“Come, Let’s Away”

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy takes the cadets on a team-building training mission that quickly spirals into a genuine crisis.

Cadets remain the show’s greatest asset. Their inexperience lets the writers build classic Star Trek scenarios that also function as lessons about the roles they are training for and about how they respond when the pressure rises.

This episode leans into that strength by turning the mission into a controlled test. Clear fail states, strict time limits, and records set by previous attempts create a mix of pressure and competition that mirrors the reality of real missions, where success often depends on beating the clock.

What follows is a strong setup. Acke and Kelric outline the objective with clarity, and the cadets’ reactions sell their excitement at finally getting some field experience. The away team shares that energy. The atmosphere is bright and infectious, helped by touches like Acke and Thok wagering on whether the cadets can break a record. Acke’s relaxed confidence reinforces the sense that this should be routine, safe and fun.

The exercise carries real stakes even before the situation turns dangerous. A previous team failed to reactivate the experimental Singularity Drive in time, establishing a clear fail state that this group must avoid. The competitive element reinforces that pressure, with a record set for restoring life support.

Caleb quickly breaks that record by interpreting the rules more creatively than others. He uses programmable matter, which falls into a grey area that is neither permitted nor forbidden. His choice shows how effectively he absorbs information and turns it to his advantage.

What begins as a controlled exercise becomes a real threat almost immediately. The cadets are taken hostage on the Miyazaki by mercenaries who extort the Federation for their release. Vance is prepared to pay, but he knows these groups often kill their captives even when their demands are met, so there is no safe option. The tone shifts sharply, and Acke moves from relaxed instructor to a commander focused on keeping her cadets alive.

Their reactions aren’t uniform. Caleb handles the danger with a calm that fits his background. Genesis throws herself into the problem, consistent with how she behaved in the first episode. One cadet freezes and has to be escorted from the bridge, a small but honest reminder that not everyone is ready for real danger. It’s effective, though the episode could use more moments like it to reinforce that these are trainees still finding their footing.

The away team illustrates that point most clearly. Their instructor is killed, leaving them to survive without anyone experienced to guide them. None of them falter, which is understandable in the adrenaline of the moment, but it also makes it easy to forget how untested they are.

On the Miyazaki, the material is functional but not especially distinctive. The cadets huddle on the bridge trying to bring the main computer back online while their attackers force their way in. Time is short and their resources are limited. These scenes would’ve stood out more if they’d leaned harder into the cadets’ inexperience. Even one of them struggling to focus because of fear would’ve been an honest reflection of their academy status and a stronger setup for Caleb to show his natural leadership.

We see a glimpse of that leadership when B’avi (Alexander Eling) admits the odds are against them. Caleb reassures him by pointing to the comic book about the Miyazaki crew and the way it celebrates overcoming impossible situations. It’s another moment where he uses what he’s learned to steady someone else, and it pays off the earlier conversation about the comic inspiring its readers. He reminds B’avi that it inspired him, and that it should still matter now.

Survival forces Caleb to confront the fear he’s been trying to outrun. He apologises, telling Tarima he never meant to make her feel like a freak, and admits he’s never let anyone see that part of him before. The vulnerability scared him enough that his instincts told him to retreat. He’s been trying to work against those instincts all season and stop letting his pain define him, but that shift is difficult, especially when he’s growing close to someone who can read his thoughts and feel his emotions.

When the crisis peaks, he leans into their connection so they can communicate, and he manages it far more easily than the moment earns. That’s where the setup breaks its own emotional logic. The moment needed a clearer sense of him fighting his own instincts, so that hearing Tarima clearly feels like a genuine breakthrough. Instead, he admits he was wrong almost immediately, which makes the scene feel more like a skipped step. There was room for a personal revelation that deepened their bond, but the episode never reaches it, leaving Caleb’s side of the progression feeling undercut at the moment it should peak.

Tarima’s material lands with more weight. She has to face her fear of unleashing her full potential, and that fear is rooted in real trauma. She deafened her father when she lost control as a child, so she knows exactly what she’s capable of if her emotions slip. She also understands that lives are at stake and that she may be the only one who can save the others. The Doctor’s concern makes the danger feel even more immediate.

Her breaking point arrives when the attackers force their way onto the bridge and it becomes clear everyone is about to be killed. She removes her implant and unleashes an attack that wipes them out. Before she does, she tells Caleb she’s afraid he won’t want to be with her if he sees all of who she is, but she’s willing to accept that if it means he survives. It’s a powerful moment, but it leans into melodrama, because her fear doesn’t track with what the episode has already shown us about Caleb’s intentions. Caleb has already shown he wants to clear the air between them, so her fear that this will destroy their relationship is larger than the story has earned.

The episode doesn’t resolve the question because it ends with Tarima unconscious, leaving the fallout for later. The show is balancing on a thematic edge. If Caleb reacts badly, it risks drifting into the trope of men fearing female power. Tarima’s anxiety about how he might respond sets up another challenge for them to work through, and the writers will need to be cautious about how this will be handled in the coming episodes.

The consequences extend beyond their relationship. B’avi is killed, forcing the cadets to confront genuine loss and the harsh reminder of how dangerous the galaxy can be. His death carries weight because he has been a recurring presence, even if not a deeply developed one. The episode gives him enough material to stand out, though it comes close to the familiar pattern of adding texture to a character right before killing them to heighten the emotional impact. It isn’t an egregious example, since the episode isn’t told from his perspective, but the timing still feels deliberate.

All of this unfolds while Vance and Acke struggle to manage the crisis from the Athena. The bleakness of the situation pushes Vance to seek outside help from Braka, who has dealt with this group before. It’s far from an ideal choice, since Braka isn’t someone the Federation can trust, but Vance sees him as one of the few avenues available. Calling on one enemy to counter another can raise the tension and add unpredictability, but Vance reaches this decision too quickly. He suggests it before any other rescue attempt is made, which makes him seem too ready to jump to the least desirable solution. The moment would’ve landed better if at least one attempt had failed first, framing Braka as a genuine last resort rather than the first idea on the table.

Braka’s return gives Paul Giamatti another chance to spar with Holly Hunter, and he’s magnetic whenever they share the screen. He still leans into the quippy mugging that won’t work for everyone and sometimes softens his threat value, but there’s more nuance here than in his first appearance. Braka assumes he holds all the cards because Acke needs him and he doesn’t care whether the cadets live or die. He takes a sadistic pleasure in making her jump through his hoops while dangling the possibility of a solution.

His strategy is simple and cruel. He digs into everything he knows about her to get under her skin, prodding at old wounds like her failure to save her son. He draws a parallel to Caleb, whom she also failed, though in a different way. He even takes shots at her long life, suggesting she became a teacher to experience endings vicariously because her species rarely faces them personally. Acke later insists she was playing him, staying quiet to keep him talking until he slipped and gave her something useful.

Acke eventually turns his arrogance against him. She pushes back, daring him to prove himself, and counts on his pride in being the only one capable of solving the problem. She knows he’ll bite if he thinks his skills are being questioned.

The real blow comes with the reveal that Braka has been playing the long game. He engineered the hostage situation as a distraction so his people could seize a space station working on classified technology. Vance and Acke walk straight into his trap, and the cost of their mistake is severe. His final exchange with Acke is genuinely chilling. He tells her he hates her because she carries herself as if she’s better than him, and because he rejects the Federation’s ideals spreading across the galaxy. That hatred has sharpened him, and he’s more dangerous now that he believes he can outplay her.

Then he makes it personal. He calls her the best teacher he’s ever had, turning something she takes pride in into a weapon. Acke has pushed him, challenged him and forced him to raise his game until he became a threat she can’t dismiss. Highlighting that she’s unwittingly shaped him is a brutal attack, and she has no answer. There’s no bravado and no clever retort, only silence as she absorbs her defeat and recognises the adversary she helped create.

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Verdict

A steady episode that succeeds more often than it stumbles, pairing compelling arcs with a chilling antagonist turn, though a few missed opportunities keep it from rising higher.

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