Entertainment
Starfleet Academy’s Best Relationship Was Stolen From Star Trek’s Worst Movie
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Starfleet Academy proved to be a very controversial Star Trek show when it first launched, but the show has won fans over with several healthy doses of nostalgia bait. This includes an entire episode dedicated to Captain Sisko and multiple episodes that follow up on Voyager storylines like the Doctor’s daughter and the Omega molecule. Arguably, though, the most popular bit of nostalgia bait is the relationship between Caleb and Tarima, one which echoes the most famous Star Trek relationship of them all.
Caleb is a tall, hunky human and future captain, while Tarima is a powerful Betazed mind reader and the daughter of a powerful family. To many fans of The Next Generation, this is a clear echo of the relationship between William Riker (the first captain of the Federation flagship Enterprise) and Deanna Troi (the Betazed ship’s counselor who dated him many years ago). However, what you may not realize is that Starfleet Academy’s best relationship echoes a pairing created for the franchise’s worst movie: Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
It’s Not Just A Phase
Despite multiple fan campaigns saving the show from earlier cancellation, Star Trek: The Original Series ended after only three seasons. However, the show proved popular with college students during syndication, leading to Trek getting its own animated series. With the franchise in the popular zeitgeist once more, Paramount and Trek creator Gene Roddenberry teamed up in 1977 to work on Star Trek: Phase II, a live-action spinoff of The Original Series.
Various deals fell through, and the immense success of Star Wars meant that Phase II got scrapped, and its creative DNA was cannibalized for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. That movie brought in two characters originally created for the canceled show: Will Decker, the ambitious human first officer, and Ilia, the exotic alien who can read minds (sort of). While the film offered an abbreviated version of their relationship, the Phase II writers had created an elaborate backstory about how they fell in love when they were younger, but Decker called things off to pursue his career; tension rises years later when they are stationed on the Enterprise.
Imzadi: Star Trek’s Cutest Couple
If that sounds familiar, it should: Decker and Ilia were the template that would become Riker and Troi. Riker, like Decker, was a handsome and confident human Starfleet officer who put his career first. Troi, like Ilia, had special mental abilities and came from a race of sexually liberated aliens. Riker and Troi also had a shared romantic history, one they had to navigate throughout the entirety of The Next Generation before getting married in Star Trek: Nemesis.
In Starfleet Academy, Caleb and Tarima are the latest iteration of this idea: he’s the gifted human cadet with no shortage of confidence, and she’s the Betazoid princess who falls in love with him. From the beginning of their relationship, fans have clocked that this was clearly an homage to Riker and Troi. It certainly didn’t escape the notice of Riker actor Jonathan Frakes, who (as reported by ScreenRant) told Caleb actor Sandro Rosta, “You’re dating a Betazoid princess…You’re a lucky man. I know what it’s like.”
Young, Dumb, And Full Of Numb
Obviously, this fan-favorite Starfleet Academy relationship wouldn’t exist without Riker and Troi from The Next Generation, and those characters wouldn’t have existed without Decker and Ilia, who made their onscreen debut in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Many hated this movie, calling it “the motionless picture” and declaring it the worst in the franchise. There’s some galaxy-sized irony for you, though: the worst Star Trek movie just inspired the best thing about the latest Star Trek spinoff!