IR TV Review: STAR TREK - STARFLEET ACADEMY - EPISODE 5 (“Series Acclimation Mil”) [Paramount+]
The aspect of reflexive storytelling can work in certain ways with the breaking of the fourth wall but it also changes in a way the hyperbole of what is being seen. In Episode 5 of "Starfleet Academy" [S1] entitled "Series Acclimation Mil", the story follows SAM, the first holographic cadet of Starfleet Academy as she reports back to her makers about what is happening (not unlike Mork from that TV show of old in an odd way). But SAM's work is more dire...that of an emissary, trying to figure out if organics are worth opening interaction with. It is an interesting conundrum but one that surprisingly we don't here more from with The Doctor since he dealt with that in very specific ways on "Voyager". instead SAM goes to her fellow cadets and one specific professor and uncovers the story of Captain Benjamin Sisko who became the prophet on "Deep Space Nine".
What is intriguing is that the episode does a misdirect highlighting Chiwetel Ejiofor who ends up as being a very specific voice but not the one you think. It instead uses exactly who you would like to but in a very subtle way. Tawny Newsome, who is now on the writing staff of the show, also co-writes this episode but also takes on an interesting role that one does not expect or really even see. In this way, it is introspective in that this episode also does not use something akin to the holodeck. The main actor integrated that the show brings back though is Cirroc Lofton, who played Sisko's son Jake on "Deep Space Nine". He writes a book later in life talking about his father that allows SAM to really understand what she needs to do and where the balance is with her makers...which is also unclear if she can actually do. There is a bar scene that allows her to lose control. This is interesting but doesn't go as far as maybe it should. Eventually the resolution points to a bridge of consciousness that really allows SAM to see what she needs to see but the plot device exists within a world (and a show) keyed into science. It really doesn't make much sense logically in the end which takes away from the episode's overall impact. B-
By Tim Wassberg
