Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1-03: Vitus Reflux (Quick Review)

Episode:

3

|

Writer:

Alex Taub & Kiley Rossetter

|

Director:

Doug Aarniokoski

|

Air Date:

22-Jan-2025

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching Starfleet Academy episode 3, Vitus Reflex.

The previous episode was co-written by Picard writer Jane Maggs, this episode was co-written by Picard writer Kiley Rossetter, I'm spotting a bit of a pattern forming. Though co-writer Alex Taub hasn't written for anything. Nothing Star Trek-related I mean.

On the other hand, director Doug Aarniokoski has worked on everything, directing episodes in four seasons of Discovery and three seasons of Picard, plus he even did a Short Trek. They were often pretty good episodes too, stories like Lethe and Nepenthe. I'm assuming that Picard's producers must have been impressed, as he was the one they chose to direct the season openers.

I'm not going to be going through the whole episode scene by scene this time, but there will be SPOILERS beyond this point.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1-02: Beta Test (Quick Review)

Episode:

2

|

Writer:

Noga Landau & Jane Maggs

|

Director:

Alex Kurtzman

|

Air Date:

15-Jan-2026

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching another episode of the 12th Star Trek series, Starfleet Academy. I think that's the right number.

Here's some trivia for you, the series has had three writers so far and they've all been women. Encounter at Farpoint was mostly written by D.C. Fontana, Voyager's Caretaker was co-written by Jeri Taylor, and so on, but this is the first Trek series to be established by female writers exclusively.

The first episode was written by creator Gaia Violo, but I've no idea if she had any involvement with this one. Typically the creator will go on to run the series, at least for its first season, but in this case the showrunners are Trek overlord Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau. They also worked on the episode in other roles, with Kurtzman directing and Landau co-writing.

Landau has never written for Star Trek, but she has had some experience running Nancy Drew, which seems to have been successful enough. On the other hand, co-writer Jane Maggs has had plenty of Trek writing experience, as she worked on Star Trek: Picard's second and third seasons. They weren't the most acclaimed stories, in fact some are considered the absolute nadir of modern Trek, but if you start at the bottom then the only way to go is up.

Warning: SPOILERS

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1-01: Kids These Days (Quick Review)

Episode:

1

|

Writer:

Gaia Violo

|

Director:

Alex Kurtzman

|

Air Date:

15-Jan-2026

---

Well this went and ruined all my plans.

I was going to focus my attention on my Super Adventures video game site for a few more months, while secretly stockpiling a few sci-fi reviews. Then in April I'd be like 'Surprise! You thought sitting through years of RTD2 Doctor Who and Garth Marenghi's Strange New Worlds had permanently destroyed my interest in science fiction, along with my faith in humanity, but I'm back'. 

But nope, they had to suddenly drop Starfleet Academy on us in January! They've given it the Section 31 slot, reserved for projects they have the utmost confidence in. So now I'm watching this, because it has 'Star Trek' in the title. If they didn't want me to share my opinion of it, they should've called it Space Academy: Future Cadets. I would not watch that show.

I have to be honest, I've been dreading this series forever. As a tiny baby I knew I didn't want a Young Kirk and Young Spock movie, in the same way I had zero interest in the Young Sherlock Holmes movie. I did try the Starfleet Academy game but its cutscenes made me cringe. Though the funny thing is, at this point I'm actually more bored of the idea. We saw cadets becoming officers in Star Trek '09, then ensigns growing up in Lower Decks, then children becoming cadets in Prodigy, it has been done.

Anyway, I'm going to go into this with optimism and an open mind, I HOPE IT'S REALLY GOOD!!

(Warning SPOILERS, for episode 1 and bits of earlier Star Trek shows.)

Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor Era (2023-2025)

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about season 2 of the 2023 Doctor Who revival! In fact, I'm going to go one better than that and write about the Fifteenth Doctor's entire era, including seasons 1, 2 and the 60th anniversary specials.

I've ended up covering Doctor Who from both ends, as I've completed Doctors 1-9 and now this finishes off Doctors 13-15. I suppose someday I'll have to get around to reviewing the Tennant, Smith and Capaldi eras and complete the set, assuming anyone's even interested in those guys.

I just realised that this could be my last chance to write about the iconic diamond logo. Well, unless I go back to one of Tom Baker's serials. I wasn't kind to it during my classic series marathon, writing that "it looks like it belongs on a bottle of ketchup", but they've done a great job of updating it in 3D and it's grown on me. Incidentally I'm glad that Doctor Who does update its logo every now and then... and I'm equally glad that Star Wars doesn't. I don't even know how that logic works.

Anyway, at the time of writing this is the latest point in Doctor Who, the very edge of what has been filmed and aired, so if you're watching the series for the first time then good news: I won't be spoiling anything that happens next. On the other hand, that means there could be SPOILERS here for absolutely everything that currently exists, though I'll mostly be sticking to the episodes featuring Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor.

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Era (2005)

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about series 1 of the 2005 Doctor Who revival! In fact, I'm going to go one better than that and write about the Ninth Doctor's entire era. This isn't going to make any difference to the text really, as Christopher Eccleston only had the one season, but it does mean that I'm giving the article a different title! 

I've already covered Doctors 1-8 years ago when I watched a Classic Who marathon on Twitch, so a look at Nine's run is well overdue. In fact, I'm going to start right now by criticising the logo. An oval covered in light bulbs is a bit of a strange choice and the cheap-looking lens flares aren't helping. I prefer the fiery variant that's been in all the end credits and I suppose one of the producers agreed with me as they made it the main logo in season 3 and put it on the DVD boxes.

Okay, there are going to be SPOILERS below, but only up until Parting of the Ways. So if you're watching the series for the first time this should be safe for you.

Doctor Who (2005) 1-13: The Parting of the Ways

Episode:

709

|

Serial:

166

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Joe Ahearne

|

Air Date:

18-Jun-2005

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I am almost finished with writing about Doctor Who for a while. I've just got one last episode of the 2005 series to go. It's the second half of the Bad Wolf two-parter, The Parting of the Ways!

I don't want to put any SPOILERS up here in the intro text where anyone can read it, I save that for the rest of the review (and I'm going to be spoiling ever moment of this story, so be warned). But I will say that the title was part of Russell T Davies' original pitch document for the series, from way back when Captain Jack was called Jax. The episode itself was changed slightly due to production issues but the title actually stayed the same.

It was directed by Joe Ahearne, who had proven to be a safe pair of hands by this point, and someone Christopher Eccleston liked working with. Unfortunately it was his last Doctor Who story as he felt a bit worn out after directing five episodes in one series. That's a feat only matched by the legendary Graeme Harper. In fact there are only a handful of directors who made it to five during their entire time on the series.

Okay Saul Metzstein also directed five in one season, but it was series 7, which was split across two years, so that doesn't count!

Doctor Who (2005) 1-12: Bad Wolf

Episode:

708

|

Serial:

166

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Joe Ahearne

|

Air Date:

11-Jun-2005

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching Bad Wolf, the 708th episode of Doctor Who! It's also the 12th episode of this 13 episode season, so it's the penultimate story. Or penultimate episode anyway.

Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways started a tradition of two part season finales that has continued to this day... mostly. Okay classic Doctor Who ended a season with a two-parter a few times as well, but the show was all serials, so that just meant a story had fewer episodes than normal. Since this there have only been three seasons that ended on a single episode (or four if you split Heaven Sent/Hell Bent), so it seems like the idea was a big success!

Oh, I should mention that "Bad Wolf" is an interesting title, as it's this season's important phrase. It has been mentioned here and there in episodes but its meaning remains elusive. Personally it makes me think about the phrase "Big Bad" in Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, which referred to the villain the heroes would have to defeat at the end of a season. Hey, that series is getting a revival soon as well, 20+ years after it left TV. That beats Doctor Who's 16 years absence!

Anyway, there are going to be SPOILERS below, but only about things that that happened up to 11th June 2005. If you're watching the series for the first time, you'll be safe. I won't give away anything that happens in part 2.