Starfleet Academy’s “Vox in Excelso” in Review
This week, Season 1 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy brings us the second episode in a row to feature a Latin title. Unlike the third episode of the show, this one doesn’t involve protected species of flora. The episode itself isn’t a fun romp about rivalries but deals with the much more serious themes of loss and how, out of tragedy, hope can emerge. The title translates from Latin as ‘A Voice on High’ and, I guess, that’s one way to describe the episode. It focuses on the Klingon cadet Jay-Den Kraag and on the theme of Klingon honour and pride. How does the first-ever view of Klingon life in the 32nd century fare?
Log Entry
Although the teaser sequence opens with a monologue by Nahla Ake about a nebula, the action soon cuts to an Academy class elsewhere aboard the USS Athena, where a lesson in debating is being taught by The Doctor. The focus falls on Jay-Den Kraag, who admits to Caleb Mir that he hates public speaking. Confronted with being expected to debate Mir, Kraag has a panic attack.
Kraag has lunch with Mir but is called away to the Chancellor’s office, where Ake informs him about the recent crash of a Klingon refugee ship which his family is thought to have been aboard. Kraag – the only Klingon cadet currently in Starfleet – declines to take a leave of absence.
This episode also shows us the fate of the Klingon civilisation after the Burn. It’s not a happy situation. The Burn left much of the Klingon Empire uninhabitable, forcing the Klingon survivors to scatter across the galaxy as a nomadic diaspora, with nothing much left but their myths, their traditions, and their pride as a warrior race. Despite offers by the Federation to grant them asylum, the Klingons, with their proud tradition of honour, have refused, even to the point of risking extinction.
Sixteen months prior to Kraag receiving news about the crash, he was taken on his first hunt by his brother, who knew his destiny was not to be a warrior. He would find his honour elsewhere.
The Academy class decides the topic of their debate will be whether or not the Federation should give asylum to the Klingon people. Meanwhile, Admiral Vance suggests to Ake the uninhibited Federation planet Faan Alpha as a potential new home for the Klingons. But just as they are adamant about not accepting Federation charity, so Kraag rejects an offer of partnership from Mir, having instead chosen to argue against Federation asylum for the Klingon people.
Quite drunk on bloodwine, Ake welcomes the visit of Obel Wochak (David Keeley), an old Klingon friend she has known for decades, to discuss Faan Alpha. However, the refusal stands.
Darem Reymi – attempting to help Kraag prepare for the debate competition – teaches him a Khionian breathing technique. Kraag uses it on the day of the competition but the debate becomes quite heated, with him and Mir engaging in personal hostility toward each other.
Afterwards, Lura Thok visits Kraag in his quarters and advises him there. She mentions her father was a freed Jem’Hadar and that her Klingon maternal grandparents renounced their House to join the Jem’Hadar in battle. She advises Kraag not as a tough Cadet Master or competent first officer of the Athena but as a person of Klingon heritage mentoring another Klingon. Kraag explains that, following the death of his brother, his family abandoned him, although Thok submits that his family regarded him as honourable.
Kraag returns to the debate stage and presents the conclusion that the best way to deal with the Klingons and to offer them a place to call home is to talk to them on their own terms, not the Federation’s. This is precisely what the Federation decides to do, feigning a battle against the Klingons and allowing them to “seize” Faan Alpha. Mir and Kraag have a bonding moment.
Status Report
This episode treats Klingon culture, which most fans are very familiar with, with a lot of respect. The themes of loss – whether it’s of a family or a home – and hope for the future are handled sensitively. These themes have been tackled by Star Trek in every series over the last sixty years. In an ever-changing and unpredictable world, we need to hold onto the kind of optimism which began when Captain James T. Kirk first opened his captain’s log.
Series such as The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager excelled with ensemble casts in which one or maybe two characters were focused on per episode. Starfleet Academy is, so far, following this legacy. However, I wasn’t prepared for the journey I would find myself taking with Jay-Den Kraag and, in general, the Klingon people throughout this episode. It shows how not every battle is fought on the battlefield; battles can also be fought in medicine, the courtroom or even, in the case of this episode, the debate chamber.
It takes a lot to make me cry but this story – of a young Klingon growing up in a warrior culture yet destined to fight his battles away from the battlefield – made me well up with tears. Yes, there was some trauma involved in Jay-Den Kraag’s life, but we all have some trauma which we need to deal with in our own lives and adding a bit of it to a character’s backstory makes the character more realistic and relatable, not less. Here, the real battlefield isn’t one of war, whether on a planet or in space, but the battlefield of a person’s own inner conflict.
Lura Thok’s heart-to-heart with Kraag tantalizingly hints at how the Dominion may have changed over the eight hundred years or so since the end of the Dominion War, particularly for the Jem’Hadar. I hope we’ll learn more about this later in the series.
The emotional message I took from this story was about hope, especially the hope for a better life for the Klingon diaspora. Although the ending wraps itself up a bit too neatly for the Klingons, there is also a sense of foreshadowing. I doubt we’ve heard the last of the Klingon people in this new series. There’s still a lot of space for all the cadets, including Jay-Den Kraag, to grow into their character arcs.
