I recently read an interview with Bob Picardo (he played Voyager’s Doctor in Star Trek Voyager and came back for the recent Starfleet Academy) who lamented the cancellation of Starfleet Academy, saying that it’s akin to tossing the baby with the bathwater. He brings up a very valid point that most people tend to overlook; that the first season is usually rough around the edges and it takes a show a good year or two before it eventually hits its stride.
There’s truth in that statement. People who watched TNG may recall that the show didn’t get good until the third season when they upgraded the uniforms and got a firm grip on who everyone was and what everyone was all about. TOS was all over the place in its first season, undecided on what to call their space patrol agency or how far into the future it took place in. Going beyond Trek, I can recall Home Improvement’s first season being something of a work in progress before the show got good.
Here’s the thing, though; not every show survives beyond its first season. People may recall that Firefly show that got a bit of fans, but was cancelled due to low viewership. And that was a good show from the getgo. And while it’s true that the first season is often the “rough draft” of a show, it still has to attract an audience. And if that audience isn’t buying into what you’re selling, no guarantee it moves beyond season 1. Now I cannot speak to the overall quality of Starfleet Academy because I haven’t seen it and honestly, don’t care to because it’s a teen drama thing that I wasn’t a fan of when I was the target audience for that kind of show and even less so nowadays. So I’m not in a position to tell you whether that show is good or not, nor can I tell whether it would eventually get better after a season or two. But if that show didn’t attract the numbers that would make it feasible to continue, then it wouldn’t surprise me that it’s getting axed. A show like that is expensive to make. It needs to make money.
Besides, the thing about the show getting better over time doesn’t exactly ring true all of the time. Strange New Worlds started off with a solid first season and subsequently got worse over time. The fact that it gets to finish its story next year is a blessing. Starfleet Academy doesn’t even get that much and that’s a unfortunate situation, regardless of how you feel about the show… unless you’re one of those people dancing over its open grave, then you’re having a luau.
Oh well… that was my random morning brain fart.
New review later tonight.
