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Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 6 – “Come, Let’s Away”
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy not only introduces a comic book into canon, but it also reveals that Starfleet’s iconic Star Trek: The Original Series-style uniforms made a comeback in the 31st century. Written by Kenneth Lin & Kiley Rossetter, and directed by Larry Teng, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6 traps Starfleet Academy and War College cadets on the derelict USS Miyazaki with alien cannibals called the Furies.
Although comic books surely exist in Star Trek, they are a rare sight. Star Trek‘s enlightened future tends to show Starfleet Officers enjoying ‘high art,’ such as William Shakespeare’s plays and classical music. Star Trek has diversified in recent years and shown that 20th-century pop culture endured, like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ 23rd-century characters dancing to Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go.”
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is set in the late 32nd century, but centers on young adults from numerous worlds in the United Federation of Planets studying to become Starfleet Officers. That at least one cadet in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy reads comic books, and that comic books still exist a thousand years in the future, may not be all that surprising.
Starfleet Academy Makes A Star Trek Comic Book Canon
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6 introduces Tales from the Frontier, a comic book about the voyages of the doomed crew of the USS Miyazaki, led by Captain Chi. B’Avi (Alexander Eling), the War College’s Vulcan cadet, is a fan of Tales from the Frontier, finding the Miyazaki’s saga to be “a beacon of hope in darker times.”
Tales from the Frontier establishes that comic books about Starfleet exist in Star Trek’s 32nd century. Tales from the Frontier is also published on paper, which is fascinating given the widespread preference for PADDs, although paper books still exist. Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) collects “real books” in her ready room on the USS Athena.
A Starfleet comic cook actually being canon in Star Trek is also interesting, considering the wealth of real-life Star Trek comic books and novels published are not considered ‘official canon’ in terms of what happens in Star Trek’s movies and TV shows.
By and large, Star Trek comic books, novels, video games, etc., exist in their own continuity, and the general rule for Star Trek is that something becomes ‘official canon’ if it’s referenced in a Star Trek TV show or movie, which does happen from time to time.
Starfleet Academy’s Comic Book Brings Back Original Series Uniforms In The 31st Century
B’Avi’s physical paper copy of Tales of the Frontier turned out to be crucial to bringing the USS Miyazaki’s computer online to accept Starfleet Academy and the War College’s cadets as the starship’s new crew. Tales of the Frontier also helped the cadets bring the USS Miyazaki’s Singularity Drive online thanks to the War College’s “Little Fireflies” program.
The USS Miyazaki’s bridge scenes were filmed on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ USS Enterprise set.
However, according to Tales of the Frontier, the USS Miyazaki’s crew wore the primary colored Starfleet uniforms that were prevalent in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: The Original Series’ 23rd century. It’s possible that this is artistic license by the comic book’s creators, but it’s also possible that Starfleet in the 31st century may have re-adopted TOS-style uniforms.
Starfleet also occasionally allows specific starships or starship classes to wear specific uniforms. Perhaps because the USS Miyazaki was a 31st-century Constitution Class starship, its crew wore uniforms in the classic style of the 23rd century in Star Trek: The Original Series. And this was immortalized in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy‘s Tales of the Frontier comic book.
