Star Trek: Starfleet Academy: What Is The Burn And Why Is It So Important?

This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" season 1, episodes 1 and 2 — "Kids These Days" and "Beta Test."

"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" marks a pivotal moment in the franchise's history, in more ways than one. Not only is "Starfleet Academy" a YA live-action series that punches above its weight class, but it also shows how this universe has managed to recover from a pivotal event known as the Burn.

The Burn occurred sometime around the year 3069 and did terrible things to the Federation. The crew of the Discovery finds this out the hard way in "Star Trek: Discovery" season 3, when a time jump strands them in a crime-ridden post-Burn future where Starfleet's ships have been destroyed by this mysterious galaxy-wide event. The Burn ultimately turns out to be a dilithium crystal glitch that caused the spaceships' warp drives to explode on a massive scale. The unwitting and unwilling culprit is the dilithium-attuned Kelpien called Su'Kal (Bill Irwin and David Benjamin Tomlinson), whose mental anguish over seeing his mother Issa (Hannah Spear) die caused the incident. 

"Starfleet Academy" focuses on the first class of new Starfleet officer trainees after the Federation finally recovers enough to resume proper operations. Because of this, the show both inherently legitimizes the Burn event and makes it a central part of the story.  

The Burn effectively broke down the "Star Trek" universe, so you might see the word "controversial" thrown around when it comes to the event. As such, it may be surprising to see "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" embrace the Burn and what it did to the galaxy so thoroughly ... but on the other hand, it's understandable that the show wants to lean on established events. 

What better way to focus on the Starfleet Academy than to pick what's effectively a full reboot point in its history? 

There are also those in the cast of characters who have personally experienced the Burn and its aftermath — notably, Holly Hunter's long-living half-Lanthanite Nahla Ake and Robert Picardo's 900-year-old hologram from "Star Trek Voyager," The Doctor. In an exclusive interview with /Film's Jacob Hall, Picardo explained why the Doctor looks different but acts the same on "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy." There's every chance that his character or Ake might end up sharing their memories about the Burn in the upcoming episodes of the show.  

"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" is streaming on Paramount+.