Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is now available with a Paramount+ subscription, and while some choose to focus on critic reviews and review bombing, others are just happy that new Trek is finally airing on the 2026 TV schedule. I'm loving the series so far because I love the new characters introduced on this show, especially Gina Yashere's Lieutenant Commander Lura Thok.
Thok initially raised eyebrows among Trekkies when it was revealed she was a female Jem'Hadar/Klingon hybrid, but she's quickly become a fan favorite character of the new series. Thok has the brash and angry nature of both species down pat, and I had to know if Yashere came up with how to play the role after watching the species in previous Trek shows or just came up with it on her own. The actress shocked me with her response, revealing she used Full Metal Jacket as inspiration for her audition because she didn't know it was for the franchise:
It was a bit of both, because when I first auditioned for the character, I didn't know it was Star Trek, they took out all Star Trek references from the script, so I just played it as a very sort of Full Metal Jacket screaming at these young kids, character, and it turned out that it's kind of, the essence of the Jem'Hadar and Klingon Empire, so I kind of played it that way without even knowing.
I totally see the influence, and could see Lura Thok shouting in a cadet's face, talking about a "failure to communicate." Of all the new cast members introduced in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, she stands out as one of my favorites because she's the classic hard-ass instructor I can remember from my school days.
Yashere did confirm to CinemaBlend once she got the part, however, that she made sure to do her homework on where Lura Thok came from, even if she was watching stuff from her distant ancestors. It also helped that she had a family member to lend a hand in filling her in on all the Star Trek knowledge she wasn't privy to:
Obviously I went back and watched Deep Space Nine to get a little bit more history. My younger brother's a mad Trekkie, so he gave me the entire history of the Klingons and the Jem'Hadar. But yeah, I basically took what I did already, infused some of the history of their warrior history into it, and then just added my own twist to it.
The plot of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy certainly allows for actors to put their "own twist" on characters, being set in the 32nd century far removed from most episodic Trek shows. It also takes place after "The Burn," a catastrophic event that made warp travel largely impossible for the universe for a century.
What that means is that many species, unable to return to their homeworld, began to interbreed, leading to unique circumstances like Lura Thok's Klingon and Jem'Hadar heritage. There's also Paul Giamatti's Nus Braka, who is half-Klingon and half-Tellarite.
While the show takes a modern tone and changes up the dialogue a bit from The Next Generation days, there's plenty about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy that feels familiar. The formatting of episodes matches the TNG structure pretty well, in my opinion, and all the values that Star Trek holds dear are still there. It's just a new show for a fresh generation of eyes, and if this franchise wishes to survive into the future, it should be.
Catch Gina Yashere and many others in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy when new episodes hit Paramount+ on Thursdays. I'm really enjoying seeing fans react to this show and enjoy it as I did, and I'm ultimately happy to have new Trek episodes once again.
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