Wait, So When *Is* ‘Starfleet Academy’ Set, Anyway?

We’re almost three weeks into Starfleet Academy, and the show, with some occasionally rebellious rockiness, has started to find its niche in the world of Star Trek. But one thing has kept bothering me across its first three episodes.

I have no idea when this show is taking place.

Now, I know this is a stupid thing to be thinking about. At the end of the day, it doesn’t actually matter to Starfleet Academy to know where exactly it fits in the Star Trek timeline. We know it’s the 32nd century; we know approximate timing—it’s somewhere around the early 3190s—and we also know that, really, nothing has happened in the show yet that rooting it in one very specific time and place has required an exact explanation on-screen. Especially so considering that the only Trek show Starfleet Academy has to have a direct connection with on the timeline is Discovery, a series that is no longer an ongoing concern.

I guess part of it is I’m a bit of an oldhead, especially when it comes to Starfleet Academy‘s rambunctiously charming cast of kids. The Trek I grew up with, namely Deep Space Nine and Voyager, opened by rooting itself in relation to direct moments in the late-24th-century setting they shared, spinning out of TNG—the personal fallout Picard’s assimilation has on Ben Sisko and the outbreak of conflict in earnest between the Maquis and the Cardassian Union. But while Academy does give us a few hints about the passage of time in what we’ve seen so far (Darem’s message to his parents at the top of episode three, “Vitus Reflux,â€Â notes that three weeks have passed since classes began, for example), it is broadly very vague about it.

Again, that’s not stopped one tiny corner of my Trek brain from relentlessly obsessing over it, no matter how little it matters. So let me try and lay down all the facts we know and try to lay out a working theory.

Star Trek: Discovery‘s Timeline in Comparison to Starfleet Academy

Discovery‘s third, fourth, and fifth seasons give us a broad time frame for its own events. Michael Burnham successfully jumps from the 23rd century to the 32nd in the opening of season three in the year 3188—and shortly thereafter (for us at least), thanks to temporal displacement, the USS Discovery and her crew follow in 3189. In that time, they learn about the cataclysmic galaxy-wide ramifications of the event known as the Burn and resolve its mysterious origins, laying the groundwork for a largely shattered Federation to start rebuilding itself.

Likewise, the next two seasons are given stardates that place them in the following years: 3190 for season four and 3191 for season five. Which means we can date some important things for the setup of Starfleet Academy‘s own internal timeline: Discovery season four opens with the formal reopening of Starfleet Academy itself, with Michael giving a speech to mark the occasion in the premiere episode, “Kobayashi Maru,â€Â and the season climaxes in “Coming Home†with the revelation that Starfleet and United Earth have begun talks for the latter to rejoin the Federation.

Starfleet Academy‘s Timeline in Comparison to Star Trek: Discovery

It’s the new show itself that starts throwing a few timeline curveballs. The first episode, “Kids These Daysâ€, has to follow some time after the events of Discovery season four, because its whole premise is about the USS Athena making its way to Earth to begin classes, the first academic year for the institution to take place on the planet since Starfleet was ousted after the Burn over a century prior (those classes are, specifically, described as the fall semester, so whatever year it’s taking place in, it’s later in it). The Athena also has no issues with a lengthy warp travel from where it was bringing aboard its last students and Earth itself, so the resolution of the dilithium shortages uncovered by Discovery at the end of season four has recovered enough that it’s at least not out of place for the Athena to casually be using its warp drive.

But when the ship is attacked by Nus Braka and the Venari Ral, we get our first odd note: the Discovery can’t come to the Athena‘s aid as it’s currently in the midst of an extensive refit. In Star Trek, the term “refit†is usually only used to describe a starship undergoing extensive technological overhauls, either complete system updates or even its old self being replaced by a new class of ship—transferring the name in the process but noting that refit with an alphabetical letter attached to its NCC registry number (all the versions of Enterprise, the Voyager-A in Prodigy, and of course, the Discovery itself).

We only ever see the Discovery undergo two major refits on-screen: the three-week process taken to update its systems and technology from the 23rd century to 32nd century standards, becoming the Discovery-A in the process, in the season three episode “Scavengers,†which takes place shortly after the Discovery has emerged out of time in 3189, and then again in the season five finale, “Life Itself,†in an epilogue set decades after the events of the show.

This can’t be the same refit mentioned in “Kids These Days,†because all that happens before the resolution of the Burn and United Earth rejoining the Federation. Considering as that, even delayed by the Venari Ral attack, we’re told that it will take the Athena around 15 hours to get to Earth, we can safely assume that a good chunk of Discovery season three after its refit didn’t happen in the space of less than a day!

Our next real piece of timeline information comes first in episode two of Starfleet Academy, “Beta Test,†where it’s established that the Federation is still in the process of deciding where its new official headquarters will be, after being positioned on the USS Federation throughout Discovery seasons three through five (it’s eventually decided to be established on Betazed, rather than its pre-Burn home in Paris on Earth).

Then “Vitus Reflux,†three weeks after the events of “Kids These Days,†gives us another: Jett Reno, talking to Darem about his issues with his fellow cadet Genesis, notes that she “left a starship on the edge of creation†to stay in a relationship with the Academy’s cadet master and first officer, Lura Thok, and take a teaching position at the academy. That ship, of course, has to be the Discovery, but considering that Reno is a regularly established member of the ship’s crew throughout seasons four and five with no mention of her taking leave, that would mean that Starfleet Academy has to take place after the conclusion of Discovery‘s fifth season in, presumably, the fall of 3191.

Enter Tilly

That brings us to one other important factor bridging Discovery and Starfleet Academy together: Sylvia Tilly. Once the academy is re-established in Discovery‘s fourth season, Tilly is given an opportunity to teach its first new cadets, departing Discovery as a full-time member of the crew in the season four episode “All Is Possibleâ€, which sees her go on a training mission with some of those early cadets. Tilly is seen again in season four’s finale and then more regularly throughout season five, where she mentions her work teaching academy cadets.

We know that, at some point, Tilly will make an appearance in Starfleet Academy—one that will likely be the thing that actually does clear up when the show is set. But if Starfleet Academy is about the first class of students since the Burn in around fall 3191, and Tilly has also been training cadets after the Academy was formally reopened at the beginning of season four the year prior, how do we reconcile that?

Well, through a technicality. Presumably before either the construction or retrofit of the USS Athena to become the Academy’s new travelling home based out of San Francisco, Starfleet had actually been teaching its first academy cadets in the field, based on the USS Federation and Starfleet HQ, since it was re-established in 3190. Once things settle down again by the conclusion of Discovery season five and more member worlds have rejoined the Federation, or at least begun to, Starfleet must have decided to reopen the academy on Earth, and thus Starfleet Academy follows the first class of cadets to be trained on the planet since the Burn, instead of the first academy students at all.

Is Any of This Actually Important to Starfleet Academy?

Absolutely not. If anything, it’s better for the show to not catch itself up trying to over-explain things and its connections to other Star Trek material—after all, it is serving as a major new onboarding point for new fans, just as Discovery did before it. But sometimes it’s fun to just nerd out over things that don’t really matter, as long as you don’t get too worked up over it.

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