STARFLEET ACADEMY with special reference to [Star Trek: Voyager] PAGE 1

Starfleet Academy is the first and foremost training facility for would-be Starfleet officers. The course lasts four years. The Academy is located at the Presidio of San Francisco, North America, Earth, Alpha Quadrant [TOS: Where No Man Has Gone Before]. Starfleet Academy was established in 2161. The date, in Roman numerals, appears on the Academy's logo. The motto of the Academy is Ex astris, scientia (from the stars, knowledge) [TNG: The First Duty]. Beam below for behind-the-scenes information about the Academy motto. Beam here for behind-the-scenes information about Starfleet buildings.

Starfleet Headquarters, San Francisco. Source ST:M

A prospective cadet has first to pass the Starfleet Academy Preparatory Program, which is mentioned in [DS9: Facets]. This is a rigorous six-week course designed to prepare prospective cadets for the Starfleet Academy entrance exam. Preparatory Program admission is by testing only, and applicants are required to perform satisfactorily on a stress-reactions test, spatial-orientation test, and deductive-reasoning test. Testing for admission requires approximately four days. It is not known if USS Voyager personnel administered the Preparatory Program to Icheb, but whether or not they did (and some form of Preparatory Program is likely), Icheb does go on to prepare for the Academy entrance exam. The Preparatory Program includes the Psych Test, which is designed to determine a candidate's reaction to her or his greatest fears. The Psych Test is administered on an individual basis, and generally involves a simulation designed to make the candidate face those fears. A Psych Test is seen in progress in [TNG: Coming of Age].

Assuming a prospective cadet passes the Preparatory Program, she or he must then prepare for and pass the Starfleet Academy entrance examination. Sometimes cadets are sponsored e.g. Chakotay's application to the Academy was sponsored by Captain Hikaru Sulu in about 2350 [#25 Tattoo]; it is not known if the sponsorship came before or after the Preparatory Program. Non-Federation citizens require a letter of reference from a Starfleet command-level officer before they can sit the Academy entrance exam.

In the entrance exam, subjects would seem to include Warp Mechanics [#158 Lineage], Earth Literature [#164 Human Error] and Early Starfleet History [#165 Q2]. Icheb, who wants to take the entrance exam, is given a pass by Janeway in the latter subject after he demonstrates comprehensive, even exhaustive, knowledge of the subject. Though not mentioned in [Star Trek Voyager], Icheb would be expected at some stage to pass the hyperspace physics test, one portion of the entrance examination - mentioned in [TNG: Coming of Age].

In 2377, in [#148 Imperfection], Icheb tells Seven of his desire to take the entrance exam and that he will need a letter of reference from the captain. Janeway agrees to administer the entrance exam before they send the next datastream to Earth, while Seven gathers tutors willing to help Icheb prepare for the exam: "Lieutenant Torres is extremely well versed in warp mechanics. Ensign Kim claims to have aced the quantum theory section." and later Seven decides to tutor him for the astrometrics portion. Janeway gives cadet Icheb a pass in Early Starfleet History [#165 Q2]: Icheb was supposed to give a 20-minute presentation but exceeded this time, and Janeway cut short the presentation when she heard he had 34 more chapters to present because she decided that he clearly knew the subject.

Janeway tests cadet Icheb on Early Starfleet History.

Several Maquis crewmembers had, like Voyager's original crew, attended Starfleet Academy. These included Chakotay and Torres (who did not finish the course).

Page 2: Starfleet Academy Courses & Activities presents information against a list of courses and activities. Below is information focussing on individuals and their time at the Academy.

Torres was a member of the Academy's decathlon team [#43 Basics, Part Two]. She almost failed Earth History [#76 and #77 Year of Hell]. Torres dropped out of the Academy in her second year because of problems with discipline which she and others attributed to her Klingon heritage. However she learned from Janeway in 2371 that one of her tutors, Professor Chapman, had been so impressed by her original thinking that he left a recommendation on file that she be accepted if she were to apply to rejoin the Academy [#3 Parallax].

In his first year at Starfleet Academy, Chakotay trained as a pilot over Earth's North American continent, and then spent two months on Venus learning how to handle atmospheric storms, and later learned to dodge asteroids in that system's asteroid belt [#51 Future's End, Part Two]. (There is also an Academy Flight Range located near the planet Saturn reserved for flight exercises by cadets [TNG: The First Duty].) After graduation although we do not know precisely when, Chakotay was a member of the Starfleet mission which made first contact with the Tarkannans [#38 Innocence]. Chakotay's Starfleet service number is 47 alpha 612, an identification known in advance by "Boothby" the commander of the Species 8472 re-creation of Starfleet Headquarters in [#98 In the Flesh]. I do not know if this is a resumption of Chakotay's previous service number (as the Doctor gave a full report to Starfleet Command, [#82 Message in a Bottle], or a new designation assigned to him when he accepted Janeway's invitation to become her First Officer (it is possible that off-screen a member of Species 8472 had interrogated Chakotay, he had replied with his name and service number only and this had been conveyed to "Boothby" who recited it back to him during "Boothby"'s interrogation, rather than the information being in the Starfleet database that Species 8472 consulted to help them re-create Starfleet Headquarters). Chakotay resigned his commission on 3rd March 2368 in person at Starfleet Headquarters, San Francisco, Earth, to Admiral Nimembeh (the Admiral taught Tactical Analysis at Starfleet Academy) [#98 In the Flesh]. Chakotay left Starfleet to join the Maquis and defend his homeworld against Cardassian attacks. He rose to command rank in the Maquis, and it was to begin a hunt for him and Tuvok that Janeway captained Voyager into the Badlands in 2371 as depicted in [#1 Caretaker].

Boothby was head groundsman at the Academy. He used to give Janeway fresh roses for her quarters [#98 In the Flesh]. He dispensed advice to many so that many graduates owe him a lot. The screenshot shows Boothby, although it is actually the screenshot is of the member of Species 8472 which disguised itself as Boothby. Another item of information known about cadets in their off-duty hours is that every cadet about to go on his first shore leave hears the cautionary tale (and urban legend) of the man who goes to Risa. There he meets a beautiful woman who invites him to an evening of passion, then wakes up in the morning feeling wonderful until he discovers he's missing a kidney. [#143 Fury]

[#98 In the Flesh]

Harry Kim was the editor of the Academy newspaper for a year. During that time he reported on some of the first activity of the Maquis against the Cardassians [#36 Investigations]. When he graduated from the Academy on stardate 47918 he was assigned as Ops officer aboard USS Voyager.

Tom Paris majored in Astrophysics at the Academy. His father, Admiral Owen Paris, taught at the Academy and taught his son in the course on survival strategies (see below). Tom Paris chose the Starfleet base outside Marseilles, France, for physical training in his second semester, but spent most of that semester at Chez Sandrine, a bistro that he later re-created as a holodeck program on Voyager. He graduated from the Academy and early in his career he served aboard USS Exeter [#22 Non Sequitur]. After an accident which killed three Starfleet officers, Paris falsified reports in order to conceal his culpability but eventually confessed and was forced to leave Starfleet - [#1 Caretaker, Part One] and alluded to in [#55 Fair Trade]. On Voyager, Janeway assigns him as the Doctor's field medic because he had two semesters of biochemistry at Starfleet Academy [#3 Parallax].

Admiral Paris, [#152 Inside Man]

The compulsory curriculum at Starfleet Academy included survival classes. Many of those on Voyager may have been taught by Commander Zakarian who taught a survival course at Starfleet Academy; Zakarian had a number of allergies, which earned him the nickname "Sneezy" or "Old Sneezy" [#1 and #2 Caretaker]. Tuvok commented that he found survival training to be less of a challenge because once for four months he survived in the Vulcan desert with only a ritual blade [#66 Displaced]. Paris explained to Neelix in [#23 Parturition]: "Oh there was a whole course at the Academy full of all sorts of survival strategies." His course that year was taught by his father Admiral Owen Paris who marked him B minus, but he says one course that he did pay attention in was advanced subspace geometry [#88 Vis à Vis].

Tuvok entered Starfleet Academy in 2289 at his parents' insistence. Upon graduation in 2293 he was assigned as a science officer aboard USS Excelsior, captained by Hikaru Sulu [#44 Flashback]. He left Starfleet in 2298 to attempt the Kohlinar ritual and then raised a family. He returned after a break of 51 years, in 2349. During his career Tuvok taught at Starfleet Academy for sixteen years [#16 Learning Curve].

Third year requirements included a six-week course of space walks so that cadets could become accustomed to extra-vehicular activity (EVA) [#71 Day Of Honor]. The screenshot shows Torres and Paris wearing environmental suits which they put on in order to abandon the shuttlecraft Cochrane which had been damaged by Caatati weaponry.

[#71 Day Of Honor]

One of the classes offered was Temporal Mechanics. Chakotay failed this course. His teacher was Professor Vassbinder [#77 Year of Hell, Part Two].

Janeway reminds Kim that he took a semester's course on interspecies protocol at Starfleet Academy. Implying from its mention in [#111 The Disease], the course covers, no doubt among other things, possible sexual encounters with members of alien races. The Starfleet handbook on personal relationships is, according to Janeway, three centimetres thick. It includes the regulation: 'All Starfleet personnel must obtain authorisation from their CO as well as clearance from their medical officer before initiating an intimate relationship with an alien species.'

In his fourth year, Kim took quantum chemistry. His room-mate at the Academy, James Mooney McAllister, got him through the course, although Kim suffered from lack of sleep because McAllister studied algorithims till dawn. As a result, Kim sleeps with an eye-mask, seen in [#6 The Cloud].

[#6 The Cloud]

An Emergency Medical course was available but there is no mention that anyone on Voyager's crew took this course. (Worf's attendance on this course paid off in [TNG: Disaster].)

Exogenetics is a course at the Academy dealing with non-human genetics. Janeway missed getting a grade A in this class by failing to recognise a nucleotide resonance frequency that activates DNA and realigns molecular bonds [#113 The Fight].

Page 2: Starfleet Academy Courses & Activities includes 'Compulsory Courses' being mention of courses that those on USS Voyager who graduated from the Academy are likely to have taken as mandatory subjects.

One training exercise that certain USS Voyager personnel such as Kathryn Janeway and very probably Harry Kim would have experienced is the Kobayashi Maru scenario. This is a training exercise in which command-track cadets (and so Torres would probably not have undergone it if she had remained at the Academy) are presented with a 'no-win' scenario as a test of character. The simulation involves a distress call from a Federation freighter, the Kobayashi Maru, which has struck a gravitic mine in the Klingon Neutral Zone. The cadet has a choice of several options, none of which leads to a 'winning' conclusion, in that it is impossible to simultaneously save the freighter, prevent destruction of the cadet's ship, and avoid an armed exchange with the Klingons. The Kobayashi Maru is regarded as something of a rite of passage for command-track cadets. The famous James T. Kirk is reputed to have taken the test three times while at the Academy. Before his third attempt, Kirk surreptitiously reprogrammed the simulation computer to make it possible to beat the simulation, and subsequently received a commendation for original thinking [Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]. The real Kobayashi Maru, in the 2270s, was a Federation third-class neutronic fuel carrier with a crew of 81 and 300 passengers.

Particularly gifted cadets were put into the elite Red Squad. In 2372 Cadets from Red Squad became unwilling accomplices of an attempted coup against Earth's government [DS9: Homefront]. Red Squad cadets formed the crew of USS Valiant for a training voyage but the ship was stranded behind enemy lines when the Dominion War broke out; the Valiant and crew were lost in action [DS9: Valiant]. None of Voyager's crew is stated to have been a Red Squad cadet.

No doubt the cadets who were destined to end up aboard Voyager visited The Launching Pad, a favourite watering-hole of cadets after classes [DS9: Take Me Out To The Holosuite]. In the mid-22nd century, and it is not known if the establishment still exists, "There was a little bar in Mill Valley where all the Starfleet trainees used to go." called the 602 Club. In 2151, in [Enterprise: Shuttlepod One], two officers, Charles Tucker III and Malcolm Reed, of the NX-01 Enterprise discover that they have too much in common when they both slept with the same waitress there, named Ruby. (Ruby is seen in flashback in [Enterprise: First Flight].)

Here is behind-the-scenes information about the sets.