By Chris Snellgrove | Published
While many Star Trek fans dislike the various characters Starfleet Academythe one they hate the most is not one of the main characters. As the first members Adoption bridge crew, you have a name, but almost no one watching knows that. To them, she’s usually “the girl who ate her comm badge.”
This character (who is actually named Pickford) has only appeared in three episodes so far, and is always in the background, generally useless. In fact, it’s so useless that you might find yourself wondering why the writers put such a stupid character into their sci-fi show. Now, some Star Trek fans have a strong opinion about Pickford: that his stupidity is just an act, and that he is a secret spy for Nus Braka!
The Woman Who Knew So Little
In the first episode of Starfleet Academy (“Kids These Days”), Pickford came out in the worst way, nervously admitting to the Doctor that he swallowed his badge. Critics point to this as an example of a new show with a broad sense of humor more suited to Saturday morning cartoons than a new Star Trek show. After all, this was the character’s training to be a great player, but he seemed to have the wisdom and intelligence of a toddler starting to emerge.
He doesn’t acquit himself well over time, either: in that first episode, he has a complete meltdown after Nus Braka’s thugs attack. Later, he sneaks into a holographic SAM, and in a later episode (“Come, Let’s Go”), another one panic attack in a tense situation and had to be escorted off the bridge. Up until now, Pickford has proven to be evil, stupid, and completely useless in almost any situation, leading a growing number of Star Trek fans to question why he was put on the show in the first place.
Secret Spy?
Aside from being annoying, the biggest problem with Pickford is that he doesn’t seem like Starfleet material. Sure, he’s in college and in uniform, but he seems to lack the emotional and mental training you’d expect from a future Starfleet commander. This is the exact opposite of Starfleet AcademyBig Bad Nus Braka, who presents himself as a funny joke (complete with a rant about how time is an origami chicken) but is secretly talented.
Those abilities are on full display in “Come, Let’s Go,” the episode where Starfleet enlists his help in defeating the evil villains known as the Furies. Braka pretends to cooperate, but uses the situation to his advantage and his flunkies destroy a Starfleet ship. Later, he paralyzes and destroys the entire Starbase, which is quite the result; sure, the Klingons are average Adoption took over the base, but now, a simple space pirate has managed to achieve something like the most aggressive space empire has ever known.
In the title “Let’s Go,” this is presented as proof that Nus Braka is a criminal mastermind, but some fans aren’t buying it. A growing number of viewers believe that the only way this skeezy gangster can outsmart the smartest people in the quadrant is because there is someone inside, feeding him information. The main suspect, unsurprisingly, is the girl who earned her comm badge!
Hiding in the middle of nowhere
Why do people think Nus Braka has a spy inside Starfleet? First, he showed whenever Chancellor Ake took his students into space; this was explained in the first episode (he tracked Caleb’s transfer), but in the second episode, he seems to have enough information about the Furies and their plan to coordinate the attack that destroyed a Starfleet ship and crippled the Starbase. He may have been working with the Furies and possibly his own spy, which is probably why he attacked a Starbase focused on researching (as Nelrec says) “classified things.”
Apparently, there are many characters that could be Nus Braka spies: Genesis is still a mystery and seems to share the stories of the space pirate Daddy. Nelrec is always disillusioned with working with Starfleet, so he may meet Chancellor Ake’s arch-enemy. Heck, even the Doctor may have been disillusioned enough (or simply reprogrammed) to switch sides, and since multiple versions of this character exist in the galaxy, Braka may have taken over. Voyager A doctor who has a faithful copy to him.
However, I agree with the fans who think Pickford is a secret spy: pranks like swallowing his comm badge are a good way to confirm that. there is no he thinks he’s smart enough to be a double agent. Also, his usual meltdowns may be an easy way to get him out of the action. For example, he could easily communicate with Nus Braka in “Come, Let’s Go” after being escorted off the bridge, relaying to the criminal when he was in his place and out of sight and hearing.
Will Starfleet Academy Use Its Worst Character?
There is no concrete evidence that Nus Braka has a spy, and it is possible that he is the mastermind behind the criminals he portrays himself to be. But now that the Federation has him at the top of their Most Wanted list, it stands to reason that we’ll be seeing more of this villain moving forward. Honestly, it would be pretty shocking if we didn’t get any big revelations at the end of the season, and the secret spy update would be the biggest reveal of all.
Right now, all my latinum is on Pickford, if only because it would be a fun heel turn: how cool would it be if the dumbest, most inept cadet turns out to be the biggest traitor since Seska? This will save Starfleet Academyditch the character in an unexpected way and give us a new villain to hate. If nothing else, he and Nus Braka could have an honest, on-screen debate about the most pressing question in the galaxy: what tastes better, a comm badge or an origami chicken?
