Set in the Star Trek universe, "Starfleet Academy" is a one-hour weekly dramatic series relating the adventures and experiences of a group of young cadets. The cadets all attend the famous Academy located in San Francisco, on Earth, the training ground where the best and the brightest of the Federation are to be found. San Francisco is also home to Starfleet Command Headquarters and the Federation Council.
The Academy follows in the tradition of the great human military academies. An exceptionally rigorous selection process is used to winnow out the thousands of applicants each term to find the few hundred who will fill the coveted slots.
After two years of more general study, cadets enter the school corresponding to their desired specialty-- command, science, engineering, etc. Also in this term, cadets are assigned to teams comprised of students of varied specialties, analogous to a starship's bridge crew. These teams are headed by an honor student of the command school who functions as the captain, with the rest filling the remainder of the bridge/line officer spots. It is at the start of this phase of training that the first season of the series picks up, and it is one of these-- Gamma Team-- and the cadets that make it up that are the focus of the series.
As the series begins, we join these characters at a point about midway through their training, when they have already gone through two difficult years of general training. Of the cadets on Gamma Team, three already know each other-- human team captain Jaredan Aquino, the team's Betazoid executive officer, Kara Lionetti, and Jaredan’s former roommate and Gamma's Argosian chief engineer Ki Talchos. These three have known each other since the beginning of the Academy. The rest of the team is made up of Bajoran tactical officer Tor Paran, human operations manager Elena Reyes, Vulcan science officer T’Ress, human flight controller Hikaru Takani, and human chief medical officer Jennifer Decker.
The cadets' long hours are divided into four segments: physical training, academic classes, simulated starship missions, and actual on-ship experiences.
Because of the less desirable aspects of the elite cadet cadre known as "Red Squadron," a new, more secret group of cadets has been formed. They, too, are given special training and important assignments, but their existence is classified. Though this new cadre doesn't have a name, its first recruits and its commanding officers belong to Gamma Team, handpicked to lead by Captain Jean-Luc Picard himself. Gamma's assignments, under the cover of their starship training time, are spent on the brand-new U.S.S. Endeavour.
During the series, we will get to watch these young cadets learn and grow, both as potential Starfleet officers, and as people. They will go through all of the typical trials and tribulations that go along with growing up, as well as those commensurate with their immense responsibilities, particularly in this new phase of training. Of course, they'll be getting themselves into their fair share of adventures, as well.
The time frame of the show is concurrent with the time frame of DS9. Season One of SFA takes place at the same time as Season Seven of DS9.