Class is now in session: Starfleet Academy aesthetics
By Ames
We recorded this week’s episode AND I wrote this post before learning the series will be over after its second season, so the egg is all over my face. Anyway. Season 1 of the brand new Starfleet Academy is now wrapped so catch up if you haven’t watched it yet. We won’t be spoiling anything here, but if you want to hear our general retrospective over on this week’s podcast, that is CHOCKFUL of spoilers, so listeners beware. The whole of the discussion boils down to: It’s far from perfect, but it’s worth a watch before it’s all over.
As we’ve done before when we gave a broad overview of season 1 of Strange New Worlds, the A Star to Steer Her By hosts are taking this time to revisit some past blog topics concerning show aesthetics to catch the new show up. So if you were on the edge of your captain’s chair waiting to hear what we thought of the captain’s chair or the opening title sequence or those funky gym teacher uniforms, we’ve got them all below! Scroll on for all the slides and listen to our school presentation on this week’s episode while being wary that there ARE SPOILERS (jump to timestamp 1:28:15). And be ready: There may be a pop quiz.
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[Images and video © CBS/Paramount]
Title Cards
You may remember one of our first blogtivities was mostly an excuse to nitpick about how well or poorly kerned the series title cards were. We got really pedantic about font weight and the length of swashes, so we don’t need to do that again with SFA’s title card because it’s pretty much everything we’ve already seen before. The screen glows to just a blank white background and you get the standard Star Trek branding with the series name in the original movie font. The swash on the Y at the end strikes us as a little unnatural, but we understand it’s mainly for symmetry.
Series Themes
The series theme is very familiar to us, which only makes sense because it’s another Jeff Russo. Jeff has had his hand in so many of the recent Trek series that he’s almost become a character on the shows himself. So the fact that we find it extremely similar to the first two seasons’ Picard theme that we’ve discussed before (plus a little bit of Ilia’s theme from The Motion Picture thrown in for good measure), it only makes sense. It’s very pretty, with so many flourishes that it feels quite majestic, but it also definitely has that Star Trek quality of wonder and exploration hinted throughout.
Opening Title Sequences
My lord, this is the longest opening title sequence yet—probably to fit in all the Executive Producers, though those aren’t even included in the official YouTube video embedded above—and it really just keeps going on and on. We’ve come a long way since the intros of ships just fwooming by, but now the sequences are getting way more elaborate than necessary. The tree metaphor is so unsubtle that it begins to grate. The visuals are lovely, but it starts to feel like you’re being beaten over the head with the “growing/building” analogy that you start to lose focus on what the show is supposed to be about (which I’m guessing is trees?). Even after the title card, there’s somehow even more footage at the end because it’s just so damn long! Skip intro, please.
Combadges
These little things grew on us after a little while. There was some initial trepidation in so obviously mimicking the shape of the Athena (more on her below) in the combadge design because it’s such deliberate branding, and it also makes the combadge even taller vertically than some of the other combadges we’ve seen, but in the end, it’s fine. Don’t get us started about putting rank pips on the combadge though. At least these are slightly easier to see than on the original Discovery badges, and they get points simply for not being the big ovals from season 3 Discovery on.
Cadet Uniforms
For uniforms that are mostly that godawful grey of the season 3 Discovery potato sack uniforms, the cadet uniforms are cut so much better. The tailoring really makes these things shine and the pops of color are fresh and make these things easier to look at than a wall of grey. While the colorblocking of the panel on the left side does well to break things up, we wonder (as we always do) if it really needed to be yet another delta shape. And extra kudos for the skirt variant, which jives perfectly with the top and has that lovely pleating on the left side that elevates the uniforms from private school kid to fashion worthy.
Chancellor Uniforms
We’re also glad that Nahla Ake’s uniform isn’t the really unfortunate one that Admiral Vance wears. She gets that nice red color we love so much with a pretty slick collar. Unlike most of the flag officers, Ake gets just the right amount of gold piping—just enough to provide some clean lines at the neck without making her look like a cartoon villain (except for maybe the epaulets, which do get a little fascisty) . The cut and length are perfect for Holly Hunter’s teeny tininess, and the asymmetry is the right length to look intentional and not like a mistake. Would it work on actors with a different body shape? I doubt we’ll ever see another one to find out because so many uniforms end up being bespoke (which kind of makes them the un-uniform, but whatever).
Starfleet Officer Uniforms
Speaking of uniforms not being uniform. We get several different Starfleet officer uniforms and I haven’t figured out what distinguishes them from each other. Any extras get the typical Discovery season 4 uniform we’ve seen before. Academy instructors like Reno and Tilly get one that’s similar but has a different collar and a zigzag racing stripe (it makes them go faster!) to break up the blocking that the SSHB hosts agree to disagree on how stupid it looks (who’s shocked that Chris loves it?). The asymmetry isn’t as good as Ake’s, though, and ends up looking like maybe these teachers buttoned the wrong button.
The Doctor gets his own bespoke uniform for some reason and we’re not sure why, but we are sure that Robert Picardo looks fly as fuck in it. It’s a classic shape with black shoulders more akin to The Next Generation uniforms. And yet another entirely different collar! How many collars do these people have?
We have another Academy professor with yet another uniform we only see on her, and that’s Illa’s uniform in “Series Acclimation Mil.” Why is hers different? Who knows? But it’s got side panels that look almost corsetty and definitely accentuate Tawny Newsome’s figure in ways that we appreciate.
Lura Thok has her own uniform as well which seems to be the Klingon-Jem’Hadar variant just for her. Same color and collar, pretty much, as Ake’s, but with a center zip and panelling. It’s a good cut, but we’re predictably put off by all the Klingon insignias all over it. It’s like whoever designed this couldn’t help but put branding all over it when that panel could easily have just been another color or texture and had just as much contrast.
Oh, and all the zippers are little deltas, and we’re DONE!
I couldn’t help but include the gym teacher uniforms which look ridiculous as hell. Whoever colorblocked these got away with something here. All we can see are little person shapes that seem more to be indicating where the restrooms are than who these instructors are. What an absolutely strange concept!
War College Uniforms
The Academy cadets have a nice little breast pocket on one side of their uniform, but there’s no way they can compete with the War College’s absolute abundance of pockets! These jocks have much more of a utilitarian, survivor look than their nerdy counterparts, and the all-black color palette also gives them a covert ops, militaristic flavor on top of that. At least they’re not covered in deltas.
Chancellor Kelrec also has his own uniform over at the War College. It’s also got that more militaristic feel with its slick patterning and more epaulets that make Kelrec look even more like he’s got a stick up his ass, but the cut is nice and we’re really into that asymmetrical zipper. But upon closer inspection, both his and the cadets’ uniforms have a very subtle camouflage for some reason! Now that’s just idiotic. What are they trying to blend in with? Camo has become such a statement piece for pro-government whacko that it’s hard to take it seriously for this institution when they ruin what’s otherwise a perfectly suitable uniform!
Starfleet Ships
The Athena serves as both the show’s hero ship and as the actual Academy setting when it detaches its saucer section from its majestic nacelles and lands in San Francisco. As our Classics major, Caitlin immediately saw in the wing-shaped nacelles some imagery consistent with depictions of the mythological Athena, which is a damn nice touch. Do the 32nd century ships go a little too crazy with all their detachable, free-floating parts? Oh they absolutely do. But the circular shape is nice, and we’ve gotten pretty used to very very flat ships since Discovery, so that’s fine.
We haven’t blogged about bridge design yet per se, but we can already say that this one has the same misuse of space that the Discovery’s bridge has. Everyone seems like they’re a mile apart! The shape is good, with different levels that draw the eye to the center platform, and the consoles and railings are sleek as hell. But why does the space look like you’re in a toaster oven? The Enterprise bridge in season 2 of Discovery had a similarly strange lighting quality that made you feel like you’re inside a pinball machine and it all just makes me wonder if the bridge crew can see a damn thing they’re doing.
Captain’s Chairs
Ake’s chair feels very much like a throwback, much like her, so we are really into its station-wagon aesthetics. The red cushioning is very poppy, and we are frankly drooling over that rich wood paneling. It gives such a comfortable aesthetic without actually looking terribly comfortable (perhaps that’s one reason why Ake never sits in it the same way twice). While Chris would rank this among his favorite chairs, I do find the arm rests look like massive paddles that stick in so far that you will definitely stab your buttcheek with them. The base is the most unique thing about it, with its array of centered pipes holding the chair up in a way that seems to defy gravity.
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Regardless of what our specific opinions on the rest of Starfleet Academy are, we always have a good time commenting on the design details and picking apart the aesthetics. That goes for Discovery too, so make sure you’re also following along with our podcast coverage on SoundCloud or wherever you listen, get pedantic about kerning with us on Facebook and Bluesky, and stop putting deltas on absolutely everything! Class dismissed.
