If you want to know what powers Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti gave the answer straight: empathy and conversation. During their global press conference, they framed the new Paramount+ series as a values-forward story where listening is action and optimism is earned.
Empathy Is The Bedrock of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Paul Giamatti set the tone by naming the value he believes anchors Trek at its best.
“Empathy. Kind of openness to everybody. Other cultures and that openness. I think that seems to me to feel like a bedrock value that is instilled in people. You know, the prime directive is to not mess with things, but to be open to them, and, you know.
Although that is a complicated notion in itself, you know? Should you have sort of boundaries, or should you try to sort of maybe interfere in things? I don’t know. But empathy to me feels like a really basic value.”
That answer reads like a mission statement for the show. The cadets will not inherit a perfect Federation. They will inherit responsibility. Empathy becomes the operating system for every hard choice, from first contact to conflict resolution, and it aligns the series with Trek’s most enduring tradition.
Conversation Is The Engine
Holly Hunter expanded the idea from feeling to practice. For her, communication is the franchise’s signature move.
“Yeah, I agree. And I also think, you know, discussion. Star Trek is about communication. And communication across the galaxy. Communication with planets who, you know, there’s difficulties from different languages to different political beliefs.
But I think Star Trek is all about conversation and people continuing to discuss. And be open with each other. To get to negotiations, and to get then to solutions for community.”
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This is Trek’s playbook. Translate before you escalate. Build shared language, then build peace. The Academy’s classroom and starship settings turn that ethos into a cadence, where every mission becomes a dialogue that pushes past fear toward agreement.
Star Trek As A Filmed Conversation
Hunter also described why this approach keeps audiences coming back, decade after decade.
“Well, you know, I think we had briefly mentioned before that I started with my father watching it when the first season with Shatner and Nimoy. But I think that I had kind of an appetite for talking about, for having this kind of filmed, in a way, it’s a filmed conversation about what’s going on?”
That phrase, “filmed conversation,” captures the heart of Star Trek. Starfleet Academy modernizes it by letting a new generation lead the discussion, bringing fresh cultural, scientific, and ethical perspectives into the room.
Solutions Matter
And crucially, Hunter ties that conversation to outcomes.
“You know, what’s going on with us as human beings? And how do human beings navigate all the complexities of our lives in a moral universe? Because the context that Starfleet offers us, that Star Trek offers us is that comforting thing.
That’s why I think people keep coming back to it, why it is evergreen, is because, it gives us conflict, but it also gives us solutions. Solutions, wow. I like those.”
Conflict without resolution is noise. Trek promises resolution as practice, not perfection. In the Academy era, that means cadets who treat empathy as a skill and conversation as a tool, then turn both into tangible solutions.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres January 15, 2026 on Paramount+, with two episodes at launch and new episodes weekly through March 12.
About Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Release Date: January 15, 2026
Showrunners: Alex Kurtzman, Noga Landau
Composer: Jeff Russo
Executive Producers: Alex Kurtzman, Noga Landau, Gaia Violo, Aaron Baiers, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Jenny Lumet, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, Frank Siracusa, John Weber
Production: Secret Hideout, Roddenberry Entertainment, CBS Studios
Cast: Holly Hunter, Sandro Rosta, Karim Diané, Kerrice Brooks, George Hawkins, Bella Shepard, Zoë Steiner, Robert Picardo, Tig Notaro, Oded Fehr
Synopsis
STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY introduces viewers to a young group of cadets who come together to pursue a common dream of hope and optimism. Under the watchful and demanding eyes of their instructors, they discover what it takes to become Starfleet officers as they navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves and a new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself.
Which Starfleet conversations changed how you see Trek’s values? How should the Academy teach empathy when the stakes are life and death? What solution-first moments do you want to see this season? Share in the comments or @me with your take.
KEEP READING: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Review – Hope, Hard Lessons, And Gorgeous New Frontiers
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