Paramount has announced Starfleet Academy is cancelled after just two seasons

In our recent review of season 1, we felt the short run format handicapped the show’s ability to tell its story. We’d already wondered if season 3 would happen. It’s clear audience take up was low and the show has now been cancelled.

Starfleet Academy cancelled in more detail

The news was broken (though a lot of people have “known” it was inevitable for weeks if you trawl the swamps of fandom) by Variety — Star Trek: Starfleet Academy to End With Season 2. They focus on  low audience (the show never hit the Nielsens) and while there’s plenty of potential there’s a failure to deliver. In hindsight it’s easy to dismiss the renewal for season 2 as a simple way to get value from existing sets to save money on production from season 1, as well as avoiding younger actors ageing too far between seasons.

The Variety article goes on to quote a letter from series co-showrunners and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau. We won’t quote it all, but feel this piece appropriate where they in fact quote Gene Roddenberry:

“Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. […] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.”

Season 2 is expected to air in 2026 along with Strange New Worlds season 5 (also the final season for that show). There’s no comment on the official Star Trek site.