Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) and his fellow cadets. Credit: John Medland/Paramount+
Greetings from the cold.
It’s that time of winter, after the holiday madness is over, that I was once fond of because the short days and the cold weather kept me indoors, reading and writing. With all the distractions beyond my desk faded into the white-out, it was a time for great bursts of productivity and creative insight.
Or at least, that is my vague recollection through the brain fog of the last four winters, in which I’ve had small children to contend with. Today, January is less like a writer’s retreat and more like being on a cruise ship during a pandemic. Except instead of hiding in my room from my fellow plague-infested passengers, I’m wiping their butts and forcing Tylenol down their throats while they jump on my ribcage.
Now more than ever I look forward to that last quiet last hour of the evening, after everyone else is asleep, when I can unwind with a book or a show. And this January, amidst flu, head lice infestations, and a historic winter cold snap, the weekly anticipation of new Star Trek has been a rare bright spot. As has getting to nerd out over the absurdly deep science behind it.
Read on for more than you ever wanted to know about the physics of the Burn, which I am not sure has ever been explained in quite this level of detail.
— Maddie
The ‘Burn’ Science You Need to Watch Starfleet Academy
Starfleet Academy, the latest installment in the Star Trek franchise, is already making waves across the Trek-verse and beyond.
Set on a nebulous stardate somewhere in the 32nd century, the show follows Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta), a troubled youngster whose search for his mom lands him in and out of jail before he is offered a chance to join Starfleet Academy. In this part of the Trek timeline—around the back half of Star Trek: Discovery—Starfleet is still reeling from the effects of the Burn, a galactic disaster that nearly shattered the Federation. Mir and his fellow cadets are the first to return to the hallowed halls of Earth’s Starfleet Academy in over a century.
The show is off to a solid start, with its first three episodes introducing a cast of feisty young students alongside seasoned heroes like Discovery engineer Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) and Star Trek: Voyager’s holographic Doctor (Robert Picardo), who reprises the role with all the wit and snark of his 30 Earth years-younger counterpart. Starfleet Academy is taking the franchise into uncharted territory—namely, the YA drama genre—and elder fans might find it shockingly irreverent to the point of being (gasp) un-Trekkie at times.
But at its core, Starfleet Academy is still very much a Star Trek show. If you look past the hormonally-charged back talk and frequent swearing, you’ll find earnest reflection on the morality of a Federation that is rebuilding and reinventing itself for the next generation.
But in order to understand the interstellar politics that animate Starfleet Academy, you need to know a bit about how we got here, cosmically speaking.
Seasoned Trek heros and new faces come together in the 32nd century for Starfleet Academy. Credit: Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
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