[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 4]
After establishing itself with a handful of delightfully fresh episodes, this week Starfleet Academy is digging into the kind of deep moral, humanitarian quandaries that Star Trek is known for. Episode 4, “Vox in Excelso” follows Jay-Den (Karim Diané) and the other cadets as a crash threatens to wipe out what’s left of the Klingons after The Burn. The crisis coincides with the students speech and debate unit with The Doctor (Robert Picardo), a subject that riddles Jay-Den with anxiety and frustration. Thankfully, he finds support among his classmates and the unexpectedly kind guidance of Cadet Commander Thok (Gina Yashere).
Recently, I sat down with Picardo and Yashere to discuss “Vox in Excelso” and their roles in Starfleet Academy. During our conversation, Picardo spoke about the ways The Doctor has changed in the last 800 years since his time with the Voyager and Prodigy crews, as well as what he stands to learn from Starfleet Academy’s holographic student SAM (Kerrice Brooks). He also spoke about operating as the debate professor and how this episode is very classic Star Trek in the way it appears to be lighthearted at first before digging into the real conflict. Meanwhile, Yashere unpacked Lura Thok’s heart-to-heart moment with Jay-Den and her romantic relationship Tig Notaro’s Jet Reno. Finally, the duo revealed which Season 2 episodes they’re most excited for you to see next year. You can read our full conversation below or watch it in the player above.
The Doctor May Need a Reboot on ‘Starfleet Academy’ After 800 Years of Loss
“I think that it can renew his sense of fun and adventure.”
- Image via Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
COLLIDER: Robert, you’re returning to this established role that you’ve had, but there are all these new layers to your role as The Doctor as a teacher. What surprised you the most about how your role changed in Starfleet Academy?
ROBERT PICARDO: I think trying to wrap my mind around being 800 years on as an artificial intelligence, all of that additional experience and data and digital memory, what does it even mean? But the conclusion I started with was he couldn’t be too interested in forming interpersonal relationships with organics that had that pesky habit of dying after you get to know them, generation after generation. So I think, in a strange way, he was closer to the way he was upon initial activation. He had more apparent socialization, and he had more color to his personality, but he wasn’t any more interested in getting to know anyone. You know what I mean? It seemed like he was holding people at arm’s length.
You could see it in the pilot when the young hologram student, played by Kerrice Brooks, named SAM, wants to be mentored by him. He’ll have none of it. So, you’ll see a lot of push-pull between him and SAM. Then, later in this season, you’ll see a surprising side of him that people who remember the character before have never seen before.
Speaking of his relationship with SAM, I am curious, because she comes from an entire holographic race, and he sort of resists mentoring her first, what is something that he can learn from her now in his 900 years?
PICARDO: Both the character and the actress have an extraordinary exuberance and energy and are just plain fun to be around, so I think that it can renew his sense of fun and adventure, because she just she is relentlessly upbeat.
I love that so much.
‘Starfleet Academy’s Number One Has a Heart of Gold
“It’s nice to see a different facet of her personality and show that she actually cares about these kids.”
Gina, Lura is such a no-nonsense presence, and she’s such a great foil to Holly’s laid-back Captain Nahla, but she’s also got this really soft heart underneath all of her commands. Can you talk a bit about the moment in Episode 4 when she lets those walls down with Jay-Den and is able to give him the guidance that he needs?
GINA YASHERE: That is definitely my favorite scene, or one of my favorite scenes, because obviously, you just see her screaming at kids all day long and just putting the fear of God into them. It’s nice to see a different facet of her personality and show that she actually cares about these kids, that she actually has empathy, and that underneath that hard exterior, she does have not one but two hearts. She’s got two hearts under there.
It was a beautiful, intimate scene, and it was just pared down to the naked emotion of it, and her just trying to help this kid not hate on himself and not feel ashamed of what he is, and her telling him in his own way that he is a warrior and that his father did see it, that he wasn’t actually dumped by his family, that they basically let him free. Yeah, that was a beautiful scene, and I was really happy doing it, and I was happy to do it. As I was doing the scene, I was like, “I hope this looks and comes out as good as it feels right now,” and watching it back, I was like, “Yeah!”
I love that we also get a reveal in Episode 3 that Lura and Reno are in a relationship.
YASHERE: Yes!
While we don’t spend a lot of time with these two in their personal time, I would love for you to expand on that relationship. How did that connection come about? What are they like off the clock?
YASHERE: You’ll see elements of it in that Lura doesn’t care. She’ll go up to Reno in front of a cadet and be very upset with her about her forgetting some ingredient for dinner, and that is kind of their dynamic, where Lura’s always upset, and Jett is always trying to calm her down, “Don’t worry, my love. I will sort it out.” So that is kind of the dynamic of the relationship that we’ve got right now. But so far, we haven’t done that much off of the ship or private sector stuff with them yet, so I’m looking forward to doing more of that.
Exciting. Speaking of when your characters aren’t teaching, do they have other roles on the ship that we haven’t seen them in yet?
YASHERE: Well, obviously, Lura is the captain’s number one, so she’s actually commanding the ship when the captain is indisposed. Not only is she in charge of the kids at the school, she’s also in command of the bridge when the captain’s not available. So that’s a lot. She’s got two full-time jobs, so she’s pretty busy.
PICARDO: And The Doctor helps the cadets. There’s an episode where I’m coaching them in rhetorical speech because The Doctor, as we know, loves the sound of his own voice. He loves to hear himself talk. He could listen to himself all day long. So, that’s one other thing. And also, of course, I run the opera club. You learn that in the pilot.
YASHERE: And Lura is also a phys-ed teacher. I forgot about that, too.
Robert Picardo Teases a Medical Drama Mystery in ‘Starfleet Academy’ Season 2
“That is great for one of our cadets. He’s terrific in it.”
Speaking of The Doctor running the debate episode…
PICARDO: Yes. I am coaching them on the importance of presenting an argument.
What was your first thought when you saw that aspect of your character from Voyager coming back this way?
PICARDO: My very first thought was that I was president of the debating club in high school, which I wasn’t a very good debater, but I cared a lot about it. That’s the first thing I thought. It was like, “Oh, look at this. It finally paid off!” But I do believe that, especially in our new show, the cadets talk like kids in present day world and in their own vernaculars, but it is important to note that it’s almost like old Star Trek meets new Star Trek. We used to speak in a different way in the old series, that mid-galactic speech, so I think it’s important that when you’re marshaling an argument in a diplomatic situation, that you can speak in well-thought-out and well-planned paragraphs, and not just, “Um, well, you know, kind of,” and that kind of thing. So, I do think that The Doctor was pretty demanding.
Then, of course, the episode becomes about something entirely different than he sets out. He can’t stop it from becoming about this terrible thing that’s happened to the Klingon people and its impact on our cadet. So, it’s funny that the show starts out being one thing, and then it’s hijacked by this tragedy. The best Star Trek episodes, the ones where you don’t see it coming, where there’s a turn, and it becomes something else.
I completely agree. Lastly, just to wrap up, I know you guys have been filming Season 2 for a few months. Do you have a favorite episode that you’ve filmed so far from Season 2?
YASHERE: Episode 2 of Season 2 is a really good one for Jett and Lura.
I love that.
PICARDO: I’m not sure the number, but I can say simply there’s a big medical show, a medical mystery show.
YASHERE: Oh, that was a good one.
PICARDO: I think that I’m allowed to say that much for Season 2. That is great for one of our cadets. He’s terrific in it, and I have some fun stuff with him.
New Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episodes arrive every Thursday on Paramount+. Stay tuned at Collider for more interviews and updates.
- Release Date
-
January 15, 2026
- Network
-
Paramount+
- Showrunner
-
Alex Kurtzman, Noga Landau
