By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
While it has been controversial, Starfleet Academy has tried to establish itself as a must-see TV for those who loved Star Trek: Voyager. One reason for that is the presence of the amazing Robert Picardo, reprising his role as the fan-favorite holographic Doctor. Another reason is that the new show has picked up on the threads of multiple classic Voyager stories, including the Doctor raising (and subsequently losing) a holographic daughter back in “Real Life.”
Now, the most recent episode of Starfleet Academy (“300th Night”) has followed up on the Voyager episode “The Omega Directive,” which revealed that Starfleet deeply feared a a desructive cosmic element known as the Omega particle. In “300th Night,” we learn that future Starfleet has found a way to weaponize this particle against its enemies. Unfortunately, a central aspect of this episode makes one thing crystal clear: the Federation has now and forever become the bad guy.
The Alpha And The Omega
What is the Omega particle, you ask? In the aptly-named Voyager episode “The Omega Directive,” Captain Janeway reveals that the Omega particle is one of the biggest threats Starfleet has ever encountered. When these particles explode, it becomes impossible to travel through the affected area at warp speed. Therefore, Starfleet has a standing order: when captains encounter Omega, they must do anything and everything in their power to destroy it.
With her usual poise and style, Janeway manages to find and safely detonate all of the offensive Omega particles in the area. However, the Starfleet Academy episode “300th Night” revealed that the Federation of the 32nd century had secretly changed its mind about Omega. Rather than destroying these particles on sight, one skeezy starbase has developed a way to turn these pesky particles into the ultimate weapon.
When Star Trek Meets Star Wars
In a previous episode of Starfleet Academy (“Come, Let’s Away”), Nus Braka acted like a reluctant ally before enacting his scheme: destroying a Starfleet vessel and ransacking Starbase J19-Alpha. At the time, it was unclear what he stole or even what kind of starbase J19-Alpha really was. However, “300th Night” revealed that the base specializes in advanced weapons research, and one of their creations was Omega-47. As the name implies, this is a synthetic variant of the Omega particle, one that has all the destructive potential of the real thing.
“300th Night” was actually a really solid episode, but I was shocked at how it casually confirmed that Starfleet is developing superweapons that would make the Empire from Star Wars blush. So far, it seems that Section 31 doesn’t exist in the 32nd century, which is a good thing: after all, most fans don’t like the idea of the peace-loving Federation relying on a secret cabal of paranoid murderers.
Unfortunately, the revelation that Starbase J19-Alpha was developing such unethical weaponry is proof that the fringe Section 31 is no longer necessary; the high and mighty Starfleet is happy to break bad and violate intergalactic law whenever and however they see fit.
The development of Omega-47 is also insanely hypocritical because the Federation of this era had to survive the Burn, a freak cosmic incident that made warp travel absolutely impossible. In both Discovery and Starfleet Academy, this is portrayed as something that ruined countless lives and generally transformed a utopian future into a brutal, survival-of-the-fittest slugfest. Considering that the primary effect of Omega is that it can shut down subspace and make warp travel impossible, it’s clear that Starfleet is now ready and willing to cripple entire civilizations by restricting their travel and leaving them at the mercy of pirates.
Never Beam Your Heroes
On the balance, “300th Night” is actually a very good episode of Star Trek: it builds on Starfleet Academy lore, develops our favorite characters, and follows up on one of Voyager’s wildest stories. For longtime fans of the show, this episode is proof of how much potential this series really has. Meanwhile, if you’re someone who ditched this show early on, this latest episode is arguably the best to watch if you’re ready to give the show another shot.
Unfortunately, Starfleet weaponizing Omega is at the heart of this Starfleet Academy episode, and this does immense damage to our characters’ reputation. How are we supposed to root for the next generation of Starfleet officers when we know all these tortured geniuses will grow up to support supervillains? This organization is rotten from the top down, which makes for the ultimate bittersweet homage to The Original Series: in the 32nd century, all admirals are badmirals!
