A delegation from Betazed is being hosted at Starfleet Academy, where it is hoped that negotiations will lead to the planet rejoining the Federation. Their leader is apprehensive -- but the younger members of the delegation are more eager to end their world's isolationist ways. One in particular, Tarima Sadal, is drawn to cadet Caleb Mir. But Caleb's main focus is on the hunt for his missing mother -- to a degree that threatens his academy enrollment and any mutual attraction with Tarima.
Launching a new series (or even season) of a television series by releasing multiple episodes has become quite common in the streaming age. But it feels more justified here than it does for most shows. First, it turns out that we're still introducing the series' main characters. Zoë Steiner is credited as a series regular, but this is the first appearance of her character Tarima. And while romantic possibilities are understandably the focus of her first episode, her actual character backstory seems good to have in the mix. She's a privileged person from a cloistered society. But it's a society of mind-readers, so it may not be so hard for her to integrate with others. BUT... her abilities are so strong that she wears a device to inhibit them, so it's unclear just what her capabilities might be. On paper, she seems almost like a one-off character from The Next Generation, Tam Elbrun, has been promoted to series regular -- which seems like a fascinating wild card to toss in the mix.
This second episode of Starfleet Academy also plays more with tone (and the mixing of it), which is especially interesting after a first episode that itself worked to juggle several tones. There's no sign of Paul Giamatti as Nus Braka, which immediately makes the episode feel more grounded in reality (if also maybe just a touch less fun). The vibes between Caleb and Tarima begin to paint the show as the "Dawson's Trek" that I think many viewers were anticipating... except that Caleb being far more driven to get his mother (rather than to "get the girl") keeps the most extreme "teen drama" vibes at arm's length.
But those vibes are also kept distant by the relatively minor roles that so many of the main characters play in this episode. The rivalry between Darem and Caleb does continue, in the form of the episode's most trope-tastic element: them being forced together as roommates. But we get hardly any Jay-den, SAM, or Genesis in this episode -- which I keenly miss, since two of the three were the characters I felt most interested in after episode one.
There's still plenty of comedy here, with Star Trek's take on the old "take care of a 'baby' egg for school" schtick, the Doctor still at his old ways of making everything he can about him (even after centuries), and the always-welcome dry wit of Tig Notaro as Jett Reno.
So all of that is on the counter, and the recipe is somewhat different (or at least, in different proportions) than episode one. The show seems to be trying to demonstrate that even though its core premise might seem like the most inherently limited of all the Star Trek shows, you shouldn't assume you know exactly what any one given episode will feel like. That's a good marker to establish early.
But, if there are only two of a thing, one of those is going to be the "best ever" and one will be the "worst ever." Picking between the two episodes of Starfleet Academy, I'm going to say the first one was the "best ever." Not that episode two was bad; it just wasn't as good by comparison. I'll give it a B. The series feels like it has potential to me, if it gets the time to figure things out.
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