Each episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is preceded by a new piece of animation celebrating the 60th anniversary of the original Star Trek, as we see James T. Kirk's Enterprise morph into Jean Luc-Picard's starship and various others from throughout the franchise's long and oft-celebrated life. The new series is filled with references, Easter eggs, and even ongoing characters from past shows. Robert Picardo reprises his Star Trek: Voyager role as the holographic Doctor, who, centuries later, is still kicking and now a faculty member at the titular academy. Tig Notaro moves over from Star Trek: Discovery as sarcastic engineer Jett Reno. When a Klingon ship threatens our heroes, the soundtrack features Jerry Goldsmith's Klingon theme from the Star Trek: The Motion Picture score. There's talk of the humpback whales from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, live-action versions of aliens previously only seen on the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks, and the Academy's memorial wall is filled with names of both major and minor characters from past Trek projects. (Squint, and you'll even spot a Peter Preston, Scotty's nephew who died in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.)
So, yes, there's history aplenty throughout the new show, created by Gaia Violo. But it's not as if the franchise has been reluctant to celebrate its history in the past. If anything, the streaming era of Trek has dwelled on the good old days far too much. Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds both began their stories only a few years before the events of the original series, with new actors playing the likes of Spock and Uhura. Patrick Stewart reprised his most famous role in the sequel series Star Trek: Picard, and the only season of that show that fans liked was the one that reunited him with the rest of the Next Generation cast. The main character of Lower Decks was a Starfleet fanboy constantly namechecking characters and alien races from earlier series. Even though Discovery eventually leaped ahead to the 32nd century, it felt like Star Trek had given up on the whole idea of boldly going where no one has gone before. And no matter how entertaining it can be to play the hits, eventually that gets tired; the first two seasons of Strange New Worlds are among the best stretches of Trek ever, but this year's third season was an overly familiar disappointment.
Nahla Ake, the new Academy chancellor on Starfleet Academy, played by the great Holly Hunter, even cites the "to boldly go" line when addressing her young charges in an episode of the new series. But she, and the series around her, really mean it. It's not just that these events take place 800-odd years after nearly every prior Trek story. It's that Violo, current Trek boss Alex Kurtzman (who directed the first episode), and friends are trying something genuinely new for the franchise:
They've made a YA drama out of it.