Spoilers Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x04 – “Vox in Excelso”

[Turtletrekker]

The quote wasnt wrong. This is a alternate universe so some things will be different.

I feel like with this, we've come full circle with the straw grasping.

 

[cooleddie74]

Alternate universe. Lulz.

 

[The Wormhole]

Did anyone notice that The Doctor messes up the quote from The Drumhead?

What Picard says in The Drumhead:

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably"

What The Doctor says:

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, us all irrevocably."

I wonder if Robert Picardo just flubbed the line and nobody caught it or if the script got the quote wrong?

Perhaps it was in fact Picard who misquoted Aron Satie in The Drumhead and the Doctor actually accurately quoted Satie?

 

[firehawk12]

Maybe the doctor's program got corrupted.

 

[Nerys Myk]

They didn't, well, except for Year of Hell.

Oh, please, ship in jeopardy and might not survive is all over Star Trek,

There are multiple Earth's, they would probably just move to one of the others.

Nope just the one with all that history. Even Miri's World while having the geography doesn't have the History, while "Terra Roma" is opposite

I liked this episode overall. It gave us a lot of character development for Jay-Den and a nice interaction with Lura. Also—was I tripping, or did she pronounce “Klingon” as tlhIngan? I loved that detail, but maybe I was just hearing things. I still don’t quite understand why Lura speaks with a British accent. Yes, yes, the actress and all—but as far as I know, she’s the first Klingon and Jem’Hadar who speaks English with a British accent. Anyway.

There's the enemies to lovers trope in many romantasy novels recently.

Recently?????

He did say Qo’noS and Kahless weirdly.

Okruadish dialect. I noted the non-Klingons use the "old school" pronunciations including "Kronos".

Are House Kraag luddites?

They have a Starship, so no, They do like "living rough" though,

 

[Tuskin38]

The weapon sound FX in the battle sounded very TOS

 

[cooleddie74]

Maybe the doctor's program got corrupted.

When 822 years old you reach, remember as good you will not.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Do expect a cop show to explain how the internal combustion engine works before embarking on a car chase?

Gene Roddenberry
"Scientifically inaccurate. Wrong again; beware if you checked this one. Although we do want to be scientifically accurate, we've found that selection of this item usually indicates a preoccupation with science and gadgetry over people and story."

"Tell your story about people, not about science and gadgetry. Joe Friday doesn't stop to explain the mechanics of his .38 before he uses it; Kildare never did a monologue about the theory of anesthetics; Matt Dillon never identifies and dis- cusses the breed of his horse before he rides off on it"

 

[cooleddie74]

This is Star Trek. Science got blinded by the flash of the camera bulb 60 years ago.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Outstanding episode. 9.

 

[Firebird]

The quote wasnt wrong. This is an alternate universe so some things will be different.

As if that’s gonna make you stop complaining about everything just to complain.

 

[Jag2112]

Did anyone notice Judge Aaron Satie's speech that the Doctor recited was missing the pivotal word 'chains'?

The speech should have read:

With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.

But if you listen carefully, the Doctor actually says "...freedom denied, us all..." Either that or I need to have my hearing checked...

 

[Detached Nacelle]

Actor flubs do happen we've seen it several times before.

Twice in too separate episodes Data's poetry was inflected to be a question. Felis catus, is your taxonomic nonmenclature an endothermic quadruped carnivorous by nature?

The eugenics wars was mentioned to have happened in the 22nd century (though I think that one was a scripting error)

Romulans were described as arriving to Vulcan

Saru got called admiral instead of ambassador

There are no doubt many many more that aren't on the top of my head.

 

[Set Harth]

Did anyone notice Judge Aaron Satie's speech that the Doctor recited was missing the pivotal word 'chains'?

The speech should have read:

With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.

But if you listen carefully, the Doctor actually says "...freedom denied, us all..." Either that or I need to have my hearing checked...

Maybe what they're trying to say is that that stuff doesn't chain us at all, because it's all correct and righteous!

 

[Klingon Empire]

Gene Roddenberry
"Scientifically inaccurate. Wrong again; beware if you checked this one. Although we do want to be scientifically accurate, we've found that selection of this item usually indicates a preoccupation with science and gadgetry over people and story."

"Tell your story about people, not about science and gadgetry. Joe Friday doesn't stop to explain the mechanics of his .38 before he uses it; Kildare never did a monologue about the theory of anesthetics; Matt Dillon never identifies and dis- cusses the breed of his horse before he rides off on it"

Love these quotes, and Nimoy's about Canon. It's always good to be remember the key ingredient in the recipe

 

[BigJake]

Yeah, it's about a 6/10 for me.

If "debate class" was going to be the angle, the episode would have benefited a lot from showing a real understanding of that subject matter -- which is to say that "debate" is anchored in cogent arguments, not spouting abstruse gibberish -- and how to showcase Caleb's competence in that context. It's a big drawback that this just doesn't seem to be in evidence.

That Caleb spends most of the time glibly citing precedent, case law and regulations (more or less interchangeably? weirdly?) robs a lot of the force from the axis of the conflict he runs into with Jay-Den, who seems to be reacting to an argument for compulsory resettlement of the Klingons that we never, AFAICT, hear Caleb make.

EDIT: Well wait, I take that back, Caleb does sort of make the argument, it's just so buried in citations of... things that Jay-Den has to basically restate it in plainer language. I feel like there had to be a better way of going about this, is the point.

Also, I had kind of hoped that this show would have something more interesting in mind for the Klingons than another version of the enemies-to-refugees story we saw with the Romulans in PIC. There's nothing specific that I was hoping for, I just... feel like retreading that ground does not feel terribly inspired. That the Klingons need to be coddled into a pantomime of "conquering" their new home also kind of sucks; it would be nice to see them show a tad more sophistication than that.

Everything else is fine. Both Caleb and Darem continue to shape up as genuinely likeable characters, which is nice, and it's good to see Jay-Den get a bit more fleshed out. I liked his dynamic with his supportive brother, and seeing the Cadet Master mentor him a bit was also a welcome thing. I'm not loving whatever it is they're doing with Jay-Den's voice, which reminds me (not in a welcome way) of Christian Bale's Theatrical Batman Voice. But that's a nitpick, relatively speaking. Chancellor Ake continues to be good fun.

It's just that the flaws in the execution of core concepts in this one are hard to overlook.

 

[Fateor]

Also, I had kind of hoped that this show would have something more interesting in mind for the Klingons than another version of the enemies-to-refugees story we saw with the Romulans in PIC. There's nothing specific that I was hoping for, I just... feel like retreading that ground does not feel terribly inspired. That the Klingons need to be coddled into a pantomime of "conquering" their new home also kind of sucks; it would be nice to see them show a tad more sophistication than that.

The Klingons in this episode are very specifically just one group of several different ones.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

Well, well, well. A decent episode at last! You gotcher A story and you got yer B story and that was enough to please me. Identifiable family drama but the debate felt...light?

I decided long ago to chuck Canon - this is big coming from a guy who won trivia contests against other long-time Trekkies* -- and enjoy...BUT the story, etc. had better be good and at least Trek-adjacent. That finally happened tonight. I just joined this thread, comments and my replies follow:

And we're back after a bit of a miss last week, with a pretty rapid veering in tone. Whereas last week felt like a young adult show with some Trek set dressing, here we have a regular episode of Star Trek with a tiny bit of young person drama pasted on top.

The decision to reduce the Klingons to a handful of refugees was an intriguing one - somewhat of a role reversal. What happens to a proud warrior race when they lack the numbers or technology to actually win honor and glory in combat? That said, I would've expected something more like the surviving Klingon houses offering up themselves as mercenaries rather than just plain refugees. Jay-Den's family setup, in particular, didn't make much sense to me, as they seemingly lived as hunter-gatherers, yet still had access to a starship and could leave the planet? The budgetary limitations of the show were really evident here, as I could see alternate takes of this where we got to see a real Klingon settlement.

That said, the episode lives and dies on the character arc of Jay-Den, and I think it paid off here in spades. He started as one of the more intriguing of the cadets, and there's some payoff here. He goes on a full character arc, starting the episode profoundly conflicted due to his natural proclivities making him feel he's failed as a Klingon, and then recognizes, over the course of the episode, the identity of a "warrior" can be metaphorically seen in many ways. Maybe I'm just in an emotionally fragile spot right now (my mother died last night), but the family dynamics made me a bit misty eyed on multiple locations. It's nice to see young person drama which is about identity - something weightier than simple melodrama. I've no complaints here.

Caleb is also used well, in one of the few episodes so far where he's clearly not the main character. Seeing him try to be a good friend to Jay-Den, but unable to cross the emotional barrier in part due to not understanding Klingons (and due to Jay-Den pushing everyone away). Jay-Den had to be the one to take action and heal their budding friendship, but I'm glad they're back to buds.

For all that the promo material semi-leaked that Jay-Den was queer, I don't get that vibe from this episode yet, unless he's quite closeted. Darem obviously came onto him, but he just seemed flustered about the whole thing. Considering he had two dads, I don't think we have canonical Klingon homophobia in universe. Though clearly the arc is about queerness in a metaphorical sense. Jay-Den doesn't meet his father's expectations of what a warrior (man) should be, and feels he was rejected shamed himself as a result. He learns a different way to be.

The stuff with Ake and her Klingon former lover was fine. Who was the actor here? Feel like I've seen him in something else, but it's always hard to tell under the makeup.

If I have any complaint (other than the cinematography), it's that the whole mock debate section of the episode felt forced - a way to include the entire cast and make it feel like an academy story. At least they had already set up Jay-Den as shy, meaning he's working to overcome a limitation in his character. The choice of the Doctor to lead the debate was a bit random, however - I hope we won't see the same three adults teaching all of the classes going forward.

On the whole, a good episode, marred just a bit by some execution issues.

A succinct review. Agreed.

Here’s a transcript of the dialog. Especially that latter part makes it seem like she’s talking directly to them, although the episode does not make it clear how and when the cadets are hearing it. Who knows, maybe they wake up in the morning and the first thing that plays in their quarters is her address.

I imagine there would be all-call buttons like on any other starship. Maybe they will begin each episode with a Chancellor's Address to set the stage. I would

Maybe they'll go back in time and bring some Klingons back, like Kirk did with whales.

"Captain, there be Klingons here!" (scene cuts to angry Klingons in armor swimming in the tank thrashing away all Klingony)

It was adorable that the writers wanted us to believe that Voyager was in danger of destruction in the episode of the week.

I kept wondering how many times she would be rebuilt, like some sort of StellarShip of Thesus

It's sad that Lower Decks continues to be the most expansion the Klingon's have ever really gotten for the non-warrior parts of their culture.

"Klingon warriors may only kill once. I kill with every warrior I send back" -- Klingon MediCorp motto

Danial's and his knowledge about the future shows they very much do.



Nope, but I do expect a cop show to explain why the cops have to get an old Dodge Aspen out of the police museum after an EMP goes off and knocks out all their modern vehicles.

The Aspen's Lean Burn engine computer would still be fried by an EMP. Dang car was the only one I ever saw drive my tough West Virginia uncle to tears.

When 822 years old you reach, remember as good you will not.

Yes, Master Yoda

*I cheated. I speedread Pocket's The Official Star Trek Trivia Book the night before. 600 questions...

 

[BigJake]

The Klingons in this episode are very specifically just one group of several different ones.

Yes, maybe so? But Klingons being refugees appears to be a more general thing than just this one group. I think. It seems to be that this particular group are the remnants of Klingon governance and the ones who would need to take the lead in settling a new planet.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

So now we know Jay-Den is from the House of Kraag, should we assume that any other instance of a Klingon being referred to in a first name last name way is just a bastardation of the Klingon language?

Could you imagine that application being consistent. General Martok Martok. Worf would have to change his name from Worf Mogh to Worf Martok.

Unless of course by this point Klingons have started declaring their Houses in their names in such a way.

Also I wonder what exactly the Jem'Hadar are up to, freed but engaging in conquest? I need to know the state of the Dominion in this time period.