The new Star Trek series, Starfleet Academy, premiered on Paramount+ this week with a two-episode debut that has drawn both praise and backlash. While critics have largely embraced the show, audience scores have plummeted due to an aggressive review-bombing effort from detractors. This marks the latest instance of such targeted negativity in the Star Trek fandom.
Starfleet Academy, the newest addition to the Star Trek franchise, launched on Paramount+ earlier this week with its two-episode premiere. The series has received mixed reactions, with genuine fans expressing varied opinions alongside a wave of coordinated low ratings that appear to stem from online trolls.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the show's audience score stands at a low 35%, starkly contrasting the 85% approval from critics. The situation is even more pronounced on IMDb, where it holds a 4.8 out of 10 rating. Of the nearly 3,000 user reviews, 38.2%—over 1,000 submissions—award it the lowest possible score of 1.
This review-bombing campaign echoes patterns seen in other fandoms, making it challenging to distinguish authentic critiques from malicious ones. One particularly vocal review, highlighted as "helpful" by users and penned by AntonisG-0, labels the series an "Another Kurtzman abomination." The reviewer elaborates: "Wow I was expecting this to be bad but not that bad to compete Discovery in how bad it is! Nothing to do with the Roddenberry values of where Star Trek comes from, this feels like a cheap american type high school series full of questionably intelligent teenagers (definitely lack of emotional intelligence)….but in space. If this was the same people, same setting but not with the TREK wrapping paper, no one would produce it!!! No significant plot, just teenagers with toned-down language to cope with the shallowness of characters and overall concept…with some sci-fi to cover it."
In contrast, ComicBook.com's own assessment offers a more balanced view, suggesting that "If you like Kurtzman-era Star Trek, you’ll like it, but there’s enough here for the older heads if you persist and keep an open mind. None of this is contradictory to the will of Roddenberry or the protected ideal of Star Trek, after all. And the opportunity to see Starfleet crew members before they’re hammered into shape is an interesting enough one to carry things forward for Starfleet Academy."
Critics generally align the series with successful entries like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, noting its adherence to core franchise themes despite not reaching the same peaks. Viewers are encouraged to form their own opinions, as the show continues streaming on Paramount+.
