FULL SPOILERS ahead for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1, Episode 10, "Rubincon."
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1, Episode 10, "Rubincon," was set up to be an all-time great in terms of franchise finales. The penultimate installment was fantastic. Unfortunately, what we actually got was a rather lukewarm, textbook affair. Through no real fault of its own, "Rubincon" brings the show's inaugural run to a largely solid ending that's somehow not all that impressive.
The previous episode, "300th Night," was one of Starfleet Academy's better episodes. It also posed one of the biggest threats in Star Trek history. With just the push of a button, Paul Giamatti's Nus Braka could have brought the Federation irreversibly to its knees. While part of me was screaming out that that would never happen, I couldn't shake the thought that something near that level of drama would end up playing out. Wishful thinking, I guess.
Generally speaking, "Rubincon" is a good Star Trek finale
Going into "Rubincon," all the pieces were there for what could have been an explosive finish to Starfleet Academy season 1. Using a Voyager episode from 1998 called "The Omega Directive" as a loose jumping-off point, the show brought back the deadly Omega molecule for the first time in almost 30 years. It was a long-awaited comeback that made perfect sense for a show that had already made countless references to classic Star Trek shows. In recent weeks, Voyager had been the project of choice in this respect. It was the perfect threat, and the Omega mines were disarmed in true, nail-biting, last-minute Star Trek fashion.
However, "Rubincon" didn't just serve as a Voyager stealth sequel. It also brought about the anticipated fallout from Caleb's (Sandro Rosta) choice to help his friends in Episode 9 rather than fleeing with the mother he's been looking for since he was just a child. Wrap that sensitive dynamic up in a sham trial built to decide the fate of the Federation, and there were stakes from across the intensity spectrum present in all corners of "Rubincon." All the pieces were there. It should have been better than just okay.
"Rubincon" was heavy on tension but light on flair
Robert Picardo's Doctor being plunged into the Athena's computer was an early highlight in the season 1 finale. Seeing how his ancient mobile emitter was integrated into the 32nd century ship's systems was a real nerd-out moment for me. Sadly, the move then had him pretty much sidelined for the rest of the episode. It was easily the coolest and best development in "Rubincon," as well as where the episode gained its title. It's a shame that the remaining runtime was void of any other showy sci-fi twists like this.
What we were left with was the cadets working their way to a solution put in motion by the Doctor, while Captain Ake (Holly Hunter) was unfairly held accountable for what Nus Braka perceived as the Federation's crimes. The twist that Braka's backstory wasn't what he'd thought all along was interesting, but also felt a little cheap. The fact that he discovered the "Federation attack" on his colony was just an unrelated, incidental explosion essentially stripped Giamatti's character of his villain status. Sure, he did awful things on his path of ill-earned vengeance, but he thought he was doing all that to avenge his people. Before the reveal, he came across largely as a character who just wanted to watch the galaxy burn. That was somehow way more interesting.
Furthermore, it was always rather obvious that Caleb and his mother would end the episode as allies again after an uneasy realization that Rosta's character had been changed by his time with Starfleet. Anisha (Tatiana Maslany) has always been portrayed as fiercely loyal to her son, and it would have been uncharacteristic for that to change in the space of a single episode. This made the ending predictable for them.
I think I know exactly what the Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 finale was missing
I'm not the kind of person to call for character deaths just for the sake it, but I think "Rubincon" could really have benefited from a twist like this. The episode goes from boasting one of the biggest threats Star Trek has ever seen to concluding with absolutely nothing lost. The villain gets arrested (not even killed), Caleb reunites with his mother, but stays at the Academy...it's all a little too much of a fairy tale. At least one character needed to meet their end in the season 1 finale.
What makes this particularly necessary is the size of the Starfleet Academy cast. Although the cadets and Captain Ake are arguably the most central figures in the show, the roster is so bloated with side characters that there's rarely time to give them all a sufficient amount of attention in every episode. This is proven by the Doctor's important-but-muted role in "Rubincon," as well as the complete absence of Ocam Sadal (Romeo Carere).
Furthermore, with season 2 already wrapped and on the way, there are bound to be even more characters introduced when the show returns. Thinning the herd a little with one or two well-written character deaths would have created space for these imminent arrivals. Instead, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's first finale ended pretty much as it began, only with the path cleared for a new villain to replace Braka (if he also doesn't return).
Episode Rating: C
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 is streaming now on Paramount+