Starfleet Academy: The Life of the Stars

It's been a long time since I was involved in theater and acting. But even though you lose the "kid" over time, you never really lose the "theater kid." So you might think I was the prime audience for the latest episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, "The Life of the Stars." But as it turned out, it was the series' first real miss for me.

After a long recovery period, Tarima Sadal returns... but not to the War College; she has been transferred to Starfleet Academy. Her arrival does nothing to help mend a group of cadets still deeply shaken and fractured by recent experiences. So Chancellor Ake brings a new teacher in to help them confront their feelings: Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly is coming to teach them theater. But soon into the course, Sam collapses from the cumulative effects of a malfunction she's been hiding from everyone. Her only hope is for the Doctor and Ake to take her back to her homeworld... and more, for the Doctor to ultimately face the reason he's been so cold to her.

Simply put, I have a lot of issues with the episode. But most file under the heading: "you can't expect genuine participation under duress." That starts right out of the gate, when we're told Tarima has been transferred from the War College to Starfleet Academy against her will. It sure doesn't feel like it should work that way; if you enlist in the Coast Guard, they can't just transfer you into the Army instead without your approval.

There's a saying that describes art -- often: film, television, and theater in particular -- as an "empathy machine," and I believe that's true. But I don't think it follows that being forced to do theater against your will is just the thing to surface and process buried emotions. It certainly shouldn't help more than a skilled therapist could -- even though the episode tries to hang a lantern on that with a throwaway line saying therapy hasn't helped.

Even if you could accept the supposition that "everybody should do theater!" (too drama nerdy even for me), you then have to get over so many other hurdles. This show is set just shy of 1200 years in our future. Yes, there are plays in the real world that are that old and still performed today -- but not many. (Notably, Shakespeare isn't even half that old.) It's a big ask to think that a bunch of eager cadets (and one reluctant drifter) are going to connect deeply with, of all plays, Thornton Wilder’s "Our Town."

And even if you could accept that, how is Sylvia Tilly the right character to take them on that journey? Sure, Mary Wiseman is a trained stage performer, but I don't recall Tilly expressing any aptitude for theater (or even any interest in it) in five seasons of Star Trek: Discovery. And in any case, how can you bring Tilly onto the show about young cadets and not once have her address with them the fact that "I was a cadet like you not so long ago, and here's how I grew?" I liked the character of Tilly more than many, but I didn't feel this was a good way of having her cameo on another Star Trek series.

Over in the other plot line, we watched the Doctor amplify his already brusque behavior toward Sam with a parade of coldness designed to make us ask, "what's up with him?" Of course, we have to see a character be one way for it to matter when we see their conversion to being a different way. But the hole the writers dug for the Doctor here and throughout this season was so deep (he won't even hold her hand when she asks for comfort?) that I don't think there was a way to climb back out of it.

"Real Life" was one of the most pivotal Doctor episodes of Star Trek: Voyager -- and when I reviewed it, I called it clearly the best episode of the series to that point. But to undermine the Doctor's character growth there by saying that after that, he retreated from any meaningful relationships for centuries? It's a weird choice, and doesn't feel consistent with subsequent episodes of Voyager. I felt his decision to parent Sam had the same core flaw as the episode's other story line: how much can you commit to something that you're doing (mostly) against your will?

Though I found the storytelling to be quite a mess, I did at least enjoy a lot of the acting throughout the episode. Robert Picardo gave the Doctor's big confessional speech everything he had. Kerrice Brooks really gave us new shades of Sam; the situation actually felt serious simply because she wasn't the usual, bubbly personality she's been in previous episodes. And speaking of bubbly, I do love seeing Mary Wiseman again, especially in her interactions with Tig Notaro. Also, props to Zoë Steiner, who did great with one of acting's underestimated challenges: believably acting drunk.

Still, the good performances didn't really save this for me from being clearly the weakest Starfleet Academy episode we've gotten. (Not to mention one of the weaker episodes of "modern Star Trek" generally.) I give "The Life of the Stars" a C.