Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 6 – “Come, Let’s Away”Star Trek: Starfleet Academy made sure that you won’t look at one of Star Trek‘s sexiest alien races, the Deltans, the same way again. Written by Kenneth Lin & Kiley Rossetter, and directed by Larry Teng, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6 saw Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti) return to hand Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) and Starfleet a tragic and devastating defeat.

The first Deltan in Star Trek, Lieutenant Ilia (Persis Khambatta) debuted in Star Trek: The Motion Picture as the USS Enterprise’s new navigator and the former lover of Commander Willard Decker (Stephen Collins). Sadly, Ilia did not survive Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The Deltan was replaced by a mechanical probe before Ilia, Decker, and V’Ger merged into a new being and vanished from this plane of existence.

Ilia’s brief time in Star Trek: The Motion Picture nevertheless established some basic traits about Deltans. Specifically, that Deltans are a very sexually attractive race. So much so that human Starfleet Officers can find serving with Deltans distracting. Lt. Ilia even signed an oath of celibacy when she joined the crew of the Starship Enterprise.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Gives A Shocking Update About Deltans

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 6 opens with Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) and Tarima Sadal (Zoë Steiner) making love. Caleb, who is human, asked his Betazoid girlfriend about her first time, and Tarima revealed that it was with a Deltan. What Tarima went on to describe about her Deltan paramour was shocking:

He was part Deltan, and I didn’t know that for Deltans, there’s this whole thing with bowls of cleansing milk you’re supposed to douse your body with, and then his extended family dances around you in a circle with these weird Deltan, like, tambourines. Yes… Family tambourine dancing… Then they drape you in the robes of ancient star mariners, and then you have to sing the ancient star mariner duet called “Fruitful Coupling.”

Despite Caleb’s teasing, Tarima swore that she would not be singing “Fruitful Coupling” because “it haunts me.” Betazoids are known to also be a sexually liberated race, so Tarima’s reaction to her Deltan lover indicates that Deltan sex rituals were a bridge too far, even for a species whose culture requires naked weddings like the Betazoids.

Tarima’s revelations about Deltan sex customs also beg the question of whether Will Decker had the same experience with Ilia after they met on Delta IV. Given how Ilia and Decker vanished at the end of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the truth and details of their romantic relationship will forever be a mystery. Perhaps that’s for the best.

Star Trek Chose Betazoids Over Deltans

Despite creating the Deltans for 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Gene Roddenberry did not bring back the Deltans when he launched Star Trek: The Next Generation 8 years later. Instead, Roddenberry created the Betazoids, embodied by Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis).

However, Roddenberry ported key aspects of the Deltans to Troi and the Betazoids, including their physical attractiveness and customs that are more sexually liberated than those of humans. Lieutenant Ilia had the ability to relieve pain by touch in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Roddenberry expanded this by giving the Betazoids empathic and telepathic abilities.

Gene Roddenberry also repeated Willard Decker and Ilia’s love story with Counselor Troi and Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes). Deanna and Will met on Betazed, fell in love, and parted on bad terms when Riker chose his Starfleet career over Troi, before they both ended up serving on the Starship Enterprise.

Perhaps Gene Roddenberry found his original concept for the Deltans, including having a bald female character, too limiting, and decided on what turned out to be a more successful do-over with the Betazoids. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy established just how crucial Betazed is to the United Federation of Planets 800 years after Deanna Troi became the USS Enterprise-D’s counselor.

It’s a fascinating nod to how the Betazoids are essentially an evolution of the original concept of the Deltans that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy revealed Tarima Sadal’s “first time” was with a Deltan. And it’s an experience the Betazoid Starfleet cadet isn’t keen to repeat.

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Release Date

January 15, 2026

Network

Paramount+

Showrunner

Alex Kurtzman, Noga Landau

Directors

Douglas Aarniokoski

Writers

Alex Taub, Tawny Newsome, Kirsten Beyer, Jane Maggs, Kiley Rossetter

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