, they would’ve syndicated it to a streaming service people actually use.
This is depressing, if accurate, in that it may also be a signal that the new owner is looking for a new production company to manage the franchise just when things had finally and consistently stabilized with Secret Hideout.
I’m sure they are, and suspect that this would be the trajectory regardless of Academy’s viewership. The new ownership will be looking to develop a new, more fascism-friendly flavour of Star Trek in the next few years. Tremendous shame, but not a surprise.
It seems that my initial reaction was overly hasty and upset.
As I just replied to another post, towards the end of the article, Variety says, citing an unnamed source:
According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, Kurtzman and CBS Studios are currently in talks for a new deal that will keep him in the CBS fold. In addition to his work on “Star Trek,” he has produced shows like the “Hawaii Five-O” reboot, “Scorpion,” and “Salvation.”
Didn’t catch that either. I guess we’ll see if those talks actually go anywhere.
seems I was right. oh well…
The algorithm felt it wasn’t hitting the right taste clusters
My kids and me love this show 😩
Im so sad
Oh man this is really sad. I liked SFA way more than I thought I would. The cast was top notch, and they had some good stories. Genuinely sad to see this one go.
Well, I’ll be damned. The hate campaigners seem to have won, despite solid signs that the show was actually doing quite well with the target group — internationally, if less so in the US?
This is very sad news, the show seemed to go from strength to strength in its first season.
Random reactions:
- Disappointed but not surprised.
- Even though the article leaves this an open question, I will be surprised if Kurtzman returns after this.
- At least they didn’t memory hole S2 as a tax write off.
- I wonder if they will attempt (and be allowed to attempt) to rework the S2 ‘cliffhanger-ish/lite’ ending into something else, or if it’s just impractical to rework a “part 1 of 2” episode into a 1 episode contained story.
The odd thing is that Variety seems to be saying that, according to the same unnamed inside source, negotiations are still underway for Kurtzman and Secret Hideout to continue production for CBS Studios (which I failed to notice on my initial read of the piece).
According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, Kurtzman and CBS Studios are currently in talks for a new deal that will keep him in the CBS fold. In addition to his work on “Star Trek,” he has produced shows like the “Hawaii Five-O” reboot, “Scorpion,” and “Salvation.”
If so, I’m wondering if someone leaked the specific detail of the termination of Starfleet Academy with the hope of a fan campaign to save it…
If so, I’m wondering if someone leaked the specific detail of the termination of Starfleet Academy with the hope of a fan campaign to save it…
Having a “goodbye letter” from Kurtzman etc released with the announcement doesn’t really scream “stealth leak” to me. IMHO.
There wasn’t a goodbye letter at the time of the Variety exclusive — but Deadline and everyone has it now.
And, as expected, someone in the UK has posted a Change.org Renew Starfleet Academy for a third season petition in the last hour.
There wasn’t a goodbye letter at the time of the Variety exclusive — but Deadline and everyone has it now.
So you’re saying Variety added it after the fact? It was there when I saw it, which was like 15 minutes after the time of publication.
Variety claimed an exclusive and that they had an inside source.
This has the feel of drafted internal and external communications messages going out earlier than agreed.
Same. But it’s tucked away at the end.
I saw the news from Brian Tatosky’s mastodon account, and my immediate reaction was “time for another letter writing campaign?”.
Well, damn.
There’s inevitably (and understandably) going to be a lot of speculation about what, exactly, led to this decision, but…in the absence of any further information, I’m just going to be bummed about it.
A more measured take VS than I can manage at present.
My partner commented “It wouldn’t take much with the Ellisons” when I said it was reportedly canceled but, I have been hoping that there just might be more sophistication in the analysis of the show’s potential in a bigger, broader streamer.
My own thoughts go to women like my mother-in-law now in her 90s, or the superfan Bjo Trimble, who watched and supported Star Trek and other science fiction media, decade after decade, without seeing many women like themselves in principle roles.
They weren’t watching because of their husbands or kids, they were enjoying science fiction for themselves and their views, and all the related licensed media and merchandise they bought produced exactly the same advertising and other revenue.
Yet, entitled middle aged guys — who aren’t even in the key youth demographic anymore — want to define the franchise and seem to be being listened to.
Older person that I am, I recall the boys in the neighborhood would take their toys and wouldn’t join imaginative play unless they got to be the hero. I guess they never changed.
Bjo Trimble
One of the organizers of the letter-writing campaign that saved TOS for a third season, for folks who don’t know.
There’s a new change.org petition for a 3rd season of Starfleet Academy that broke 500 signatures in the first hour.
No idea if the executives would pay attention but it’s a way to counter the narrative of the negative brigading the show has been dogged by.
Here’s the first (big FWIW/grain of salt/etc) thing on the decision that’s I’ve seen (besides the TrekMovie article note that ‘it’s no secret that the show didn’t Nielsen chart’). From author Mike Chen on Bluesky.
From the few insiders I know, viewership was actually above expectations and this was more of a “future of the franchise” corporate decision. I’m expecting Trek to be in flux as there are SO MANY variables. Everything from tech stocks to Iran to midterms is impacting Paramount.
Leaving the link to his post here for reference but he has his posts hidden unless you’re logged into Bluesky.
Hmm, that is a very interesting data point.
Here’s another one to ponder.
I commented on social media that even though the press reports say the question is open, his “farewell” letter in the reports read to me like someone on the way out talking to his successor. And Brian Tatosky (one of the VFX team) replied:
Yes, SFA being cancelled is part of ending his tenure of Trek once we finish the work we have.
So it sure seems like the end of the road.
Well, he’s certainly in a better position to know than any of us in the peanut gallery.
Let’s hope they get it over with and make an announcement sooner, rather than later.
Yes, let’s finish celebrating this 60th anniversary in style! 😂
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