I'm going to start with what I liked. I really like when Star Trek plays with its own format, making an episode as a documentary, complete with a very different opening credits and very different style is something we've never really seen on Star Trek before, and it could have been fantastic.

Unfortunately, I feel like this episode comes to the wrong conclusion about the question in the title that forms its very premise. I was impressed to see someone challenge the belief that Starfleet is a peaceful organization dedicated to exploration, it could have led to an interesting discussion about imperialism and if any military organization can truly be called peaceful, but the reasoning for this argument was completely dismissed by challenging the reason it was asked in the first place.

Having the negative view of Starfleet being a result of a brother's misguided belief that Starfleet stole his sister from them completely killed the rather legitimate question that could have made this episode great. This cop-out neutered the argument and prevented the question at the root of the episode from having any teeth.

It is a shame, because "What is Starfleet?" could have been one of the best episodes of Star Trek ever, instead it is just a premise that was squandered. I rate this Ensign (Average), without this cop-out, I feel like the episode could have rated much higher.

HD3 Episode Rank: Ensign (C Tier)