By Chris Snellgrove
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Starfleet Academy has been steadily enhancing as a present, and the newest episode showcases a few of that enchancment with a reasonably compelling Klingon storyline. Sadly, the standard of this story is undermined by the present’s bizarre penchant for vulgarity and its weird destruction of one of many franchise’s most iconic planets. The result’s an episode that Charles Dickens (one in every of Captain Kirk’s favourite authors) might need summed up, “It was one of the best of Trek, it was the worst of Trek.”
The worst a part of this episode (and beware main spoilers from right here on, area cadets!) is the revelation that the Klingon homeworld and most of their empire have been destroyed as a result of the Burn made their dilithium reactors blow up. There’s a lot fallacious with this: the Burn doesn’t magically trigger dilithium to blow up (it solely blew up starships as a result of dilithium going inert precipitated warp core breaches), and it’s weird the Klingons would use dilithium as an influence supply within the first place when rival empires just like the Federation discovered tips on how to energy planets with fusion almost a millennium in the past.
It Was Not A Good Day To Die
This plot level will get even stupider when you think about that dilithium was turning into actually scarce within the galaxy about 15-20 years earlier than the Burn, so aliens (even ones as dumb because the Klingons) counting on it to energy each planet of their empire would have switched to another energy supply lengthy earlier than the Burn by some means blew each planet to smithereens. Like, the Klingons of this present had been prepared to embrace a triple mum or dad mannequin to save lots of their race; are these writers actually suggesting they wouldn’t have merely switched energy sources, provided that that they had as much as twenty years of warning that dilithium wasn’t sustainable?
On a story stage, it’s additionally miserable that Star Trek’s writers felt the necessity to destroy Qo’noS, some of the iconic planets in your entire franchise. On this Starfleet Academy episode, the first purpose to do that is seemingly to present a tragic backstory to Jay-Den, the present’s delicate, pacifist Klingon. That is Trek’s third journey to this properly (after giving tragic backstory to Spock by destroying Vulcan and to Picard by destroying Romulus), and I’m getting fairly sick of writers who can’t encourage their characters by something lower than destroying billions of lives and without end altering franchise historical past.
If you happen to’re a Klingon fan, this plot level is that rather more horrifying as a result of these aliens consider that the one manner they will get into their model of heaven is to die in battle. Now, we all know that the overwhelming majority of them died and not using a weapon of their fingers, which means that all of them went to Klingon hell. Doing this to the franchise’s most well-known aliens for any purpose would have been downright bizarre, however doing it simply to make the brand new softboy Klingon appear attention-grabbing is downright insulting.
The Soiled Speaking Physician Returns
On a good stupider notice, Voyager’s Physician (the identical one who was cracking poop jokes within the first episode) makes use of the phrase “Speech and debate just isn’t for the chickensh*t;” when a cadet asks if he can discuss like that, the cranky hologram cites the privilege of his age and the way he has earned the correct to speak nonetheless he desires to.
That’s a effective sentiment (signed, a professor who typically curses in school), however “hen” has by no means, ever been utilized in Star Trek as a synonym for “coward.” So even when we settle for that characters within the thirty second century are nonetheless utilizing the phrase “sh*t” (which has been utilized in the true world for over a thousand years), it’s bizarre that the Physician would pair it with “hen” in a manner that was fully at the least one century (and fairly presumably many centuries) earlier than he was even programmed.
Not That There’s Something Unsuitable With That!
The ultimate main downside with this episode is the way it hints that Jay-Den, the delicate Klingon featured on this episode, could also be homosexual. Now, there’s clearly nothing fallacious with having a homosexual character, and a homosexual Klingon (one thing we’ve actually by no means seen earlier than) may present loads of narrative alternatives for gifted writers to discover.
However as a number of followers have identified on social media, this Klingon is an aspiring healer, so the present is seemingly embracing the “homosexual male nurse/homosexual male physician” stereotype that could be very prevalent in trendy tradition. This can be a dangerous stereotype that has led to bullying of real-life males in healthcare, and it’s a bit bizarre to see a progressive Star Trek present set within the thirty second century embracing a bizarre, retrograde stereotype of the twenty first century.
After all, the franchise did the very same factor with Culber, the homosexual physician that Discovery killed off in Season 1. He was resurrected, however his identify on Starfleet Academy’s bizarre memorial wall implies that he by some means died once more offscreen. Contemplating how wholeheartedly Star Trek has embraced the problematic “killing your gays” trope, I can solely hope Jay-Den survives his obvious sexual awakening!
Age Hole Discourse Is With out Honor
If you will get previous the aforementioned issues, there are some attention-grabbing issues to take pleasure in concerning the newest episode of Starfleet Academy. Holly Hunter’s centuries-old chancellor lastly stops spinning in her chair lengthy sufficient to hook up along with her Klingon ex, and (in what looks like a enjoyable throwback to The Authentic Collection) their continued sexual chemistry would be the key to saving the Klingons. You see, the Federation has found a alternative for his or her misplaced homeworld, however these cussed aliens would fairly die out than obtain charity.
Figuring out this warrior race in addition to she does, the chancellor arranges a form of mock battle between Starfleet and the Klingons so the latter can really feel like they’ve conquered the world. The entire plot looks like a enjoyable homage to “A Matter of Honor,” the Subsequent Technology episode the place Riker realized that assuaging Klingon satisfaction is usually a matter of letting them suppose they’ve gained. This episode additionally deserves credit score for a sensible trainer second by which the chancellor promptly lets Jay-Den suppose the mock battle between empires was his thought, which boosts his confidence as a pupil and will get him some brownie factors with the Klingons.
Just a few extra issues price mentioning: whereas the entire “homicide most of those aliens and ship them straight to hell” plot stays wildly offensive, this Starfleet Academy episode has some attention-grabbing insights into Klingon psychology. Plus, the burgeoning friendship between Caleb and Jay-Den is way more efficient than I ever imagined, echoing interactions between fan-favorite pairings like Nog and Jake or Tendi and Rutherford.
Time To Activate Your TV’s Cloaking Gadget
It was additionally enjoyable to see Starfleet cadets nerding out over honing their debate expertise. Oh, and in a “it needed to occur ultimately” second, the present’s half-Klingon, half-Jem-hadar grasp of cadets will get to supply some strong recommendation to somebody fairly than simply stand round cartoonishly screaming. Sadly, this episode sandwiches its higher components between a lot offensive, canon-destroying bullsh*t that it’s powerful to even see (a lot much less recognize) what works properly.
Final week, I gently praised Starfleet Academy for its snobs vs. slobs prank warfare episode, hoping that the sequence was leaning into the school shenanigans that it does properly and never the deep Trek lore that it retains dealing with so poorly. Sadly, this episode is a return to type within the worst attainable manner: the present desires to make use of this well-known IP to inform sweeping tales of household, friendship, and diaspora, however they’re doing so whereas working the franchise into the bottom. Beforehand, I quoted Captain Kirk in reminding Paramount executives that “danger is a part of the sport” on the subject of this beloved model’s storytelling.
I hoped these creators may “boldly go” and do one thing that builds a future for the IP whereas honoring its previous, all whereas quoting the franchise’s most well-known character. Since these clearly hate The Authentic Collection a lot and clearly don’t care concerning the fandom, I figured I might ship the identical message utilizing the cool, measured, and rational language that these millionaires may lastly perceive: “Making Star Trek just isn’t for the chickensh*t!”
