Stephen Colbert’s ‘Starfleet Academy’ Role Is Driving Me Nuts

You know that one TikTok sound from Dance Moms’ Abby Lee Miller, about wanting to sit back and relax and enjoy your evening, only for it to be interrupted by an agitating, grating voice?

That is me whenever Stephen Colbert shows up on Starfleet Academy.

The late-night star is a regular guest voice on the new Star Trek show, playing the role of the academy’s Digital Dean of Students. Multiple times an episode, you will hear Colbert as he gives updates on extracurricular activities or requests for students or reminds them about things like sign-ups for events or the opening of various facilities around the academy. He was even, apparently, as we learned in last week’s episode, the voice of the academy’s interstellar recruiting program when Starfleet decided to reopen the institute, making it honestly kind of remarkable that the class of cadets is as big as it is.

But what that means is that at least a few times every episode of the show so far, usually as part of a general scene transition, you will hear Colbert’s voice make blithe comments about the on-site cafes serving raktajino or give increasingly alarmed updates on someone’s Talaxian Furfly hatching project. He’s never seen; we know nothing about him other than his job on the academy faculty; we don’t know if he’s human, alien, or, for some bizarre reason, a holographic interpretation of the actual Stephen Colbert because 32nd-century culture is suddenly fascinated with a talk show host who’s been dead for over a thousand years instead of the usual, like Sherlock Holmes or Shakespeare. But I do know one thing: I find myself rolling my eyes every time he comes over the intercom.

Now, of course, this is an extremely minor gripe to have with the show so far, especially in a world where people are having far pickier gripes with the show. But, if I must defend myself and my extremely minor gripe—to distance my griping from that kind of griping—I’d at least like to think what raises my hackles isn’t something silly, like that his glib attitude is somehow unbecoming of Starfleet decorum, or that in being comedic, it’s out of place for a Star Trek show. Starfleet Academy has found plenty of other ways to delight me in the ways it ruffles feathers about what Starfleet should look and sound like, and while it’s not an outright comedy, it’s a show with a sense of humor that I otherwise find myself enjoying.

Instead, what annoys me about Starfleet Academy‘s regular dose of Colbert is that, more than anything else in the series, the way his character is written just feels so insincere to every other aspect of the show when it comes to its approach to Star Trek and its legacy. The vast majority of his announcements can be essentially boiled down to “Ha! Star Trek reference!” while the show nudges you with the auditory reminder that yes, Stephen Colbert is a beloved, high-profile nerd, and even he’s getting excited to talk about Klingon coffee and whatnot. But it just feels cheap in a show that is otherwise not only jam-packed with those references all over its background already but also, by and large, engages with them in a much more deft manner.

Starfleet Academy is, understandably, a show deeply interested in the legacy of what Star Trek has been for 60 years now, not just in its place as the new Star Trek show coming out during that anniversary year, but also because it is about nurturing a brand-new generation of Starfleet’s future in the wake of a galaxy-shattering event. Sometimes it plays with it with a sense of silliness, sure—like framing Starfleet’s historical duality as a scientific and military organization through a schoolyard prank war—but for the most part, as it approaches things from the perspective of its young protagonists, it is a series that, even in these early stages, wants to try and advance Star Trek forward, to engage with ideas and questions the franchise has had for generations before it. That is in and of itself referential, but it’s a referential nature that goes deeper than simply pointing and acknowledging.

Admittedly, part of the joy of Starfleet Academy and Star Trek in general is that these two particular beasts of reverence can co-exist. But that’s not going to stop me from gritting my teeth the next time Colbert comes over the intercom any time soon.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.