Frakes Elevates Starfleet Academy—“300th Night” Blends Great Performances with Real Narrative Drive

The ninth episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, titled “300th Night,” moves the overall story forward, and director Jonathan Frakes brings out the best performances from the show’s cast to date.

As the semester ends—what do the cadets do “over the summer” when not in session?—the cadets celebrate. But the festivities escalate when Nus Braka begin dropping Omega‑47 bombs (an artificial version of the one found by Voyager) to isolate Federation space. Caleb discovers that his mother has been sending him encrypted messages all along and steals a shuttle to find her before the planet she’s on is invaded by the Venari Ral. Though trouble is brewing and Starfleet is called back to Federation space, Captain Ake takes the Athena after Caleb and the wayward cadets who reluctantly joined him.

Our thoughts:

• The actors—and even the characters—felt almost different this week: more mature and more on point. Maybe it was all Frakes, but it may also be that they’re finally getting into a groove. SAM, after last week’s major character “upgrade,” seems different, and that’s a good thing. As we’ve said before, these actors—all of them—are very good.
  

  

• The writing, while pretty good this episode, still leaves me scratching my head. For example, the USS Athena leaves the cadets on Betazed. Okay. But where is the Starfleet crew? Why does the ship have to be automated with only Ake, Reno, and the Doctor? Wasn’t there a whole scene at the beginning of the pilot to introduce the bridge crew? It felt like they were intentionally avoiding the mistake Discovery made with its bridge crew (I still can’t remember any of their names). But now, with Starfleet Academy, I’m not sure we’ve seen a single one of them since that first episode.

• I get that Ukeck is a distant planet full of smugglers and other seedy elements of the galaxy. But at this point, it feels like almost every planet is like this. It’s way too “Star Wars‑like” for me.

• Jay‑Den got a baldric like Worf!

• We love Stephen Colbert, but the voice‑over as some kind of virtual dean adds nothing to the show.

• Ake took the USS Athena into a planet’s atmosphere and then had to separate the saucer, abandoning the bulk of the ship—and the Academy. Cool!

• We couldn’t tell on first watch, but was the Klingon ceremony Jay‑Den performed at the beginning the same one Worf did with Jeremy Aster or Dr. Pulaski? It was similar, if not identical.

• Why didn’t Jay‑Den and Tamira get to man a station on the desolate bridge? Why did they have to stay in Ake’s quarters?

• Regarding the ceremony at the beginning with Jay‑Den and the other cadets: why wasn’t Kyle there? Are he and Jay‑Den on the rocks? Were the War College cadets otherwise occupied?

• The scenes with Caleb’s mom are suspicious. Who is she? This is clearly some kind of setup, but even now I’m not sure how. The reunion with Ake is going to be explosive.

• Speaking of Ake, Holly Hunter hit Janeway/Mulgrew‑level heights this week. It hadn’t occurred to me before, but she also reminds me a little of Mary McDonnell from Battlestar Galactica in her mannerisms.

• I’m curious how this episode will be received. If you only have negative thoughts about this one, you’ve lost your understanding of what both the Roddenberry and Berman eras of Star Trek were about—because both were wholly on display here.

This was a great episode—probably a 9/10. Not only does it set us up for the finale, but it really shows how this show can execute when it has all the ingredients in place.