The Life of the Stars
Tarima returns but the physical damage she suffered from saving the crew on the Miyazaki forces her to move from the War College to Starfleet Academy. Lt. Tilly takes a break from teaching third years, at the request of Chancellor Ake, to teach theater to the first year cadets. And SAM’s very existence is on the line as her glitching becomes overwhelming.
Warning: Spoilers below
Tarima Returns
After missing the All Worlds Day episode, Tarima returns. She’s being met by the Doctor and Chancellor Ake, as she’s been transferred from the War College to Starfleet Academy. The Doctor recaps all he’s seen in his nearly millennium in existence starting as a hologram on Voyager before transferring to this show set in the distant future from that one. Meanwhile, everyone involved in Starfleet and the War College has determined that Tarima needs to be on a science course because another incident could prove fatal. And the War College doesn’t offer much in the way of science, so she’s now a Starfleet cadet.
Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
The rest of the Starfleet cadets continue to struggle in the wake of the Miyazaki. They are conducting bridge training under Commander Reno and perform so badly that she calls it “a spectacular failure of teamwork.” The kids need something to get back on course, so Chancellor Ake has called in the big guns.
Tilly Returns
Lt. Sylvia Tilly was a major player on Star Trek: Discovery. She served as Michael Burnham’s roommate when Burnham returned to Starfleet after her mutiny and punishment. From there, she went up the chain of command, even being first officer of Discovery when Saru served as Captain. By the end of Discovery, she was an instructor for Starfleet Academy. Chancellor Ake has decided that Tilly will teach a mandatory theater class to first year cadets to help them recover from what happened on the Miyazaki.
Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
The decision is met with obvious pushback. Most of the cadets don’t want to take part in a theater class, despite Tilly’s assertion that theater is one of the most important traits a captain can know. She encourages the cadets to go through historic plays from Starfleet worlds and they will then study it. SAM is the only cadet who seems elated by the decision. Her holographic nature makes it possible for her to scan through every play in existence from every world at a rate that’s impossible for photonics to match. She settles on the “ancient Earth” play “Our Town” for her presentation.
SAM in Peril
When SAM makes her presentation, Tilly is excited about her choice. She starts assigning parts to the cadets. SAM is chosen to play Emily, the girl who marries George before dying at a young age and becoming a “ghost girl” for viewers. Unfortunately, SAM starts glitching to a point that she must go see the Doctor. He can’t help her and she suggests going to Kasq, her home world, for treatment. The Doctor and Chancellor Ake agree to accompany her since the planet is not one of the more typical ones associated with the Federation.
Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
Genesis and Tarima enter their room to see that she’s gone but has left them something special. SAM left the part of Emily to Tarima, thinking it will speak to her. She also leaves a toothbrush to Genesis. Both Tarima and Genesis are confused by how she decided to show her love and appreciation but both understand it’s just SAM.
Kasq
Back on SAM’s home world, the Kasqians build a virtual Starfleet Academy “to make them feel at home.” (It’s to save money on sets.) The creators quickly swarm SAM to try to determine what’s wrong with their Emissary. They determine that everything she’s experienced at Starfleet has overloaded her. They determine Starfleet was able to destroy her in 209 days despite it taking them two centuries to create her, and they will terminate her. It seems like a bleak end for the show’s most upbeat character.
Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
The Doctor has been distant the entire time. He exists out of time and has refused to serve as a mentor to her. He created a daughter once whom he loved, but she was destroyed, so he tried to remain distant to protect himself. Now, he sees that it will cost everyone SAM, so he stands up for her rights. He points out that the Creators never taught her resilience. This is something that children of other species learn, but SAM never had a childhood. He pushes for them to recreate her as a child and let her grow. She’ll experience 17 years in 2 weeks and the Doctor will serve as mentor and father to ensure her continued existence.
Our Town
Back at the Academy, most of the cadets are getting into the play in honor of SAM. But Tarima continues pushing back. She feels like Tilly is singling her out and tries not to address the trauma she experienced. She gets drunk and contacts Caleb. He goes to see her and enjoys her company until she tries to push things too far. He wants to protect her from herself, but she believes everybody only sees her as a monster rather than a fellow cadet. Back in class, she continues her pushback, finally admitting that she sees herself as the play’s “ghost girl.”
Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
Later, the cadets are awaiting news on SAM and trying to figure out how to help Tarima. Ocam leads the way as the stage manager. The cadets perform the play for themselves when Tarima makes the decision to join the land of the living rather than the land of the dead. Reminiscent of the 1940 movie version of “Our Town.” She joins her fellow cadets to complete the play. When SAM returns, they are all there to greet her and welcome her back home. As Tilly leaves, she gets a warm sendoff from her former Discovery crewmate Reno and a reconciliation from Tarima.
What’s Next?
There’s only two episodes left and it seems like there’s not much of an overarching narrative to this season. Hopefully, we get Paul Giamatti and Tatiana Maslany back soon to wrap up how the series started. Still, this episode did a better job of following up on episode six than episode seven did. This one deals with trauma and PTSD. It makes sense for Tarima to not be around for a bit. Maybe they should’ve kept her out longer. Either way, the theater aspect makes sense since a lot of captains have to posture during diplomacy and military action. It was a nice episode that could’ve been better.
Check out Star Trek: Starfleet Academy streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus.
Article Written By: Jeremy Brown for Stelmach Brown Media 2026
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