Blog

“Language is not merely a set of unrelated sounds, clauses, rules, and meanings; it is a totally coherent system bound to context and behavior.” — Kenneth L. Pike

The web has accents. So should our design systems.

Design Systems as Living Languages

Design systems aren’t component libraries—they’re living languages. Tokens are phonemes, components are words, patterns are phrases, layouts are sentences. The conversations we build with users become the stories our products tell.

But here’s what we’ve forgotten: the more fluently a language is spoken, the more accents it can support without losing meaning. English in Scotland differs from English in Sydney, yet both are unmistakably English. The language adapts to context while preserving core meaning. This couldn’t be more obvious to me, a Brazilian Portuguese speaker, who learned English with an American accent, and lives in Sydney.

Our design systems must work the same way. Rigid adherence to visual rules creates brittle systems that break under contextual pressure. Fluent systems bend without breaking.

Consistency becomes a prison

The promise of design systems was simple: consistent components would accelerate development and unify experiences. But as systems matured and products grew more complex, that promise has become a prison. Teams file “exception” requests by the hundreds. Products launch with workarounds instead of system components. Designers spend more time defending consistency than solving user problems.

Our design systems must learn to speak dialects.

A design dialect is a systematic adaptation of a design system that maintains core principles while developing new patterns for specific contexts. Unlike one-off customizations or brand themes, dialects preserve the system’s essential grammar while expanding its vocabulary to serve different users, environments, or constraints.

When Perfect Consistency Fails

At Booking.com, I learned this lesson the hard way. We A/B-tested everything—color, copy, button shapes, even logo colors. As a professional with a graphic design education and experience building brand style guides, I found this shocking. While everyone fell in love with Airbnb’s pristine design system, Booking grew into a giant without ever considering visual consistency.  

The chaos taught me something profound: consistency isn’t ROI; solved problems are.

At Shopify. Polaris () was our crown jewel—a mature design language perfect for merchants on laptops. As a product team, we were expected to adopt Polaris as-is. Then my fulfillment team hit an “Oh, Ship!” moment, as we faced the challenge of building an app for warehouse pickers using our interface on shared, battered Android scanners in dim aisles, wearing thick gloves, scanning dozens of items per minute, many with limited levels of English understanding.

Task completion with standard Polaris: 0%.

Every component that worked beautifully for merchants failed completely for pickers. White backgrounds created glare. 44px tap targets were invisible to gloved fingers. Sentence-case labels took too long to parse. Multi-step flows confused non-native speakers.

We faced a choice: abandon Polaris entirely, or teach it to speak warehouse.

The Birth of a Dialect

We chose evolution over revolution. Working within Polaris’s core principles—clarity, efficiency, consistency—we developed what we now call a design dialect:

Constraint	Fluent Move	Rationale
Glare & low light	Dark surfaces + light text	Reduce glare on low-DPI screens
Gloves & haste	90px tap targets (~2cm)	Accommodate thick gloves
Multilingual	Single-task screens, plain language	Reduce cognitive load

Result: Task completion jumped from 0% to 100%. Onboarding time dropped from three weeks to one shift.

This wasn’t customization or theming—this was a dialect: a systematic adaptation that maintained Polaris’s core grammar while developing new vocabulary for a specific context. Polaris hadn’t failed; it had learned to speak warehouse.

The Flexibility Framework

At Atlassian, working on the Jira platform—itself a system within the larger Atlassian system—I pushed for formalizing this insight. With dozens of products sharing a design language across different codebases, we needed systematic flexibility so we built directly into our ways of working. The old model—exception requests and special approvals—was failing at scale.

We developed the Flexibility Framework to help designers define how flexible they wanted their components to be:

Tier	Action	Ownership
Consistent	Adopt unchanged	Platform locks design + code
Opinionated	Adapt within bounds	Platform provides smart defaults, products customize
Flexible	Extend freely	Platform defines behavior, products own presentation

During a navigation redesign, we tiered every element. Logo and global search stayed Consistent. Breadcrumbs and contextual actions became Flexible. Product teams could immediately see where innovation was welcome and where consistency mattered.

The Decision Ladder

Flexibility needs boundaries. We created a simple ladder for evaluating when rules should bend:

Good: Ship with existing system components. Fast, consistent, proven.

Better: Stretch a component slightly. Document the change. Contribute improvements back to the system for all to use.

Best: Prototype the ideal experience first. If user testing validates the benefit, update the system to support it.

The key question: “Which option lets users succeed fastest?”

Rules are tools, not relics.

Unity Beats Uniformity

Gmail, Drive, and Maps are unmistakably Google—yet each speaks with its own accent. They achieve unity through shared principles, not cloned components. One extra week of debate over button color costs roughly $30K in engineer time.

Unity is a brand outcome; fluency is a user outcome. When the two clash, side with the user.

Governance Without Gates

How do you maintain coherence while enabling dialects? Treat your system like a living vocabulary:

Document every deviation – e.g., dialects/warehouse.md with before/after screenshots and rationale.

Promote shared patterns – when three teams adopt a dialect independently, review it for core inclusion.

Deprecate with context – retire old idioms via flags and migration notes, never a big-bang purge.

A living dictionary scales better than a frozen rulebook.

Start Small: Your First Dialect

Ready to introduce dialects? Start with one broken experience:

This week: Find one user flow where perfect consistency blocks task completion. Could be mobile users struggling with desktop-sized components, or accessibility needs your standard patterns don’t address.

Document the context: What makes standard patterns fail here? Environmental constraints? User capabilities? Task urgency?

Design one systematic change: Focus on behavior over aesthetics. If gloves are the problem, bigger targets aren’t “”breaking the system””—they’re serving the user. Earn the variations and make them intentional.

Test and measure: Does the change improve task completion? Time to productivity? User satisfaction?

Show the savings: If that dialect frees even half a sprint, fluency has paid for itself.

Beyond the Component Library

We’re not managing design systems anymore—we’re cultivating design languages. Languages that grow with their speakers. Languages that develop accents without losing meaning. Languages that serve human needs over aesthetic ideals.

The warehouse workers who went from 0% to 100% task completion didn’t care that our buttons broke the style guide. They cared that the buttons finally worked.

Your users feel the same way. Give your system permission to speak their language.

Today’s web is not always an amiable place. Sites greet you with a popover that demands assent to their cookie policy, and leave you with Taboola ads promising “One Weird Trick!” to cure your ailments. Social media sites are tuned for engagement, and few things are more engaging than a fight. Today it seems that people want to quarrel; I have seen flame wars among birders.  

These tensions are often at odds with a site’s goals. If we are providing support and advice to customers, we don’t want those customers to wrangle with each other. If we offer news about the latest research, we want readers to feel at ease; if we promote upcoming marches, we want our core supporters to feel comfortable and we want curious newcomers to feel welcome. 

In a study for a conference on the History of the Web, I looked to the origins of Computer Science in Vienna (1928-1934)  for a case study of the importance of amiability in a research community and the disastrous consequences of its loss. That story has interesting implications for web environments that promote amiable interaction among disparate, difficult (and sometimes disagreeable) people.

The Vienna Circle

Though people had been thinking about calculating engines and thinking machines from antiquity, Computing really got going in Depression-era Vienna.  The people who worked out the theory had no interest in building machines; they wanted to puzzle out the limits of reason in the absence of divine authority. If we could not rely on God or Aristotle to tell us how to think, could we instead build arguments that were self-contained and demonstrably correct? Can we be sure that mathematics is consistent? Are there things that are true but that cannot be expressed in language? 

The core ideas were worked out in the weekly meetings (Thursdays at 6) of a group remembered as the Vienna Circle. They got together in the office of Professor Moritz Schlick at the University of Vienna to discuss problems in philosophy, math, and language. The intersection of physics and philosophy had long been a specialty of this Vienna department, and this work had placed them among the world leaders.  Schlick’s colleague Hans Hahn was a central participant, and by 1928 Hahn brought along his graduate students Karl Menger and Kurt Gödel. Other frequent participants included philosopher Rudolf Carnap, psychologist Karl Popper, economist Ludwig von Mises (brought by his brother Frederick, a physicist),  graphic designer Otto Neurath (inventor of infographics), and architect Josef Frank (brought by his physicist brother, Phillip).  Out-of-town visitors often joined, including the young Johnny von Neumann, Alfred Tarski, and the irascible Ludwig Wittgenstein. 

When Schlick’s office grew too dim, participants adjourned to a nearby café for additional discussion with an even larger circle of participants.  This convivial circle was far from unique.  An intersecting circle–Neurath, von Mises, Oskar Morgenstern–established the Austrian School of free-market economics. There were theatrical circles (Peter Lorre, Hedy Lamarr, Max Reinhardt), and literary circles. The café was where things happened.

The interdisciplinarity of the group posed real challenges of temperament and understanding. Personalities were often a challenge. Gödel was convinced people were trying to poison him. Architect Josef Frank depended on contracts for public housing, which Mises opposed as wasteful. Wittgenstein’s temper had lost him his job as a secondary school teacher, and for some of these years he maintained a detailed list of whom he was willing to meet. Neurath was eager to detect muddled thinking and would interrupt a speaker with a shouted “Metaphysics!” The continuing amity of these meetings was facilitated by the personality of their leader, Moritz Schlick, who would be remembered as notably adept in keeping disagreements from becoming quarrels.

In the Café

The Viennese café of this era was long remembered as a particularly good place to argue with your friends, to read, and to write. Built to serve an imperial capital, the cafés found themselves with too much space and too few customers now that the Empire was gone. There was no need to turn tables: a café could only survive by coaxing customers to linger. Perhaps they would order another coffee, or one of their friends might drop by. One could play chess, or billiards, or read newspapers from abroad. Coffee was invariably served with a glass of purified spring water, still a novelty in an era in which most water was still unsafe to drink. That water glass would be refilled indefinitely. 

In the basement of one café, the poet Jura Soyfer staged “The End Of The World,” a musical comedy in which Professor Peep has discovered a comet heading for earth.

Prof. Peep: The comet is going to destroy everybody!

Hitler:  Destroying everybody is my business.

Of course, coffee can be prepared in many ways, and the Viennese café developed a broad vocabulary to represent precisely how one preferred to drink it: melange, Einspänner, Brauner, Schwarzer, Kapuziner. This extensive customization, with correspondingly esoteric conventions of service, established the café as a comfortable and personal third space, a neutral ground in which anyone who could afford a coffee would be welcome. Viennese of this era were fastidious in their use of personal titles, of which an abundance were in common use. Café waiters greeted regular customers with titles too, but were careful to address their patrons with titles a notch or two greater than they deserved. A graduate student would be Doktor, an unpaid postdoc Professor.  This assurance mattered all the more because so many members of the Circle (and so many other Viennese) came from elsewhere: Carnap from Wuppertal, Gödel from Brno, von Neumann from Budapest. No one was going to make fun of your clothes, mannerisms, or accent. Your friends wouldn’t be bothered by the pram in the hall. Everyone shared a Germanic Austrian literary and philosophical culture, not least those whose ancestors had been Eastern European Jews who knew that culture well, having read all about it in books.

The amiability of the café circle was enhanced by its openness. Because the circle sometimes extended to architects and actors, people could feel less constrained to admit shortfalls in their understanding. It was soon discovered that marble tabletops made a useful surface for pencil sketches, serving all as an improvised and accessible blackboard.

Comedies like “The End Of The World” and fictional newspaper sketches or feuilletons of writers like Joseph Roth and Stefan Zweig served as a second defense against disagreeable or churlish behavior. The knowledge that, if one got carried away, a parody of one’s remarks might shortly appear in Neue Freie Presse surely helped Professor Schlick keep matters in hand.

The End Of Red Vienna

Though Austria’s government drifted to the right after the War, Vienna’s city council had been Socialist, dedicated to public housing based on user-centered design, and embracing  ambitious programs of public outreach and adult education. In 1934 the Socialists lost a local election, and this era soon came to its end as the new administration focused on the imagined threat of the International Jewish Conspiracy. Most members of the Circle fled within months: von Neumann to Princeton, Neurath to Holland and Oxford, Popper to New Zealand, Carnap to Chicago. Prof. Schlick was murdered on the steps of the University by a student outraged by his former association with Jews.  Jura Soyfer, who wrote “The End Of The World,” died in Buchenwald.

In 1939, von Neumann finally convinced Gödel to accept a job in Princeton. Gödel was required to pay large fines to emigrate. The officer in charge of these fees would look back on this as the best posting of his career; his name was Eichmann.

Design for Amiability

An impressive literature recounts those discussions and the environment that facilitated the development of computing. How can we design for amiability?  This is not just a matter of choosing rounded typefaces and a cheerful pastel palette. I believe we may identify eight distinct issues that exert design forces in usefully amiable directions.

Seriousness: The Vienna Circle was wrestling with a notoriously difficult book—Wittgenstein’s Tractus Logico-Philosophicus—and a catalog of outstanding open questions in mathematics. They were concerned with consequential problems, not merely scoring points for debating. Constant reminders that the questions you are considering matter—not only that they are consequential or that those opposing you are scoundrels—help promote amity.

Empiricism: The characteristic approach of the Vienna Circle demanded that knowledge be grounded either in direct observation or in rigorous reasoning. Disagreement, when it arose, could be settled by observation or by proof. If neither seemed ready to hand, the matter could not be settled. On these terms, one can seldom if ever demolish an opposing argument, and trolling is pointless.

Abstraction: Disputes grow worse when losing the argument entails lost face or lost jobs. The Vienna Circle’s focus on theory—the limits of mathematics, the capability of language—promoted amity. Without seriousness, abstraction could have been merely academic, but the limits of reason and the consistency of mathematics were clearly serious.

Formality: The punctilious demeanor of waiters and the elaborated rituals of coffee service helped to establish orderly attitudes amongst the argumentative participants. This stands in contrast to the contemptuous sneer that now dominates social media.  

Schlamperei: Members of the Vienna Circle maintained a global correspondence, and they knew their work was at the frontier of research. Still, this was Vienna, at the margins of Europe: old-fashioned, frumpy, and dingy. Many participants came from even more obscure backwaters. Most or all harbored the suspicion that they were really schleppers, and a tinge of the ridiculous helped to moderate tempers. The director of “The End Of The World” had to pass the hat for money to purchase a moon for the set, and thought it was funny enough to write up for publication.

Openness: All sorts of people were involved in discussion, anyone might join in. Each week would bring different participants. Fluid borders reduce tension, and provide opportunities to broaden the range of discussion and the terms of engagement. Low entrance friction was characteristic of the café: anyone could come, and if you came twice you were virtually a regular. Permeable boundaries and café culture made it easier for moderating influences to draw in raconteurs and storytellers to defuse awkward moments, and Vienna’s cafés had no shortage of humorists. Openness counteracts the suspicion that promoters of amiability are exerting censorship.

Parody: The environs of the Circle—the university office and the café—were unmistakably public. There were writers about, some of them renowned humorists. The prospect that one’s bad taste or bad behavior might be ridiculed in print kept discussion within bounds. The sanction of public humiliation, however, was itself made mild by the veneer of fiction; even if you got a little carried away and a character based on you made a splash in some newspaper fiction, it wasn’t the end of the world.

Engagement: The subject matter was important to the participants, but it was esoteric: it did not matter very much to their mothers or their siblings. A small stumble or a minor humiliation could be shrugged off in ways that major media confrontations cannot.

I believe it is notable that this environment was designed to promote amiability through several different voices.  The café waiter flattered each newcomer and served everyone, and also kept out local pickpockets and drunks who would be mere disruptions. Schlick and other regulars kept discussion moving and on track. The fiction writers and raconteurs—perhaps the most peripheral of the participants—kept people in a good mood and reminded them that bad behavior could make anyone ridiculous.  Crucially, each of these voices were human: you could reason with them. Algorithmic or AI moderators, however clever, are seldom perceived as reasonable. The café circles had no central authority or Moderator against whom everyone’s resentments might be focused. Even after the disaster of 1934, what people remembered were those cheerful arguments.

“God knows I’ve had some rough fucking years.” So say the lyrics of “Oh Lord,” but it’s been a very good year for Foxy Shazam, the rock band behind the now-famous song. Now, after 21 years of being on the scene, frontman Eric Nally says they’ve been “ready, prepared, and inspired” for big things, and […]

The post Foxy Shazam Frontman Eric Nally on Scoring the Peacemaker Season 2 Intro appeared first on Den of Geek.

Starfleet Academy may take place at the furthest point we’ve seen thus far in the Star Trek franchise, but the first clip of the new series points firmly to the past. Set in the 32nd century, after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, the footage finds the show’s hero ship the USS Athena entering a dangerous bit of space called the Badlands. Although we first saw the Badlands in Deep Space Nine, the area is most associated with Voyager, as a skirmish in the region led the ship to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Such franchise nods are nothing new to the current era of Trek, nor to Starfleet Academy in particular. In addition to bringing back Robert Picardo as the Emergency Medical Hologram from Voyager, better known as the Doctor, the series features several characters who belong to classic Trek races. But the most exciting part of the Badlands reference in the clip isn’t that the Athena is going to a place we know from before, but rather that it’s going to someplace that the characters don’t know. It’s exciting because the Athena is exploring and gaining information, and the bridge crew is using its expertese to deal with the problem that arises, all qualities in short supply in nü-Trek.

The clip’s emphasis on exploration and expertise goes against much of what we’ve seen so far for Starfleet Academy. As a spinoff of Discovery, Starfleet Academy seemed likely to repeat that series’ emphasis on universe-ending stakes and big emotional moments. Furthermore, setting the story at a school seems to invite wild emotions, lots of romance, and interpersonal drama, qualities emphasized by the newly-released poster for Starfleet Academy.

Don’t get us wrong, there’s certainly room for Star Trek to explore emotions. The primary tension in the Original Series put Kirk between McCoy’s irascible feelings and Spock’s cold logic, requiring the Captain to chart a path that values both instinct and reason. But, over time, logic became the de facto good in Star Trek stories, and emotion was something to be mistrusted.

Discovery and other nü-Trek entries found something new to explore in the Star Trek universe by emphasizing emotional intelligence, but their stories too often featured characters resolving deep-seated trauma with a conversation and a good hug. Not only did that approach fail to honor the truth of those emotions, but it downplayed the reason these characters were in Starfleet in the first place: that they were experts who did their jobs at the highest possible level, people with years of training, not just fuzzy feelings.

Certainly, we’re bound to get some more fuzzy feelings in Starfleet Academy. The primary cast of young stars play characters who don’t yet have that expertise and still have plenty of baggage as they sit under the tree that groundskeeper Boothby planted in the 24th Century.

But when we see the Athena search the Badlands for information, or when we see Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) respond to a threat by consulting information from her bridge crew and making informed, professional decisions, we have hope that these emotional kids will have good teachers to guide them, teachers who rely on their expertises and love to go exploring.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026.

The post Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Voyager Nod Better Be More Than a ‘Member Berry appeared first on Den of Geek.

The Boys creator Eric Kripke is fond of bringing back actors from his other hit show, Supernatural. In previous seasons of Prime Video’s violent superhero series, we’ve seen appearances from Supernatural alums Jim Beaver, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and even Jensen Ackles, but Kripke has saved the biggest Supernatural reunion of all for the final season […]

The post The Boys Season 5 Trailer Gives Us the Ultimate Supernatural Reunion appeared first on Den of Geek.

Starfleet Academy may take place at the furthest point we’ve seen thus far in the Star Trek franchise, but the first clip of the new series points firmly to the past. Set in the 32nd century, after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, the footage finds the show’s hero ship the USS Athena entering a dangerous bit of space called the Badlands. Although we first saw the Badlands in Deep Space Nine, the area is most associated with Voyager, as a skirmish in the region led the ship to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Such franchise nods are nothing new to the current era of Trek, nor to Starfleet Academy in particular. In addition to bringing back Robert Picardo as the Emergency Medical Hologram from Voyager, better known as the Doctor, the series features several characters who belong to classic Trek races. But the most exciting part of the Badlands reference in the clip isn’t that the Athena is going to a place we know from before, but rather that it’s going to someplace that the characters don’t know. It’s exciting because the Athena is exploring and gaining information, and the bridge crew is using its expertese to deal with the problem that arises, all qualities in short supply in nü-Trek.

The clip’s emphasis on exploration and expertise goes against much of what we’ve seen so far for Starfleet Academy. As a spinoff of Discovery, Starfleet Academy seemed likely to repeat that series’ emphasis on universe-ending stakes and big emotional moments. Furthermore, setting the story at a school seems to invite wild emotions, lots of romance, and interpersonal drama, qualities emphasized by the newly-released poster for Starfleet Academy.

Don’t get us wrong, there’s certainly room for Star Trek to explore emotions. The primary tension in the Original Series put Kirk between McCoy’s irascible feelings and Spock’s cold logic, requiring the Captain to chart a path that values both instinct and reason. But, over time, logic became the de facto good in Star Trek stories, and emotion was something to be mistrusted.

Discovery and other nü-Trek entries found something new to explore in the Star Trek universe by emphasizing emotional intelligence, but their stories too often featured characters resolving deep-seated trauma with a conversation and a good hug. Not only did that approach fail to honor the truth of those emotions, but it downplayed the reason these characters were in Starfleet in the first place: that they were experts who did their jobs at the highest possible level, people with years of training, not just fuzzy feelings.

Certainly, we’re bound to get some more fuzzy feelings in Starfleet Academy. The primary cast of young stars play characters who don’t yet have that expertise and still have plenty of baggage as they sit under the tree that groundskeeper Boothby planted in the 24th Century.

But when we see the Athena search the Badlands for information, or when we see Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) respond to a threat by consulting information from her bridge crew and making informed, professional decisions, we have hope that these emotional kids will have good teachers to guide them, teachers who rely on their expertises and love to go exploring.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026.

The post Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Voyager Nod Better Be More Than a ‘Member Berry appeared first on Den of Geek.

What does Avengers: Doomsday have in store for people who are emotionally invested in the MCU? Actually, let’s back up for a minute: what did Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame have in store for fans who were emotionally invested in the MCU? Cap and Tony settling their differences, reuniting Cap and Bucky, Gamora pushing through […]

The post Avengers: Doomsday’s Emotional Stakes Will Need to Rely on One Thing appeared first on Den of Geek.

Starfleet Academy may take place at the furthest point we’ve seen thus far in the Star Trek franchise, but the first clip of the new series points firmly to the past. Set in the 32nd century, after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, the footage finds the show’s hero ship the USS Athena entering a dangerous bit of space called the Badlands. Although we first saw the Badlands in Deep Space Nine, the area is most associated with Voyager, as a skirmish in the region led the ship to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Such franchise nods are nothing new to the current era of Trek, nor to Starfleet Academy in particular. In addition to bringing back Robert Picardo as the Emergency Medical Hologram from Voyager, better known as the Doctor, the series features several characters who belong to classic Trek races. But the most exciting part of the Badlands reference in the clip isn’t that the Athena is going to a place we know from before, but rather that it’s going to someplace that the characters don’t know. It’s exciting because the Athena is exploring and gaining information, and the bridge crew is using its expertese to deal with the problem that arises, all qualities in short supply in nü-Trek.

The clip’s emphasis on exploration and expertise goes against much of what we’ve seen so far for Starfleet Academy. As a spinoff of Discovery, Starfleet Academy seemed likely to repeat that series’ emphasis on universe-ending stakes and big emotional moments. Furthermore, setting the story at a school seems to invite wild emotions, lots of romance, and interpersonal drama, qualities emphasized by the newly-released poster for Starfleet Academy.

Don’t get us wrong, there’s certainly room for Star Trek to explore emotions. The primary tension in the Original Series put Kirk between McCoy’s irascible feelings and Spock’s cold logic, requiring the Captain to chart a path that values both instinct and reason. But, over time, logic became the de facto good in Star Trek stories, and emotion was something to be mistrusted.

Discovery and other nü-Trek entries found something new to explore in the Star Trek universe by emphasizing emotional intelligence, but their stories too often featured characters resolving deep-seated trauma with a conversation and a good hug. Not only did that approach fail to honor the truth of those emotions, but it downplayed the reason these characters were in Starfleet in the first place: that they were experts who did their jobs at the highest possible level, people with years of training, not just fuzzy feelings.

Certainly, we’re bound to get some more fuzzy feelings in Starfleet Academy. The primary cast of young stars play characters who don’t yet have that expertise and still have plenty of baggage as they sit under the tree that groundskeeper Boothby planted in the 24th Century.

But when we see the Athena search the Badlands for information, or when we see Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) respond to a threat by consulting information from her bridge crew and making informed, professional decisions, we have hope that these emotional kids will have good teachers to guide them, teachers who rely on their expertises and love to go exploring.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026.

The post Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Voyager Nod Better Be More Than a ‘Member Berry appeared first on Den of Geek.

After honing her craft on films like Her and A Wrinkle in Time, California native Amy Parris landed what many people would consider a dream job when she became the lead costume designer for Netflix’s hit sci-fi series Stranger Things in season 3. Parris approaches costume design as a form of storytelling, and that has definitely […]

The post Stranger Things Costume Designer Got More Than She Bargained for With One Piece of Jewelry appeared first on Den of Geek.

Starfleet Academy may take place at the furthest point we’ve seen thus far in the Star Trek franchise, but the first clip of the new series points firmly to the past. Set in the 32nd century, after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, the footage finds the show’s hero ship the USS Athena entering a dangerous bit of space called the Badlands. Although we first saw the Badlands in Deep Space Nine, the area is most associated with Voyager, as a skirmish in the region led the ship to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Such franchise nods are nothing new to the current era of Trek, nor to Starfleet Academy in particular. In addition to bringing back Robert Picardo as the Emergency Medical Hologram from Voyager, better known as the Doctor, the series features several characters who belong to classic Trek races. But the most exciting part of the Badlands reference in the clip isn’t that the Athena is going to a place we know from before, but rather that it’s going to someplace that the characters don’t know. It’s exciting because the Athena is exploring and gaining information, and the bridge crew is using its expertese to deal with the problem that arises, all qualities in short supply in nü-Trek.

The clip’s emphasis on exploration and expertise goes against much of what we’ve seen so far for Starfleet Academy. As a spinoff of Discovery, Starfleet Academy seemed likely to repeat that series’ emphasis on universe-ending stakes and big emotional moments. Furthermore, setting the story at a school seems to invite wild emotions, lots of romance, and interpersonal drama, qualities emphasized by the newly-released poster for Starfleet Academy.

Don’t get us wrong, there’s certainly room for Star Trek to explore emotions. The primary tension in the Original Series put Kirk between McCoy’s irascible feelings and Spock’s cold logic, requiring the Captain to chart a path that values both instinct and reason. But, over time, logic became the de facto good in Star Trek stories, and emotion was something to be mistrusted.

Discovery and other nü-Trek entries found something new to explore in the Star Trek universe by emphasizing emotional intelligence, but their stories too often featured characters resolving deep-seated trauma with a conversation and a good hug. Not only did that approach fail to honor the truth of those emotions, but it downplayed the reason these characters were in Starfleet in the first place: that they were experts who did their jobs at the highest possible level, people with years of training, not just fuzzy feelings.

Certainly, we’re bound to get some more fuzzy feelings in Starfleet Academy. The primary cast of young stars play characters who don’t yet have that expertise and still have plenty of baggage as they sit under the tree that groundskeeper Boothby planted in the 24th Century.

But when we see the Athena search the Badlands for information, or when we see Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) respond to a threat by consulting information from her bridge crew and making informed, professional decisions, we have hope that these emotional kids will have good teachers to guide them, teachers who rely on their expertises and love to go exploring.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026.

The post Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Voyager Nod Better Be More Than a ‘Member Berry appeared first on Den of Geek.

Starfleet Academy may take place at the furthest point we’ve seen thus far in the Star Trek franchise, but the first clip of the new series points firmly to the past. Set in the 32nd century, after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, the footage finds the show’s hero ship the USS Athena entering a […]

The post Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Voyager Nod Better Be More Than a ‘Member Berry appeared first on Den of Geek.

Starfleet Academy may take place at the furthest point we’ve seen thus far in the Star Trek franchise, but the first clip of the new series points firmly to the past. Set in the 32nd century, after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, the footage finds the show’s hero ship the USS Athena entering a dangerous bit of space called the Badlands. Although we first saw the Badlands in Deep Space Nine, the area is most associated with Voyager, as a skirmish in the region led the ship to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Such franchise nods are nothing new to the current era of Trek, nor to Starfleet Academy in particular. In addition to bringing back Robert Picardo as the Emergency Medical Hologram from Voyager, better known as the Doctor, the series features several characters who belong to classic Trek races. But the most exciting part of the Badlands reference in the clip isn’t that the Athena is going to a place we know from before, but rather that it’s going to someplace that the characters don’t know. It’s exciting because the Athena is exploring and gaining information, and the bridge crew is using its expertese to deal with the problem that arises, all qualities in short supply in nü-Trek.

The clip’s emphasis on exploration and expertise goes against much of what we’ve seen so far for Starfleet Academy. As a spinoff of Discovery, Starfleet Academy seemed likely to repeat that series’ emphasis on universe-ending stakes and big emotional moments. Furthermore, setting the story at a school seems to invite wild emotions, lots of romance, and interpersonal drama, qualities emphasized by the newly-released poster for Starfleet Academy.

Don’t get us wrong, there’s certainly room for Star Trek to explore emotions. The primary tension in the Original Series put Kirk between McCoy’s irascible feelings and Spock’s cold logic, requiring the Captain to chart a path that values both instinct and reason. But, over time, logic became the de facto good in Star Trek stories, and emotion was something to be mistrusted.

Discovery and other nü-Trek entries found something new to explore in the Star Trek universe by emphasizing emotional intelligence, but their stories too often featured characters resolving deep-seated trauma with a conversation and a good hug. Not only did that approach fail to honor the truth of those emotions, but it downplayed the reason these characters were in Starfleet in the first place: that they were experts who did their jobs at the highest possible level, people with years of training, not just fuzzy feelings.

Certainly, we’re bound to get some more fuzzy feelings in Starfleet Academy. The primary cast of young stars play characters who don’t yet have that expertise and still have plenty of baggage as they sit under the tree that groundskeeper Boothby planted in the 24th Century.

But when we see the Athena search the Badlands for information, or when we see Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) respond to a threat by consulting information from her bridge crew and making informed, professional decisions, we have hope that these emotional kids will have good teachers to guide them, teachers who rely on their expertises and love to go exploring.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026.

The post Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Voyager Nod Better Be More Than a ‘Member Berry appeared first on Den of Geek.

You probably know Kristen Stewart as the star of such Hollywood films as Underwater, Panic Room, and, of course, the Twilight franchise. But did you also know that Kristen Stewart starred in a pair of movies for French auteur Olivier Assayas, Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper? Did you catch her committed role in […]

The post Kristen Stewart Says Directors Need to Steal Their Movies, and She’s Right appeared first on Den of Geek.

Starfleet Academy may take place at the furthest point we’ve seen thus far in the Star Trek franchise, but the first clip of the new series points firmly to the past. Set in the 32nd century, after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, the footage finds the show’s hero ship the USS Athena entering a dangerous bit of space called the Badlands. Although we first saw the Badlands in Deep Space Nine, the area is most associated with Voyager, as a skirmish in the region led the ship to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Such franchise nods are nothing new to the current era of Trek, nor to Starfleet Academy in particular. In addition to bringing back Robert Picardo as the Emergency Medical Hologram from Voyager, better known as the Doctor, the series features several characters who belong to classic Trek races. But the most exciting part of the Badlands reference in the clip isn’t that the Athena is going to a place we know from before, but rather that it’s going to someplace that the characters don’t know. It’s exciting because the Athena is exploring and gaining information, and the bridge crew is using its expertese to deal with the problem that arises, all qualities in short supply in nü-Trek.

The clip’s emphasis on exploration and expertise goes against much of what we’ve seen so far for Starfleet Academy. As a spinoff of Discovery, Starfleet Academy seemed likely to repeat that series’ emphasis on universe-ending stakes and big emotional moments. Furthermore, setting the story at a school seems to invite wild emotions, lots of romance, and interpersonal drama, qualities emphasized by the newly-released poster for Starfleet Academy.

Don’t get us wrong, there’s certainly room for Star Trek to explore emotions. The primary tension in the Original Series put Kirk between McCoy’s irascible feelings and Spock’s cold logic, requiring the Captain to chart a path that values both instinct and reason. But, over time, logic became the de facto good in Star Trek stories, and emotion was something to be mistrusted.

Discovery and other nü-Trek entries found something new to explore in the Star Trek universe by emphasizing emotional intelligence, but their stories too often featured characters resolving deep-seated trauma with a conversation and a good hug. Not only did that approach fail to honor the truth of those emotions, but it downplayed the reason these characters were in Starfleet in the first place: that they were experts who did their jobs at the highest possible level, people with years of training, not just fuzzy feelings.

Certainly, we’re bound to get some more fuzzy feelings in Starfleet Academy. The primary cast of young stars play characters who don’t yet have that expertise and still have plenty of baggage as they sit under the tree that groundskeeper Boothby planted in the 24th Century.

But when we see the Athena search the Badlands for information, or when we see Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) respond to a threat by consulting information from her bridge crew and making informed, professional decisions, we have hope that these emotional kids will have good teachers to guide them, teachers who rely on their expertises and love to go exploring.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026.

The post Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Voyager Nod Better Be More Than a ‘Member Berry appeared first on Den of Geek.

Daniel Kaluuya and his screenwriting partner Ajon Singh don’t have much to say yet about their upcoming Spider-Punk movie. In a recent conversation with Deadline, Kaluuya, who first voiced the character in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, said only that he and Singh are in the “finishing stages” of the script and when asked about more […]

The post Spider-Man: The Spider-Punk Spinoff Has to Get One Thing Right appeared first on Den of Geek.

Starfleet Academy may take place at the furthest point we’ve seen thus far in the Star Trek franchise, but the first clip of the new series points firmly to the past. Set in the 32nd century, after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, the footage finds the show’s hero ship the USS Athena entering a dangerous bit of space called the Badlands. Although we first saw the Badlands in Deep Space Nine, the area is most associated with Voyager, as a skirmish in the region led the ship to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Such franchise nods are nothing new to the current era of Trek, nor to Starfleet Academy in particular. In addition to bringing back Robert Picardo as the Emergency Medical Hologram from Voyager, better known as the Doctor, the series features several characters who belong to classic Trek races. But the most exciting part of the Badlands reference in the clip isn’t that the Athena is going to a place we know from before, but rather that it’s going to someplace that the characters don’t know. It’s exciting because the Athena is exploring and gaining information, and the bridge crew is using its expertese to deal with the problem that arises, all qualities in short supply in nü-Trek.

The clip’s emphasis on exploration and expertise goes against much of what we’ve seen so far for Starfleet Academy. As a spinoff of Discovery, Starfleet Academy seemed likely to repeat that series’ emphasis on universe-ending stakes and big emotional moments. Furthermore, setting the story at a school seems to invite wild emotions, lots of romance, and interpersonal drama, qualities emphasized by the newly-released poster for Starfleet Academy.

Don’t get us wrong, there’s certainly room for Star Trek to explore emotions. The primary tension in the Original Series put Kirk between McCoy’s irascible feelings and Spock’s cold logic, requiring the Captain to chart a path that values both instinct and reason. But, over time, logic became the de facto good in Star Trek stories, and emotion was something to be mistrusted.

Discovery and other nü-Trek entries found something new to explore in the Star Trek universe by emphasizing emotional intelligence, but their stories too often featured characters resolving deep-seated trauma with a conversation and a good hug. Not only did that approach fail to honor the truth of those emotions, but it downplayed the reason these characters were in Starfleet in the first place: that they were experts who did their jobs at the highest possible level, people with years of training, not just fuzzy feelings.

Certainly, we’re bound to get some more fuzzy feelings in Starfleet Academy. The primary cast of young stars play characters who don’t yet have that expertise and still have plenty of baggage as they sit under the tree that groundskeeper Boothby planted in the 24th Century.

But when we see the Athena search the Badlands for information, or when we see Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) respond to a threat by consulting information from her bridge crew and making informed, professional decisions, we have hope that these emotional kids will have good teachers to guide them, teachers who rely on their expertises and love to go exploring.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026.

The post Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Voyager Nod Better Be More Than a ‘Member Berry appeared first on Den of Geek.

This article contains spoilers for Thunderbolts*. All of the Thunderbolts have it rough, but none worse than Taskmaster. Less than 18 minutes into the film, during the first action set piece, Taskmaster gets shot in the head and therefore doesn’t get to participate in all the cathartic sharing that the others enjoy later in the […]

The post Marvel Should Bring Back Taskmaster, But in a Radically Different Way appeared first on Den of Geek.

Starfleet Academy may take place at the furthest point we’ve seen thus far in the Star Trek franchise, but the first clip of the new series points firmly to the past. Set in the 32nd century, after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, the footage finds the show’s hero ship the USS Athena entering a dangerous bit of space called the Badlands. Although we first saw the Badlands in Deep Space Nine, the area is most associated with Voyager, as a skirmish in the region led the ship to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Such franchise nods are nothing new to the current era of Trek, nor to Starfleet Academy in particular. In addition to bringing back Robert Picardo as the Emergency Medical Hologram from Voyager, better known as the Doctor, the series features several characters who belong to classic Trek races. But the most exciting part of the Badlands reference in the clip isn’t that the Athena is going to a place we know from before, but rather that it’s going to someplace that the characters don’t know. It’s exciting because the Athena is exploring and gaining information, and the bridge crew is using its expertese to deal with the problem that arises, all qualities in short supply in nü-Trek.

The clip’s emphasis on exploration and expertise goes against much of what we’ve seen so far for Starfleet Academy. As a spinoff of Discovery, Starfleet Academy seemed likely to repeat that series’ emphasis on universe-ending stakes and big emotional moments. Furthermore, setting the story at a school seems to invite wild emotions, lots of romance, and interpersonal drama, qualities emphasized by the newly-released poster for Starfleet Academy.

Don’t get us wrong, there’s certainly room for Star Trek to explore emotions. The primary tension in the Original Series put Kirk between McCoy’s irascible feelings and Spock’s cold logic, requiring the Captain to chart a path that values both instinct and reason. But, over time, logic became the de facto good in Star Trek stories, and emotion was something to be mistrusted.

Discovery and other nü-Trek entries found something new to explore in the Star Trek universe by emphasizing emotional intelligence, but their stories too often featured characters resolving deep-seated trauma with a conversation and a good hug. Not only did that approach fail to honor the truth of those emotions, but it downplayed the reason these characters were in Starfleet in the first place: that they were experts who did their jobs at the highest possible level, people with years of training, not just fuzzy feelings.

Certainly, we’re bound to get some more fuzzy feelings in Starfleet Academy. The primary cast of young stars play characters who don’t yet have that expertise and still have plenty of baggage as they sit under the tree that groundskeeper Boothby planted in the 24th Century.

But when we see the Athena search the Badlands for information, or when we see Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) respond to a threat by consulting information from her bridge crew and making informed, professional decisions, we have hope that these emotional kids will have good teachers to guide them, teachers who rely on their expertises and love to go exploring.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026.

The post Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Voyager Nod Better Be More Than a ‘Member Berry appeared first on Den of Geek.