Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 7 Makes A Perfect Double Feature With A Classic TOS Adventure

This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" season 1, episode 7, "Ko'Zeine."

A month has passed from the fateful events of "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" episode 6, "Come, Let's Away." The wounds from that episode haven't healed, but they've scarred over enough for "Ko'Zeine" to maintain a comparatively light tone. Jay-Den (Karim Diané) has plans with his boyfriend Kyle (Dale Whibley). Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) juggles multiple storyline balls by infuriating Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter), potentially dropping the relationship ball by struggling to stay in touch with the injured Tarima (Zoë Steiner), and forming a surprising bond with Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard). In other words, it's business as usual at the Academy.

Unless you're Darem Reymi (George Hawkins), that is. Near the beginning of the episode, he's hoisted off to his native Khionian realm for a fast-tracked wedding with her royal sweetheart, Kaira (Jaelynn Thora Brooks). Jay-Den mistakes Darem's rather enthusiastic retrieval for a kidnapping and follows through the portal, only to find himself in the best man-esque Ko'Zeine role. As it happens, "Star Trek" fans might find the episode's premise of a main character being effectively abducted for a strange wedding ritual familiar. "Ko'Zeine" bears more than a passing familiarity with "Star Trek: The Original Series" episode "Amok Time," which famously forces Spock (Leonard Nimoy) to return to his native Vulcan after showing symptoms of pon farr, a potentially fatal stage of his species' mating cycle.  

"Amok Time" and "Ko'Zeine" take radically different approaches to the alien wedding theme, but they also share thematic similarities. Since "Amok Time" also happens to be one of the very best "Star Trek: The Original Series" episodes, viewing it back to back with its "Starfleet Academy" spiritual sibling is a good time just waiting to be had. 

"Amok Time" is the first time "Star Trek" maps out the history of Spock's love life with T'Pring (Arlene Martel), a canny fellow Vulcan who our hero is supposed to marry. However, it turns out that T'Pring doesn't truly want to marry Spock. Her heart belongs to Stonn (Lawrence Montaigne), and to get out of the marriage, she invokes her right to a duel to the death between Spock and her chosen representative — who, of course, is one James T. Kirk (William Shatner). 

The episode made the "biological imperative to mate" concept of pon farr massively popular among the fandom (and fan fiction writers), and critical analysis of the episode has framed it as an exploration of LGBTQ+ identity (Spock's, of course). Combined with Spock's emotional behavior in the episode, the duel in "Amok Time" also kicked off the torrent of Kirk/Spock fan fiction that every "Star Trek" aficionado has bumped into at some point of their fandom (likely many, many times). 

Like "Amok Time," "Ko'Zeine" whisks two friends into a strange and complicated wedding situation that they have to navigate. Here, the approach is decidedly pacifist and philosophical — the physical need of pon farr is replaced by Darem's sense of duty to his people and his betrothed, and the duel is replaced by verbal confrontations and speeches. However, what was mere fan fiction in "Amok Time" comes across as something far more real here: Unlike "The Original Series," the YA-flavored "Starfleet Academy" is an openly queer show, and there are key moments between Jay-Den and Darem that are far more romantically charged than anything Kirk and Spock do in "Amok Time." 

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