53 Years Later, Star Trek Quietly Just Rebooted Some Wild Sci-Fi Tech

Will far-future astronauts require spacesuits of any kind? At the point at which we have wireless connections for headphones, computers, and countless other gizmos, could we imagine some future date in which the tech of EVA suits might be replaced with something a little less analog? In 1973, in the first episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series — “Beyond the Farthest Star” — the crew of the USS Enterprise rocked something called “Life Support Belts” instead of straight-up spacesuits. In the 23rd Century, these portable force fields replaced the need for bulky spacesuits, and then vanished from Trek canon.

But now, in the 32nd Century, the no-suit spacesuit is back. Here’s how Starfleet Academy has brought back the force field spacesuit in the form of something called “plasma shields.”

In Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Episode 6, “Come, Let’s Away,” both the War College and Starfleet Academy engage in a joint exercise that goes horribly wrong. A derelict ship called the USS Miyazaki presents a real-world challenge to the various cadets: Can you get power restored on this long-abandoned ship, and if you can, how much of the ship can you explore? We’re told at the top of the episode that the Miyazaki was set adrift because of “an experimental warp alternative, called the Singularity Drive.”

Basically, in the time of the Burn, when Starfleet was fractured, the Miyazaki was trying out some alternatives to warp drive, because all the warp cores in the galaxy had exploded at that point. This gestures at the murky in-between era of Starfleet, which happened after the Burn, but before the arrival of the USS Discovery (via time travel) in 3189. Currently, Starfleet Academy takes place around 3195, putting the exploits of the crew of the Miyazaki somewhere around 3067.

Interestingly, the retroactive existence of the Miyazaki in this episode creates a kind of in-universe nostalgia for the TOS/TAS era of Star Trek. We learn that the crew’s adventures were turned into a comic book series called Tales from the Frontier. And, in this episode, panels from that comic are coded to look very much like 23rd Century classic Star Trek, even though we’re meant to think that these stories would have represented 31st Century adventures. In a sense, Starfleet Academy is lampshading the idea that the Starfleet of the distant future looks and behaves very much like the Starfleet of nine centuries prior, and the reason why is that a galaxy-wide disaster throttled back some of the tech, and that hopeful propaganda influenced Starfleet to behave like a slightly more retro version of itself. Maybe.

The least obvious result of this overlapping lore retcon and TOS-coded nostalgia is the fact that the episode also gives us a full reboot of a game-changing tech that Star Trek hasn’t touched since the 1970s. Early in the episode, as the cadets are about to start their training mission, we’re told that everyone is using “plasma-based life support,” which are also called “plasma shields.” Caleb (Sandro Rosta) activates his by tapping his uniform, and the brief glowing yellow effect is reminiscent of the life support belts from The Animated Series.

How one keeps a breathable atmosphere inside a force field like this isn’t fully explored. But, clearly, by the 32nd Century, Starfleet has brought back the idea of having EVAs that don’t require EVA suits. From a real-world production point of view, this obviously means actors don’t need to get into spacesuit costumes for storylines that would normally require spacesuits. And from a canon point of view, it means that Starfleet is now free and clear to use any outlandish tech from the wild west years of The Animated Series.

So, today it's force field spacesuits. Tomorrow, could it be a moment where a starship can make a giant inflatable balloon version of itself as a decoy? Or maybe a giant clone of Spock? Or pink tribbles? At this point, if Starfleet Academy has any sense, every single weird thing from The Animated Series can and should be included from now on. Here’s hoping.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy streams on Paramount+.