Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1×05 review: “Series Acclimation Mil”

In a heartfelt homage to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, our beloved SAM explores what it means to have the responsibility of an emissary.

What an amazing episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

I love all the students introduced on this show, but one of my favorites is Series Acclimation Mil (SAM), who is a photonic life form. Mentally seventeen years old but actually only about four months old, her naivete is played with ebullient charm by Kerrice Brooks.

Starfleet Academy keeps delivering great episode after great episode. As someone who always liked the low-stakes, day-to-day episodes of Star Trek shows the best, it almost feels like this whole show was made for me–but this one was especially made for me.

The side plots are always a hoot, and this one is no exception. I’ve been watching Jay-Den Kraag for his interactions with other students, noticing that he attracts a lot of attention from jock boys in his adorable skant. This episode seems to confirm (at least visually) a budding romance with a boy from the War College, which Darem doesn’t love.

Y’all, I am extremely invested in this love triangle. I need it to go textual.

The main plot is also great. SAM is an emissary for her entire race of photonic beings, and her makers are increasingly pressuring her to determine whether humans can be trusted. She turns to a research project about the Emissary himself, Benjamin Sisko, hoping to find out if he died or not–and also how to conduct herself as an emissary.

In the process, SAM has a lot of cute interactions with her friends, bonds with Professor Ila (played by writer Tawny Newsome), and is programmed to become drunk.

SAM has moving scenes with a vision of Jake Sisko (reprised by a very handsome Cirroc Lofton) that ultimately conclude Captain Sisko probably stayed with the Prophets.

Avery Brooks may not have appreciated this interpretation of his character’s fate. He was quoted as being “uncomfortable with the notion of a Black man abandoning his pregnant Black wife.” However, the show seems to address this by having Jake Sisko explain that he felt his father remained with him, even after ascending to join the Prophets. It’s a more spiritual togetherness than a physical one. Without any mention of Sisko’s wife or second child, we can imagine that he did, somehow, remain with them–but confirmation would have been nice.

I don’t know if this deviation from Brooks’s preferences prevented him from making an appearance; he is retired and has no acting credits after a voice role in 2006. It’s possible that no episode could have lured our favorite captain back for a cameo. Cirroc Lofton does a wonderful job reprising the role of his son in Brooks’s absence.

The episode was nonetheless made with obvious admiration and love for all of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and there’s nobody better than our gorgeous, charming Cadet SAM to carry it on her shoulders.

One fun reveal was that Professor Ila’s full name is Ila Dax. It’s a little bit shocking to see the Dax symbiote carried by a Cardassian, although the post-Burn reshuffle of the galaxy surely places different implications on the race. Mostly, we’ve seen Bajorans so far, and there’s an entire Bajoran club at the Academy. Does this mean that Cardassians are cool now? It’s not the first time they’ve been portrayed with complexity, although not the exact physical complexity required to carry a Trill Symbiont.

This means that Jake Sisko isn’t our only cameo from Deep Space 9, since there were at least two versions of Dax on Deep Space 9, depending on how we count them. Tawny Newsome plays a later Dax with a very similar playful composure we saw in Jadzia Dax–and can we blame Newsome for writing herself into the show as Dax? I’d do the exact same thing if Star Trek let me write a screenplay.

“Series Acclimation Mil” is another episode written with a well-rooted love of Star Trek‘s deep lore, and another low-stakes character piece that left me filled with emotion.

Can you believe we’re already halfway through the season? We need at least fifty thousand twenty-two episode seasons of Starfleet Academy to get all the time we deserve with these cadets.

Author: SM Reine

Half-Tellarite SM Reine is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of fantasy. She’s been publishing since 2011 and a nerd since forever.

Twitter Facebook

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary