Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 7 – “Ko’Zeine”Bella Shepard shares her favorite spots in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy‘s massive and incredible sets. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy films at the Star Trek Stage at Pinewood Studios Toronto. Impressively, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy boasts the largest sets ever built for Star Trek, and they’re among the biggest sets in North America.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy‘s USS Athena starship ingeniously doubles as Starfleet Academy’s campus. From the very first time the USS Athena’s interior is revealed in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy‘s series premiere, the viewer is immersed in the school’s eye-popping and technologically advanced setting, from the multilevel Sato Atrium to the classrooms and dorms.
In an exclusive interview with ScreenRant‘s John Orquiola, Bella Shepard reveals her personal picks for the coolest places in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy‘s sets. Bella’s set tour includes many fan-favorite spots seen throughout Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1. Read Bella’s quotes below:
ScreenRant: What’s your favorite place on the set?
Bella Shepard: Ooh, okay, I have a few nice ones I would say I love. Obviously, the atrium is stunning. But my favorite part about the atrium is the viewscreen over by the window, because we’ve seen it turn into so many things. We’ve seen Earth from the window. We’ve seen the moon, we’ve seen other planets, other galaxies. We’ve seen warp speed through the window. So I love that it really just makes us feel like we’re in space from over there by the stairs, with the window.
Also in the atrium, I love the atrium ponds, because I’ve actually been in them a few times. And how fun is that? Like, you know, you’re not supposed to be in there. So it’s kind of fun to film something in the atrium ponds, because it feels sacrilegious in a way. It’s like, ‘Ooh, I’m breaking the rules. I’m not supposed to be in here.’
And I also really like the dorm sets. I feel like someone’s room is very private and personal. And to be able to take a closer look at the dorm rooms and see little bits of the cadets’ personalities feels very, very personal and intimate. So I love anytime we’re in there, because I feel like it’s just another peek behind the curtain at who the cadets really are.
ScreenRant: Of course, the bridge looks amazing. Genesis looked really good in the captain’s chair. I gotta say, it feels like the shape of things to come for her.
Bella Shepard: I mean, yeah, of course. That’s her dream.
The viewscreen at the base of the stairs in Starfleet Academy’s atrium is indeed stunning. As Bella Shepard says, it’s a literal window that shows the San Francisco skyline and bay when the USS Athena is docked on Earth, and the viewscreen shows the wonders of outer space when the starship is on missions.
The Sato Atrium, named for Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Hoshi Sato, boasts Starfleet Academy’s Wall of Heroes. Bella Shepard loves the Atrium ponds, and audiences will recall that Genesis and SAM (Kerrice Brooks) were beamed into water as a prank by the War College in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 3.
Starfleet Academy’s dorm rooms are also technologically advanced and have luxe accommodations for the cadets. The main dorm room seen so far is the space shared by Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta), Darem Reymi (George Hawkins), and Ocam Sadal (Romeo Carere).
Caleb and Genesis had the run of an empty USS Athena in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 7, including the bridge, which is a viewers’ dream. To be able to explore every nook and cranny of the multilevel sets of Starfleet Academy, or better yet, actually attend the school as a cadet, is part of the alluring fantasy of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
- Release Date
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January 15, 2026
- Network
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Paramount+
- Showrunner
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Alex Kurtzman, Noga Landau
