Fanmix: 15 years (it's just a question of time)

[toothpastepancake]

Title: 15 years (it's just a question of time)
Medium: Playlist/fanmix
Fandom: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy TV 2026
Length: 8 songs
Summary:

A playlist for Caleb Mir and Nahla Ake's deeply odd relationship!

Listen here. Tracklist & annotation under cut!

1) A QUESTION OF TIME | DEPECHE MODE

I've got to get to you first
Before they do
It's just a question of time
Before they lay their hands on you
And make you just like the rest

I can see them now
Hanging around
To mess you up
To strip you down
And have their fun
With my little one

It's just a question of time
And it's running out for you
It won't be long until you'll do
Exactly what they want you to

A big part of Nahla's relationship with Caleb is she thinks she is "saving" him from this life in prison or on the street... by putting him in what is for him essentially another prison. This song also has significant predatory undertones, which is another thing I read into their dynamic (her physicality with Caleb in episode 3 is not appropriate for a principal-student dynamic, imo).

2) LETTER TO MY SON | BLOC PARTY

Oh how I'd love
To be a rock for you
To be anything
You could rely on

So I'll try, I'll try, I'll try, I'll try
But I'll get caught out
So we'll try, we'll try, we'll try, we'll try
But we'll forget the lines, forget the lines

And you looked so thwarted
In the back of the car
Like you could thwart
A hundred wars

Nahla trying to be Something for Caleb (the "we can build something different" scene) haunts me, especially because he has no reason to want a relationship with her after what she did to his mom, but she's... kind of trying to force it on him, lol. And Caleb in the shuttle taking them to the Athena...

3) JUST FOR NOW | IMOGEN HEAP


Inside out
Upside-down, twisting beside myself
Stop that now
'Cause you and I were never meant to meet
I think you'd better leave
It's not safe in here
I feel a weakness coming on
It's not meant to be like this
Not what I planned at all
I don't want to feel like this, yeah
No response on any level, red alert, this vessel's under siege
Total overload, all systems down, they've got control
There's no way out, we are surrounded
Give in, give in, and relish every minute of it

I feel like this one is kinda obvious if you know their dynamic lol.

4) MAKE A SHADOW | MEG MYERS

Wide awake, wide awake
It all gets so hard
Wide awake, wide awake
It all gets so hard
Wo-ohh

Will you take my hand
And make a shadow?
Will you take my hand
And make a shadow?
Wo-ohh

Little
I want to be a kid, again
Little
Don't tell me this is home

Poor Caleb and his childhood trauma and Nahla's carrion eating of his childhood trauma <3

5) I'LL BE YOURS | PLACEBO

Well I've seen you suffer, I've seen you cry
The whole night through
So I'll be your water bathing you clean
With liquid blue
I'll be your father, I'll be your mother
I'll be your lover, I'll be yours

The show really wants me to believe she's a "surrogate mother" to him, but few of their interactions read that way to me lol. That being said, the undertones are still there, but when mixed with the aforementioned weird lack of boundaries Nahla has with him...

6) HEART HEART HEAD | MEG MYERS

How do I fake it with another man?
How do I love him on the weekend?
How do I listen to another man?
How do I get off on the weekend?

You're in my heart
In my heart, in my head
You're in my heart
In my heart, in my head

Mostly part of my headcanon that Nahla's entire life has been Caleb for so long that she really wouldn't do well in a relationship (with anyone else)----or if she was in one, it'd become about Caleb somehow, because of how she's fixated on him every day for 2 decades, haha

7) LITTLE THOUGHTS | BLOC PARTY

I'll go back if you ask me
I'll go back if you ask
I'll go back, back, back, b-b-b-backwards
This world ain't just m-m-m-made of facts
Every half hour is a countdown
If it's 'cause my age then you're a coward
If it's 'cause my age then you're a coward
If it's 'cause my age then you're a coward
I haven't got the guts to stand alone

The age gap drama, the lessons she's trying to impart onto him, and their past...

8) BURNT BABIES FEAR THE FIRE | BLAQK AUDIO

And how you very rarely smile
I like how you seem to barely try
And how I've never seen me within your eyes
When I scream for you, you're never listening
When I dance for you, you never look
When I dream awake and scream that I love you
When I do, I get a dirty look
I like your style, I like your stance
That no one ever has a chance
I like how you lay when you fall
And how you seem to like, like nothing at all

Their relationship is very one-sided in the beginning of the series... 

Comments

[pattrose]

This is a great fanmix. Great job.