'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy' review: Great-looking, but can be tedious

WHAT'S IT ABOUT This is set just about 100 years after the so-called "Burn" — an apocalyptic event in which dilithium crystals (warp drive fuel) became inert, resulting in the destruction of Federation ships throughout the galaxy (featured in "Star Trek: Discovery"). Without dilithium, no interstellar travel and no Federation.

But there's now a small supply of dilithium, and the Federation is getting back on its feet. The best sign yet: The fabled Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, where future commanders are forged, is set to reopen. A former captain, Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter), is tapped to run the place, but on one condition — she can bring along Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) who has spent most of his young life in a penal colony. They quickly settle in at the academy, which has a tough-as-nails Cadet Master Lura Thok (Gina Yashere), and some fan fave callbacks, including the Doctor (Robert Picardo), a beloved hologram, and engineer Jett Reno (Tig Notaro), both now instructors. (Stephen Colbert is "digital dean of students," but heard only in voice-over.)

Then, there's half-Klingon, half-Tellarite space pirate, Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti), who has a serious grudge against Ake.

MY SAY If Reddit is any guide, this latest addition to the 60-year-old "Star Trek" canon is already persona non grata. Admittedly Trekkies are a tough crowd, but based on a few trailers (and other ephemera) they seem to have made up their minds:

"I fear that 'Starfleet Academy' is for a modern teenage audience," reads one common gripe. Or this: "Good lord, Paul Giamatti isn't so much chewing the scenery as inhaling it."

With the sole exception of "Strange New Worlds," the other recent live-action series (notably "Discovery" and "Picard") have also been trashed by this grumpy fan base. They're mostly sick of the "Burn," and the pessimistic turn to the darkness. They miss the episodic stories, the optimism, joy, and brains of the early years. Mostly they seem to be saying: Can't we just get back to the good old days?

Sorry Trekkies, but those good old days may be gone forever. As expected, "Starfleet" is intended for the zoomer crowd — "Star Trek 90210" has been the typical Reddit flipoff — while Giamatti does indeed inhale (Hunter breathes deep too, by the way.)

There is often a glib sheen to this familiar story of kids returning to school, in this case after the "Burn" — think COVID — and who quickly need to sort out their career priorities, or hormones. Moreover, they have an entire universe as their playground, but "Starfleet" sticks them in a legendary academy that looks like a pop-up mall, backdropped by a 32nd century San Francisco skyline filled with "pencil" towers and other assorted architectural provocations.

At times the show feels cramped and airless — and like Giamatti's Nus Braka, the adrenalized YA vibe has a way of sucking up the oxygen too.

But let's step back to see just what "Starfleet" has done right. Foremost, this is deeply, insistently, almost cloyingly optimistic. Set nearly a thousand years after the original (1966-69), the universe has gone through a few changes in the interim, some catastrophic, so it's perfectly understandable that Gene Roddenberry's secular utopian vision would have been tested now and then (recall "Deep Space 9"). With the "Burn" receding, the future belongs to the young. These plucky would-be Kirks — their guileless enthusiasm almost infectious — intend to boldly go into it.

And "Starfleet" does look spectacular, or at least when venturing out into that big, beautiful universe where this glorious franchise truly belongs. Even grumpy Trekkies might agree.

BOTTOM LINE Often a great-looking newcomer with an often tedious YA throughline.