Spoilers follow for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 4, “Vox in Excelso,” which is available on Paramount+ now.
So we finally know what’s been going on with the Klingons in the era of The Burn.
The status of Star Trek’s classic villains/frenemies has been a big question mark ever since Michael Burnham and the crew of the USS Discovery jumped 900 years into the future of the 32nd century back in Discovery Season 3’s premiere. That future would prove to be filled with a lot of familiar alien races, and a bunch of characters who were of mixed race as well – like Laira Rillak, the president of the Federation who was of human, Bajoran, and Cardassian descent. It made sense that, almost a thousand years after the era of Captain Kirk, many of the people of the Federation would have diverse racial heritages.
And yet, one question that remained unanswered was what happened to the Klingons in the nine centuries since that era. Disco seemed to purposely avoid the issue altogether, after leaning heavily on the warrior aliens in its first two seasons. But Starfleet Academy is diving into the matter bumpy-head first with the introduction of main cast member Karim Diané, who plays the Klingon cadet Jay-Den Kraag, and now with the reveal that the Klingons have become galactic refugees as a result of the cataclysmic Burn.
That’s a long way around to saying that “Vox in Excelso” finally gives us our 32nd century Klingon episode, and it’s a good one. We get not just an update on where the Klingons have been (and where they’re going), but also a focus on Jay-Den and the events that led him to the Academy. And it’s all interwoven into another “school activity” plot involving… debate club!
The Klingons have always run the risk of being one-note, which is why Michael Dorn’s performance as Worf has stood the test of time. Worf was never simply a warrior or a badass, but a complicated character with layers and textures who loved, feared, and learned with the best of them. Jay-Den now looks to be continuing in that tradition – he is a Klingon who not only doesn’t want to be a warrior, but who is haunted by his choice to pursue a different life.
So when he has his first shot at debating Caleb (Sandro Rosta) in The Doctor’s (Robert Picardo) class, the fact that he basically has a panic attack is quite telling. “Arguing, standing up for what I believe, makes sweat flood down my face,” he says. (I hear you, Jay-Den.) As “Vox in Excelso” proceeds, we see in flashbacks how Jay-Den’s father constantly pressured him to join the warrior’s way. It’s difficult for him to even say out loud to his family that he does not want to be a warrior, and that pressure and fear of letting them down – and of speaking his mind and talking about his true feelings – takes a toll.
The situation is further complicated when his family is revealed to have been onboard a ship that has recently crashed; whether or not they’ve survived is currently unknown. Meanwhile, the Federation has found a planet that would make a perfect new home for the displaced Klingons, but the Klingons themselves have spent the past century refusing hand-outs. As this news becomes a hot topic of discussion – the crash, the new homeworld potential – it bleeds onto the debate stage where Jay-Den has to work out some issues.
Jay-Den is a Klingon who not only doesn’t want to be a warrior, but who is haunted by his choice to pursue a different life.“
The episode’s flashing back and forth from present to the past is handled in an interesting way by regular Trek director Doug Aarniokoski, as we get bits of introspective voiceover from Jay-Den accompanying flashes of memory and a melancholy score. It actually reminds me a bit of how Battlestar Galactica handled such moments at times (particularly Kara Thrace’s remembrances in the all-time great episode “Scar”). Also notable is Jay-Den’s anger at Caleb, who after all is just trying to be a good friend. But it’s those memories, particularly of his fallen brother, that makes Jay-Den react so strongly to Caleb. The performances across the board are excellent here, particularly with these two.
Holly Hunter also gets a B-story, and fortunately I was able to understand her words much better than I could in last week’s episode, as Chancellor Ake reunites with her old Klingon flame General Obel Wochak (David Keeley). The plan is to get Obel to grease the wheels of a Federation/Klingon agreement to give the Klingons the newly discovered world, Faan Alpha. Hunter and Keeley have fun in their scenes together, and the relationship is also used to explore the long history that Ake has as a 400-year-old Lanthanite.
Unfortunately, while the emotional culmination of Jay-Den’s story is effective as he makes the case in the debate for the Klingon way of life to be respected, even if most members of the Federation can’t understand it, the plan to get the Klingons to accept the gift they cannot accept – Faan Alpha – rings false. A bloodless battle where some ships shoot at each other for a few minutes and then everyone says “Yay, the Klingons won”? Nope, doesn't work.
Questions and Notes from the Q Continuum:
- “Vox in excelso” is a Latin term which means “a voice on high” and refers to Pope Clement V’s order to dissolve the Order of the Knights Templar.
- A chancellor’s address instead of a captain’s log!?
- Speaking of which, why is Ake on the bridge all alone at the start of the episode? Where’s Beta Shift!
- Judge Aaron Satie, who The Doctor references here, was the father of Jean Simmons’ Rear Admiral Norah Satie from the Next Gen episode “The Drumhead.” Norah, you will recall, very much missed the point of her father’s famous words.
- The rendering of the Klingon homeworld Qo'noS as inhabitable after The Burn makes perfect sense – The Burn was basically dilithium reactors going kablooey. It makes so much sense, in fact, that one can’t help but wonder why Earth and many other worlds didn’t suffer a similar fate.
- It’s also a callback to Praxis, the over-mined Klingon moon that got blown apart in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. It was the destruction of that satellite, and its effect on Qo'noS, that led to the first détente between the Klingons and the Federation… and the first Khitomer Accords (which Sam mispronounces here).
- Nice to see the Klingon death ritual is still being practiced.
- What’s going on with Jay-Den and Darem?
- Great, they still have conspiracy theories in the 32nd century…
