Holly Hunter’s performance as Captain Nahla Ake has divided the Star Trek fanbase. Her unconventional habits, such as her barefoot command and relaxed demeanor in the captain’s chair, have fueled intense online discussion that sometimes crosses into crude criticism, unfortunately.
Not everyone is a fan of the new casual Friday vibe on the bridge, and one viewer took to Facebook to vent. In a post highlighting the latest release of Starfleet Academy, Episode 6 "Come, Let's Away," the Facebook user called on Captain Janeway to time travel "so she can bi*chslap Captain Mumbles when she spots her lounging in the captain’s chair like she’s getting ready to watch the hallmark channel instead of commanding a starship!"
Catching wind of the comment, Kate Mulgrew, who played Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, immediately came to the defense of Holly Hunter's Captain Nahla Aka and fired back at the online troll:
on the contrary, sending you and every other disrespectful troglodyte who insults my fellow Captain & Starfleet officer to the brig where you belong. Keep Janeway's good name out of it.
Dismissed.
Captain Janeway is not only a fan-favorite captain but also a groundbreaking character as the franchise’s first female lead. While some viewers have criticized her decisions in the captain’s chair, there’s no denying her strong leadership and moral conviction. Her approach to command, however, feels markedly different from Holly Hunter’s Captain Nahla Ake. Where Janeway led through discipline and tradition, Ake challenges expectations, redefining what authority looks like in a new era of Starfleet.
As for why Captain Ake prefers to walk around barefoot, Holly Hunter previously explained that was a decision made by co-showrunner Alex Kurtzman.
"Alex had written that my character was barefoot, and I loved that,” Hunter told members of the Television Critics Association (TCA) back in January. “That kind of opened up this whole idea of what she might be like, physically, for me.”
Adding a bit more context, Hunter explained to Reactor Mag in a separate interview, "It had to do with her being [part-Lanthanite], and it also had to do with my name, which is ‘water in the desert.’”
“Wherever I am, whatever environment that I’m in, I’m going to explore it with my body,” she said. “It gave every scene, many scenes, a whole different vibe, a different texture, and it put me in a different place.”
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has drawn a mixed reception from fans, with not everyone embracing the teenage drama and angst that comes with young cadets. Others have dismissed the show as “woke,” though that criticism appears tied more to its emphasis on diversity, inclusivity, and challenges to traditional authority structures than to its storytelling or production quality.
Regardless of how you feel about Starfleet Academy as a whole, how do you rank Captain Nahla Ake among other commanding officers?