Why is Starfleet Academy being adapted to comics by IDW?

To begin, there's a new, and very dismaying, addition to the Star Trek franchise titled Starfleet Academy. And from this Breitbart item by John Nolte, it looks like we have quite a politicized metaphor here:

Paramount+ made Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s premiere episode available for free and, after a full day, it has amassed only 81,000 views and a dreadful like-to-dislike ratio…

As of this writing, only 3.9K people have hit the “like” button, compared to the 10K that have hit the “dislike” button.

Gee, I wonder what the problem is?

Oh, wait…

Star Trek cadets are now required to get DEI training from an obnoxious lesbian

Yes, this is real pic.twitter.com/qDFp1dfDiO

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 15, 2026

What is that? A smug lesbian virtue-signaling with her strident Karen Power is supposed to be appealing, someone we can relate to, someone to aspire to? Does that teacher look like she should be training people to handle Starships or blowing whistles at ICE agents in Minnesota? [...]

Early in this episode, Holly Hunter’s character explains that she resigned from Starfleet after the Federation forced her to separate a criminal mother from her child – something that happens to every parent who goes to prison. But Trump, Trump, Trump…

Well, this is certainly telling. And from what Nolte later said, ratings haven't improved:

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has been available free for five days and earned only 176,000 views.

People aren’t even hate-watching this woketardery.

Take a moment to understand just how big of a flop this is… For 60 years, Star Trek has been one of the most beloved and famous brands in popular culture. This heavily-promoted premiere episode was made available … for FREE … on YouTube, which is the world’s most popular and accessible video platform, and still, it’s earned only 176,000 views over five full days, including a three-day weekend.

A real shame the Trek franchise had to come down to this. Of course, some might argue that after all these years, who knows if a TV show that may have built upon the premise there should only be one, single governing entity, and made it seem like mankind should outgrow religion, as though there's no such thing as a good religion, was ever a great idea to start with? In the past, there were times when I did think there were interesting stories in the Trek series leading up to the early 2000s, but for all we know, it hasn't aged well. Certainly not if something as dreadful as Starfleet Academy is any suggestion.

But if it's really that bad, one can only wonder why it's being adapted to comics by the now horribly woke IDW, as announced by Trek Core:

The first season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has just begun, and already IDW Publishing has announced a new tie-in comic series set to beam down after the season concludes this Spring!

Debuting in April 2026, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy — Lost Contact will be a five-issue limited series starring the lead characters from the new television show; the series will be written by Layne Morgan and illustrated by Corali Espuna and Nora Serrano.

Wow, I hesitate to think how faithful the comics adaptation could be to what woke scriptwriting can be seen in the TV show itself. Plus, if few care about the TV show, why should they care about the comic? Sounds like something that was rushed into adaptations even before anyone could gauge what the reaction of the TV couch potato audience would be. And that's not a good thing.

I have no idea how much longer IDW will be in the business, but this is no improvement, and above all, it underlines their problem of relying far too much on merchandise as a wellspring than original concepts. At least they no longer retain a license for GI Joe and Transformers comics.