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

Starfleet Academy: Hunter & Picardo on Ake's Nature, The Doctor's Role

Starfleet Academy stars Holly Hunter and Robert Picardo, and co-creator Noga Landau, discuss Capt. Nahla Ake's and The Doctor's roles.

As things start to unravel about Paramount+'s latest "Star Trek" series Starfleet Academy, we're finding out more about Holly Hunter's mysterious lead character Captain Nahla Ake and an update the return of Voyager fan favorite The Doctor with Robert Picardo reprising his role with an update as we discover what 800 years can do to the AI-driven Emergency Medical Hologram. Starfleet Academy marks the first true sequel spinoff of Discovery since Strange New Worlds operates more as a prequel to The Original Series than a Discovery spinoff.

Holly Hunter and Robert Picardo on What Captain Nahla Ake and The Doctor's Place Is on Starfleet Academy

When Starfleet Academy co-creator Noga Landau offered the Oscar winner the role of Captain Ake, who not only serves as the captain of the U.S.S. Athena and Chancellor of Starfleet, she wasn't sure if Hunter would bite. "It was really interesting to get the offer to be the captain, but then also to combine that with being the chancellor. It was just an interesting dichotomy and an interesting challenge, because the captain is there to command and to analyze in emergency situations, and then to delegate," Hunter told the crowd (via TrekMovie.com). "And the Chancellor is there to guide, to collaborate, and to have tremendous empathy. So it was just a wonderful combination of things that it brought out in me, but in all of us. Each relationship that I have with each of [the cadets] is so particular and so private. That's the cool thing about the show – the massive scale of the show, combined with this incredible intimacy that we all had with each other. And an intimacy that we all have as a group. So, yeah, it was, it was a privilege."

Ake is half-Lanthonite, which Strange New Worlds are already aware of the species longevity with the current chief engineer of the U.S.S. Enterprise Pelia (Carol Kane) as one of them, which brings up interesting possibilities in terms of her attitudes toward others with shorter life spans. "Part of what makes Holly different from any other Starfleet Captain we've ever had is that she serves a dual function, playing both the chancellor of Starfleet University and the captain [of the USS Athena]," Picardo told IGN. "So she has all the leadership skills to lead as a Starfleet captain should, but you also have a unique way of relating to the cadets, speaking to them in a way that they understand, that my character lacks. I'm not as patient as she is. I think that's what makes her very different and unique from all of the previous Starfleet captains."

As far as how longevity has shaped The Doctor, who's presumably seen all his Voyager crewmates pass on, "I'm the oldest and wisest artificial intelligence in the Starfleet Academy universe, teaching these young folks xenobiology, rhetoric and other things they need to learn… The Doctor, of course, was teaching young cadets in Star Trek: Prodigy," he told Screen Rant. "And Alex Kurtzman said that kind of made it a natural transition that he would be teaching cadets in a reformulated Starfleet Academy.
Picardo emphasized that seeing his loved ones day might have changed his view on attachments, "Because Voyager was set in the 24th century, my character is now an 800-year-old, continuously activated artificial intelligence. So I would say, I have an awful lot of memories," he told IGN. "And I would say I'm not keen on developing interpersonal relationships. So he's a little deeper than he used to be in the past."

For more on Capt. Ake, if The Doctor still loves opera, cast comments on Paul Giamatti's villain role of the half Klingon/half Tellarite, Nus Braka, you can check out the rest of the piece. Created by Gaia Violo, Starfleet Academy, which also stars Sandro Rosta, Karim Diané, Kerrice Brooks, George Hawkins, Bella Shepard, Zoë Steiner, Tig Notaro, and Oded Fehr, premieres in early 2026.

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