Star Trek: Starfleet Academy tries something different, and I don't hate it

"Ake accepts the job, and to atone for her mistake in separating Mir from his mother, she pressgangs him into the Academy as a new recruit. Oh, she's also a Lanthanite (technically a human-lanthanite hybrid), and 422 years old, which means she remembers working for the pre-burn Federation. She isn't the only academy instructor with pre-burn experience in Starfleet. Jett Reno (Tig Notaro), who came to the 32nd century with Discovery, teaches the cadets physics. And the Doctor (Robert Picardo) is chief medical officer."

"I had hoped this would be the result of a deep cut to "The Living Witness," an episode of Voyager set in the 29th century where a copy of the Doctor is restored in a museum in the Delta Quadrant. At the end of that episode, that Doctor sets off for Earth, and having him show up would be a nice bit of closure; instead, he probably perished in the burn, which just makes me sad."

"Cadet Master Commander Lura Thok (Gina Yashere), who is a female Klingon-Jem'Hadar hybrid. Obviously, a female Jem'Hadar must be canon, because it's right there on screen, and that's how Trek canon works. But the Founders bred the Jem'Hadar in tanks, and they lived short, dangerous lives as warriors. What use would sex organs or sexual reproduction be to a species genetically engineered to do a specific job by a race of contemptuous changelings that treat their minions as little more than tools."

Ake accepts a position and, to atone for separating Mir from his mother, enrolls Mir in the Academy as a recruit. Ake is a 422-year-old human-lanthanite hybrid who remembers the pre-burn Federation. Instructors with pre-burn experience include Jett Reno teaching physics and the Doctor serving as chief medical officer. The Doctor constantly monitors cadets' biosigns and intervenes after detecting elevated excitatory neurotransmitters, raising privacy concerns. Starfleet fields its first holographic cadet, SAM. A female Klingon-Jem'Hadar hybrid cadet provokes questions about Jem'Hadar reproduction and the Founders' tank-breeding practices; Jem'Hadar origin as tank-bred warriors with short lives makes sexual reproduction seem unnecessary.

Read at Ars Technica