‘Star Trek’ Legend Robert Picardo on Why the ‘Starfleet Academy’ Cadets Talk Like Modern Kids

There are definitely a few things you can critique about the latest Star Trek show, Starfleet Academy, but it’s also hard to deny that the series has come under some incredibly picky scrutiny by some corners of social media, often for things perceived as not being aligned with the kind of supposed decorum that is expected of Star Trek characters. One thing that’s come up regularly after just three episodes, however, is that these gosh darn youths talk a lot like they’re from 2025 for kids from the 32nd century.

While Star Trek has long dabbled with trying to establish a futuristic culture away from contemporary trends and tones, it’s not always regularly adhered to that—but in general, it has tried to adopt a broadly neutral tone and style of talking for Starfleet officers over the years, so when Starfleet Academy comes along with a much more relaxed one, it’s not all that surprising that some Trek fans are a little irked.

But one of the show’s stars—Voyager alum Robert Picardo, who returns as the holographic Doctor for Starfleet Academy—has offered an interesting suggestion as to why that’s the case, beyond the series simply being written in our modern time: these kids are here to learn how to be Starfleet officers, and aren’t arriving at the academy fully formed in that mold yet, so they need someone to teach them how to. And this week’s episode, set around the Academy’s own debate club, will start teaching them that… with the Doctor himself leading the charge.

“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,’†Picardo recently told Collider about the Doctor’s role in spearheading Starfleet Academy’s debate lessons. “But I do believe that, especially in our new show, the cadets talk like kids in the 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 [as a teacher].â€

Of course, the Doctor has a long history with debate, beyond his charmingly annoying ability to natter the ear off of half of Voyager‘s crew, including fostering his burgeoning passion for writing that ultimately led to him and Captain Janeway having to legally advocate for the creative rights of holographic beings in “Author, Authorâ€. But Picardo is also definitely right that it makes a lot of sense that the Academy’s new generation of cadets needs to learn how to code-switch, and finding the difference between how they talk among themselves as peers and how to talk as Starfleet officers is another nice example of the show applying a Star Trek lesson through its academic setting.

The cadets probably won’t come out of this episode immediately taking in “mid-galactic,†as Picardo aptly put it, much to the chagrin of certain detractors, but it’s nevertheless an interesting way to look at the show’s distinctly contemporary voice in a suitably Star Trek light.

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