Prime Video's 16-Episode Spinoff Is Everything Star Trek's Canceled Series Should Have Been

Published Oct 31, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT Tom is a Senior Staff Writer at Screen Rant, with expertise covering everything from hilarious sitcoms to jaw-dropping sci-fi epics. Initially he was an Updates writer, though before long he found his way to the TV and movies team. He now spends his days keeping Screen Rant readers informed about the TV shows of yesteryear, whether it's recommending hidden gems that may have been missed by genre fans or deep diving into ways your favorite shows have (or haven't) stood the test of time. Tom is based in the UK and when he's not writing about TV shows, he's watching them. He's also an avid horror fiction writer, gamer, and has a Dungeons and Dragons habit that he tries (and fails) to keep in check. Few modern Star Trek shows have been as disappointing as Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. The Paramount+ series wasn’t necessarily bad, and its younger cast offered a welcome change of perspective. However, a drama about Academy students learning to uphold Starfleet’s ideals should have been much more entertaining. Its central concept promised a fresh examination of one of the most important institutions in the Star Trek universe. Sadly, what arrived on screens was mostly familiar college-drama tropes that did little to make itself feel essential to the franchise. The lackluster arrival and subsequent cancellation of Starfleet Academy in 2026 before its upcoming second season arrives in 2027 stings especially hard because another modern sci-fi series demonstrated how much potential its premise possessed. While a world away from grand space operas, Prime Video’s Gen V was to The Boys what Starfleet Academy was to the wider Star Trek universe: a campus spinoff following its next generation. Where Starfleet Academy struggled to justify that shift in perspective, Gen V made it feel essential to the wider franchise. Across two seasons and 16 episodes, Gen V follows the superpowered students of Godolkin University, where success means navigating corporate exploitation alongside typical college problems. Across the course of the show, these future heroes discover that the institution promising them extraordinary futures has sinister priorities. The result is a campus drama whose setting actively strengthens its established universe rather than seeming like a borderline-gimmick. As a college spinoff of an established science fiction property, it beats Star Trek: Starfleet Academy in almost every way. Gen V Shows Star Trek How To Properly Do A College Spinoff Unlike Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Gen V understands that a college spinoff of a sci-fi show needs to do more than gather younger characters in one place then throw in some recognizable iconography from the parent series. Gen V managed to deliver some great young-adult drama, but put a unique The Boys spin on all of it. Godolkin’s rankings turn popularity into professional opportunity, while the connections to Vought make education inseparable from corporate interests. Students compete for a future in an industry that treats their identities, bodies, and trauma as marketable assets. That is exactly the kind of institution the world of The Boys would produce. Crucially, those pressures shape the characters in ways that distinguish Gen V from simply being a standard college drama with a sci-fi aesthetic. Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) sees superhero success as a chance to overcome trauma her powers directly caused. Then there’s Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway), who experiences the exhausting overlap between bodily autonomy and public approval due to her power being size change. Problems like processing traumatic childhoods and body dysmorphia are textbook college drama fare, but superpowers and Vought’s involvement give those struggles an unmistakable The Boys flavor. Starfleet Academy had an equally strong opportunity, since it had the chance to show how inexperienced cadets learn to represent Starfleet’s highest ideals and become officers like the best Star Trek characters. There should have been plenty of problems unique to an education designed to teach students to represent order in a chaotic universe. Sadly, its campus rivalries and romances don’t feel distinctive from a college show set on president-day Earth. The issue isn’t that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy needs Gen V’s cynicism, violence, or gritty pessimistic atmosphere. Star Trek is at its best when its sci-fi comes with a healthy dose of optimism, and Starfleet Academy should be no different. The problem is that it never fully committed to making a future in Starfleet a factor in the choices made by its characters or the life they lead on campus. Gen V makes the concept of college life a new way to express the core themes of The Boys. Starfleet Academy too often treated the world of Star Trek as simply a setting for familiar campus drama. Gen V Proves Starfleet Academy Needed More 'Star Trek' The other half of Gen V’s success is that what happens at Godolkin to characters like Marie and Emma never feels sealed off from The Boys. Vought’s influence reaches into the classrooms students learn in, the careers they’re being groomed for, and (especially) the concealed experiments happening in secret facilities beneath the campus. The university reveals how the superhero industry reproduces itself, giving the spinoff a purpose beyond introducing a group of younger superpowered characters. Its connections to the main show also go both ways, with events in Gen V directly impacting the plot of The Boys. The virus developed beneath Godolkin becomes a major concern in The Boys season's 4 and 5. Later, Gen V’s second season ends with its students joining the resistance led by Starlight (Erin Moriarty). These developments make the campus story part of the same ongoing struggle. Gen V isn’t just set in the same world as The Boys. It actively changes it. Starfleet Academy certainly has franchise connections. The Doctor (Robert Picardo) returns from Star Trek: Voyager, while Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) provides continuity with Star Trek: Discovery, with its 32nd-century setting following directly from the events of Discovery too. The problem isn’t a shortage of recognizable elements from Star Trek. The problem is that these connections don’t make Starfleet Academy feel like it matters to the shows it borrows characters and concepts from. Homages acknowledge the franchise’s history, but nothing in the show develops it. Gen V demonstrates how a college spinoff can establish its own identity while making its parent universe richer. Starfleet Academy needed that same sense of purpose. Release Date 2023 - 2025-00-00 Network Prime Video Showrunner Michele Fazekas Cast Lizze Broadway Emma Meyer / Little Cricket Directors Nelson Cragg, Clare Kilner, Philip Sgriccia, Sanaa Hamri, Shana Stein, Steve Boyum Writers Craig Rosenberg Franchise(s) The Boys Creator(s) Craig Rosenberg, Evan Goldberg, Eric Kripke