Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 7 Review — Ko’Zeine

The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 7.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy slows things down this week, a move that probably shouldn’t surprise anyone given the high-stakes events that unfolded in “Come, Let’s Away.” And, to be fair, “Ko’Zeine” isn’t a bad hour. In fact, it offers some much-needed insight into two of the show’s most underserved characters. But after a string of three truly excellent episodes, it’s jarring to settle for one that feels… just okay. 

As the spring semester holiday looms, everyone’s basically just trying to hold it together. Caleb’s fretting about whether to contact Tarima, now relocated home to Betazed to recover from removing her implant and melting a squad of menacing aliens with her mind. (At least she’s seemingly out of her coma? Yay?) Sam’s still a bit glitchy — literally – as a result of her injuries. And everyone’s still in mourning, not just for the death of War College cadet B’Avi, but the sort of consequence-free cocoon they’d all been living in up to this point. Nus Braka’s scheme forced them all to grow up in sudden and uncomfortable ways, to confront the idea that this path they’ve chosen has real and occasionally deadly risks. But other than a few throwaway comments here and there, “Ko’Zeine” doesn’t really deal with much of the fallout directly. 

Part of the reason for that is that there’s been a time jump. Roughly a month has gone by since the events of “Come, Let’s Away,” so we’ve missed out on their immediate aftermath. We didn’t get the information dumps that would have provided more detail about what, precisely, Braka stole or how he might intend to use it. We didn’t see the Federation’s initial response in terms of trying to hunt him down. Even the immediate shock of grief has passed. Tarima’s already woken up and returned home. Everyone’s trying to get on with things because that’s what people do, even and especially in the face of tragedy. It’s All Worlds Day — the most hilariously bland-sounding of holidays — and there are celebrations to be had. Obligations to be met. Families to be visited. So that’s what everyone does. Mostly. Which, yeah, makes sense, but still kind of feels like we missed a step somewhere. 

The episode follows a pair of dual storylines. The first sees Darem hauled back to the Khonian Realm to celebrate his sealing, the fulfillment of an engagement we’ve never heard about before to a woman we’ve never met. Jay-Den gets carried along for the ride after incorrectly assuming his classmate was being kidnapped. What follows is an introduction to both Khonian culture and a side of Darem we’ve never seen before — he’s… surprisingly nice and accommodating? — as Jay-Den is suddenly forced to serve in the role of his “Ko’Zeine,” a.k.a. Best Man. 

This is all fraught in a typically young-adult-fiction sort of way, as Darem and Jay-Den’s scenes continue to crackle with the kind of chemistry that’s certain to be problematic when one of them has an alleged fiancé waiting to marry them and the other’s got a boyfriend back home. But once again, Karim Diané and George Hawkins are great together, as Jay-Den serves as Darem’s sounding board and cheerleader, stepping up to give a top-tier best man speech about the way that his classmate — and friend —  not only helped him find his own voice, but has become a self-assured leader amongst their Academy crew.  

Elsewhere, the episode also follows Caleb and Genesis, who have both, for very different reasons, opted to stay behind in the locked-down Academy rather than journey elsewhere. Caleb turned up his nose at the host family Ake found for him to stay with and Genesis is so obviously lying when she says her father had a last-minute obligation come up that it’s almost commendable how long the episode commits to the bit that she’s just down for a weekend of random competitive rulebreaking hinjinks with her favorite no consequences classmate who also happens to be the school’s best hacker. What a coincidence!

Seven episodes in, Genesis is still the member of our core crew that we know least about, and “Ko’Zein” gives us something that feels almost like a reason for it: She doesn’t technically belong at the Academy. She altered her recommendations to land a place in this cadet class, and really isn’t sure that she’s capable of being the person that her father so clearly wants her to become. Ake wants to submit Genesis for the Academy’s pre-command track, a sort of pre-med style crash course in captain’s training for those who’ve displayed particular skills.

As part of this, the committee will re-review all of her initial application materials and speak with her references, which all seems innocuous enough… at least until Genesis freaks out about it, and concocts an elaborate plan involving Caleb, Ake’s captain’s chair, and a cloned key to try and cover up the fact that she altered the originals. Her crime is, in the grand scheme of things, hardly the worst thing in the world, particularly given how eminently capable she’s already proven herself to be as a student and a leader. But maintaining her can-do, ready for anything, constantly striving image comes at a very real personal cost, and this is the first we’re really seeing of how her fear of failure has shaped her.

Much like in “Vitus Reflux,” Genesis and Darem’s stories are used as mirrors for each other, as each wrestles with the pressures of expectation, fear, and self-doubt in different ways. Are either of them on paths of their own choosing? Are they making themselves smaller or lesser to fit into preconceptions of who they’re meant to be? What do they each really want out of their lives, and how does their Starfleet Academy experience help them figure out what that is? These are, of course, precisely the kinds of questions that college is meant to force you to face, and it’s nice to see that’s still true even hundreds of years in the future. The episode ends with Darem annulling his new marriage and abdicating his throne, while Genesis is removed from the captain’s track. It’s a failure on a technical level, for both of them, or at least a man like Genesis’s father would probably say so. But it’s also a fresh start, and there’s something awfully promising in that.

New episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premiere Thursdays on Paramount+, culminating with the finale on March 12.