Well, the polycule in this show looks like they are really happy together.
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Recently, Paramount released a new promotional poster for Starfleet Academy, the Star Trek: Discovery spinoff that begins streaming on January 15th. Normally, such a promo would be designed to appeal to older fans while giving potential new fans a better idea of what this franchise is all about.
Unfortunately, the Starfleet Academy promo poster is a failure on every level, one that is guaranteed to anger much of the existing fanbase while generally perplexing general audiences who will have no idea of what to expect from the show.
Where No Star Trek Poster Has Gone Before
Like many people, I stumbled onto the Starfleet Academy promo poster in my social media feed. Scrolling from top to bottom, my first thought was, “Well, the polycule in this show looks like they are really happy together.” As I kept scrolling and saw the name of the show, I asked (more like yelled, if I’m being honest) the obvious question: Is this really supposed to be a Star Trek show?
Normally, a promotional Star Trek poster features characters in their fancy sci-fi universe, usually with a starship lurking in the background. In addition to advertising the show or film, such posters serve a very logical purpose: they reassure existing fans that this new project will feel like classic Trek. Look at the promo poster for Strange New Worlds, for example, and you instantly know this will be a show about serious explorers boldly going where no man has gone before, just like in Star Trek: The Original Series.
The Worst Space Clothes Since Wesley Crusher
The Starfleet Academy poster, however, has none of that. Most of the characters don’t seem to be in a uniform. At least, not one that lines up with what they seem to be wearing in the series trailer released a month ago. Maybe they will have multiple kinds of uniforms (heck, Discovery changed its uniforms up no less than three times in five seasons). However, this poster really does make it seem like these cadets are just hanging around in the ugliest space civvies since Wesley Crusher first wore that rainbow-tinged grey shirt.
Hanging around on the grass, no less, which is a pretty strange choice. The Starfleet Academy showrunners have promised that the series will alternate between adventures at the titular academy and adventures in space aboard a training vessel, but this image features no starships or anything that overtly signifies outer space. It also doesn’t really feature the academy itself, so a franchise newcomer would have no way of knowing what this upcoming TV show is about on pretty much any level.
90210 In Space
In fact, the only thing the poster really conveys is that the show is full of young people who seem very friendly with each other. There’s nothing wrong with friendliness, of course, and most of us would take a show that emphasizes fun over the grim darkness of Picard and early Discovery. But without any real sci-fi trappings, the poster makes it look like Starfleet Academy will be exactly what its haters always said it would be: 90210 in space.
In fact, if you saw the poster without any text, the only thing identifying this as a Star Trek show would be the Klingon character in the upper left. A franchise newcomer who doesn’t recognize this iconic alien race may genuinely have no way of knowing that this show is connected to one of the longest-running franchises in television history. Making the poster as un-Star Trek-like as possible may attract audiences who hate sci-fi, but it’s also going to drive away fans who have been keeping this franchise alive for decades.
At the risk of sounding dramatic, this Starfleet Academy poster perfectly sums up everything wrong with modern Star Trek: Paramount is content to ignore its legacy audience in favor of luring in young people that might form the (ahem) next generation of franchise fandom. Historically, that hasn’t worked (just ask the showrunners of the prematurely canceled, kid-friendly Prodigy), and the network simply can’t afford to further drive away its biggest fans to chase new audiences that won’t actually tune in. Should Starfleet Academy prove unpopular, Trek might boldly go where this franchise has never gone before: into complete and utter pop culture oblivion.
