I quite disliked this episode. Yeah, I get it, the good message and character redemption is in there at the end, but I find high school drama trek really boring; at least episode 1 was mostly back story, episode 2 had interstellar diplomacy and a somewhat brave change of status quo (the Federation command being built on Betazed).

Still, this show really makes it seem as Starfleet Academy is failing: every meaningful lesson is learned by disobeying; the captain of the school team is chosen by who can shoot the best side-by-side, instead of who has better leadership skills, and the try-harder understands the other try-harder is a better captain only during a clandestine match; in the first episode, the ship is saved by Caleb only because he already dealt with the pirate in the past, all the other cadets and officials stood there getting injuried; the only thing they learned at school is how to grow a plant and their rector telling-not-telling them to use empathy and patience to prank the other school. Where is the discipline, the team-work, the diversity that makes the whole more powerful?

Oh and really? College mascots? Team jersey? Lasertag? Did we forget this show is set in the 32nd century? Do we have to believe that the main academy of an insterstellar institution, the most powerful of the galaxy at some point, is operating like a 1990's US college? I get that imagining the far future is difficult, but at least try. Baseball in DS9 already felt out of place, and that was only 300 years in the future, now it's like expecting every university in the world, in 2326, to run the same way as medieval Oxford University was when first founded. Discovery did a better job setting up the far future in its 3rd season, I don't know why they reverted, TNG and DS9 felt more futuristic in the settings than this show.