One of the best things about the larger Star Trek universe is how interconnected its worlds can be. Easter eggs abound. Plot threads can cross series. The actions of characters from centuries prior can often continue to shape those who come after them. And sometimes it gives fans a chance to see familiar faces from a previous property pop up somewhere new. It’s part of the joy inherent in this world—we never really say goodbye to any part of it.
Still, the choice to set Star Trek: Starfleet Academy immediately following the events of Star Trek: Discovery is, admittedly, a somewhat controversial one. The show’s later seasons took place in the 32nd century in the wake of an event known as The Burn, which fractured the Federation and essentially ended Starfleet Academy as it had been known up until that point. The new series will chart its rebirth, following the first class of cadets to come through the institution in over a century and all their subsequent personal, professional, and academic dramas.
But its position in the timeline means that it’s a series that’s ripe for potential crossovers in a way that the bulk of its predecessors were not. (That wonderfully weird Star Trek: Strange Worlds meets Star Trek: Lower Decks episode aside.) After all, the Discovery crew is still living and working for the Federation during this time period — and some are already slated to appear on the show! Tig Notaro and Oded Fehr are already both set to return as Jett Reno and Admiral Charles Vance, and Mary Wiseman’s Lt. Sylvia Tilly will also appear in an episode of the series’ first season. (Which makes sense, given that she herself is now an Academy instructor.) But what about everybody else?
The Discovery crew was in and out of Federation headquarters constantly during that show’s final seasons, and since the Academy itself is basically a mobile teaching starship in the form of the USS Athena, it’s not like they have to wait around home base for the occasional run-in with a legacy character or two. The odds that someone might run into a character like Ambassador Saru (Doug Jones) or his new wife, T’Rina (Tara Rosling), who’s still the President of Ni’Var, are probably more than decent. But what about the Discovery’s captain? Is it possible we might see Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) again? After all, there’s plenty of time between the setting of Starfleet Academy and the events we saw in the epilogue to the Discovery series finale “Life, Itself.”