Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta)

Series Acclimation Mil aka SAM (Kerrice Brooks)

Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané)

Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard)

Darem Reymi (George Hawkins)

Tarima Sadal (Zoë Steiner)

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy aimed to shake up the Star Trek formula for the franchise’s 60th anniversary by focusing on a group of young adults studying to be Starfleet cadets. After a rough pilot that was overstuffed with exposition and character introductions, showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau settled into a compelling formula of using classes on everything from debate to the mysteries of the universe to frame character-driven episodes. But in the back half of the season, their work started sliding in quality like they were students with senioritis.

Episode 6, “Come, Let’s Away,” brought a major tone shift and emphasis on the schemes of series villain Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti). But focusing on a big threat to the United Federation of Planets left much less time for character development, causing many plotlines to feel rushed or underdeveloped. Now that the season is over, we’re grading the storylines for the show’s six main characters — and hoping they get better treatment when they return to school for season 2.

[Ed. note: This article contains major spoilers for Starfleet Academy season 1]

Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta)

Caleb’s story was central to this season’s plot, so he got the most screen time of any of the show’s characters. His mother, Anisha (Tatiana Maslany), worked with Nus Braka when Caleb was a child, and she was sentenced to life in prison for her role in the death of a Starfleet officer. That gives Caleb a personal connection to Nus, who, in the grand tradition of Star Trek trial episodes, uses Anisha as his key witness to question the Federation’s benevolence.

Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) was the judge who sentenced Anisha, but since then she’s worked to make things right. When Caleb is........

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