Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1-10: Rubincon (Quick Review)

Episode:

10

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Writer:

Alex Kurtzman & Kirsten Beyer

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Director:

Olatunde Osunsanmi

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Air Date:

12-Mar-2026

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching Starfleet Academy's season one finale, Rubincon!

When I heard that this had the same title as Discovery season 4 episode Rubicon I was a little surprised, but only a little. We got Prodigy's Kobayashi less than two months after Disco's Kobayashi Maru (also from season 4). Plus Disco season 4 stole the title Anomaly from Enterprise, which is the only time two Trek episodes have ever 100% shared a title.

It turns out however that it's actually called Rubincon, with a second 'n'. Maybe it's the name of a planet, I don't know.

But I do know that the director this time is Discovery's Olatunde Osunsanmi! He's the guy who brought flame throwers to Discovery's bridge and to that planet in Section 31, so if I had to make a guess at what I'll be seeing in this episode it'd probably be flame throwers.

The episode was written by Kirsten Beyer again, along with Star Trek overlord Alex Kurtzman. This was his first time writing for the series, but he's had a big influence on it from the start. He even directed the first episode himself and established the show's style. All of his episodes have had co-writers so I'm not sure what I think of him as a writer, but I've typically enjoyed stories with his name on them so I'm cautiously optimistic.

There will be SPOILERS below.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1-09: 300th Night (Quick Review)

Episode:

9

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Writer:

Kirsten Beyer

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Director:

Jonathan Frakes

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Air Date:

05-Mar-2026

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the penultimate episode of Starfleet Academy's first season. It's called 300th Night, it's written by Kirsten Beyer (writer of all my least favourite stories) and it's directed by Jonathan Frakes (who's done some good stuff in the past).

There's only one episode left after this and I've been thinking about things I could write about in my season one review. One complaint I've had is that the series hasn't done a great job of showing the passage of time, but they've been doing better at that recently and now this episode's literally called 300th Night. We've never had a Star Trek episode pin down when it takes place so specifically in the title before. To my recollection.

The Original Series had The Naked Time and Amok Time, but you won't find those events on your calendar and The Deadly Years actually only lasted a few days. Tomorrow is Yesterday presumably takes place the day before tomorrow, which is today, so that doesn't help narrow it down. And the Day of the Dove presumably didn't become a Klingon holiday.

The Next Generation was even less specific. Parallels took place on Worf's birthday, which comes right before Captain Picard day in The Pegasus, but neither were in the title. Voyager did better with 11:59, but it doesn't say if that's AM or PM. Though we also got Day of Honor, which is a Klingon holiday! So I think Voyager actually wins this time.

Warning: there will be SPOILERS below. For this, Discovery and Picard.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1-05: Series Acclimation Mil (Quick Review)

Episode:

5

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Writer:

Kirsten Beyer & Tawny Newsome

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Director:

Larry Teng

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Air Date:

05-Feb-2026

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching episode 5 of Starfleet Academy, called Series Acclimation Mil. People who got to see the first five stories in advance have been saying that this is the best of the set, the one worth waiting for. So I hope I end up loving it, or else I'm really out of sync with the show's fans.

The episode was co-written by Tawny Newsome, who played Mariner on Lower Decks. There have been lots of actors-turned-directors on Star Trek over the years, but the list of actors who've written a episode is way shorter. Walter Koenig wrote The Infinite Vulcan for The Animated Series, Stanley Adams (Cyrano Jones in The Trouble with Tribbles) co-wrote The Mark of Gideon... I've got nothing else. I suppose there's Simon Pegg, who co-wrote the Star Trek Beyond movie. Anyway, I like Tawny's performance as Mariner but I've got no opinion on anything she's written as I haven't seen any of it. She knows her Star Trek though, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

The other co-writer was Kirsten Beyer, the woman who wrote my least favourite episode of Discovery (Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum), my least favourite episode of Picard (Stardust City Rag), and my least favourite episode of Strange New Worlds (Wedding Bell Blues). I've got nothing against her, but it's starting to seem like she's got something against me!

Though I've been thinking about two other Trek writers who made a habit of writing stories I hated: Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky. Separately they wrote Threshold and Masks, but when they got together they came up with great episodes like Year of Hell and Timeless. So maybe this team-up is going to come up with something spectacular! Actually, it's probably best that I don't get my hopes up.

There are going to be SPOILERS below for this episode and for Deep Space Nine. In fact they should've put a spoiler warning on the episode as well!

Star Trek: Discovery 1-08: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum (Quick Review)

Episode:

8

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Writer:

Kirsten Beyer

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Air Date:

05-Nov-2017

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've got another rushed Discovery review for you. This time I'm writing about Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum, which I've had to type so many times now in my notes and for filenames that I don't even have to check how to write it anymore.

Memory Alpha tells me that this is the ninth Trek episode with a Latin title, after Sub Rosa, Dramatis Personae, Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges, Ex Post Facto, Non Sequitur, Alter Ego, Terra Nova and Vox Sola, and I hope it's a hell of a lot better than most of them were, because that's the opposite of a 'Best of Trek' boxset. Memory Alpha doesn't mention that it's also the eleventh title with a comma in it, probably because who would ever care?

This is the first ever TV episode to be written by Voyager novelist Kirsten Beyer, and I'm not sure if I should be worried about that or not. I've never been keen on Trek tie-in novels, and I'm not all that keen on Voyager either, but she'll likely know the Treknical terms and suchlike better than most so there's a chance I may end up pleasantly surprised by how much closer to classic Trek this one feels.

If you want to read further, prepare for SPOILERS, both for this and earlier relevant episodes of Star Trek.