Logline
When an existential crisis threatens to wipe out a beloved but infamous Star Trek species, a cadet is forced to confront his past and strained relationship with his family. As he pursues an unexpected method of coping, Nahla races against time to save this species from extinction.
Written by: Gaia Violo & Eric Anthony Glover
Directed by: Doug Aarniokoski
It was okay, and I like that we got some insight into why Jay-Den is the way he is.
But… to be honest, I’m not sure why this debate between Caleb and Jay-Den is even happening. If they’re going to throwing regulations and laws around, doesn’t the actual Prime Directive exist anymore? Because I’ve not heard a single mention of it. If the PD exists, you just don’t mess with the internal workings of a civilisation (TOS: “The Apple” and “The Return of the Archons” notwithstanding). You can offer, you can plead, but whether they accept is their choice and right, even if it means they go extinct because of it. Yes, I know it’s all a metaphor for Jay-Den’s internal struggles, and perhaps given how they’re debating the Prime Directive is now scattered across several statutes and case law instead of one all-encompassing General Order and other sub-orders (VOY: “Infinite Regress”). But when you’re talking about this kind of situation, it’s precisely the Prime Directive you should be using to frame the debate.
Also, I saw the ending coming from very early on in the episode - it’s the obvious solution, and they should have thought of it so much earlier. Yes, if conquest, not charity, is what Klingons care about, just let them “conquer” Faan Alpha!
Loved the episode, no notes.
shit, should I be watching Academy!?
Honestly, yes. I went in pretty skeptical because I don’t really like the 32nd century setting and find teenage drama tiresome. SFA is actually pretty good. I really liked this episode: classic Trek storytelling and excellent world-building. The teenage drama stuff is annoying (to me personally), but that’s kinda the price of having a show about cadets.
There are some great characters, too. Jay-den (the Klingon and focus of this episode) is great, and Lura Thok, the Cadet Master, is an absolute gem of a character.
6 days later I’m caught up! loving the show, thanks!!
That was a fantastic episode altogether. Loved it.
I agree that the resolution should be obvious, and after the Betazed episode, it is again ridiculous that political problems are solved at a school, but then again, it was ridiculous that Picard solved all problems in the galaxy.
I also like how this episode resolves why Klingons played no role in Discovery after the time jump.
But Star Trek writers should come up with new ideas other than “our favourite alien race” diasporas. Will we have a Frengi diaspora next season?
It’s a bit weird that losing Qonos somehow wiped out the whole Klingon empire.
This episode was what I was hoping for out of this show. The first episode was such whiplash that I’m glad it is settling down. This episode we got a cool character study that had actual impact. Cool lore that made sense. Characters had long one on one conversations. Parallel storytelling with the debate. Maybe even the hint of a natural progressing gay romance? All storylines mattered. Good job Modern Trek!
I’m a little late to the party, but this episode is everything I wanted from modern Trek.
I’m loving that the cadets are competitive but ultimately supportive of each other. I love that we spent an entire episode focused on Jay’den’s backstory and the Klingons, without any tedious martial arts or (real) space battles but the stakes were still plenty high. I found the resolution, and the message (not letting go of the past, but letting the present in) to be excellent Trek.
Caleb is also proving to be a bit more of an academy-era-Picard style character (great at a lot of stuff, but arrogant) rather than the sort of troubled genius vibe in the first bit of the show. I am looking forward to seeing him, and the other cadets, developed further.
Holly Hunter is doing great, bringing her own style. Loved she had a history with the Klingon guy and advocated for her student. I get why she’s rubbing some the wrong way, but she is masterfully handling the people around her, leading with empathy, and has been very effective.
Also love we got some classic Klingon music from the movies, it was a nice nod.
Overall, I think this show is finally taking real advantage of the far future timeline. It is a little silly that major diplomacy is being effected at the Academy but because the Federation is still finding its feet again and the fact that the world has been mixed up from 90s Trek, it makes the Academy a much more interesting lens on the world than it would have been if it was set in the TNG-VOY timeframe.
This episode’s ending was very soulist. Battle is a social construct, and if everyone agrees, then it can be used however people want it to be used.
Ritual combat is a thing.
I wonder how much do the Klingons know that Starfleet pulled its punches?
I think they’re probably fully aware, at least amongst their leadership. They’d already been offered the planet for free, after all.
I think it was about respect, not trickery.
I agree. I think Jaden spoke about it pretty well that it’s about understanding their language and culture. Earning a hunt vs being gifted it.
yeah that was the thing that i thought hard to believe. A big battle between Staryfleet and Klingons for the control of a planet, wero, casualties, and not a sigle Klingon raises their eyebrows even more?
Ritual combat is something Klingons have a lot of cultural understanding and respect for. This fits right in.
I don’t think the Klingon leadership were ever lying to their people about why the war happened. I think everyone involved understood the simple soulist truth that a war is whatever the combatants can agree is a war, and therefore a bloodless war as a formality of cultural respect and independence is perfectly valid.
The realist viewpoint of “a war has to be between two people who hate each other and if they don’t then it’s not a real war” is not culturally universal. In fact, this episode reminded Me of what I’ve read of war in indigenous Australia. Wars did not usually involve any loss of life before colonisation.
I really didn’t care for this one.
The premise of the debate was flawed from the start. The Federation has an obligation to offer help, but there’s no requirement anywhere that it must compel another race to accept that help. Indeed many, many episodes have gone out of their way to point this out. So the whole idea of a “debate” was pointless. Of course they should offer the help, but that’s the end of any moral or legal responsibility. Doing anything more would itself be unethical.
Interestingly as an aside, I found this whole prospect very American at its root. Not only should we accept that we must offer help, but of course we must compel these people to accept our idea of help. It stinks of regime change from without and I find the idea that the Federation would ever work this way ridiculous.
On top of that, we’re somehow supposed to pretend we didn’t all watch Esri Dax’s excellent critique of the Klingon Empire back on DS9 and instead accept that this lie of “conquest” is supposed to prop up the Klingon culture. Are we to believe that it’s been hundreds of years and the Empire is still built in lies they tell each other about honour and battle? Instead of showing any hint of evolution (and potentially stoking internal conflict at the idea of accepting charity from an enemy), we just had a 5 minute “battle” and it’s all ok now.
This wasn’t even a respectful battle. No blood was spilt by either side, no sacrifices made. Where is the honour in that? It was a mock battle to preserve a lie. Esri would not be amused.
I think that arrogant, quasi-imperialistic has always been simmering in the background of the Federation, so I wasn’t too surprised to see them arguing over this - and, to be clear, the actual debate was always amongst the students. Vance was determined to convince the Klingons to accept asylum, but “compelling” them did not seem to be seriously on the table.
Esri Dax’s excellent critique of the Klingon Empire
That’s an interesting point. If I were to come up with a counter-argument, I suppose it would be that the Klingons’ readiness to do this ritualistic faux combat shows some growth - they’re willing to settle for performing their culture and feeling respected, rather than endure actual warfare. A smarter person than me could probably find parallels in many modern cultural practices.
Just to your point about the debate being pointless, it wasn’t even meant to be in the curriculum until the students fought for it.
We could mince words about whether or not the writers forced the debate plot, but what really matters is whether they sold that it was within the characters’ motivation to hold one. And for me it did.
