STAR TREK
STARFLEET ACADEMY
Season 1, Episode 2

Beta Test

Series: Starfleet Academy - (2026 - present)
Season: 1
Episode #: 2
Production #: SFA-102
Original Airdate: 01/15/2026

Writer(s): Noga Landau & Jane Maggs
Director(s): Alex Kurtzman

Also Starring
Oded Fehr as Fleet Admiral Charles Vance
Gina Yashere as Lieutenant Commander Lura Thok
Brit Marling as the Computer Voice of the U.S.S. Athena
Stephen Colbert as Starfleet Academy's Digital Dean of Students
Tig Notaro as Commander Jett Reno
Robert Picardo as The Doctor

Guest Stars
Raoul Bhaneja as Commander Zeeren Kelrec
Anthony Natale as President Emerin Sadal
Jamie Groote as the Diva
Romeo Carere as Ocam Sadal

Co-Stars
Cecilia Lee as Dzolo
Tabitha Tao as the Holo-Guide
Scott Yamamura as Tinn Valaak
Marcia Adolphe as the Interpreter
Piotr Michael as President Sadal's Voice Chip
Kether Donohue as the Voice of the Almond Basket
Joseph Messina as Cadet Holloway
Raffa Virago as Cadet Pickford
Graham Nox as Cadet Oren
Scott Blachar as Sullivan
Katie Nora Ready-Walters as the Terrified Cadet
Ashley Poulin as the Very Small Cadet
Scott Gemmel as Darem's Posse Member
Mia Yaguchi-Chow as Darem's Posse Member
Ritchie Lawrence as Darem's Posse Member
Brian David Gilbert as the voice of a DOT
Rakha Shankar as the voice of a DOT
Jeremy Culhane as the voice of a DOT

Uncredited Co-stars
Scott Blachar as Sullivan

Stardate: Unknown

Synopsis

With the Athena docked at Starfleet Academy, the cadets are finally introduced to the rhythms of institutional life. Uniforms replace improvisation. Schedules replace instinct. The Academy itself - gleaming, orderly, and steeped in expectation - feels almost alien compared to the chaos they’ve already endured.

For many cadets, this is the dream they trained for. For Caleb, it feels like confinement.

Classes begin. Evaluations are constant. Every mistake is recorded, analyzed, and quietly weighed against potential. The Academy does not care where you came from - only whether you can adapt. That premise, meant to be reassuring, unsettles Caleb more than he expects.

The arrival of a diplomatic delegation raises the stakes. Starfleet is no longer rebuilding in isolation; it is being judged. The cadets are part of that message, whether they are ready or not. Caleb’s assignment as guide to the ambassador’s daughter feels like a deliberate provocation - a test designed to expose his rough edges.

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What surprises him is how much the role forces him to see the Academy differently.

Through her eyes, he begins to understand what Starfleet is trying to restore: not control, but continuity. Not dominance, but trust. Around them, fellow cadets stumble through early failures - misjudged simulations, strained alliances, moments of arrogance followed by humility. These are not heroes yet. They are students learning that restraint can be as important as brilliance.

Faculty members - some new, some carrying the weight of Starfleet’s long memory - reinforce the central truth of the Academy: Starfleet is not about being right. It is about being responsible when you are wrong.

By the end of Beta Test, nothing explodes. No enemy attacks. No crisis announces itself. Instead, the challenge is quieter and more insidious: learning to belong without losing yourself.

Caleb does not resolve his mistrust. But for the first time, he begins to understand what Starfleet is asking of him - not obedience, but commitment.

And that may be the harder test.

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