Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1 Episode 6 Review: Come, Let’s Away

Critic’s Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

3.5

Well, damn. At this rate, Starfleet Academy’s inaugural class is going to be too traumatized to ever operate a starship competently.

It seems like every time the USS Athena leaves space dock, it attracts space pirates. Specifically, the monumentally unhinged Nus Braka.

On Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1 Episode 6, “Come, Let’s Away,” Braka doesn’t just manage to fly off in triumph: he leaves tragedy and mayhem in his wake. And, once again, Chancellor Ake is left questioning her choices and regretting her decisions.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, “Come, Let’s Away”

Titles matter. And, historically, Star Trek has often drawn references to Shakespearean plays, characters, and tropes. With “Come, Let’s Away,” there are three possible contexts they might be alluding to.

The most well-known is from King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3, when Lear tells his faithful daughter Cordelia, “Come, let’s away to prison: We two alone will sing like birds i’ the cage.” It’s a scene of reconciliation and resignation to a sad fate.

Then there’s Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5, where The Nurse says it to Juliet to hurry her to bed after revealing that Romeo is a Montague.

Less well known but arguably the most relevant is the phrase’s appearance in Henry V, Act 2, Scene 3, where Henry’s comrades leave their favorite pub to join him after the death of Falstaff, who symbolized Prince Hal’s wild, hedonistic youth. Falstaff’s death marks Hal’s transformation to a responsible leader.

Star-Crossed

While Caleb and Tarima aren’t anywhere what I consider a Romeo and Juliet parallel, they do have the doe-eyed young lovers bit nailed.

Deeply attracted and highly reactive, “Come, Let’s Away” opens with five straight minutes of their sexy times and pillow talk. I do have to wonder how they managed this tryst, considering Caleb has not one, but TWO, roommates. One of whom is Tarima’s brother.

But, in keeping with his track record, Caleb manages to freak out when Tarima shares some of her most intimate Betazoid abilities and manifests his childhood toy in her peaceful paradise.

And Tarima’s playbook hasn’t changed since Star Trek: Starfleet Academy “Beta Test,” where she responds to his overreaction with her own. Sigh. These are the Star Trek: 90210 moments I was hoping we wouldn’t have to sit through.

USS Miyazaki

So many Easter Eggs in the ship graveyard that the cadets must run their training exercise in! Of course, the idea of a Federation vessel with a singularity drive gets the biggest cheer.

Brief glossary detour. A singularity drive is a dilithium-free propulsion system that uses a miniature, artificial BLACK HOLE to power the ship. In a 32nd Century, post-Burn galaxy, it would be very useful but still just as dangerous as it was to Romulan warbirds in the 24th Century.

The drawback to singularity drives is that you can’t just shut them off; you have to let the singularity field dissipate over time. Think of how Fred Flintstone would put the brakes on by stamping his feet down.

Except that putting the brakes on a singularity drive could cause damage to the ship, let it be detected by enemies, or even create a time shift. None of these are good outcomes. Sort of like how some medications cause side effects way worse than the disease they are meant to treat.

Anyhow, throwing cadets onto a dead ship with an experimental drive that caused cascading mechanical failures and killed its crew sounds like a solid lesson plan. What could possibly go wrong?

Furies

The human-alien hybrid cannibal antagonists are a nice touch. Part Reavers from Serenity, part punk Witch-King of Angmar with a clicky-screamy velociraptor speech style, there’s not a lot of middle ground where they can be reasoned with.

But that’s all part of Nus Braka’s plan. And I love that the Furies serve his purposes the way the Furies of Greek mythology meted out justice for crimes against the natural order. Only Braka’s order is anything but natural, is it?

It’s pretty galling how effortlessly Braka’s able to swan in and run rings around the Federation and Starfleet. Of course, at this point in time, the Venari Ral is actually the more established of the organizations with better infrastructure, both physical and in terms of internal hierarchy.

Paul Giamatti plays Braka with more nuance than in our first encounter with him. No origami chicken tirades, just a calculated cat-and-mouse gloating performance. Still, Ake’s Spidey senses are left tingling, but not enough to prevent Braka’s victory or B’avi’s death.

Turning Point

No one is left untouched by Braka’s attack. The Miyazaki encounter, like Falstaff’s death, signals the end of youthful innocence for our cadets.

Losing a fellow cadet is a genie that will never go back in the bottle. B’avi’s death will haunt them all. It’ll light a fire for vengeance in some. It may overwhelm others with despair.

Tarima’s sacrifice will weigh on Caleb. Will he step up and reach out, or is this just another page in their tale of romantic angst? Pretty sure, I can guess the answer in one. Double sigh.

Meanwhile, we have no idea what Braka was after at Gen 19 Alpha. But I’m sure he’ll be back to tell us. His fairly sincere holo-transmission declaration of his hatred for Ake and the Federation demonstrates his compulsive need to overshare.

In a departure from the previous Star Trek: Starfleet Academy offerings, “Come, Let’s Away” ends with a significant setback for the good guys. What will it take for them to rise again and chalk up a win against Braka and the Venari Ral?

Is the USS Athena cursed? Can Ake turn the year around? What do you want to see next, Fanatics? How can Star Trek: Starfleet Academy take you where no one has gone before? Beam down to our comments and log your entry!

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