Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has set a major TV record even before its premiere - Here's how

In a surprising and ambitious twist, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has revealed that the USS Athena, long teased in promotional material, is not just a ship but the Starfleet Academy itself. With this, the Starfleet Academy has set a major TV record even before its premiere.

The news came to light when the showrunner Alex Kurtzman attended the San Diego Comic-Con and spoke about the USS Athena being a massive, spaceborne institution, serving a the primary setting for the new series. This is different from the traditional Earth-based academy seen in earlier Star Trek Lore.

Read on to know the details.

Here is how Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has set a major TV record even before its premiere

As mentioned, the showrunner mentioned at the San Diego Comic Con that the USS Athena isn't just a ship but a Starfleet Academy itself. This suggests that this version of Star Trek will take place aboard an enormous vessel that houses classrooms, training facilities, labs, dormitories, and even multi-level internal environments. In essence, it’s a fully mobile school in space, symbolising Starfleet's ever-expanding mission to educate future generations while traversing the stars.

To pull this off, the makers are building massive sets highlighting the scale of production for a TV show that is already record-breaking.

Actor Karim Diané, who plays Jay-Den Kraag, a Klingon medical cadet, emphasised the scale of the production by describing the USS Athena set as "the biggest set in North America. Period."

"It’s the biggest set in North America. Like period. So it’s huge. The first time we walked in, I mean, it’s a real school. It’s like multiple levels we filmed on, like not just the ground. We walked up and filmed everywhere."

Here is what the showrunner explained about the ship in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

According to showrunner Alex Kurtzman, the Athena “docks on campus in San Francisco and stays there as part of the campus.” This allows students to attend classes on Earth while also having the ability to “deploy with the rest of the fleet and learn in the field” alongside real officers and captains. He further added,

"And also when we think about Star Trek, its adventures in space and exploration and all the things that Star Trek is, and so we thought, 'Well what if you make the ship essentially a teaching hospital? And they go to school, and they can go to school on campus in San Francisco, but then they can deploy with the rest of the fleet and learn in the field with real captains with real officers,' so the idea is that you get to have your cake and eat it too."

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The popularity of the Star Trek universe has allowed the production to go to this grander and complement the imagination and the story as much as they can for an immersive and unique experience. This is crucial also because the upcoming show will be featuring a younger generation of characters who will explore both space and their own personal growth. The series is expected to blend coming-of-age drama with classic Trek adventure, politics, and science.

Starfleet Academy is slated to premiere in early 2026, with production now underway.

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