Robert Picardo Speaks Out on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Cancellation

Star Trek’s near future looks uncertain. The franchise’s two remaining series, Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy, are both ending soon, and nothing else is in the pipeline. Paramount, which holds the Star Trek rights, has also just merged with Warner Bros. That raises questions about how much attention Star Trek will get under the new megabrand, which now has to pay off $86.8 billion in debt.

Longtime Star Trek actor Robert Picardo played The Doctor, an AI hologram, in multiple shows and movies in the franchise. He has now commented on the cancellation of Starfleet Academy.

“Even though I think the quality of our show was great, we were kind of killed in the cradle, and I believe part of it is the present political moment in our culture that diversity, that all of Star Trek’s core values are now out of fashion temporarily,”

Picardo said in an interview with TrekMovie.

He continued:

“We see diversity under attack, and therefore Star Trek is under attack because that’s what Star Trek’s always been about. So hopefully, whenever they create the next Star Trek movie and Star Trek show, they’ll remember what it was that made Star Trek special, and that present weather conditions in politics will change, and Star Trek once again will emerge with all of its values intact. That’s what I believe and I hope for. But right now, you know, the feeling has been a little grim recently.”

Why was Star Trek: Starfleet Academy canceled?

Paramount hasn’t directly commented on its decision to cancel Starfleet Academy. Fans are left to wonder whether the show failed to draw enough viewers or became a casualty of a Paramount now run by David Ellison. His father, Larry Ellison, donated $45 million to a Trump election campaign that directly criticized diversity and inclusion measures.

The show was also in the sights of right-wing culture war pundits and high-ranking members of the Trump administration before its release. The X account “End Wokeness” posted part of the trailer, which apparently stirred controversy among right-wingers because it featured women on the bridge crew. Stephen Miller, the Trump administration’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor, called the clip “tragic” and tagged the Paramount Plus account. He said the company could “save the franchise” if it were to “reconcile with @WilliamShatner and give him total creative control.”

Starfleet Academy received generally positive reviews from critics and holds an 84% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Audience reaction is harder to read. As with most “controversial” series on the modern internet, it’s difficult to know what viewers beyond the small share of highly engaged X and Reddit users thought. The show has a 52% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.6 on IMDb. Those numbers aren’t good, but such metrics have historically done a poor job of capturing what the average viewer thinks. It’s hard to tell whether a show is being review-bombed or whether the hate is representative.

Picardo ended his interview on an optimistic note.

“We don’t know what’s next, but we’ve been at a pivot point before. And we survived it and flourished again, and I think we will. I think that a lot of the voices now that are so loud and negative will not be as loud and negative.”

Hopefully he is right. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy‘s second and last season is slated for early next year.

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Source: Polygon