Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Puts The Federation On Trial In Explosive Finale — Plus, Grade Season 1!

Nahla Ake and Nus Braka have been on a collision course all season long on "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy," and they finally collided in this week's season finale. When the dust settled, though, who claimed victory?

We pick up where we left off, with Nahla and the Athena transporting Caleb and the cadets back to safety, along with Caleb's mother Anisha. She's not exactly grateful: Anisha lunges at Nahla and tells Caleb they need to get off this ship immediately. But she can't, because that space pirate Nus Braka has strung a web of powerful Omega mines around Federation territory, leaving the Athena stranded on the outside with no help — and if the mines blow up, more than a hundred billion people could die. 

A fleet of ships led by Nus open fire on the Athena, and Nus transports aboard, instantly recognizing Anisha — and wondering why she's working with Nahla, since she hates Starfleet so much. He takes the two of them with him and transports away to a mystery location, while The Doctor launches a holographic decoy to trick Nus' men into thinking they've blown up the Athena. The process leaves The Doctor speaking gibberish, though ("There's glue in the shoe"), and Jett has to rally the cadets, assigning them stations and giving them a crash course in emergency response. Nothing like real-world training, huh?

While Jett and the cadets search for a way to defeat the minefield, Nus takes control of the school's detached atrium, which is now trashed with graffiti, and broadcasts a grandiose speech, recalling how the Federation ignored his mining community's cries for help and instead "rained red hellfire" down upon them. Now he wants to put the Federation on trial for "crimes against democracy," with Nahla as their stand-in... and he appoints Anisha judge and jury. Nahla defends herself well against Nus' rhetorical attacks, but Anisha reminds her the Federation wasn't there for her when she went to prison: "I needed what they said they believed in. I needed understanding, and decency." She's not ready to forgive Nahla, either, angrily telling her: "I want you to have no shelter from this." 

Back on the Athena, The Doctor is still glitching out ("Don't cross the Rubincon with glue on your shoes"), but Sam picks up on a pattern in his gibberish. Rubin particles are used in the creation of the Omega molecule, and they can be used to stabilize the molecule and defuse the mines. Tarima removes her inhibitor and uses her special mind powers to enter Caleb's memories and sense where his mother is now. They head there while working out an algorithm to defuse the mines, and Jett tells them this serves as their final exam: "If you pass, we live. If you fail, we're all dead."  

They might be too late, though. At the trial, Nahla speaks eloquently in her own defense, pointing out to Anisha that the Federation pilot Nus killed was a parent, too... and that Nahla's own child was taken from her. But Anisha is ultimately unmoved, declaring that "Nahla Ake is guilty." Nus cackles in triumph and is about to sentence Nahla when Caleb arrives via shuttle, making a last-minute plea to his mom. He tells her Starfleet Academy has turned his life around and given him a real community of friends: "For the first time in my life, I realized I have something to offer." Nahla believed in him, too, and he doesn't want to stay stuck in his past trauma: "I've been looking for home for so long. And I think I've finally found it."

Nus laughs it off as "brainwashing," but Nahla hits him with another truth bomb: His mining community wasn't attacked by the Federation. They were mining an unstable element that exploded, causing the "red hellfire" Nus blamed for his community's demise. She asks the others if they want to follow "an angry child with his finger on the trigger," and suddenly, Nus is alone, abandoned by his acolytes. A furious Nus tries to trigger the Omega mines to explode — but the mines have already been defused by the cadets' quick work. With the minefield deactivated, Starfleet rushes in to arrest Nus, with Anisha and Nahla both giving him a knuckle sandwich on the way out.   

The Athena's saucer reconnects to the atrium, and the school is whole again. Caleb is invited to a private reception with the President of the Federation, and his mom and Nahla share a knowing nod. Caleb and Anisha are heading to Earth during his summer break, like they always planned, and she tells him how proud she is of the man he's become. Caleb reunites with Tarima and his friends, and he marvels at how far he's come in one school year: "Home was never something I could even imagine. That's what I've found here." (As a reminder, "Starfleet Academy" has already been renewed for Season 2.)   

Alright, Trekkies, it's your turn: Give the finale — and Season 1 as a whole — a grade in our polls, and beam down to the comments to share your thoughts.