# Starfleet Academy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [July 29, 2025, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470 "2025-07-29T15:51:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/161 "2026-02-22T01:27:17Z")
Not a great ep. Yeah check box of more character development for these two, but not much. SAM’s ep was at least goofy fun. This one not silly but still dumb. Ah well. And what the heck is with Ake’s suitcase being standard issue roller luggage of today? Is The Doctor needing to go away? Dumb. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/162 "2026-02-22T02:24:19Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > And what the heck is with Ake’s suitcase being standard issue roller luggage of today? It’s a standard Lanthanite trait, as we saw with Carol Kane’s character in _Strange New Worlds_. They live for a long time (never specified for how long, but at least thousands of years) and they collect and like to use old things. It’s actually a nice detail. Much like her character listening to vinyl records on an old turntable. They’re also really quirky, free-spirited, flamboyant people, or at least both characters in the franchise have been. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/163 "2026-02-22T02:33:53Z")
Fair that. Except for the fact the all the “old things” quirky Lanthanites seems to adore seem to be specifically from Earth 1960 to 2020ish. Of all the galaxy and all those years, this specific 60 year period of this specific planet, half a millennium before she was born, (she is listed as being 422 years old), is da bomb for her! 🖖 😀 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/164 "2026-02-22T02:37:44Z")
That’s because the best stuff dates from the 20th and early 21st Centuries. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/165 "2026-02-22T22:05:45Z")
Its been implied - thanks to some of the artifacts in the background - that she is related to **Pelia** from SNW, which would explain atleast some of the 20th century items. It’s also said that Lanthonite’s are effectively immortal. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/166 "2026-02-22T22:20:35Z")
Incidentally, I’ve wondered about the wall of names in the atrium. It’s never been onscreen long enough for me to get a proper look, but Googling, some of the names are production staff, while others are characters we know from previous series (Wesley Crusher, Tom Paris, Deanna Troi, Julian Bashir, Montgomery Scott, etc.). The wall includes titles, so one [webpage](https://screenrant.com/star-trek-starfleet-academy-legacy-wall-surprise-reveals/) talks about what that means for various characters. Tom Paris, for instance, never rises above lieutenant, while Beverly Crusher rises to admiral. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/167 "2026-02-22T22:44:50Z")
There’s separate wall for redshirts that can be seen from space. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/168 "2026-02-25T16:07:12Z")
I’m a casual Trek fan on episode 3. > [@Cervaise](#): > > For being a series supposedly oriented toward the future, it sure seems unimaginatively stuck in the past. (Ricardo’s Doctor? The mystery of Ben Disko? _Really?_ Come on.) Not to mention all the language anachromisms. I made mention once in another thread about how TNG constantly made references to things or used idioms that were hundreds of years old, and someone said ‘you can’t expect them to make up a whole new futuristic language’. And fair enough-- don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect the writers to invent a futuristic patois like in ‘Cloud Atlas’ or ‘A Clockwork Orange’, but come on-- SA takes place hundreds of years _after_ TNG and they’re still leaning hard on 20th / early 21st century idioms and other references. The cadets are constantly using Gen Z phrases like ‘vibing’. Someone mentioned making a ‘mixtape’. Who younger than 40 even nowadays remembers what a mixtape was? And the character played by Tig Notaro mentions having to do a lot of ‘paperwork’. Even though we still use that phrase, it’s mostly an anachronism even today. I can’t imagine in the 33rd century people still using the expression ‘paperwork’. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/169 "2026-02-25T16:14:27Z")
“Paperwork” is the one thing I can see still being used centuries later. Bureaucracy is effectively immortal 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/170 "2026-02-25T16:59:06Z")
> [@solost](#): > > SA takes place hundreds of years _after_ TNG and they’re still leaning hard on 20th / early 21st century idioms and other references. You see, earth humans of the 23rd-on centuries have an incredible fascination with antebellum (WWIII and the Eugenics wars) earth. It goes beyond mere nostalgia. They view the time as holy. Like MAGA dreams of the 50s. So it isn’t that using terms like paperwork or vibing and loving chocolate and old TV serials and Fred Astaire movies and jazz and collecting books and baseball games and cards and Abe Lincoln and Tombstone AZ and Nazis and Chicago mobsters and Russian history is not just some hobby. It’s a religion! It’s part of their being, their self image. It’s a connection to a better time long past and irretrievable (well, they perceive it as a better time.). It isn’t just that the writers are lazy; the love of the dead past creates a longing in humans that cannot be sated. They think they missed something, something fundamental, something blasted out of humankind by the wars. And all the high tech future, warp drive, transporters, androids, holodecks, Romulan ale, post-scarcity society, can’t make up for the simple purity of lives we all had in the Garden. (and it makes more sense when you realize that the West _lost_ WWIII. Communism has been perfected - everyone has everything they need. Except…) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/171 "2026-02-25T17:30:22Z")
Think of it being translated from Future English to current English so that they don’t have to use subtitles. So when a character describes something as being a dumpster fire (that really happens) they _actually_ said the future equivalent. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/172 "2026-02-25T17:33:19Z")
Ah, _now_ I get it, thanks! 😁 > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > …loving chocolate… Most of that was tongue-in-cheek, but loving chocolate? As long as there are humanoids with humanoid-like tastebuds, I think chocolate will _always_ be loved non-anachronistically / non-ironically (provided there are still replicators to emulate the finest Swiss / Belgian stuff) 😏 ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/173 "2026-02-25T17:52:00Z")
Only partially tongue in cheek. It’s just a fun theory, but (if you don’t want to roll your eyes at poor writing) it fits what we see. Why are so many people on ST obsessed with 20th century stuff? The real answer is, of course, “write what you know”, combined with “my time is the best time” chauvinism. I like to think that it’s more than lazy writing, but instead defines the 24th century human. (that way I can think, hey this episode isn’t that bad!) 🙂 > [@solost](#): > > (provided there are still replicators to emulate the finest Swiss / Belgian stuff) 😏 OTOH, I have a theory (again! but just for fun) that replicated food of ST is based on poorly remembered flavors by survivors. All food sources were either destroyed outright in the war, or mutated by radiation (or deliberately - the lesser know victims of the Eugenics wars) so all anyone has is some old canned goods, leftovers found in the wreckage of cities, and whatever survived. Spices are long gone, sweet corn is more like field corn, and tea tastes (to a 20th century human) like diluted dishwater\*. But no one knows any better. And chocolate! The stuff Deanna swoons over would taste like dollar store Easter candy to us. But since (as above) 24th century humans\*\* positively worship the 20th century, they’ve convinced themselves that it is good (not too hard to imagine - kids love the stuff!). And they have nothing to compare it to. \*do they have dishwater in the 24th century? \*\*yes yes she’s a Betazoid. Close enough. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/174 "2026-02-25T19:15:54Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Not to mention all the language anachromisms. I made mention once in another thread about how TNG constantly made references to things or used idioms that were hundreds of years old, See also [![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/period_speech.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/period_speech.png) from **[xkcd](https://xkcd.com/771)**. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/175 "2026-02-25T20:08:30Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > See also I’ll also note you [posted the same thing](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479/54) in a thread mostly devoted to language in Star Trek, which I suggest @solost read since it covers the subject in depth. (No point in rehashing all of this again.) > [@Jean Luc Picard--how is he viewed in France?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jean-luc-picard-how-is-he-viewed-in-france/1023479): > > Captain/Admiral Jean Luc Picard, or, if you are an annoying all-power Cosmic T^^at, “Mon Capitain”. One of Star Trek’s most popular characters. But, how is he viewed in RL France? What do the RL French think of this Gaulified Spaceman? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/176 "2026-02-25T20:20:10Z")
Verily, I vibe with the xkcd comic @LSLGuy posted, and will no cap peruse yon ‘Jean Luc Picard’ thread anon, bet. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/177 "2026-02-25T21:45:21Z")
We reach, brother. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/178 "2026-02-27T04:14:46Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > For being a series supposedly oriented toward the future, it sure seems unimaginatively stuck in the past. Episode 8 was seated firmly in the future. Just kidding. Episode 8 stages a production of _Our Town_. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/179 "2026-02-27T05:47:06Z")
Yeah but a pretty good cover of it. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470/180 "2026-02-27T20:15:07Z")
When Sam mentioned a “thousand year old play” I kinda hoped we’d see something from the 22nd century. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleet-academy/1021470.md?page=10)