Minor spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy!Starfleet Academy is already living up to its responsibilities of celebrating 60 years of Star Trek, and its primary method of paying homage to the space opera’s rich history is via a myriad of fun references to its predecessors. While some of these nods are glaringly obvious, others are so subtle that even seasoned Trekkies will probably miss them. One in particular is a coy reference to a Star Trek episode from over two decades ago, as the sun was setting on the franchise’s golden era.
23 years ago, Enterprise was the only Star Trek show on the air. That may seem like a strange concept for those who jumped aboard for Star Trek‘s modern era, as there have often been multiple active projects since Discovery revived the franchise in 2017. Although attitudes toward Enterprise have softened since, it was an incredibly divisive project that wasn’t helped by its controversial 2005 finale. However, Starfleet Academy hasn’t shied away from Enterprise Easter eggs, and one in particular is an incredibly slick worldbuilding method.
‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Acknowledges an Obscure ‘Enterprise’ Line
Surprisingly, Starfleet Academy has managed to find a way to fold in an Enterprise reference. Time travel was involved for this to be possible, but the nod is otherwise incredibly resourceful. Enterprise Season 2’s “Future Tense,” which aired in 2003, is where the Starfleet Academy writers turned, and they seemingly found what was once a throwaway line to incorporate into the new show’s formula. When a mostly-human body is discovered and estimated to have originated around 900 years in the future, the Enterprise writers had no idea they would be setting up a key Star Trek worldbuilding effort for their eventual successors.
The remains in “Future Tense,” as it turns out, aren’t completely human. There are traces of DNA from Vulcans, Tellarites, and other species that Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) is unable to identify in Enterprise‘s 22nd century setting. However, he does theorize that the late stranger is the result of “several generations of interspecies breeding.” In Starfleet Academy, which is set roughly during the same period as the body’s point of origin, there are several hybrid characters to prove that breeding between alien species has ballooned. This has resulted in various hybridizations that are brand-new to the franchise. Given Phlox’s hypothesis, it’s reasonable to assume that just because a 32nd century Star Trek character looks like a specific alien race, there’s no guarantee they don’t have numerous ancestors who evolved on different worlds.
‘Starfleet Academy’s Focus on Alien Hybrids Hurts a Specific Form of ‘Star Trek’ Character
Fictitious alien races are and always have been a huge part of Star Trek lore. Everything from extraterrestrial biology to the cultures of various worlds has been extensively covered through the decades. As the Star Trek timeline has progressed, more and more species have entered the story as the Federation finds new allies and enemies. While interspecies breeding has long been established as a canonical possibility, as proven as early as The Original Series‘ Spock (Leonard Nimoy), hybrid characters are traditionally quite rare. Their unorthodox lineages can also open up fascinating backstories.
This remains true throughout the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th centuries, which is when most Star Trek shows are set. Starfleet Academy is something of an outlier, as it’s only the second project after Discovery to take place in the 32nd century. This makes Paramount+’s new show the furthest point in the franchise’s future, if Discovery Season 5’s epilogue is ignored. With Enterprise‘s 22nd-century setting making it a prequel to absolutely everything, it’s difficult to find ways for Starfleet Academy to acknowledge it without some predictable time-travel twists. While it’s cool that Starfleet Academy is quietly referencing “Future Tense” by making alien hybrids more commonplace, there is quite a sad fallout to this choice.
For example, Roxann Dawson’s B’Elanna Torres was a great Star Trek: Voyager character, and a big part of what made her so compelling was the inner-war between her human and Klingon sides. She was a franchise standout, and her specific story could only be experienced by watching B’Elanna-heavy episodes. Something similar can be said of Spock, with the Vulcan/human hybrid often being defined by his mixed lineage. In the 32nd century, even more unorthodox combinations, like Gina Yashere’s Lora Thok, aren’t treated as anything spectacular. In earlier shows, a Klingon/Jem’Hadar hybrid would have been mind-blowing. In Starfleet Academy, Star Trek barely even blinks.
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Star Trek: Enterprise
- Release Date
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2001 – 2005-00-00
- Network
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UPN
- Directors
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David Livingston, Allan Kroeker, Michael Vejar, David Straiton, Roxann Dawson, LeVar Burton, James A. Contner, Robert Duncan McNeill, James L. Conway, James Whitmore Jr., Michael Grossman, Marvin V. Rush, Patrick R. Norris, David Barrett, Jim Charleston, Michael Dorn, Rob Hedden, Terry Windell, Winrich Kolbe, Les Landau, Manny Coto
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Scott Bakula
Jonathan Archer
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This story originally appeared on Movieweb
