Star Trek: 10 Things You Should Know Before Applying To Starfleet Academy

If your application is successful, you pass the entrance exam with flying colours and secure a place at the Academy then, first of all, congratulations! That's already a rarer achievement than Warp 10 without those… rumoured consequences! Prepare yourself, however, to meet a cast of characters during your studies. Not all of them will end up serving you well like a Tom Paris; you are also likely to encounter the Nicholas Locarnos of this universe.

It happened over three decades ago, but the Nova Squadron accident and cover-up of 2368 cast a long shadow over the Presidio. That year, Locarno was head of the prestigious five-cadet flight team, including Enterprise-D golden boy Wesley Crusher and cadet Sito Jaxa who graduated but was sadly later killed in the line of duty.

Locarno persuaded the team to perform the banned Kolvoord Starburst manoeuvre for the Academy graduation ceremony, but a crash during training cost the life of cadet Joshua Albert. In interviews given to other whistle-blowers at the time, Locarno was said to have had an emotional hold over the group, convincing them to lie to the Board of Inquiry about the accident until the truth was finally revealed.

James T. Kirk also suffered a troublesome fellow cadet at the Academy. Obnoxious upperclassman prankster Finnegan (his other names have been lost to history) reportedly made the legendary Captain's first year a living hell, with bowls of soup and buckets of cold water.