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

[Galaxy]

Oh I totally agree on that front, Worf was a terrible father. But it took the literal death of one son in order for Jay-Den's father to prevent the spiritual death of another, so I'm not sure if that's meant to be a positive form of growth.

I assume that had the other son survived then the father would have been more at ease in letting Jay-Den go. Plus brother would have argued his case.

 

[CT_Phipps]

Watching the scene again, it seems all they needed was a dermal regenerator. Which I assume they used every time they cut their hands to prove that they weren't Changelings during the Dominion War, so it's not like some radical technology either. lol

The ending of the episode implies that his dad is possibly lying about this as well, trying to keep his son from running away on a futile quest to get the dermal regenerator.

 

[firehawk12]

The ending of the episode implies that his dad is possibly lying about this as well, trying to keep his son from running away on a futile quest to get the dermal regenerator.

So I did consider that all the flashbacks are possibly just faulty or repressed memories based on that ending where Thok re-interprets his memory of his father for him and that he's spent the last couple of years (or however long it has been) just thinking horrible things about his parents because it was his only way to cope... and I could maybe accept that, although it feels like a very generous interpretation based on the writing presented to us.

Stabbed with a poisoned blade, IIRC.

Yes that's true, and maybe this can be attributed to Jay-Den's inexperience or faulty memories, but in the scene itself he says that he can save him with the dermal regenerator.

I assume that had the other son survived then the father would have been more at ease in letting Jay-Den go. Plus brother would have argued his case.

The easier way to have written this is if they gave the brother a fatal wound that was impossible to heal, so they don't have the father reject Federation technology out of hand (regardless of whether this is a real memory or not). Then the parents blame Jay-Den for getting his brother killed by having him go to the market and Jay-Den has to live with the guilt of his dreams killing his brother.

You could still have the father kick his son out in order to let him join Starfleet anyway, but without this confusing bit about randomly letting his other son die.

 

[Fateor]

Yes that's true, and maybe this can be attributed to Jay-Den's inexperience or faulty memories, but in the scene itself he says that he can save him with the dermal regenerator.

Which of course makes no sense.

However that scene played things in a way that framed Jay-Den as being right. So more likely it was just the writers mixing up their treknobabble.

 

[Tosk]

Yes that's true, and maybe this can be attributed to Jay-Den's inexperience or faulty memories, but in the scene itself he says that he can save him with the dermal regenerator.

Or some time in the last 800 years, dermal regenerators became much more multi-use but kept their original name. Tends to happen in the real world, so why not Trek world too?

 

[Paul Weaver]

The writers keep writing the Klingons as these like simplistic and easily manipulated people because of their arbitrary honor code and after decades it just gives them a bad look.

I took it as the Klingon chancellor knowing exactly what was up and going along with it. Humans do that all the time - loopholes in their own beliefs, Eruvs for example.

Likewise the “won’t use federation technology to save some life” has parallels with people refusing blood donations for religious grounds.

 

[valkyrie013]

Best episode of the season, first 9 for me. It was QUITE good. a few flaws, but overall quite good.

Okay.. pros.
Jay-Den was great this episode, though he needs to speak more regularly, the "Forced" engilish is getting a bit old.
All the actors brought there game, all were good. Robert was sublime.

Cons..
What the hell was with that Klingon fleet? Bunch of 24th.25th century ships? Atleast toss in a few 32nd century ships, and some transports.. not that hard. bunch of STO ships.. ugh..

So.. just like Romulans, the kilingons are now an endangered species? Q'onos is destroyed? Ugh.. Lazy writing is lazy..
And the Klingons had an Empire.. no worlds in there own fold? Nomads? Really? again lazy writing.. basically the Romulans in Picard. Whole empire.. but the Federation has to help? If Earth got razed, the federation would still stand, hell Vulcan go imploded in 09, and everything was peachy later.

The writing needs to be better, don't be lazy by leaning back on over used tropes. Hell AI is more original now adays.

 

[Paul Weaver]

What the hell was with that Klingon fleet? Bunch of 24th.25th century ships? Atleast toss in a few 32nd century ships, and some transports.. not that hard. bunch of STO ships.. ugh..

I'd rather they spent the money on the writing and acting and more episodes than creating new models. We were spoiled in Discovery season 3 when they arrived at the floating federation HQ, but it wasn't cheap, and most of those ships haven't been seen again.

"The Ultimate Computer" wasn't terrible because they did a copy/paste on the Enterprise model 4 times. TNG didn't suffer because of the use of 100 year old Excelsior class ships. Imagine that they'd decided to cut "Conspiracy" to provide us with a new "workhorse" model.

Of course, overusing the same model on the same scene can be bad (Picard s01e10). But it can also serve the story and be awesome (Lower Decks s03e10)

 

[eschaton]

The thing about the Trekverse is that alien races are largely a stand-in for human ethnicities and nationalities, used allegorically. And looking at the full course of human history, there have been lots of cases of former hegemonic empires whose descendants are now a culturally threatened minority. Like in their day, the Assyrians had one of the largest empires in the Near East, and now, they're a tiny minority within their old homeland, with much of the former population in Iraq and Syria having to migrate to the West due to political instability.

At the same time, it's not a good one-to-one comparison because the Trek alien races are species. Yes, it's weird Trek "fun with DNA" and they can all somehow interbreed. Yet for the most part, empires wax and wane in Earth's history not due to genocide, but cultural assimilation. Treating something as an endangered species rather than an endangered culture/people is a different thing entirely.

I think this episode would've worked better, TBH, if there were some throwaway lines about how there were a lot of people scattered across the Federation of partial or full Klingon descent who were no longer culturally Klingon. Because that was really what the episode was about here - being Klingon in the sense of commitment to cultural mores, not just being of Klingon lineage.

 

[Mudd]

The thing about the Trekverse is that alien races are largely a stand-in for human ethnicities and nationalities, used allegorically.

They are entirely stand-ins for these human differences.

At the same time, it's not a good one-to-one comparison because the Trek alien races are species.

No, they're not. No "alien" portrayed by an actor in Trek bears any meaningful distinction from human beings other than appearance.

The occasional puppet or special effect is a slightly different matter. They're employed as a bit of spectacle, but are always understood, if communication is portrayed, in terms of human emotions and motives.

 

[eschaton]

No, they're not. No "alien" portrayed by an actor in Trek bears any meaningful distinction from human beings other than appearance.

I think I'd kind of disagree here. Again, Trek never really fully commits to the bit that "alien races" are just cultures, due to the whole planet of hats thing. Realistically, after centuries of cross-migration, it should be like in France, where there's French black people, Arabs, etc. - people who may look physically different but are in many cases entirely assimilated into the local culture. But we never see people like this. We've never seen a "little Vulcan" on Earth where they've almost entirely abandoned their Vulcan ways.

Trek has kind of touched on this a bit (like in the DS9 episode Children of Time, where Worf's cultural legacy as a Klingon was carried on by people who had fractional - or no - Klingon ancestry). And of course there are numerous hybrids. But in general cultures are treated as static things which do not change much over the centuries via cross-pollination, where migrants do not get absorbed into the multicultural whole (multiculturalism is left only to whatever Starfleet is doing at the time).

The occasional puppet or special effect is a slightly different matter. They're employed as a bit of spectacle, but are always understood, if communication is portrayed, in terms of human emotions and motives.

This is a separate issue. Aliens (including non-humanoid ones) can broadly be "characters" or "monsters." Not everything in fiction which is an identifiable character needs to have a human psychology, however.

 

[Mr J]

Really enjoyed this episode - it finally feels like the show has found its voice. It’s absolutely teen drama, but Star Trek teen drama, and the way it used and expanded Trek lore in this one was genuinely well done in my opinion, even if it leaned on the familiar “another classic race’s home world is destroyed” Kurtzman-Trek trope.

What I appreciated most, though, was the subtle callback to Ezri Dax’s warning in DS9 about the direction the Klingon Empire was heading. This episode felt like a quiet confirmation of that premonition. If any major race in Trek was going to end up with a destroyed home world and a dwindling empire, it makes sense it would be the Klingons - their entire ethos had a shelf life in the Trek universe unless they were willing to evolve.

Jay-Den and Darem? Absolutely yes. That pairing worked for me on so many levels. For the obligatory “characters who really have to get together” box that a teen-focused show tends to tick, this one felt unexpectedly fresh. I can actually imagine them becoming one of the more unique couples in Star Trek. More please, less Caleb/Tarima cliche fest - this episode gained by not devoting any more time to that relationship.

The final solution was peak TOS - exactly the sort of plan I could see Kirk and his crew cooking up. It hit that ST sweet spot of lightly silly, lightly clever, and tonally balanced against a serious situation.

Overall, this felt like the episode where the show found its footing after some uneven experimentation in episodes 2 and 3. I really hope they stick with this tone: grounded in established Trek lore but letting the young cast’s perspectives and arcs shine. I loved the nods to Klingon history (even if the ongoing mispronunciation of Qo’noS grated me a bit - I’m choosing to chalk it up to “things change in 800 years” rather than “no one corrected the actors”). The links to The Doctor’s Voyager arc about the power of debate were great, and of course the Drumhead references were a treat.

Best one since Episode 1 for me - can't wait to see what next week brings, if the reviewer comments are anything to go by.

 

[Elaise]

I gave it a 7, than lowered it down to a 6 after thinking about it for a bit. Biggest issue with the episode for me was that the episode moved at a blinding pace. It really should have been a 2 parter. It seemed like they ended up at the resolution and just ignored everything in the middle.

The second thing that bugged me a bit. It seemed like the Klingons really like native american culture and just decided to integrate it into their culture, it kind of of hurt their overall feel as a independent culture.

Nitpick, Ake does not pull off the Klingon lingo, it felt really off. That Klingon leader felt like he was babysitting there rather than enjoying a drink with a old friend.

What I found funny. They have a space capable spaceship but no medical equipment. The starfleet beacon is pretty brittle.

 

[valkyrie013]

What I found funny. They have a space capable spaceship but no medical equipment. The starfleet beacon is pretty brittle.

Huh. True. Not like they have to rely on federation technology, klingons have there own medical technology etc. they don't have to rely on them.

Also on that note. Jay-Den wants to be something other than a warrior. Countless Klingons beforehand have done just that, medics, engineers, etc. Why would the family seemingly be against him not being one? They may "want" there children to be warriors, as that is the culture, and you get more merit for it, like sterotypically asian parents want all there kids to be doctors, and get mad when they get 1 B in school.
Whole family should have been like his brother, maybe not excited that he won't be a warrior, but support there son in whatever he wants to do. Not just.. take off.

 

[fireproof78]

Huh. True. Not like they have to rely on federation technology, klingons have there own medical technology etc. they don't have to rely on them.

Also on that note. Jay-Den wants to be something other than a warrior. Countless Klingons beforehand have done just that, medics, engineers, etc. Why would the family seemingly be against him not being one? They may "want" there children to be warriors, as that is the culture, and you get more merit for it, like sterotypically asian parents want all there kids to be doctors, and get mad when they get 1 B in school.
Whole family should have been like his brother, maybe not excited that he won't be a warrior, but support there son in whatever he wants to do. Not just.. take off.

Having worked with many people who struggle with familial expectations I can safely say this idea of support no matter what is extremely rare.

 

[Fateor]

What I found funny. They have a space capable spaceship but no medical equipment. The starfleet beacon is pretty brittle.

I'm pretty sure them having a Starship was a production mistake given part of the B story was about how Jay-Den's family had gone missing on a transport with a bunch of others.

 

[Elaise]

I'm pretty sure them having a Starship was a production mistake given part of the B story was about how Jay-Den's family had gone missing on a transport with a bunch of others.

I doubt something like that is a visual mistake. They could of just parked it in a larger transport. They might not have had Dilithium and needed to hitch a ride.

 

[Nerys Myk]

don't be lazy by leaning back on over used tropes.

Bro, do you even Star Trek?

 

[jackoverfull]

This was fantastic. Gave it an 8 but I’m kinda wishing I went with 9.

I’ll start with the only thing I didn’t like, that yet again another once big race is on the brink of extinction, like the trill.

That said, the characterisation of the Klingon was spot on, the plot coherent, the character work enjoyable and the final solution predictable but immensely enjoyable. Loved it.

 

[Kraig]

This was fantastic. Gave it an 8 but I’m kinda wishing I went with 9.

I’ll start with the only thing I didn’t like, that yet again another once big race is on the brink of extinction, like the trill.

That said, the characterisation of the Klingon was spot on, the plot coherent, the character work enjoyable and the final solution predictable but immensely enjoyable. Loved it.

You aren't able to click the "Change vote" box, in the lower right of the poll, and edit your vote from 8 to 9?