Klingoning on to Hope

SPOILERS BELOW for "Vox In Excelso," Episode Four of Star Trek: Stafleet Academy

Cadet Jay-Den Kraag hears a voice from on high in the fourth episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, a solid hour of television that delivers a welcome update on the Klingon civilization in the post-Burn era. 

Through a series of very effective flashbacks, we learn more about Jay-Den's family, including a very supportive brother who understands that Jay-Den's wish to become a healer instead of a warrior is an honourable choice--a choice that bitterly disappoints their father. 

Turns out the Klingon Empire has been reduced to the Klingon Diaspora, with just a few Great Houses left of the multitude of Klingon families. Qo'nos, the Klingon homeword, was rendered uninhabitable by the Burn, and the Klingons now roam the stars in search of new homes. To make matters worse, there's been an accident involving a Klingon colony ship, one carrying, among many others, Jay-Den's parents. Their fate, and the fate of the other passengers, is initially unknown. 

It hasn't been an easy task, but it turns out there's an uninhabited world in Federation space that closely replicates conditions on Qo'nos before disaster.

The Federation is happy to grant the Klingons the right to settle on this new world, but there's just one problem: Naturally, the Klingons don't take charity. As a Klingon, Jay-Den understands his culture better than anyone at the Academy, so he's in a unique position to articulate his people's positions, which dovetails nicely with this episode's main classroom activity: debate club. At first the Klingon issue is off-limits, deemed too sensitive given the events occurring in real time. But Jay-Den, who has a bad case of stage fright and hates debate club, forces the issue--and forces himself to face some of his fears. 

Jay-Den's reflections on his past and some help from his fellow cadets give Jay-Den the ammunition he needs to win the Academy debates--while providing a solution to the Klingon refugee problem. In essence, Jay-Den argues that the Federation's stated claims of valuing diversity are hollow without active listening and engaging with other cultures on their own terms. 

So, naturally, the only honourable choice is for the Federation to challenge the Klingon refugees into fighting over the potential New Qo'nos--a solution that came to me about five minutes into the episode, but still, kudos to the writers for setting things up this way. A brief space battle breaks out, a polite fiction that results in zero casualties but allows Klingon honour to remain intact. 

I really enjoyed this episode. It gives Jay-Den some great moments, gives the Klingon species as a whole more depth, and shows quite effectively that the status quo viewers are used to from other Star Trek shows is very different in important ways. It's a breath of fresh air.