Starfleet Academy Can Succeed Where Every Other New Star Trek Series Has Failed

Star Trek is filled with iconic villains, and it’s often these nefarious scamps that bring the franchise to life. The Klingons, the Romulans, the Borg, Q, Khan – it’s no exaggeration to suggest a good villain often results in a good story.

But while modern Star Trek has produced plenty of worthy opponents for our heroes to battle, it hasn’t ever managed to introduce a new recurring villain on the same level as those mentioned above.

Star Trek: Prodigy‘s the Diviner was a brilliant foe, but looks unlikely to pop up elsewhere. Strange New Worlds successfully turned the Gorn into a major force, but the show’s best original antagonist, Captain Angel, hasn’t resurfaced. Star Trek: Picard promised a threat even worse than the Borg in season 2, but then… forgot about it.

Still, it’s Star Trek: Discovery that spurned several golden opportunities to create the galaxy’s next big bads.

Star Trek: Discovery Couldn’t Add To Star Trek’s Roster Of Recurring Enemies

Osyraa and the Emerald Chain in Star Trek: Discovery.

Being set shortly prior to The Original Series made it difficult for Star Trek: Discovery to add any notable enemies to the roster. Instead, the series had to make do with redesigned Klingons and a broken AI no one can talk about.

But moving to the 32nd century gave Star Trek: Discovery the space and opportunity to go wild in terms of creating new villains that could keep coming back for generations. And it’s not like Discovery lacked characters with potential. Season 3’s Emerald Chain, led by Osyraa, could have been the next uber-powerful faction in Star Trek‘s timeline – an ever-present problem like the Klingons during The Original Series. Instead, Osyraa was dealt with inside a single season.

The following season’s Species 10-C had an ominous aura not entirely unlike the Borg. The godlike race had Starfleet on the ropes, and being an enigmatic force from beyond the known galaxy made them even more appealing. But the 10-C turned out to not be villains at all, and while making them benevolent was a touching sentiment, it couldn’t help but feel like an anticlimax after so much promise.

Star Trek Finally Has A Truly Great Villain – Now It Needs To Keep Them

Paul Giamatti as Nus Braka in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy — Paul Giamatti as Nus Braka in Starfleet Academy

Paul Giamatti’s Nus Braka is the best villain Star Trek has had for quite some time. Sharp-tongued, charismatic, ruthless, intelligent, and unafraid to get his hands dirty, Braka is a rare mix of cerebral wit and brute force. He’s a 32nd century mafia don, ruling over his subjects with an iron fist while putting on the facade of being a reasonable man.

Starfleet Academy flirts with making Braka an antihero when he forges a temporary alliance with Starfleet in episode 6. Cleverly, the series performs a 180 and doubles down, revealing Braka was behind everything and making him responsible for a raft of Federation deaths. Now with Starfleet’s experimental technology in his hands, Braka has developed into a top-tier enemy that has the galaxy’s full attention – and ours.

The true test will be if Nus Braka remains part of the Star Trek universe long-term. If he meets an untimely end in Starfleet Academy‘s season 1 finale, Braka will be the latest in a long line of captivating villains who failed to join Star Trek‘s evil elite.

Alternatively, Braka could end the season on the loose, or locked in a Federation prison, either of which would leave the door perfectly ajar for Giamatti to reprise his role in a future season of Starfleet Academy, or a different Star Trek project altogether.