Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: star trek, Starfleet Academy

Star Trek: William Shatner Defends Starfleet Academy, Compares to TOS

After news of it ending hit, Star Trek star William Shatner defended Starfleet Academy, reminding fans of the backlash against TOS & TNG.

If there was anyone who understood the struggle Star Trek has endured throughout its 60-year existence, it's the star, William Shatner, who's heard it all and then some, along with his surviving The Original Series co-stars George Takei and Walter Koenig. Having lived through the pushback from NBC executives in the South who refused to air season three's Plato's Stepchildren that featured US prime time television's interracial kiss with Shatner's Kirk and Nichelle Nichol's Uhura, the Canadian actor understood how triggering it was back then and how much creator Gene Roddenberry had an uphill battle on his hands. Sadly, Roddenberry would pass during the franchise's first live-action spinoff series, The Next Generation, during its early years, and he and the cast endured its first round of criticism and rejection from TOS loyalists who proclaimed, "not my Star Trek." With Paramount+'s cancellation of Starfleet Academy, Shatner, who celebrated his 95h birthday, provided some perspective on how a chunk of the current discourse makes no sense considering Star Trek's innate progressive values, not to mention how he stands by the brand despite not attentively following the Paramount+ shows, nor has he appeared physically in the canon since the TOS-TNG crossover film in 1994's Generations that saw his Kirk die.

Star Trek: William Shatner Reminds Fans of Franchise's Enduring Journey After Starfleet Academy's Cancellation

Starfleet Academy is a direct spinoff sequel series of Discovery, one of the original flagship shows for Paramount+. Set in the 32nd century, it follows a group of cadets from across the galaxy to join the famed institution with Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter), not only acting as captain of the U.S.S. Athena, but also serving a dual role of Starfleet Academy's chancellor. As the streamer was streaming its first season, the series received generally positive reviews despite the general pushback from cynical fans who refuse to adapt with the changing times, which isn't more than the usual from Paramount+ shows of the Alex Kurtzman era. Not long after production wrapped on the second season, Paramount announced the series cancellation without a set date to run off the final completed season. Coincidentally, a similar situation emerged with the animated series Prodigy, with work on the second season completed before Paramount dropped any further commitment to the series before Netflix ran off the remaining episodes.

"Star Trek exists in more than one world. It exists in the fantasy of science fiction – weird and wonderful things that play unimaginable possibilities of exploration and human endeavor," Shatner began. "But it also exists in the fantasy of human beings, the perfection of human beings, the exploration that human beings have made since the dawn of time, and the continuing exploration – physically, mentally, and morally. It's that aspect of Star Trek that I've always loved, to look at something physically that doesn't exist now by these talented writers & designers, but also to tackle the eternal human questions, the agonies, the ecstasies. Star Trek should exist for a long time to come based on those truths. I, for one, would love to see its continuity. It's with sorrow that I hear about the cancellation of the new Star Trek series.

Shatner then referenced the season three TOS episode, "During the first airing of my Star Trek series, where a kiss was objectionable, many southern stations pulled the episode & condemned the show. Using today's vernacular, it would absolutely be called "woke DEI crap" because it went against the "norms" of society for its time. Not a lot seems to have changed.🤷🏼😑" He went on to explain the resistance the franchise's first live-action syndicated spinoff and its final series on network TV, "And when the Next Gen came out; there was tons of hate because it "wasn't Star Trek" and the cast probably was in fear from the fans. Again, when the series with Bakula came out, it too was panned by the fans because it "wasn't Star Trek." Star Trek is different for everyone. 🤷🏼"

As far as the expected responses from bad-faith actors, "It's funny watching the comments. "Did you watch it?"🙄 No, I've only seen the one clip with passing of the glasses that I made fun of several weeks ago. I've seen bits and pieces of the other series when I did my documentaries for a primer on them," Shatner wrote. Voyager and Starfleet Academy star Robert Picardo, who plays the Doctor, provided his own perspective on when TOS came out, referencing the infamous senator behind the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that singled out Hollywood personalities for being Communists.

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