"The Life of the Stars" has a strong start, but the episode then has a long stretch of feeling like it's going to fall off a cliff. Thankfully, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's eighth episode never succumbs to the threat of failure. It does an incredible job of championing characters old and new in a way that feels incredibly authentic.
Two episodes previous, "Come, Let's Away," looked like it was setting a new standard for the Paramount+ show. When the follow-up, "Ko-Zeine," was a huge let-down, I found myself incredibly worried about Starfleet Academy season 1's final stages. While the show has proven it's guilty of being worryingly uneven, "The Life of the Stars" demonstrates that a return to form is always possible.
FULL SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 Episode 8, "The Life of the Stars"
"The Life of the Stars" is the perfect sequel to "Come, Let's Away"
What the cadets went through in Episode 6 was deeply traumatic, but the show then felt like it had forgotten about the events surrounding the USS Miyazaki when Episode 7 supplied a confusing, laid-back, and underwhelming storyline. Now, I understand why this one-episode gap needed to happen. The cadets needed to live with the events for a while so that the negative impact of the Furies' attack could become especially evident.
Everything that happens in "The Life of the Stars" deals with the fallout of the catastrophic training mission from two episodes earlier. While SAM (Kerrice Brooks) has her holomatrix repaired, the rest of the cadets are forced to deal with their bottled-up emotions via the unexpected medium of 20th century Earth theater. On paper, it sounds mega corny. However, the execution of both plotlines was nothing short of masterful.
Visiting Kasq is the most narratively-rich plot in "The Life of the Stars"
Starfleet Academy is subtle when it comes to establishing its main character, but it's definitely SAM. Not only does she choose the perfect play for her classmates to study before venturing to Kasq, quietly convinced she won't return, but the return to her homeworld is absolutely fascinating. Not only is the lore fleshed out an impressive amount while the episode focuses on the Kasqians, but "The Life of the Stars" also uses this appropriate setting to pay off two Doctor (Robert Picardo) storylines at once.
His ongoing refusal to be SAM's mentor in Starfleet Academy is the bedrock of the dual-reveal. As Picardo's character explains, his reluctance to step in and be the father figure SAM is looking for is caused by the lasting pain from Voyager's "Real Life." The heartbreaking 1997 episode saw the Doctor create a holographic family, lose his daughter, and then give up on the experiment when the emotion of it all proved too much for him. Picardo's performance during this devastating Starfleet Academy monologue, and during the episode in general, needs to win him some sort of award.
Starfleet Academy Episode 6's Thornton Wilder references are oddly accessible
"The Life of the Stars" leans heavily on Thornton Wilder's Our Town, which was first performed in 1938. The episode uses the play as a framing device that highlights and informs some complex themes. For both the audience and the cadets, a lot of the reference points are gloriously outdated, and the episode sort of makes it feel like you need to be familiar with Our Town in order to appreciate what Starfleet Academy is trying to do here.
This isn't the case. "The Life of the Stars" provides the perfect amount of information about the play, its themes, and even its dialogue. Even the most inexperienced theater-goer can latch on to why the script was chosen to be so central to the episode's storyline. While I'm sure there's more to be gained from watching "The Life of the Stars" if you're familiar with Our Town, I'd never even heard of it before I watched the episode. And I loved it just fine. In short, "The Life of the Stars" is amazing, and although I understand why Starfleet Academy waited an episode before paying off "Come, Let's Away," I'll still more than likely skip the installment that separates them when I rewatch season 1.
Episode Rating: A+
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy airs each Thursday on Paramount+. The season 1 finale will arrive on March 12, 2026.