Somewhere along the way, I started caring about the cadets in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. While I started the show expecting only to be interested in the various references to previous Star Trek shows, recent episodes have proven to me that the newbies can be just as compelling. Sadly, episode 7, "Ko'Zeine," revived my worst fears that the show's upcoming generation can still be handled incredibly poorly.
I absolutely adored the previous episode, "Come, Let's Away." Not only did it have high stakes, but it also furthered various character dynamics and made everyone more interesting. It was probably Starfleet Academy's finest effort to date. "Ko'Zeine" was probably the worst, though. It had a premise that could have worked well, but the script was full of holes and weird writing quirks that it barely left the starting blocks.
FULL SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1, Episode 7, "Ko'Ziene" below!
"Ko'Ziene" fumbled its big Genesis reveal
Starfleet Academy is closed for an interplanetary holiday called Worlds Day, which sounds very much like a secular, 32nd-century form of Christmas. With most Cadets leaving the Academy to be with their families, Sandro Rosta's Cadet Caleb Mir is granted permission to stay behind. When he's unexpectedly joined by Bella Shepard's Genesis Lythe, it looks like hijinks might break out. Their immediate pastime is cute, but ultimately, a little dull. It's only when Genesis convinces her fellow cadet to hack the Athena's bridge door so she can "sit in the captain's chair" that this plot gets interesting.
With the episode opening with Holly Hunter's Captain Ake announcing she'll be recommending Genesis for Starfleet pre-Command Track, news which elates Shepard's driven character, Genesis becomes concerned about what the background check will entail. So, the illegal breach of the bridge doors is actually a hidden plot by Genesis to cover her tracks. As it turns out, she doctored the recommendation letters that got her into the Academy in the first place. There must have been something awful in those original letters for her to take such a risk!
Turns out...no. Not really. "Genesis doesn't trust that she belongs where she is," is what is revealed to be the sentiment in question. I'm not sure what I expected, but it was something far more dramatic than that. While I guess it does lift the veil on Genesis as a character and reveals she isn't as confident as she seems on the surface, I don't think this was a great way to go about it. All it did was make a potentially juicy twist fall to the ground with a damp splat. Sure, she had the Command Track recommendation retracted, but actions have consequences.
Starfleet Academy episode 7's other storyline wasn't any better
George Hawkins' Darem Reymi is seemingly abducted 10 minutes into Episode 7. Karim Diané's Jay-Den Kraag is passing by and follows his classmate through the mysterious portal Darem was dragged through. After Jay-Den shows a rare flash of violent intent (probably the installment's most interesting moment), it's revealed that Darem's "abduction" was just his fellow Khionians carrying out their tradition of a wedding-day kidnapping. Good so far.
After that, this plot is just riddled with holes. At first glance, it seems like a regular wedding episode, which are relatively common across the Star Trek franchise. But my first issue with it is that Jay-Den just so happened to be wandering by when Darem was taken, and yet Hawkins' character seems to casually reveal that the Klingon is his best man. Jay-Den didn't even know a wedding was taking place, and Darem was also caught off guard by the pre-arranged ceremony being brought up by several years. That's all glazed over just so Jay-Den and Darem can have their bonding moment.
My second issue is that fact that all the Khionians are in their alternate forms throughout the episode, so they look identical to humans. I would have assumed that when they were all together, they would default to their natural, blue, scaly forms. That may just be me misunderstanding the newly-introduced Khionian species, but it felt like an oversight. Maybe they change their forms so they can be better suited to certain environments, so I'll let this one slide. Moving on, what I found to be a huge wasted opportunity was the episode ending with a completed royal marriage ceremony, but with nothing really to show for it.
Darem is pretty much strong-armed into abdicating by his new wife/queen, and it's dressed up as her making a loving gesture by allowing Darem to return to Earth and resume his Starfleet training. But do you know what would have been better? An alien monarch eventually serving as an active Starfleet officer. In the space of a single episode, Darem became infinitely more fascinating when his lineage was revealed, and ended the installment in a far less interesting place in his arc. His wife even announced that she would rule alone, so it's not like he's even being replaced.
I understand what Starfleet Academy episode 7 was going for but it didn't work
From the very beginning, it was obvious that Episode 7 was going to allow the audience to breathe a little easier after the brilliantly chaotic installment from the week before. The thought of Starfleet Academy shutting the doors of its titular facility for the holidays was always a risk, and it's not one that paid off. That said, with Worlds Day subbing in as a replacement for Christmas, the concept of family was always going to take center stage. Caleb didn't have a family to go to, Genesis is haunted by the success of her Starfleet Admiral father, and Darem is dealing with what's expected of him back home.
Even SAM (Kerrice Brooks) spends the episode off-screen receiving specialist care that's only required due to her photonic background. It would have been cooler to see her going back to Kasq for said care, but I guess we got what we got.
Regardless, the family-centric storylines did feel organic to Episode 7's themes, but they were so poorly written or just plain dull that it was tough to concentrate on the few highlights that were present. Even the subplots of Caleb not reaching out to his girlfriend and Genesis' obvious crush on Caleb weren't enough to save the day. With any luck, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has aired its one and only abysmal effort this season, and the final three installments allow a return to form.