Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 4 Release Date
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 4 is scheduled to release on Thursday, 29 January 2026 on Paramount Plus, with the usual drop time of 3:00 a.m. ET / 12:00 a.m. PT for new episodes.
The season launched with a double premiere on 15 January, followed by episode 3 on 22 January, so episode 4 continues that steady weekly rhythm that makes it easy to build a Thursday routine around the USS Athena.
For anyone planning a watch party, it basically lands late Wednesday night on the US West Coast, which has already become a small tradition in some fan circles this month.
Where the Series Fits in Star Trek Canon?
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is set in the 32nd century, in the same broad continuity as Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, picking up after a major cataclysm first explored in Discovery.
The show follows the first new class of Starfleet cadets in more than a century, learning on board the USS Athena while docked at the San Francisco Academy campus, which gives it a mix of classic Starfleet optimism and very modern “coming-of-age in space” drama.
Longtime viewers will notice familiar Federation ideals, but filtered through younger characters dealing with friendships, rivalries, and the kind of messy feelings that don’t always fit neatly into a Starfleet manual.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Filming Locations
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is primarily filmed in Ontario, Canada, with most production taking place in Toronto and additional work in Waterloo.
The huge USS Athena and Academy interiors are built on a roughly 45,000-square-foot soundstage at Pinewood Toronto Studios, where the team created a sprawling two-storey campus complete with trees, classrooms, an amphitheatre, a mess hall, and a reimagined view of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
Some exterior and supplemental scenes were shot in and around uptown Waterloo, giving the futuristic Starfleet setting a subtle grounding in real city textures, even if most viewers will only ever know it as 32nd century San Francisco.
Cast of Starfleet Academy
The lead cast of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is anchored by Holly Hunter as Nahla Ake, the chancellor of Starfleet Academy and captain of the USS Athena, and Paul Giamatti as Nus Braka, a part-Klingon, part-Tellarite figure with a dark connection to one of the cadets.
Surrounding them is a young ensemble of cadets: Sandro Rosta (Caleb Mir), Karim Diané (Jay-Den Kraag), Kerrice Brooks (Sam / Series Acclimation Mil), George Hawkins (Darem Reymi), Bella Shepard (Genesis Lythe), and Zoë Steiner (Tarima Sadal).
A few familiar Star Trek names also show up, which quietly ties this new show back to earlier eras:
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Robert Picardo as the Doctor, now a 900-year-old holographic instructor.
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Tig Notaro as engineer Jett Reno.
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Oded Fehr as Admiral Charles Vance.
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Gina Yashere as Lura Thok, the part-Klingon, part Jem’Hadar first officer and cadet master.
About Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is a Paramount Plus original that follows a new generation of cadets chasing the classic Starfleet dream of exploration, hope, and service, while also juggling first loves, explosive rivalries, and a looming new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation.
The premise deliberately blends teen-drama energy with Star Trek’s long-running progressive streak, using the USS Athena as a “teaching ship” where classroom theory and real-world missions collide in sometimes chaotic fashion.
For viewers looking up the Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 4 release date and schedule before pressing play, the show offers a straightforward weekly drop through 12 March 2026, giving enough time for characters and themes to breathe instead of dumping everything in one go.
Disclaimer: This Information is based on publicly available information about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and may change if the platform updates its schedule or details. Viewers should always confirm final dates, times, and availability directly on Paramount Plus or their local provider.
