Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has premiered its first episode with a bang, chronicling the Academy’s revival where future explorers train, clash, and navigate the Federation’s strict rules. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the first two episodes that were released on January 15 at 6 pm PT, quite exceeded expectations.

The first episode, Kids These Days, played more like a movie than an episode, engulfing backstories, friendships, betrayals, and reconciliations in one go, making fans beg for a recap.

The narration presents Starfleet Academy as a training ground for lifelong explorers, a symbol of order and optimism. That vision fractures after The Burn, which destabilizes the Federation and exposes how fragile those ideals truly were.

The story starts with Caleb Mir and his mother, Anisha Mir, as she teaches him the names of stars and their secret code. She goes on to explain to him about Nus Braka, someone who she thought was benevolent because he brought them food, until she found out how it was ending their starvation. As young Caleb tries to comfort her, armed guards enter the room and take them to a trial room.

Captain Nahla Ake later tries to comfort Caleb Mir, promising a school and reunion with his mother. After asking for his bear, Caleb escapes using Ake’s stolen security badge, triggering a lockdown as the sandstorm rages outside.

The time jump begins with a prison transport bound for V’RILIK Penal Colony and its newest inmate, Caleb Mir, now twenty-one. The guards underestimate him, secure him poorly, and learn too late that carelessness still has consequences.

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Caleb Mir overpowers the guards and reroutes the ship toward a rehabilitation center, still hunting for his mother, Anisha Mir. The escape nearly ends in disaster when a surviving guard destabilizes the controls, forcing Caleb, bloodied and furious, to save the ship himself.

Hope lasts exactly as long as the database search, which confirms that Anisha Mir is nowhere in the rehabilitation system. Caleb demands another search, only to be intercepted by a larger automated authority that absorbs his vessel and calmly declares him the prisoner.

Meanwhile, Nahla Ake had left Starfleet, now guiding children at Bajor’s Little Blooms Education Center. Charles Vance, whom she met after many years, returned with news: the Starfleet Academy would reopen in San Francisco, and he would like her to become the chancellor. An offer, Nahla declined, haunted by her past failure to protect a child. Her resolve would soon change when Charles tells her that they found Caleb, alive.

Nahla quickly rushes to the prison and finds Caleb shackled, shaking with anger. Despite the dangerous anger radiating from Caleb, Nahla immediately tells the guards to take off the shackles from him. Caleb’s anger does not last long when Nahla confessed fifteen years of fruitless searching and the weight of her guilt. She scolds his life of theft as wasted brilliance, which lands poorly but honestly.

Nahla offers Starfleet Academy as redemption, assuring him that youthful crimes are forgiven when wrapped in policy. Caleb hears his mother’s voice instead, reminding him that promises from Starfleet tend to expire without notice.

Then Nahla delivers the real blow: Anisha Mir escaped prison a year earlier and vanished. Caleb collapses under the weight of survival without reunion. Nahla offers help, but only on her terms. Caleb accepted it, not because he trusted her, but because hope he had nowhere else to go.

Nahla Ake arrives at the Athena with Caleb Mir, both visibly struck by the scale of Starfleet Academy’s rebirth. They are greeted by Lura Krok, who informs Nahla that preparations are complete and that classes will resume smoothly, with the Academy temporarily operating aboard the ship en route to Earth.

Caleb’s refusal to wear a uniform immediately draws Lura Krok’s attention. She intimidates him into doing push-ups on the spot, a display that amuses Nahla. Krok escalates the lesson by ordering cadet Jay-Den Kraag to place his heavy bag on Caleb’s back, slamming him into the floor before dismissing both cadets to their quarters.

The cadets had to get a medical examination before heading to their quarters. They had to pass the portal doorway, which resolved Caleb’s protest by forcibly changing him into a uniform. This is where the audience is introduced to The Doctor, who identifies diseases in seconds and makes sure that the cadets are fit and healthy both mentally and physically.

Lura Krok introduces Nahla Ake to her core team, who confirm that at full capacity, the Athena will reach San Francisco in fifteen hours. Nahla addresses the cadets, reminding them they are the first to reopen Starfleet Academy. With cadets cleared and the ship at full power, the Athena departs, carrying the Academy into a new era.

SAM, Kasquian, wandered through the corridors of Starfleet Academy, awkwardly greeting passing cadets in dead languages such as French. To her relief, Genesis Lythe, a Dar-sha, who was sitting close by, heard her and matched her vibe, and calmed her down, assuring her that they would be friends.

Their carfree stride was interrupted when Jay-Den Kragg, a Klingon, who accidentally bumped into SAM. Darem Reymi, a towering Kionian cadet, seized the fallen binoculars and, without hesitation, started provoking a fight. Caleb Mir stepped forward, his presence quiet but firm, ready to defuse the tension, but before a punch could be thrown, The Doctor appeared, noting their stress levels and scattering the cadets just by the mention of the opera. 

Later, Caleb returned the binoculars to Kragg, who explained to him that he had been observing birds, not spying. The gesture earned him a wary nod, and the beginnings of a fragile alliance were formed. Sam, undeterred by the chaos, cornered The Doctor about his opera club, insisting he become her mentor. He attempted to flee, only to be momentarily swayed by her insistence and her record as the first photonic cadet, inviting her briefly to the opera club before vanishing again.

At the same time, Caleb slipped into an empty instructor’s room, entering the secret star code he had shared with his mother years ago. He found no messages, but sent one anyway, skeptical of her supposed escape and told her that he was traveling to Earth, a place they had planned to explore together. Genesis, discovering him in the act, humorously pokes as she offered a wry bargain: cover her shift and bring her meals, and she would stay silent. Remembering his kindness in returning Kragg’s binoculars, she allowed him free passage.

Suddenly, the Athena shuddered, alarms shrieking as enemy fire tore through the void. Nahla Ake snapped to her feet, commanding the bridge with authority. Number One was sent to protect the cadets, and a shipwide alert ordered all students to their quarters. The Doctor guided them efficiently, calm amid chaos.

Genesis Ashe spotted Number One trapped under rubble. Caleb Mir and Jay-Den Kragg freed her, racing to the rescue room, joined by Sam and Darem Reymi.

Nahla tells her team to connect with the enemy ship, then Nus Braka’s hologram flickered into view, smug after fifteen years of plotting. He revealed he had intercepted Caleb’s message to his mother, broadcasting it Academy-wide. Understandably, Caleb was shot looks of betrayal as well as punches, something Genesis put a stop to saying its not the time to fight.

Meanwhile, Lura Krok, who had been injured and brought to the operation room, received urgent care. Jay-Den and SAM carefully removed the foreign object lodged in her body, performing the procedure, trembling yet flawlessly, without causing her to lose much blood, stabilizing her for the ongoing crisis.

On the other hand, Braka, who is too smart for his own good, realised that Nahla was trying to override his ship’s system. He tries to attack Caleb as he makes the final step to hack his ship. Yet, Braka was no match for Caleb as he easily pinned him down.

After the chaos aboard the Athena settled, Nahla Ake pulled Caleb Mir aside. She told him that, under normal circumstances, his message to his mother would have put the Academy in serious danger. Yet, she acknowledged his courage and initiative in risking his life to help save everyone. For that, she said, he would be forgiven this time.

Nahla admitted she was trying to make amends, not just for Caleb, but for the mistakes of her past, the ways she had failed her own son aboard a starship long ago. Caleb listened quietly, absorbing her words, and finally understood he would be allowed to stay at the Academy, free to serve for a while.

As the two talked and resolved their conflict, cadets and instructors alike were bewitched by the view outside the spaceship, Earth’s sprawling beauty stretching below. A rare calm settles as 'San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)' plays, a nod to the warmth and depth critics have praised in early reviews of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

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