In the
Star Trek universe
Starfleet Academy is the campus facility in
San Francisco, CA where
Starfleet trains its recruits to perform their future jobs on
starships and on other assignments. Founded in 2161, the Academy is a four year institution. The school's motto is "ex astris, sciencia," meaning "from the stars, knowledge" (a paraphrase of the quote from the
Apollo XIII mission patch). The school was seen for the first time in the
Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "
The First Duty" and has been much-alluded to and sometimes seen in other
Star Trek episodes.
There is a legend among Trekdom that there has been a television or movie project based on Starfleet Academy in the works at different points over the years. Writer Harve Bennett supposedly wanted to make Star Trek VI a Starfleet Academy movie. His script focused on Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, and the other original series characters meeting and becoming friends during their Academy days. As such, this script also called for the recasting of all the characters with young, more popular (and therefore more marketable) stars. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry supposedly spread a rumor around Hollywood that the concept was modeled after the Police Academy series of movies, and this rumor killed the concept along with George Takei (Hikaru Sulu) spreading the word at conventions that fans should protest the recasting of the core characters.
Rumblings of a Starfleet Academy TV series began to circulate as Star Trek: Voyager was coming to a close in 2001. Rumor had it that Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, the current brain trust behind Star Trek, were planning the next Trek series to be less about sci-fi and more like a Dawson's Creek teen angsty drama set at the Academy. Berman and Braga denied several times in interviews that this idea was being considered, but it continued to circulate up until the next Trek entry, Enterprise, premiered in September 2001.
References:
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader] #14
http://www.trekbbs.com
Star Trek Encyclopedia, First Edition