Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1×03 Review: “Vitus Reflux”

The enemy’s gate isn’t down–it’s guarded by goofy mascots. In “Vitus Reflux,” our Starfleet cadets have to learn to be a team.

While the first two episodes of Starfleet Academy needed to set the stage and introduce key players, episode three has given us our first “average day” sort of episode.

There are really two different schools here in San Francisco: Starfleet Academy and the War College. The show doesn’t exactly say that these are diametrically opposed groups, but long-time Trekkies probably agree that they are, in fact, not remotely compatible, and shouldn’t coexist.

Star Trek wasn’t always as militaristic as we’ve come to know it. Don’t believe me? If you watch the original series, you’ll find they use naval titles, but there is very little militarization to their philosophies, behavior, and structure. Star Trek started out very different. It was idealistic, showing a humanity that moved beyond the kind of military industrial complex that roots American culture. It was focused on exploration and science.

It wasn’t until Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan decided to do a submarine story in space that things started to change. Star Trek: Deep Space 9 introduced a secretive CIA-like organization within Starfleet that did covert ops called Section 31. By the time we got around to Star Trek: Voyager, parts of the property even included a so-called “Elite Force” trained for combat, like Starfleet marines.

Starfleet Academy maintains this militarization, and it’s not entirely stuffed into the War College. Lura Thok’s training behaviors are reminiscent of boot camp. It’s weird seeing such rigorous physical demands placed upon cadets who would have originally been pretty much just nerds.

It’s excusable given the milieu. We’re still dealing with life after the Burn, when Starfleet had a hard reset. But it still feels weird. (Adult characters in the show have mentioned multiple times that they don’t like the War College and want to go back to the nerd roots of Starfleet, so I am happy waiting to watch this unfold.)

So you’ve got the nerd cadets of Starfleet Academy coexisting with, essentially, the Section 31 trainees. Even with Lura Thok riding the SFA cadets, you know this is going to be a problem.

It’s not just a clash in values; these separate Starfleet apparatuses have the same problem you’ll find in any town with two colleges. One needs to prove itself better than the other. Rivalry is fun–and appropriate for kids, as noted by barefoot bisexual Nahla Ake.

This unfolds in “Vitus Reflux” by turning into a prank war.

I can already hear the wailing and gnashing of Trekkie teeth, and I’m trying to avoid the numerous haters. Prank war? In our Star Trek, where Roddenberry wanted us to have moved beyond personal flaws? How dare we!

We dare because it’s simply fun. Our Starfleet Academy nerds aren’t winning the prank war for most of the episode because they are, in fact, utter nerds. The War College jocks are set up to beat them in every respect, whether that’s ruthlessly transporting cadets naked into public spaces or kicking their butts at laser tag.

Some of the tension between factions comes about because Irrationally Attractive Caleb Mir is Academy, while his Adorable Love Interest Tarima chose the War College. They want to flirt, pine, and gaze at each other, but instead, they can only express their feelings with phasers. Alas!

This isn’t our only cute couple who don’t know how to get along without butting heads. Genesis and Darem are also competing to be the very best, like no one ever was, in Starfleet Academy. They’ve both got family pressure to excel. They can’t let the fact that they obviously want to get their smooch on allow the other one to beat them.

Such tension fractures the Starfleet Academy team when they most need to unify. If the two could just show up for each other, they likely could have won at laser tag.

Only through the intervention of Jett Reno–who, I was delighted to learn, is now partnered with Lura Thok, in the most lesbian gym teacher pairing of all time–does Darem realize he’s messing up something good. You can butt heads and still love each other.

In the end, that’s exactly what the students do. They shuffle and learn and manage to pull the biggest prank possible against the War College, stuffing their dorms with fast-growing plants that mock them. It’s funny stuff. I love low-stakes Star Trek. I want all Star Trek to have stakes this preciously low.

I’ll be honest, the buzz I’m seeing about this show is often negative. People are resisting the allure of charming, attractive young adults getting up to shenanigans. But I think if everyone just settles into this new incarnation of Star Trek, acknowledging our harsher world and the way kids must adapt, we’ll all find that Trekkies remain on the same team.

This show is a blast and I only hope everyone catches on.

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.

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