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

Episode:

3

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Writer:

Alex Taub & Kiley Rossetter

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Director:

Doug Aarniokoski

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Air Date:

22-Jan-2026

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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

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Writer:

Noga Landau & Jane Maggs

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Director:

Alex Kurtzman

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Air Date:

15-Jan-2026

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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

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Writer:

Gaia Violo

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Director:

Alex Kurtzman

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Air Date:

15-Jan-2026

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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.)